226 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
TRANSACTIONS OF THE NEW-YORK STATE AG¬ 
RICULTURAL SOCIETY FOR 1853, VOL XIII. 
By the politeness of the secretary, Mr. 
Johnson, we are at length favored with a 
copy of the above, but we have not time now 
to speak of anything more than its mechan¬ 
ical execution. This, it affords us much 
pleasure to say, is far superior to that of 
any other volume yet sent out by the State 
Printer. The engravings are no longer 
coarse, clumsy deformities, but well done; 
the type is excellent, and the paper good, to 
which we wish we could add, that it was of 
a perfect uniformity of color. The first 32 
and last 210 pages are inferior in purity of 
color to the body of the volume between 
them; yet after all, the whole work is so 
superior to its predecessors, we accept it 
without censure. 
We feel the deepest personal mortification 
and national degradation at the scandalous 
jobs often made out of the public printing, 
both State and United States. It is by works 
of this kind that we are often judged abroad ; 
and for this reason alone, if not from motives 
of honor and honesty, they should as much 
excel those got up by private enterprize, in 
material, typography, and embellishments, 
as they have hitherto generally fallen below 
them. 
In another number we shall give a general 
review of the volume before us, and there¬ 
after more particularly advert to the separ¬ 
ate articles, as the interest of our readers 
may require. 
We wish u were in the power of the State 
Printer to get out the Transactions more 
seasonably. Deferred so late, they lose con¬ 
siderable of their zest and attraction. The 
month of June or July is the latest period at 
which they should appear; as they are much 
wanted then for consultation in the deliber¬ 
ations of the State and County Societies, in 
advance, while preparing the September and 
October premiums. Whether the delay is 
the fault of the State Printer we do not 
know ; but we are confident the Secretary is 
always ready' with his copy in good time for 
an issue early in May or June. 
REASONS FOR PREFERRING A WEEKLY AGRI¬ 
CULTURAL PAPER. 
An old Connecticut subscriber sends us 
the following, which we give in his own 
words : 
1. It is cheaper. We get more reading for the 
money—a consideration of some importance these 
hard times. 
2. The information is more likely to be in sea¬ 
son. If it comes but once a month, some is likely 
to be out of season. 
2. It is more convenient to read, especially in a 
busy season, coming weekly, than to have a larger 
amount coming but once a month. It affords an 
agreeable pastime to look over the weekly, while 
we take a “bit of nooning.” If the monthly be 
read at once, then we have nothing to read the 
remainder of the time. If it is not read soon, 
perhaps some of its suggestions would be too late 
the latter part of the month. 
4. The articles in a monthly are apt to be longer 
and less practical than in a weekly. 
5 When articles arc continued from paper to 
paper, we are apt to forget the connection before 
the next monthly arrives. 
6. The report of the markets, which every 
weekly agricultural paper should give, is worth 
more to the farmer than a whole volume of month¬ 
ly papers. 
WHY 1 PREFER A NEW-YORK PAPER. 
1. It is the nearest paper of the kind, and hence 
best able to know our wants. A course that 
would be best at Utica, or Boston, might be use¬ 
less here. 
2. It is published in the great metropolis of our 
country, where there is the best means of obtain¬ 
ing information. This is of considerable import¬ 
ance in regard to crops, weather, &c. 
3. The market of New-York is the most im¬ 
portant in the country, and, to a greater or less 
extent, governs the rest. Hence the great advan¬ 
tage of having a person there to notice the same 
—not only the price, but the quality, giving the 
result and throwing out hints concerning them in 
a weekly paper. EXPERIENCE. 
Connecticut, Dec. 1854. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
COMMODORE JONES’ PRIZE ESSAY. 
THE CAUSE OF THE FAILURE OF GUANO AS A 
MANURE-USES OF LIME 
It was refreshing to read an essay on 
farming from the pen of a man whom I once 
saw in my youth as a gallant sailor and vic¬ 
torious man-of-war’s-man ; what a triumph 
for our poor human nature, pretending as it 
is, when such a man as Commodore Jones, 
once the cynosure of all eyes as the success¬ 
ful hero among the belligerants on the ocean 
in 1812 ; now, like the Cincinnatus of old, 
doffing his armor to take hold of the plow. 
The Commodore’s essay (a better prize 
than the Frolic) is as practical and unpre¬ 
tending as a sailor’s yarn; he details his ru¬ 
ral practice, his experiments and his suc¬ 
cess, with a verbal simplicity characteristic 
of the man brought up in the school of true 
discipline, where the economy of words is 
not only learned, but practised, as the recol¬ 
lections of my boyhood can testify. His de¬ 
scription of the office and action of lime on 
both clay and sandy soils, embodies the true 
practical results. It would have been still 
more satisfactory, had he told us the constit¬ 
uents of the subsoil of his Virginia farm. 
