AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
100 
nation. The seed of a Cassabar Melon I vege¬ 
tated in this way in less than 24 hours, and after 
38 hours’ confinement it had a rootlet of an inch 
in length. 
Hints on Fencing. 
To the Editor of the American Agriculturist: 
To save timber in fencing, without adoitional 
expense I propose the following plan, which I 
have adopted to some extent myself. It is this. 
The kind offence in general use in the West, is 
the “worm fence,” which occupies about five 
feet width of ground. On each side of this five 
feet I cut a ditch two and-a-half leet wide, and 
four inches deep, throwing the dirt on the five 
feet. Then, if stone can be conveniently obtained, 
a broad one is laid where each fence corner will 
be placed, in such manner as to make a rise of 
four inches. Thus it will be seen, that by the 
ditches, the throwing up of the ground, and the 
stone, a rise of one foot will be obtained, before 
any timber is used, and the elevation is of a more 
durable material than rails. Where stone can 
not be had, short pieces of timber, cut from por¬ 
tions of the tree that will not make rails, may be 
placed under the fence corners. 
In favorable situations this ridge may be speed¬ 
ily made with the plow, by turning the furrow 
slices together. Deeper ditching and higher ridg¬ 
ing, than here recommended, might be profitably- 
adopted. Stock are not apt to jump from, nor 
into a ditch. 
Building Fence .—On hilly ground the fence 
worm should always be laid commencing at the 
bottom of a hill. If, for example, the ground has 
a descent of four inches in the length of each rail, 
hen, by running the worm up hill, with rails four 
mches in thickness, each rail will lie exactly hor- 
.zontal; on the contrary let the worm be laid 
downhill, and one end of each rail will be eight 
inches lower than the other, which operates 
against the permanency and beauty of the fence. 
The steeper the ground, the greater the necessity 
of following the directions here given. My plan 
in fencing is to commence my worm at a desired 
point, and proceed regularly up hill and down ; al¬ 
ways, however, placing the rails so that the 
downhill end ol the first rail shall rest on the up¬ 
hill end of the one below. 
Preservation of Fences .—The ground on which 
the fence is built, should be neatly dressed and 
sown with blue grass seed, and then be kept free 
from such “ border ruffians,” as briers and elders. 
Where cattle and sheep are allowed to graze, 
there will be no trouble with these pests, but in 
grain fields it will be necessary to make a free 
use of the scythe in order to keep the fence cor¬ 
ners clean. James Denny. 
Putnam Co., Ind. 
To Preserve Hedges from Mice. —L. Hum¬ 
phrey, Windham Co., O., recommends cultiva¬ 
ting a strip, say six feet wide on each side of the 
hedge, with Russia turnips, and leaving them in 
the ground during the Winter, we suppose as 
food for the mice. Mice would probably prefer 
turnips to “browse,” though they are sometimes 
rather perverse in their inclinations. He writes 
that the turnips should be put in when the hedge 
is newly set, and kept as a permanent crop, part 
of which in the Spring might be valuable for the 
table or for stock. We think on the whole it 
would be better to make the fence of materials 
which mice can not destroy. 
The blemishes of great rnen are not the less 
blemishes ; but unfortunately they are the easiest 
parts for imitation. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
Take care of the Young Muscles. 
The season of long hot days, short nights, hard 
labor, and short rests, has come, and it seems to 
me it were well to utter a word of caution to 
farmers, be they fathers or masters, who have the 
care of boys. Many a boy is ruined for life in 
these hard harvest days. Boys are generally am¬ 
bitious to become men and do “men’s work 
the father is glad to see so much “ grit ” and the 
lad of fourteen perhaps is allowed to take scythe 
or cradle, and go into the field with full grbwn 
men and see how near he can keep up. With 
what result 1 His “grit” keeps him along for a 
while, but the muscles of his arms, and far worse 
than this, those of bis chest soon become strained 
by what is to him unnatural labor, and he “ gives 
out.” Yet the vital energies of youth are strong 
and he soon seems to recover his exhausted 
strength, and again he repeats his efforts. But 
the forces of nature each time rally more feebly, 
he becomes weak in the chest, his joints become 
enlarged, the action of the whole system becomes 
dull, the animus of youth is gone, in too many 
cases never to return. He enters manhood, not 
with the spirit that goes to daily toil with a song, 
and returns at evening with a shout, but with a 
spiritless step as if it were a hateful drudgery, 
and such to him it is. Farm pursuits become 
distasteful and are left at the first opportunity. 
We wonder sometimes at the iron constitutions 
of foreigners who seek their homes with us. The 
main secret is here. Boys are not put to hard la¬ 
bor there. You scarcely ever find a young Irish¬ 
man of twenty that has ever handled a scythe, 
previous to coming here. It is considered there 
to be work only fit for lull grown men. Think 
of this farmers when your boys want to “ pitch 
in ” with the men, and give them lighter toil, that 
shall give healthful exercise, not over-straining 
labor. a lover of the farm. 
“American Guano.” 
