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REVIEW OF THE JULY NUMBER OF THE AGRICULTURIST. 
sense of smell and every other faculty that dis¬ 
tinguishes man from the brute. From the brute ? 
That is a slander upon the delicate sensibility 
of some of the brute creation, and nice faculty 
of the sense of smell, which they possess, and 
which prompts them to avoid locations that 
none but man, whose sensibilities have been con¬ 
taminated by long association with filth, would 
ever think fit for a habitation. 
In the case of inferior animals, how wisely 
this faculty has been adapted to their particular 
purposes! With what unerring certainty the 
faithful dog follows the footsteps of his master 
through the masses of the crowded street or 
wild jungle of the tangled forest! God gave 
him the sense of smell, and unlike man, he has 
not abused it. 
The strength of this sense in the blood hound 
is still more wonderful. Give him but one smell 
of a cast-off garment of the fugitive to be fol¬ 
lowed, and he will distinguish his track from all 
others. The acute intelligence and determina¬ 
tion which these animals evince in pursuit of a 
quarry, is almost indescribable. The fineness 
of the sense of smell, possessed by the deer, is 
often of great advantage to the Laplander when 
travelling over a vast expanse enshrouded in 
snow. It is only by their smell of the moss, 
though buried several feet, that they can tell 
whether the spot chosen to pitch the tent is upon 
land or water. Many a lost traveller never 
would have been rescued from his snowy death 
bed, but for the delicate sense of smell possessed 
by the convent dogs of the great St. Bernard. 
Caravans, overwhelmed and lost amidst the des¬ 
ert sands of Africa, have been saved from de¬ 
struction because the camel possessed and ex¬ 
ercised a faculty that man is constantly at work 
to blunt and destroy—a faculty which, if culti¬ 
vated, would add greatly to his happiness. Who 
that possesses a refined sense of smell, though 
he has spent years upon the ocean wave or city 
pavements, but feels as though he snuffed the 
sweet fragrance of the fields and forest flowers, 
whenever he reads of scenes of country life ? 
How the odors of the orchard fill his nostrils in 
spring when the mere name of the country tin¬ 
gles upon the sense of hearing. One of the 
sweetest of his pleasures of memory is the re¬ 
collection of the odors that made him love the 
flowers with which God carpeted the earth 
where he first breathed their sweet fragrance. 
In vain for him the golden morn 
Awaked the song of vernal bird; 
No sight nor sound, emotion gave, 
Like that which fragrance stir’d. 
Oh, ye denisens of the country, who might 
live in the constant enjoyment of Persian gales, 
how have ye perverted and abused this good 
gift of God, till ye are enabled to sit down con¬ 
tented to your morning and evening meals in 
the atmosphere of a duck pond or pig pen, and 
sleep in the fragrant effluvia of a hen coop, or 
drown the natural sense of smell, in the horrid 
stench of burnt tobacco. 
S. R. 
REVIEW OF THE JULY NUMBER OF THE 
AGRICULTURIST. 
Benefit of Guano .—This article seems to be a 
plain statement of facts, sufficient to induce 
owners of“deadly poor” land to apply guano 
more extensively ; and I understand this would 
be done, but for the price, which is thought to 
be unreasonably high. I have heard several 
persons say, in our independent Yankee land, 
that they would not use it now, however profi¬ 
table it might be to do so, because it was a 
“monopoly;” and a monopoly they will not 
patronise under any circumstances. This may 
be an independent position to take, but so far as 
my little experience is concerned, it is not a 
very profitable one. It is too much like “ biting 
the nose to spite the face.” The Peruvian gov¬ 
ernment monopolises its guano in the same 
sense as our government does the public lands; 
yet, there is this difference in its management; 
they sell to the English company for a certain 
number of years, not only what Great Britain 
and its dependencies consume, but all that can 
be disposed of in the United States; whereas, 
we sell lands to any one who pleases to buy. 
Now, what I would wish to bring about, is, to 
induce the Peruvian government to sell directly 
to any of our citizens who will purchase. We 
should then no longer have a rich English com¬ 
pany lording it over us, to fix just such a price 
upon guano as they please. The first cost of 
the article, I understand, is only $10 per ton. 
Now we have hundreds of vessels returning from 
California, with little or no freight, which would 
be glad to load with guano. I am for “free 
trade and sailors’ rights;” so, let these vessels 
load with guano; we should then have it here in 
abundance, for $40 per ton, a price which the 
independent farmers, (sailors, too, for that mat¬ 
ter,) of staunch old Connecticut, would not ob¬ 
ject to. I understand General Taylor was in 
treaty with the Peruvian government to open a 
free guano trade, at the time of his decease. It 
is to be hoped that President Fillmore will fol¬ 
low up the negotiation with effect. I had no 
idea until recently, that Maryland and Virginia 
were using such large quantities of guano as 
they are. I am rejoiced to learn that the plant¬ 
ers there are waking up to their true interests, 
though I must confess that I wish this valuable 
fertiliser were to be found in our own country. 
But I hope the necessity of importing it, will 
teach our farmers the still greater necessity of 
saving every particle of fertilising substance 
within their reach, and the most judicious appli¬ 
cation of it to their crops. 
New Way of Raising Pigs.— New, indeed, but 
why not a good one ? It certainly is no advan¬ 
tage for the pigs to run after the sow all day 
long, and it surely is a very great disadvantage 
to the sow, to have them continually dragging 
at her breast, and interfering with her opportu¬ 
nity to graze. No doubt both sow and pigs can 
be fed to better advantage by themselves. 
To Destroy Wild Onions .—Feeding them off 
with sheep may be the most effectual way you 
have ever tried, but is it wholly effectual ? If so, 
it is of the highest importance to some parts of 
