Sl)c iTavmcv's illontl)lij lliriitor. 



155 



poses. To carry it on to still higher levels, sev- 

 eral enormous steurii engines are iiiakiii;; in En;;- 

 land to be used to |inin|) this indispensalile liqiiiil 

 to an elevation high enough to water thoiisanils 

 oC acres above the high water mark of llio Nile. 

 American agriculturists arc in their infancy so 

 far as inulerstandiiig the advantages of removing 

 all excess of water liy draining, and all deficien- 

 cy hy irrigation, is concerned. One half of tlm 

 land now so poorly managed, if cultivated with 

 all practical skill, and attainable science, would 

 yield a nett prolit twice as large as is now ob- 

 tained. Instead of striving to make every rod of 

 land yield its maxinuim product, the eoinmon 

 effort is to struggle to gel the biggest liirtn in the 

 neighborhood or town. A broH<l surface is cov- 

 eted above ull things. — Gen. Farmer. 



The Potato Rot. 



We noticed some short time back, with very 

 little faith, the hypothesis of a New York paper, 

 that the potato-rot was the result ol' a natural 

 decay in a foreign plant, which had ' run out,' or 

 was ruiming out, exhausted by cullivaiion in un- 

 kindred soils ; and that the oidy remedy was to 

 seek fresh seed among the wild potatoes which 

 grow in South America on the slopes of the 

 Andes, and so begin again — as the first introduc- 

 ers of the potato in North America and Europe 

 began two or three centuries ago. 



We find in Chambers' Jomiial, in a notice of 

 a very sensible and practical paper by Mr. David 

 Milne on ' The Kotato Failure,' a little remark 

 wliicli settles the theory of our New York con- 

 temporary conclusively enough. Speaking of 

 the causes of the potato disease, the writer 

 says : — 



' The evils could not spring fVom any over cul- 

 tivation of the plant, tor specimens brought di- 

 recllt/from Peru were aJJ'ecled equally as otheis. 



Mr. Milne, we may add, discards all the hypo- 

 thetic causes of the potato blight, — as insects, 

 Juiigi, and peculiarities in the seasons and weath- 

 er ; and considers the aireciion, as we have al- 

 ways done, an epidemic diseuse, which is even 

 not exclusively confined to the potato, — although 

 upon this plant its ravages have been most no- 

 ticed and deplored. ' The disease attacked 

 many other plants — as peas, tansy, spinach, and 

 even elms and oaks.' It was perhaps the same 

 disease which, at the first appearance of the po- 

 tato rot in the United Sinles, was observed to 

 effect our plane trees or huttonwoods, and, to a 

 ■certain extent some of our oaks. As might be 

 expected by all acfpiainted with the leading 

 characteristics of epideiiiics. Air. Milne considers 

 the cause of the disease to exist in the atmos- 

 phere, being, of cotu'se, of the nature of a miasm 

 or malaria. The proof of this he considers to 

 be the fiict, observed in Gicat Britain, that pota- 

 toes sheltered by screens, frames, or even weeds 

 and other high growing plants, escaped the dis- 

 ease. 



Another circumstance remarked hy Mr. Milne 

 was, that the epidemic, in the three kingdoms, 

 pursued a regular course fVoin the S. W. to Ihe 

 N. E., travelling at a rate of progression which 

 carried it from the south of Ireland to the Ork- 

 neys in the space of three months; and be 

 seems to think that, in several places, its advent 

 was dislinqnished by remarkable fogs, described 

 by some fininers as producing a fetid odor, under 

 which the plants were observed to he almost im- 

 mediately blighted. — jV. American. 



Wool-Growing in Illioois. 



From a table said to be compiled (Vom anllien 

 tic sources, we learn that wool-growing in Illi- 

 nois is increasing even more rapiilly than we 

 bad supposed. The quantities of wool from this 

 Siate, shipped from liutlalo on the Erie canal, 

 for the last three years, have been as follows; In 

 1814, I7,43ii lbs.— in 184."), IG%107 lbs.— in 1846, 

 •>35,564 lbs. 



It will be seen that the export of wool from 

 this Slate nearly doidiles every year. That 

 which is worked up in the Slate without douin 

 much more than doubles. Wool is already one 

 of the great staples of Illinois — one of its fixed 

 prodnctions^ilestined to bring an immense tide 

 of wealth to this State. — Prairie Farmu: 



Agriculture reviving in the Granite State. 



Cheshire County has this year come up glori- 

 ously to the aid of the Agricidtme of the Gran- 

 ite State. The cattle upon her hundred hills 

 may indeed vie with those of any other part of 

 the country. The largest ox in the country, ex- 

 hibited at Saratoga an<l elsewhere, was raised 

 by Mr. Aldricb at Swaiizoy : ho weighs very 

 near 4000 pounds ; the Morgan breed of Horses, 

 the best on the grotuid of the New York State 

 Agricultural Exhibition were from Walpole in 

 this Comity. Cheshire has revived her County 

 Agricultural Society this year, which had been 

 dormant for several years, in that better method 

 which her most liberal citizens know well bow 

 to adopt and practice. The public spirited gen- 

 tlemen of Keene, who have gained wealth in 

 successful pursuits which do credit to their en- 

 terprise, ibis year raised by subscription a sum 

 of money which they offered to the farmers to 

 be paid in premiums for bringing to the shire- 

 town of the county their best productions. The 

 result of Ibis generous offer may be seen in the 

 following notice which we extract from the 

 Keene Sentinel : 



Cattle Show and Fair. 

