AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
11 
There is no doubt but sheep-raising- is the 
most profitable occupation of the farmer in the 
West, at the present price of wool, and we are 
of opinion that it will long continue so; and 
there is a further advantage in regard to them ; 
they improve the land instead of impoverishing 
it. Wheat and corn are great exhausters of the 
soil; and if the Western people continue to cul¬ 
tivate these to the extent they now do, sending 
them abroad for consumption, rich as are their 
prairies, they will exhaust them more speedily 
than they can conceive. 
FISH GUANO. 
Some time since, the English Agricultural 
Society offered a premium of £1000 to any one 
who would produce a fertilizer equal to Peruvian 
guano, which could be sold at the rate of £5 
per ton. Mr. Petit, of London, has recently 
manufactured a fertilizer from fish caught in the 
sea, which he claims to be equal to Peruvian 
guano, and which costs much less. But he 
says he has no idea of applying for the thousand 
pounds premium, and disclose his secret, as he 
can make more money by withholding it, and 
reaping the profit on his manufacture. 
We hope a knowledge of this will induce the 
fishermen all along our Atlantic coast to turn 
out with fleets of boats, and see what they can 
do in the way of rivalling the birds of the Pacific 
in the production of guano. With deep seines, 
they can catch immense quantities of fish during 
inost part of the mild season, which may be im- 
raediately manufactured into guano of the first 
quality, and thus make our farmers measurably 
independent of Peru for so important a fertilizer. 
Gtano has now become almost indispensable to 
the majority of wheat and corn-growers along 
thd Atlantic coast. 
THE IMPORTANCE TO FARMERS OF SOWING 
AND PLANTING GOOD WHEAT. 
Tee benefit accrung to the husbandman 
from using the best seed, has as yet received 
lest attention from that class than its importance 
demands. Our farmers are paying more atten¬ 
tion to procuring good seeds now than formerly, 
as fljey find it is to their advantage to do so; 
but still, too many of them make shift with 
whai they have or find most convenient to hand, 
regaidless of the quality. This, in a pecuniary 
point of view, is a most suicidal policy. The 
same labor must be bestowed in ploughing, 
haulng on manure, sowing and harrowing an 
acre for oats, for instance, whether the seed oats 
are bf extra weight, weighing perhaps forty-five 
poutds to the bushel, like some that we have 
seen this spring, or of an inferior quality, weigh¬ 
ing only twenty-five. The first lot were sold 
for axty-five cents a bushel, the last for fifty. 
Four bushels to the acre are none too much seed 
for profit. The kernels of the heavy oats were 
so much larger than those of the lighter, that 
probsbly four and a half bushels would not af¬ 
ford more seed in number than three of the 
lighter; taking this for granted, the difference 
in tht expense of seed would be $1 42 to the 
acre. A fair average crop of oats is thirty-five 
or for.y bushels to the acre; calling it thirty-five 
as a jield, by measure, and supposing that the 
old adage, that “like produces like ” is true, we 
have as a result of the two crops, from the best 
kind of seed, 1,575 lbs. of oats, and from the 
poorer kind, only 875 lbs., equal by weight in 
bushels to 52^ of the best kind, and only 29 of 
the lighter. Supposing the product is sold at 
50 cents a bushel, and we have for the difference 
in outlay in seed, which was $1 42, a difference 
in return of $11 75 ; the best kind realizing the 
owner $26 25, and the lighter only $12 50. 
There is a further gain by using the heavier 
seed; the best finds a much readier market, and 
probably at a higher price than an inferior kind. 
The farmer views his better crops with increased 
satisfaction and pride. His boys participate in 
the feelings, and are apt to imitate his example; 
in short, it is a profitable change, not only in a 
pecuniary point of view, but in all others.— 
Exchange Paper. 
Drilling Wheat.—Edward Stabler, in an 
admirable essay on the advantage of drill-seed¬ 
ing, states that after examining its results on 
some 800 or 1,000 acres, besides large experi¬ 
ence on his own land, he finds there is not a 
single instance where it has not proved the most 
profitable, first, in the saving of seed, and 
secondly, in the increased product of the grain, 
amounting to from one to six or seven bushels 
per acre. He thinks five pecks of seed drilled 
are equal to two bushels sown broadcast. He 
has known the increase, in one case, by careful 
comparison of the two modes, to amount to nine 
bushels per acre in favor of drilling. He relates 
an interesting incident: A vender offered a drill 
for the increase in a Crop of fifty acres of wheat, 
to be determined by sowing a few strips broad¬ 
cast for comparison. But before harvest the 
farmer preferred paying the hundred dollars, 
the price of the drill, with interest. On care¬ 
fully ascertaining the increase, he found it to 
be one hundred and fifty-three bushels, 
- o © o - 
PROFITS OF FRUIT CULTURE. 
It can be hardly necessary, with our present 
rapidly increasing commerce in fruit, to point 
out the pecuniary profits resulting from its cul¬ 
ture. But those who have only raised the more 
common, or second-rate sorts, can hardly appre- 
I ciate the heavy returns from the finest, under 
he best culture. To such, a few examples may 
be interesting. 
C. A. Cable, of Cleveland, Ohio, obtained in 
1845, from an orchard of one hundred cherry 
trees, twenty years old, move than one thousand 
dollars. The trees were twenty-five feet apart, 
and no other crop occupied the ground, which 
was enriched and kept well cultivated. Hill 
Pennell, of Darby, Pa., sold, in 1846, two hun¬ 
dred and twenty-five dollars’ worth of early 
apples, from half an acre. 