He says that crushed bones, phosphate of 
lime, is of greater nominal value than the 
best Peruvian guano ; that the latter, after 
the first year, is of no avail; and that the 
soil is not benefited by a repetition of the 
same manure alone ; while the beneficial 
effect of a single application of bone-dust to 
a part of his farm is apparent after many 
years. To corroborate his opinion he says : 
“ that in Peru he was told ‘ that land, stimu¬ 
lated by the use of guano soon became 
worthless,’ hence little use was there made 
of it, although the price was merely nom¬ 
inal.” Methinks here is a nut for agricul¬ 
tural chemistry to crack, as there can be no 
doubt of the truth of the Commodore’s as¬ 
sertions, so far as his own experience and 
the averment of his Peruvian authority 
extends. 
The question then is, why is it that Peru¬ 
vian guano should fail, composed as it is, ac¬ 
cording to Ure,of fifty per cent nitrogenized 
organic matter, including the nitrate of am¬ 
monia, and twenty-five per cent phosphate 
of lime ; the first so indispensible to all or¬ 
ganic structure, and the latter no less neces¬ 
sary as an inorganic element in the economy 
of vegetation. We have the Commodore’s 
own words in favor of the protracted good 
effect of phosphate of lime, and if Chilian 
guano should be substituted for the Peru¬ 
vian, fifty-three per cent of phosphate of 
lime would be distributed to the soil instead 
of twenty-five, with about equal amounts of 
water and ^organic matter to make up the 
the hundred. Hence I take it that the true 
solution of the difficulty in the failure of 
guano, is in the extreme poverty of the soil 
in its mineral constituents, or metallic bases ; 
the only one of which supplied in any quan¬ 
tity by guano is the phosphate of lime. If 
these were supplied to the soil in wood-ashes 
or carbonaceous matter which would have 
potash and other inorganic elements in its 
debris after decomposition, there can be no 
doubt but that guano would then be found a 
never-failing manure. 
Our farmers, on these alluvial deposits of 
western New-York, only have to drain and 
plow a little deeper to get potash and all the 
other elements of plants, while the farmers 
of eastern Virginia have no such resource ; 
instead of alluvial deposits, rich in both min¬ 
eral and organic matter, their subsoil I take 
it, is little better than drift, ocean washed in 
the beginning, yet capable of great improve¬ 
ment under skillful manuring and good cul¬ 
ture. 
Once, while on a visit to my native town, 
Newport, R. I., I noticed that the corn crop, 
liberally manured as it had been with Mem- 
haden fish, did not come up to the standard 
of ordinary corn in western New-York. Here 
the soil was evidently well supplied with 
azotized matter and phosphate of lime from 
the fiesli and bones of this very bony fish ; 
leached ashes, tan bark, saw-dust, leaves, or 
any vegetable matter mixed with the fish, 
would have added much to both stalks and 
cereal crops. A compost of the same vege¬ 
table materials after fermentation and decay, 
would also give to the soil all those elements 
for vegetable structure that guano does not 
supply, and fully redeem that valuable and 
highly concentrated manure from the mis¬ 
taken obloquy of the tyro in agricultural 
science. N’Importe. 
Waterloo, Dec. 1454. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
SHANGHAIS AND EGG-LAYING FOWLS. 
1 find most of the books assign to the 
Shanghais, Chittagongs, arid Cochin Chinas 
the palm in egg-laying; and many intelligent 
friends with whom I have talked on the sub¬ 
ject, not only give them the preference as to 
the quantity of eggs, but claim also, that al¬ 
though the Black Spanish lays a larger egg 
than any other fowl, yet “ two eggs of the 
former will make as much custard as three 
of the latter.” They also claim extra deli¬ 
cacy for the Eastern bird for the table, and 
affirm that while the ordinary fowl will com¬ 
mand only a shilling in the Boston market, 
the Shanghais will readily sell for one and 
sixpence per pound. 
I am a tyro in hen statistics, and much de¬ 
sire to see reliable data as to the compara 
tive value of each of the different breeds of 
fowls, for laying on the table ; together with 
the comparative cost of keeping , and other 
considerations affecting their actual and com¬ 
parative value, from such of your unbiassed, 
intelligent, and experienced readers as can 
fully answer these queries from their own 
well-guarded and accurate observation. 
AN INQUIRER AFTER THE TRUTH. 
A Convincing Proof. —A person who re¬ 
sided for some time on the coast of Africa, 
was asked if he thought it possible to civilize 
the natives. “As a proof of the possibility of 
it,” said he, “ I have known some negroes 
who have thought as little of a lie or an 
oath as a European.” 
The public libraries of the United States 
contain near five millions of volumes. 
