1868 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
19 
deal fairly with your neighbors and make a 
name that is better than “.precious ointment.” 
Many cheat on small occasions, do not deliver 
what they sell, and get a reputation for mean¬ 
ness that stands in the way of their success. 
Our Sugar Supply. 
The principal plants which supply the sugar 
and syrup of the country are the sorghum, 
the sugar maple, and the sugar cane. The 
manufacture of beet sugar in the United States 
is yet in its infancy; in France and Germany 
it has had the fostering care of the government, 
and has grown into an important industry. 
Vermont is the only State that comes near to 
supplying the wants of its people with sugar 
and syrup from the maple. The Sugar or 
Rock Maple, {Acer saccharinum ,) grows abund¬ 
antly in most of the Northern States, but no 
system has been adopted in its cultivation, and 
little pains taken to spare the trees in the primi¬ 
tive forest. Sugar-making is regarded by most 
farmers who own a “sugar bush,” as a small 
business, to be carried on in February and 
March, when nothing more favorable offers, as 
it gives employment at a season when other la¬ 
bor is scarce. The price is several cents a pound 
higher than the best refined cane sugar, and 
much more of it might be profitably made. 
Since the introduction of the Sorghum and Im- 
phee seed, and the distribution of the former so 
extensively from this office several years ago, the 
manufacture of syrup, especially at the West, has 
become an important industry. The war came 
very opportunely to stimulate prices, and many 
Counties made more than syrup enough to meet 
their own wants. With molasses at 80 cents a 
gallon, there is no doubt that the West, and per¬ 
haps the East, can make their own syrup 
cheaper than they can import it. But it remains 
to be seen whether this can be done when prices 
drop down to the ante-war standard. There is 
much complaint of the falling off in this crop 
the present year in the States where it has been 
most largely raised. This may be partly owing 
to the drouth, but we suspect the drooping 
of prices lias had quite as much to do with it. 
The cultivation of the sugar cane in this 
country is confined mainly to Florida and the 
alluvial portions of Louisiana and Texas. Be¬ 
fore the war, Louisiana produced from three to 
four hundred thousand hogsheads of sugar, and 
yet hardly a twentieth part of the lands adapt¬ 
ed to this crop were brought into cultivation. 
In the other two States less has been done. 
There can be no doubt that we have in these 
cheap and fertile lands the means of producing 
sugar economically for home use and even for 
export. There are some drawbacks to its pro¬ 
duction there, but there are also very great ad¬ 
vantages. The cane has to be renewed much 
oftener, and the season of growth is only two- 
thirds as long as within the tropics. But, 
on the other hand, the Louisiana planter has 
the advantage of large protection, a soil in¬ 
exhaustible Avith suitable tillage, the latest im¬ 
provements in machinery, and free labor. The 
greatest drawback to the rapid develonment of 
this industry is the derangement of the 7evees, 
resulting from the war. These extend all along 
the banks of the Mississippi, and of the bayous 
that run from it by short cuts to the Ocean. 
The whole success of the crop depends upon 
the integrity of these embankments, and this 
cannot well be left to individual enterprise, for 
every man would live at the mercy of his neigh¬ 
bor. Thej r extend far above the sugar region 
into the States of Mississippi and Arkansas, 
The question naturally arises: “ Could not 
the U. S. Govermnent take this matter in hand 
and guarantee in some way security? ” 
A correspondent argues that the Government 
would do a beneficent thing for the whole 
people by taking charge of these levees, putting 
them and keeping them in repair, remunerating 
itself by a small tax upon the lands benefited. 
He adds: “ This would give security to the cul¬ 
tivator, and invite the capital which this region 
so much needs for its development. A large 
capital is already invested in dwellings and ma¬ 
chinery, and cleared fields, but much of it is 
unproductive on account of the overflow. Let 
the Government afford this security, and this in¬ 
dustry will soon be put upon a better basis that 
it had before the war. The system of small 
farms could be introduced, if a capitalist would 
furnish the means of manufacturing the sugar. 
A hundred small farmers might settle near him 
and thrive by raising the cane. There need be 
no more difficulty in organizing this business 
and dividing the profits satisfactorily, than is 
found in the manufacture of sorghum syrup, or 
of cheese in a dairy region. These alluvial 
lands are fitted to support a denser population 
than any agricultural region of the North. 
There is no rock, no sand, not a foot of soil that 
will not produce its hundred fold.” 
Our friend is perhaps ignorant that the Gov¬ 
ernment has already appropriated what is equiv¬ 
alent to millions of money for these levees, and 
now judiciously, we think, looks over the whole 
ground to see that no more goes in the way that 
that did. It isindeed true that the judicious aid 
of a strong State Government, or of the United 
States, is needed to fully develop this beautiful 
and productive region from ever-threatened in¬ 
undation. With all that has been done, this 
splendid region is but opened, only its river edge 
settled. We greatly desire to see it redeemed from 
the dominion of the cypress and the alligator, 
and made the home of the cane and of man. 
