1852. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
377 
“ Azalia,” the property of L. G-. Morris, Fordham, I the New-York State, Agricultural Society, 1851. She 
Westchester county, N. Y.,—received the first premium is a cow of good substance, with a well-developed ten- 
for Short-horn cows over three years old, at the show of I dency to fatten. 
The Lobos Islands and Guano. 
These islands, claimed by the government of Peru, and 
which have, till within a few years, been considered of no 
value, have become a bone of contention. . Barren and 
uninhabitable as they are, they are the depositories of a 
wealth, which is destined to fertilize the over-taxed fields 
of distant countries—that it will ever come into general 
use, we very much question, but as a special fertiliser for 
certain crops, and in certain localities, it is valuable. 
Large quantities are being imported by English specula- 
tors, and the attention of the British Parliament is being 
called to the expediency of seccuring the article on more 
favorable terms, or of sending ships for the purpose of 
discovering more islands, upon which similar deposits 
have been made. A dispute is pending between our own 
government and that of Peru, with regard to the title of 
these islands. 
The following description of the islands, and the situa¬ 
tion of the guano, we cut from “ Dickens’ Household 
Words,” and will interest our readers: 
“The three islands lie nearly due north and south; 
the breadth of the passage between them being about a 
mile in one instance, and two miles in the other. The 
south island is as yet untouched, and from a visit I paid 
it, I should suppose it to contain more guano than is 
found in either of the others. The middle island, at 
which we traded, has been moderately worked, but the 
greatest quantity of guano is taken from the north island. 
In their general formation the islands are alike. They 
all rise, on the side next the main land, in a perpendicu¬ 
lar wall of rock; from the edge of the precipice, the gu¬ 
ano then slopes upwards to the centre of each island, 
where a pinnacle of rock rises above the surface; from 
this point it descends to the sea by a gentle declivity, the 
guano continuing to within a few feet of the water. Each 
island has, at a distance the appearance of a flattened 
cone, but they have all been originally broken into rocky 
hills and valleys. The deposits of guano having gradual¬ 
ly filled up the valleys, and risen above the rocks, the 
cuttings of the guano diggers vary from a depth of eigh¬ 
ty or a hundred feet, to merely a few inches. 
“The guano is regularly stratified; the lower strata 
are solidified by the weight of the upper, and have ac¬ 
quired a dark red color, which becomes gradually light¬ 
er towards the surface. On the surface it has a whitey- 
brown light crust, very well baked by the sun; it is a 
crust containing eggs, being completely honeycombed by 
the birds, which scratch deep, oblique holes in it to serve 
as nests, wherein eggs, seldom more than two to each 
nest, are deposited. These holes often running into each 
other, form long galleries with several entrances, and this 
mining system is so elaborately carried out, that yon can 
scarcely put a foot on any part of the islands without 
sinking to the knee. 
“ Though the islands are not large—their average cir¬ 
cumference being about two miles— the accumulation of 
guano is almost incredible. Calculations as to the pro¬ 
bable quantity must, on account of the varying depth of 
the deposits, be very uncertain. I remember making an 
average of the depth, and deducing therefrom a rough 
estimate that the three small islands alone contain up¬ 
wards of two hundred and fifty millions of tons of pure 
guano, which, at the rate of supply which has been going 
on during the last five or six year, would require about 
one hundred and eighty years for removal, and at its 
English value—which, after deducting freight, is about 
£5 per ton—would be worth twelve hundred and fifty mil¬ 
lions sterling. This is exclusive of vast quantities which 
have been used by the Peruvians themselves.” 
feheep Husbandry. 
We observe in a late paper an account of the extensive 
sheep husbandry of the brothers Rose, near Penn-Yan, 
N. Y. On 1,500 acres of land, stocked with over 3,000 
sheep, their rotation is three years clover, summer fallow, 
wheat, and clover (with plaster) for three years again. 
Such clover, and such wheat—are of course to be ex¬ 
pected from this enriching treatment. Their barns are 
about 30 by 40 feet, and are filled with hay through three 
successive tier of doors, one above the other,—the hay 
being put in through the lower first, when they are closed, 
the next above used. Sheds stand on each side of the 
barns, made of boarded poles, and with board roofs, open 
in front, where they are 4 feet high and 5| feet high at 
the back. A rack runs the whole length. These barns 
are convenietly distributed over the farm. They never 
keep over 100 grown sheep in a flock, 
