112 FAKMERS' INSTITUTES. 



Pres. Willits : Isu't that, perhaps, the explauatiou? As to the mowing, prob- 

 ably the fungus had seeded before the mowing. 



Mr. Geddes : I dug 1,700 bushels from six acres, of 35 varieties, chiefly 

 White Elephant, Beauty of Hebron, and White ^'^eshanock. Had no rot. Dug 

 in October. Land is under-drained. Hilled with shovel plow. Plant 3^ feet 

 each way and hill as high as with lioe. Soil is clay loam. 



Dr. Kedzie : A good way to treat suspected jootatoes is to spread them on the 

 barn floor and sprinkle with fresh slaked lime. 



Mr. Webber: Would lime applied to soil have similar effect? 



Dr. Kedzie : It would do no harm, but would not keep its caustic condition. 



Mr. Webber: Would it not kill the fungus on the tops? 



Dr. Kedzie: Possibly. 



Mr. Fischer: If to three bushels of potatoes cut for planting you add three 

 quarts of ashes, three quarts of lime and one quart of salt and mix the whole 

 thoroughly you will have no rot. A man in Wisconsin saved his crop by 

 this method when his neighbors lost from one-third to one-half of their crops, 



Mr. : I think potatoes will mix like corn when raised in the same 



field. 



Mr. Geddes: I differ. Corn mixes from the pollen falling on the silk. 



In potatoes this only affects the potato ball and would show itself in a crop 

 raised from these seeds, but not in the potatoes themselves or in a cro]) raised 

 from the tubers. 



HOW SHALL WE IMPROVE OUR COMMON CATTLE? 



BY EDWIN PHELPS, OF PONTIAC. 

 [Read at the Rochester Institute, Feb. 4, 1886.] 



This important question, affecting the income of the farmer so vitally, is 

 necessarily of interest to the whole communit}'. We will consider two ways of 

 accomplishing our purpose, neither of which will be satisfactory unless in com- 

 bination with the other. 



Impro\ed methods of handling, with better care and keep, will accomplish 

 very much, but are of themselves too slow without the infusion of new and 

 improved blood. Although I am an earnest advocate of pure bred ani- 

 mals, and would not, willingly, breed any other, yet I say it is more important 

 to give stock good care than to infuse new blood, and the infusion of new and 

 improved blood is, without such care, almost wholly useless. A visit to the 

 average farmer's barnyards will convince one that his stock does not have as 

 good care as is profitable, and while it is better now than when I was a boy, yet 

 there is a great chance for improvement. 



I presume most of the older persons here were educated to care for cattle 

 much as I was, viz: To first feed the calf what could be spared of the skim 

 milk for about three months, then turn it out with the herd, perhaps giving a 

 nubbin of corn occasionally the following winter, on the same principle our 

 ]S[ew England grandmothers gave the boys a piece of pie, the upper crust of 

 which was made with wheat flour, of a Sunday, as a treat. If the calf had 

 sufficient strength the next spring to pull itself out of the miry places, well and 

 ^ood; if not, its hide was taken off and sold for a few shillings. This kind of 