A farmer near Fishkill, N. Y., sold fifteen 
hundred dollars’ worth of plums in a single sea¬ 
son. Richard I. Hand, of Mendon, Slonroe 
county, N. Y., sold, in 1845, four hundred and 
forty dollars’ worth of Roxbury Russets and 
Northern Spy apples from one acre of orchard. 
James Laws, of Philadelphia, sold three hun¬ 
dred dollars’ worth of Isabella and Catawba 
grapes, the fourth year from planting, from 
three-eighths of an acre, or at the rate of eight 
hundred dollars per acre. 
Hugh Hatch, of Camden, N. J., obtained 
from four trees of the Tewksbury Blush, one 
hundred and forty bushels of apples, or thirty- 
five from each tree; of these, ninety baskets (of 
about three pecks each) sold late in the follow¬ 
ing spring for one dollar per basket. 
Examples almost beyond number may be given 
where single trees have yielded from five to ten 
dollars a year in fruit, and many instances 
where twenty or thirty dollars have been ob¬ 
tained. An acre of such would be equal to any 
of the preceding instances. If one tree of the 
Rhode Island Greening will afford forty bushels 
of fruit, at a quarter of a dollar per bushel, 
which has often occurred, forty such trees on an 
acre would yield a crop worth four hundred 
dollars. But taking only one quarter of this 
amount as a low average for all seasons, and 
with imperfect cultivation, one hundred dollars 
would still be equal to the interest of fifteen 
hundred per acre. Now, this estimate is based 
upon the price of good winter apples for the 
past thirty years, in our most productive dis¬ 
tricts ; let a similar cultivation be made with 
fruits rarer and of a more delicious character. 
Apricots and the finer varieties of plums are 
often sold for three to six dollars per bushel; 
the best early peaches from one to three dollars; 
and pears, from hardy and productive trees, for 
an equal amount. Of the three former kinds, 
two to five bushels per tree, with good manage¬ 
ment, is a frequent crop; and on large pear 
trees five times this quantity. An acquaintance 
received eight dollars for a crop grown on two 
fine young cherry trees, and twenty-four dollars 
from four young peach trees, of only six years’ 
growth from the bud. In Western New-York, 
single trees of the Doyenne or Virgalieu pear 
have often afforded a return of twenty dollars 
or more, after being sent hundreds of miles to 
market. An acre of such trees, well managed, 
would far exceed in profits a five-hundred-acre 
farm.— American Fruit Culturist. 
-♦ ••- 
Bees and Fruit. —The Vmctucket Gazette re¬ 
fers to a subject of great importance to the hor¬ 
ticulturist, viz., the injury done to peaches and 
some other fruits by bees. In this neighborhood, 
the complaint of the conduct of the bees is very 
general. They thrust their proboscis into the 
sunny side of a rare-ripe, a few days before it is 
ripe, and extract the saccharine juice. The air 
and water enter the cavity thus created, and the 
peach rapidly decays and falls to the ground. 
In this way, large quantities of the finest peaches 
have been lost already this season, and “ the 
work goes bravely on.”— Boston Journal. 
Flour for the Mediterranean. —It is men¬ 
tioned as a new and unusual feature in the flour 
trade, that a demand for it has come to us from 
the Mediterranean, a part of the world from 
whence we had at one time received supplies.— 
Baltimore Times. 
Urine. —This is most the valuable manure 
upon the farm. It is easy to preserve all from 
about the house, by sinking an oil-cask in some 
out-of-the-way place, as a common receptacle. 
A quantity of plaster kept in the bottom of the 
cask, and renewed once in a month or two, will 
preserve the ammonia from loss by evaporation. 
To use urine, dilute it with an equal quantity of 
water, and sprinkle it upon the land. 
Charcoal and Plaster. —Charcoal-dust is a 
powerful absorbent of atmospheric ammonia, 
and consequently a valuable fertilizer. Pow¬ 
dered charcoal is, perhaps, the best thing that 
can be used to absorb unpleasant odors arising 
from decaying animal and vegetable matters. A 
handful of charcoal-dust scattered over the vaults 
of privies, sink-spouts, &c., will immediately 
correct any unpleasant odors arising therefrom. 
Plaster of Paris is probably the next best thing 
for the purpose. It should be used freely in 
stables, &c., especially during the warm weather. 
The use of these absorbents not only promotes 
health, but effects an important saving of valu¬ 
able fertilizing matters. Rose-bushes and other 
choice shrubs and flowers, in the garden, or in 
pots, derive great advantage from the applica¬ 
tion of charcoal to the surface of the earth 
around them.— Rural New-Yorker. 
W kite Daisies.— The only and effectual cure 
of the white daisy is comprehended in the two 
words— plough and manure. The mission of 
the white daisy seems to be, to force upon the 
attention of the farmer the necessity of immedi¬ 
ately replenishing his earth. Its appearance, 
indeed, is but the famishing cry of an impov- 
ished soil for manure. Let him answer the call 
promptly, earnestly, and I will guarantee that 
he need never entertain any fears of being 
“ ousted ” by any intervention on their part.— 
Boston Cultivator. 
Chloroform for Bees.—A sixth part of an 
ounce of chloroform for a common hive, or nearly 
a quarter of an ounce for a large hive, is used in 
Scotland for putting bees to sleep while their 
honey is taken. They put the chloroform in a 
shallow breakfast plate, covered over with thin 
gauze, then put the hive over the plate, covered 
with cloths, and in twenty minutes the bees will 
be found asleep and out of the combs on the 
table. This is considered better than sulphur. 
An Elastic Age. —The age is alive with elas¬ 
ticity. An India rubber omnibus has just been 
invented, which, when full, will hold three more 
ladies, a market-basket, pet poodle, and a baby. 
