484 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



of interest to advance, it cannot then be taken up and 

 iised with advantage. As a consequence all transac- 

 tions become contracted until money again becomes 

 plentiful upon the market— to undergo similar results 

 as had taken place upon the previous occasion. 



The quantity of gold produced in the last 15 years 

 exceeds greatly that obtained in any antecedent period. 

 This large addition to the circulation of the whole 

 world has already so far operated upon values, that all 

 articles of consumption have steadily advanced in price ; 

 not that they are actually dearer, but being represented 

 by a larger amount of specie in the aggregate, their 

 relative values have become altered. Admit, by way of 

 exemplification, that 200,000,000 of specie at one 

 period exists, and at another 300,000,000. The produc- 

 tions of the world would at one time be represented by 

 half as much again specie as before ; and if this rate of 

 increase should be constantly going on, the prices of 

 all articles of consumption will advance in equal ratio, 

 subject, however, to the usual fluctuations produced by 

 supply and demand, and by other causes operating 

 differently in different places. The withdrawal, how- 

 ever, at any time of negociable issues of paper to a 



great amount invariably tends to an increased value 

 of money, and the prices of all articles immediately 

 become reduced exactly as they had previously been 

 increased by its abundance. 



The present rate of interest will prevent any great 

 transactions in foreign wheat taking place beyond those 

 effected by the barter of manufactures. At the same time, 

 however, transactions in our own produce will become 

 limited, and prices will most likely decline, and continue 

 low so long as this depression exists ; but as wheat is 

 an article of great consumption, it will not be affected 

 in proportion to many other articles less necessary to 

 our use. 



We have been led to make these remarks, believing 

 that the calculations that have appeared, based upon 

 mere supply and demand, may, under the peculiar cir- 

 cumstances of the present moment, be so far influenced 

 by the state of the Money Market, as to counteract the 

 natural prices that would have ruled had no such in- 

 terference occurred. The recent proceedings in France, 

 and their effect on the corn trade of this country, will 

 be found to be the subject of another article. 



THE CHARDON POTATO. 



[Translated from the French of the "Journal d'Agriculture Pratique."] 



For some years past a new variety of the potato, extra- 

 ordinarily productive, has been cultivated on many farms in 

 the environs of Mans. It is known under the name of " the 

 Chardon Potato," because it was obtained by M. Chardon, 

 afarmer at Griez (Sarthe) in 1846, from a sowing made 

 with seeds purchased at Mans, which had been ripened in 

 Saxony. 



The Chardon potato is distinguished from the varieties 

 cultivated either in fields or gardens by the following 

 characteristics ; 



1st. Its tubers are long, and rather flat; its skin is glossy 

 and yellow when cultivated in light and sandy soils, and 

 rough and yellowish brown tinged with red, when grown 

 in argillaceous earth. Its eyes are numerous and deeply 

 sunk in cavities ; its flesh is of a clear yellow. 



2nd. Its stems are numerous, strong, and furnished with 

 deep green leaves ; its flowers are white, washed with rose, 

 and succeed each other without interruption, from the 15th 

 August to the end of September. 



This variety is late, and ripens its tubers towards the 

 end of October. Up to this time (1856) the disease which 

 has appeared every year since 1845, and committed such 

 great ravages upon the late potatoes, has not touched it. 



But the Chardon potato is not only an interesting variety 

 on account of its having up to this time resisted the attacks 

 of the disease : it deserves to be propagated because it is 

 without contradiction the most productive potato of all those 

 cultivated upon a large scale. 



M. Dugrip, to whom attaches the merit of having been 



the first to direct the attention of agriculturists, committees, 

 and societies, to this fine variety, has produced, on an 

 average per hectare, twenty times the quantity of tubers 

 planted upon the same superficies ; this result is so much 

 the more remarkable that it constitutes the mean return of 

 the culture of 7 hectares 40 ares (about 17 acres 1 rood 

 9 perches). 



In cultures conducted on a smaller scale the returns ob- 

 tained have frequently been extraordinarj'. Thus M. Cou- 

 dray, a farmer in Saint Maixant (Sarthe), has produced 

 from eight hectolitres 220 hectolitres, or more than 27 to 1 ; 

 M. Epinette, a proprietor at Ferte', Bernard, gathered 33 

 hectolitres for one; and M. Velmorin has 18 hectolitres for 

 20 litres, which is more than 90 times the quantity planted. 

 In general the weight of the tubers averages between 150 

 and 225 grammes (from 4.8 oz. to 7.2 oz.). This potato 

 will propagate itself very rapidl}' in France, if it continues to 

 be so productive and remains perfectly healthy ; for a great 

 number of agricultural committees and societies have ex- 

 perimented upon it this 3'ear (1856), and we strongly re- 

 commend the readers of the Journal d'' Agriculture Pratique 

 to follow this year its divers phases of existence in these 

 attempts, and to take an account of the products they render 

 in the autumn. We wish to believe that it will etill 

 furnish an abundant, if not an extraordinary produce, and 

 that we shall be able anew to regard it as a true conquest, 

 a unique variety, as well on account of the beauty of its 

 tubers as of the large proportion of starch they contain. 



GUSTAVE HeNZE. 



