222 
MICHIGAN LANDS. 
do this world good just now, to attend to the im¬ 
provement and proper breeding and rearing of 
children as well as horses and cattle. 
Home-Made Guano is a wrong title to a good 
article. It should have been headed, “ simple 
directions for keeping a very necessary appen¬ 
dage to a decent household decent.” It is too 
true that, as a people, we are ridiculously fas¬ 
tidious and disgustingly indecent about this 
really important matter. 
Composition of Sprats. —The title of this article 
should have been, “ value of fish for manure.” 
The writer suggests a method of saving them 
when caught in great abundance. I suggest a 
better method. That is, to dry them, which 
could be done, probably, by steam, expeditiously 
and cheap; so that they could be kept and 
hauled into the country a considerable distance 
from the sea. When perfectly freed from all 
water, if they were ground into powder, the 
substance might be called “ home-made guano,” 
and would be what no other home-made imita¬ 
tion is, but something like the real article in 
value. 
Thick and Thin Seeding. —I have nothing to 
do with the question, whether three, four, five, 
six, or twelve pecks to the acre is the most pref¬ 
erable quantity; but I have a word to say 
about one statement in this article. Pray, Mr. 
Cone, what part of Michigan produces “ fifty 
bushels of wheat per acre ?” If it is in Oakland 
county, I would like to know the particular lot, 
section, township, and range, and year it was 
done. 
Cows are often Spoiled by Lazy Careless Milkers. 
—This sentence out to be printed on every 
milk pail in the land. Perhaps it would be bet¬ 
ter to say always spoiled. 
Farm Fences. —This sensible article is worthy 
of re-perusal, for it is upon a subject more in¬ 
teresting to the American people than any 
political question now before them. At the rate 
of increase of our population, now going on, the 
time is, comparatively with the age of timber 
trees, very short, when the space occupied by 
them will be required for cultivation, and large 
tracts cannot be kept as at present, merely to 
furnish fencing stuff for the cultivated fields. 
What is to be the substitute ? As shown by this 
article under consideration, stone can only be 
used to a very limited extent, and in districts 
where they abound; such a fence is a very 
costly one, and unless made in the very best 
manner, it is not durable, being so easily thrown 
down by frost. “ Sod fences ” are indeed, “ des¬ 
perate efforts,” and utterly worthless. “ For 
partly the same reasons, hedges have not suc¬ 
ceeded,” and for wholly the same reasons, they 
never will. All the hedges that have been tried 
in this country, so far as I can gather from the 
few that I have seen, and all that I have read of 
what others have seen, are of slow growth, and 
require fencing while growing; and need con¬ 
tinually, much labor to keep them in order. 
They are liable to die and leave gaps, and 
never make a good fence against cattle, and are 
no fence against hogs. Like all other kinds of 
fence, wire, perhaps, excepted, they occupy 
much valuable ground. What, then, is to be 
the fencing material ? Shall it be iron ? or will 
farmers eventually learn a little good, strong, 
iron sense, and begin to reason among them¬ 
selves about the enormous amount of tax, self- 
levied upon themselves, for the “ free and inde¬ 
pendent ” privilege of letting a few miserable 
cattle and mischievous hogs, run wild upon the 
public highways ? I wish they could see France 
and Germany, and parts of England, how 
beautifully and economically they are culti¬ 
vated without fences. 
Railway or Endless-Chain Horse Power. —This 
is an article giving just commendation to a good 
machine, not quite so much of the multum-in- 
parvo , (much in little,) order as it would have 
been if the three columns had been compressed 
into one. 
The Great Horned Owl. —Is it of the “ short¬ 
horned” or “ longhorned ” family of cattle ? I 
suppose the picture is introduced to show your 
readers “ a new and improved breed of domes¬ 
tic poultry.” “Hence it may be regarded as 
an extremely hardy bird,” and I should suppose 
if judiciously crossed, upon the great Shanghae 
“ rooster,” or “ crower,” a new breed of “ biddies” 
might be introduced, suitable for the Boston 
market. 
Trimming the Ears of Horses. —iEsop tells a 
story of a fox that had a little trimming done 
in a trap, and then wanted the whole family to 
be trimmed in the same way. Carrying out 
the same idea, I would vote for a wholesome 
horse law, for serving every fellow that singed 
the hair out of horses ears, or mutilated their 
tails, exactly in the same way. To this propo¬ 
sition, no horse would say “ neigh.” 
Successful Farming. —A little item in the 
“ Editor’s Table,” under this caption, mentions a 
most wonderful result upon “seven acres of 
miserable, poor, sandy land,” that induces me to 
ask that gentleman to write out a detailed ac¬ 
count of the manner and cost of making such a 
great change upon a worthless spot, that we 
might determine whether the vast tracts of land 
lying within a few hours of the city of New 
York, utterly worthless and unproductive, could 
be improved profitably, to the condition of that 
mentioned, and make happy homes for thou¬ 
sands. 
Profits of Dogs. —An outrageous libel. But 
every dog must have his day, and poor old 
Towzer has had his, so “ turn him out, he has 
no friends,”- except Reviewer. 
MICHIGAN LANDS. 
The rich lands of Michigan are being worn 
out. Our crops from year to year are growing 
less, especially wheat, the annual product of 
which is not one half so much per acre as it 
was when the land was .first cleared; and, in¬ 
stead of attributing the failure to the true cause, 
not only the farmers themselves, but the editor 
of the Michigan Farmer charges it to the seasons. 
When the farmers are told that the soil is ex¬ 
hausted of all the food for the wheat plant, thej 
say it cannot be; for the straw grows as large 
as ever, but the grain shrinks; so it must be 