Repeated inquiries concerning this fertilizer, 
which is now extensively advertised, impel us 
to say something respecting its claims. We 
have delayed thus long in referring to the matter, 
hoping to find some ground for at least partly 
commending it. Could a valuable fertilizer be 
found anywhere in the Pacific Ocean, outside of 
the Peruvian domain, we should hail it as a boon 
to the cultivators of our country. We will even 
yet hope that the American Guano Company may 
discover some deposits which will prove worthy 
of being shipped to this country to be purchased 
as a manure. 
But with our, not hastily-formed, views of what 
must be the constituents of any concentrated 
manure, to make it sufficiently valuable to war¬ 
rant farmers in purchasing it at the cost of trans¬ 
portation from the Pacific, we cannot recommend 
our readers to buy the guano so far brought to 
this country by the American Guano Company. 
We would most gladly write otherwise, could we 
do so with justice to our readers. We have care¬ 
fully studied the analyses published by the 
Company, have examined specimens of their ar¬ 
ticles as offered in the market, and have given 
due consideration to the recommendations which 
are set forth in the advertisements, circulars, and 
pamphlets issued. 
The ground we have all along taken in this 
journal is, that the chief value of any fertilizer 
depends materially upon its organic matter, and 
very much upon the ammonia yielding elements 
contained in the organic matter. Thus: good/ 
Peruvian guano contains 15 to 17 parts of ammo¬ 
nia in every 100 parts. Remove half or two- 
thirds of the 10 per cent, of ammonia, and the 
whole is diminished nearly one-half in value as a 
fertilizer. This we think has been pretty fully 
proved by oft-repeated trial. 
Again : bones', when perfectly dry and freed 
from fat, contain about one-third their weight (it 
organic matter (chiefly cartilage,) and two-thirds 
of mineral matter (chiefly phosphate of lime). 
The cartilage abounds in the elements ot ammo¬ 
nia, and yields that substance largely when de¬ 
composition or decay takes place. Bones, when 
finely ground, are a powerful fertilizer. (Our own 
experience and observation have been so conclu¬ 
sive on this point that we buy no other 
fertilizer than bone sawings—that is, bone saw¬ 
dust—or bone-shavings.) But burn the bones, 
which destroys or drives off the organic matter, 
and you have all the phosphate of lime still re¬ 
maining, and yet this substance is hardly worth 
the cartage as a fertilizer for any crop or plant. 
We are well aware that theoretical men say that 
the phosphate of lime from burned bones is not in 
a proper chemical condition to be appropriated by 
plants. But this is supposition. We contend, that 
if phosphate of lime were the great want of the 
soil or plant, the chemical changes constantly 
going on in the soil would reduce qt least a part 
of the burned phosphate to a condition to be 
absorbed. Our theory is at least as good as the 
other, and we have to support us, the fact that un¬ 
less there be added to the burned bones something 
which is itself a fertilizer, the bone ashes will 
not materially benefit plants. The super-phos¬ 
phate manufacturers use sulphuric acid and an 
admixture of more or less organic matter of some 
kind. Our theory is, that the sulphuric acid and 
the added organic matter are, after all, the ele¬ 
ments that produce whatever of benefit results 
from the use of manufactured super-phosphates. 
We cannot here fully discuss the question o. 
mineral and organic manures. Those interested 
in the subject, will find it enlarged upon in the 
series of articles on manures, in our sixteenth 
volume. We can here only repeat the proposi¬ 
tion stated above, viz., that: 
To be valuable, as a direct fertiliser, a substance mus 
consist largely of organic matter, (either animal or 
vegetable,) and this organic matter must abotnd 
in ammonia yielding elements. (The alkalies, sul¬ 
phate of lime or plaster, etc., are sometimes use¬ 
ful as indirect fertilizers. They act upon organic 
matter, and either fit it, or retain it, for the use of 
plants.) 
Tried by the rule we have stated, the phosphatjc, 
guanos of the American Guano Company, and 
those of a similar character from other sources, 
shell as the Mexican, Sombrero, etc., are not, 
and cannot be, of much practical value to cultiva¬ 
tors. Let us examine the “American guano.” 
In the Company’s circular before us, we find the 
analysis of nine samples of guano from Baker's 
Island. They are similar, and the average com¬ 
position of 1,000 parts, omitting fractions, is: 
Water, 278, Organic matter, G7, 
Fixed salts, (dr mineral matter,) 634. 
Here are only 67 pounds of organic mat¬ 
ter in 1,000 pounds, or say 135 pounds in a tun of 
2,000 pounds. But what makes the matter worse, 
is, that the organic portion yields comparatively 
very little ammonia. Eight analyses of guano 
from Jarvis' Island show in 1,000 pounds an ave 
rage of 
Water, 182 fcs, Organic matter, 1(12 Its, 
Fixed Salts (or mineral matter), 715 lbs. 
The same objection lies against this as against 
the Baker’s Island samples. Taking the Compa¬ 
ny’s own analyses then as a guide, we are forced 
