438 



THE FAUiMER'S MAGAZINE. 



months afterwards. When, therefore, the season opens, the 

 supply of corn which has been on hand throughout the winter 

 is seut forward to the almost entire exclusion of other kinds 

 of grain, and when the wheat moTement of the new crop is 

 ready to begin in July the supply of corn has nearly failed. 

 Nor is it to be forgotten that the bulk of the wheat received 

 by the Erie Cauf.l is light spring wheat, while that received in 

 the wiuter season from the Southern States is heavy winter 

 wheat. 



It remains to add that the demands upon the supply of 

 grain in New York are always numerous. The New England 

 States are not self-supporting, and draw a large portion of 

 their supplies from New York ; whence the British provinces 



of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince 

 Edward's Island may be said to draw the bulk of their sup- 

 plies. So with the West India islands ; and considering the 

 limited character of the New York supplies, should it be ne- 

 cessary to supplement our own harvest by direct purchases of 

 grain, it will be necessary to give attention to the other mar- 

 kets of supply in the United Slates, namely, to Chicago, Buf- 

 falo, and Montreal. 



The grain exports from New York, for the year ending let 

 September, have been as follows : 



Flour 616,166 barrels 



Wheat 4,572,228 bushels 



Corn .... 1,724,955 bushels. 



ON RAISING AND GROWING SEEDLING POTATOES, 



BY DAVID MOORE, F.L.S., M.R.I. A., 

 Curator of the Koyal Dublin Society's Garden, Glaanevin, 



It will be in the recollection of some of the gen- 

 tlemen present who attend more especially to 

 agricultural matters, that during the first years of 

 the potato disease a theory was advanced as the 

 cause of that mysterious malady, which found 

 favour with many at the time, namely, that the 

 stock from which seed was then produced had be- 

 come worn-out through age and continued subdi- 

 vision of the tubers. This led to the growing of 

 seedlings by many persons as a panacea for the 

 evils we were then threatened with, they consider- 

 ing that if a fresh stock, with " new blood," as 

 they called it, were once more established to pro- 

 cure seed from, the plant would be able in conse- 

 quence, to withstand the disease as well as it had 

 previously done. Others, who did not believe in 

 this theory, grew seedlings also, for the purpose of 

 disproving it. Through both sources a large 

 number of seedlings were consequently brought 

 under cultivation in the Botanic Garden, by way 

 of experiment, some of which were grown there 

 from the seeds, and more were sent by gentlemen 

 who raised them elsewhere, among whom I may 

 particularly mention the name of John Anderson 

 Esq., of Fermoy, county of Cork, who alone sent 

 115 kinds in March, 1853, of which we still grow 

 about 50 distinct varieties. As I have already re- 

 ported on some of those experiments, in so far as 

 having found that seedlings are fully as liable to 

 be affected with the disease as roost of the old sorts, 

 I need not refer to them farther, it being now a 

 well-known fact to all who have fairly proved the 

 matter. I even went a step beyond that of seed- 

 Ungs, and had some of the tubers of the original 

 stock sent from South America, which were very 

 early and virulently attacked the same year they 

 were planted, though they were kept apart from 

 other potatoes ; thus clearly proving that the dis- 

 ease was not the consequence of a worn-out stock. 



So far, nothing more was proved than negativing 

 the theory ; but, in following up the experi- 

 ments, results of another kind were obtained, 

 which are of more public importance. During the 

 first year of those seedlings the crops were light, 

 tubers small, and quality bad ; consequently they 



were only grown for the purpose of trying whether, 

 as they advanced in age, they would become better 

 able to resist the disease. Great care was, however, 

 bestowed on their cultivation by Mr. M'Ardle, the 

 foreman who had charge of them, and yearly we 

 had the satisfaction of seeing them improve in pro- 

 duce as well as in quality. In the early stages of 

 their growth they were solid after being boiled, 

 waxy and unpleasantly flavoured ; and on cutting 

 a slice from the tubers sufficiently thin for exami- 

 nation under the microscope, it could be seen that 

 the starch granules were comparatively few in the 

 mass, and not well developed, as I several times 

 observed when looking for the mycelium of the 

 fungus among the cells. This will go far to ac- 

 count for the soft, waxy state of seedlings at first, 

 as well as for their not bursting their skins, 

 as properly matured tubers do when their 

 chemical constituents are fully developed. The 

 unpleasant flavour continued as long as the tubers 

 were soft ; but so soon as they became floury and 

 burst in boiling, the taste improved, and some are 

 now equal to, if not better than, many of our old 

 sorts. I sent 44 samples of the best kinds to the 

 late exhibition, where they might have been seen 

 on the stand near the middle gate, on entering the 

 court- yard, without any notice attached of the 

 source they came from. It required ten years' cul- 

 tivation to bring those samples to the state of 

 perfection they were exhibited in, during which 

 period they continued to improve gradually every 

 subsequent year ; and that is one of the principal 

 facts I have to state in connection with this sub- 

 ject, which, simple though it may [appear, and no 

 doubt it is, when known, like most other things, it 

 yet contains the principle of managing seedlings 

 to a successful issue. Here we have carefully 

 made experiments, showing that no small amount 

 of patience and perseverance ought to be exercised . 

 with seedling potatoes before they are given up as 

 worthless; and further, that such is really necessary j 

 to prove them. 



The brief history I have given of those plants is I 

 applicable to all seedling potatoes. They are na- j 

 turally soft and waxy at first, which is, unquestion- 