China Tree Fences in Mississippi. 
AIT IDEA FOB WESTERN FAKMERS. 
[A correspondent of the Agriculturist , writ¬ 
ing from Mobile, describes a practice followed 
on the prairies of Mississippi, which may well 
have imitators in the Western States, wherever 
the China tree will grow, or a substitute can be 
found. This tree, which is called also Pride of 
India, {Melia Azedarach,) is common in the 
Southern States, and naturalized in some places. 
It resembles the Ailantlius somewhat, the foli¬ 
age being, however, much more delicate, grows 
quicklj'-, and survives quite severe freezing. Ed.] 
“ On the prairie lands of Mississippi not a 
tree can be seen for miles, except such as may 
have been planted for shade about dwellings, 
and the soil is as devoid of rocks as of trees; so 
the planters resort to the following method of 
‘growing’ fences. They drill in on the line of 
the intended fence, in the fall, the seed of the 
China tree; the following spring strong shoots 
come up, growing several feet in liight the 
first season. These are thinned out to 10 or 12 
inches apart, and left to groiv, the tops being 
pruned that they may not be blown down, and 
also to force as much growth as possible into 
the trunks. As they grow very rapidly, only 
about 4 or 5 years are required to fill about one- 
lialf the space between them. When of suffi¬ 
cient size, the tops are all sawed off evenly at any 
bight required, (in autumn,) and allowed to fall 
ou either side of the stumps, and to lie and dry 
during the winter. In the spring, when vegeta¬ 
tion again starts, these tops are set on fire and 
burned, the heat being usually sufficient to kill 
the stumps, and soon the bark peels off, leaving 
a line of straight white posts, firmly set in the 
earth, which will last for a long time. I dotfit 
know as this tree will stand the cold of the 
Northern winters, but think it will; and if so, 
only a little time, not much trouble, and almost 
no expense, will attend the setting of a good 
fence. Any quantity of seed can be had in this 
section of country at small cost.” C. C. W. 
- ---——.—. .- 
Peruvian Guano and the Chincha Islands. 
Along the western coast of South America, 
south of the equator, little or no rain falls; at 
some points none whatever, or if any, but a 
misty sprinkle, as a rare exception. Here all 
substances liable to decomposition under the 
conjoint influences of air and moisture , are sub¬ 
ject to circumstances rarely met with in nature 
on other parts of the globe. The waters abound 
in fish, and so fisli-eating birds and sea animals 
are very numerous along this coast, and espe¬ 
cially upon the adjacent islands, of which there 
are several groups lying at no great distance off 
the shore. On these islands great quantities of the 
deposits of the sea birds accumulate, consisting 
of their dung, with the parts of the fishes which 
they reject, their feathers, eggs, and immature 
young, their own dead bodies, etc., and similar 
deposits of seals, particularly of the Sea Lion, a 
large kind of seal, occurring here, great num¬ 
bers of which die and leave their carcasses on 
the islands. This is “guano,”— l ‘huano ,” (ma¬ 
nure), of the Peruvians. The accumulations of 
these deposits are so enormous as to make a 
marked geological feature on many of the islands, 
but on none are they so extraordinary as upon 
those of the Ohinclia group. 
These are three volcanic islets lying about 14 
miles from the coast of Peru, to which State 
they belong. They are situated just without 
the Bay of Pisco, and about 90 miles southward 
from Callao, the port of Lima—places which may 
be found on any good map of South America. 
The great value of this substance as manure 
was well known to the ancient Peruvians, whose 
legislation on the subject indicates how they 
prized it. Killing of the birds at any time, and 
even visiting the islands during the breeding 
season, was punished by death. The attention 
of the scientific world was first called to guano 
by Humboldt, 1804; and though Sir Humphrey 
Davy directed the attention of the agriculturists 
of Great Britain to it as early as 1810, and ex¬ 
periments were made with it, not a single cargo 
was carried to Europe until 1840 and ’41. Since 
that time an immense trade has sprung up, 
which is altogether under the control of the 
Peruvian Government, and productive of a large 
revenue. The guano is sold by agents of that 
Government in New York, London, and perhaps 
at other important ports, and all cargoes taken 
from the islands are consigned to them. 
The Chinchas offer so few attractions, and so 
much that is positively repulsive, that few travel¬ 
ers have visited them and given minute descrip¬ 
tions of the islands, or reports of their impres¬ 
sions. We are happy in being able to present 
the accompanying striking pictures taken from 
photographs of the harbor, and of the guano 
beds, or better, perhaps, mountains. 
From the narrative of Mr. G. W. Peck, pub¬ 
lished in 1854, and from other sources, we learn 
much concerning these wonderful islands. 
Their geological formation is represented aS 
resembling a great piece of furnace slag, full of 