 The Cattle Show and Fair of the County Agri- 

 cultural Society on Thursday last was much su- 

 perior, in every respect, to what coidd fairly 

 liave been expected on so short a notice. The 

 liirmers, especially, seem to have taken hold of 

 it with great spirft, and the result was, with the 

 advantage of a fine day, one of the most inter- 

 esting fiiirs we have known in the county. 

 There was not, to be sure, a large collection, 

 either of animals or products; but in some par- 

 ticulars they were superior to those presented 

 for exhibition in former years. The interest 

 taken in the exhibition by the people and the 

 large number of those present, was one of the 

 most encouraging features of it. The display 

 of working calile was lunisually fine, and with 

 »lie tiials of skill in itloughing and dravying, 

 formed an important feature in the exhibition. 

 In the evening an address was delivered by Hon. 

 Isaac Hill, nf Concord, whose theoretical and 

 practical knowledge upon the science of cultiva- 

 tion is not to be gainsayed. Tlie address was 

 full of good things. He dwelt much upon the 

 importance of improvements of the system ol 

 farming in New England, which may and should 

 be made; and in connexion with the railroad fii- 

 cilities, now being furnished, showed by statis- 

 tics and facts within his own knowledge, the ad- 

 vantages which we shall ever hold over the 

 great West, by our vicinity to the great markets, 

 if we cultivate thf soil as it shoidcl be cidlivated 

 — that is, make tlie land yield what it is capable 

 of yielding hy the best system of fiirming. His 

 railroad statistics are calculated to do away the 

 foolish liiars of a part of the public that these 

 roads injure the l;n-nier, while ull experience 

 shows the contrary to be llie fact. 



See that your barns are tight anil warm 

 the coming winter. 



foi 



A journey to Keeue. 



Urged by the farmers of Bedford to repeat 

 our visit of last year, we left home on Tuesday 

 morning, Oct. 13, riding alone in our most pleas- 

 ant quiet way after the olil thirty-five dollar 

 horse down the .Merrimack river twenty miles to 

 that town. On the way we could not fail to re- 

 mark how much since we passed the London- 

 derry turnpike a little efibri has done to add to 

 the means of living of small fiirms all the way 

 through the town of Bow : houses painted, barns 

 substituted for hovels, neat fences, apples, peach- 

 es, plums and other fruits, and good crops of 

 corn growim; where none would be thought to 

 grow, lin-nished gratifying demonslration that 

 we had no soil so poor as not to bj worth im- 

 |)roving. 



Wo passed on throngli the whole length of 

 Hooksett on the river, witnessing similar im- 

 provements. , Wo were sorry to sec the, least 



progress made by the greatest owners. Col. Far- 

 mer has not made in the last seven years, all tho 

 improvements on his first laudable efforts that 

 he ought to have done. Is it possible, that be is 

 grasping at, and ctdtlvating too much land ? 

 Above all were we disap[iointed that the noble 

 M'Gregore farm extending a mile and a half op- 

 posite the city of Manchester, has not advanced, 

 but rather relrogaded since 1840: this, as tho 

 properly of a great corporation, speaks not well 

 for the agricidtural taste of somebody. 



Before coming to the farm and approaching 

 Amoskeug village after leaving the premises of 

 Col. Farmer, we witness that industry and enter- 

 prise of the owners and occupiers of small lots 

 without the great property of the corporation 

 which proves how nnicb maybe made of a little. 

 Fronting the steep hill against the head of the 

 falls were magnificent garden vegetables, cabba- 

 ges, carrots, turnips, tomatoes, &,c., rich as we 

 see in the best cidtivated garden farms within 

 half a dozen miles of Boston. The old facmries 

 at Amoskeag continue to run on in their unva- 

 rying and unvaried continued webs of "Amos- 

 keag tickings," having paid in as many years in 

 clear profits to their owners nearly as many 

 thousands every year as the first cost of their 

 production. But '"urther on against the whole 

 distance of the old M'Gregore farm, how grand 

 is the spectacle ! The swift travel through Man- 

 chester over the rail road will not let us appreci- 

 ate the view of the continuous pile of buildings 

 for nearly a mile of the splendid factory palaces 

 which turn out annually millions on millions of 

 yards of cloth; all of which, and the city of 

 buildings in the rear, with its dozen and twenty 

 spires from as many public buildings and places 

 of worship, have grown up within the last ten 

 years. A better prospect of a city already of 

 great business, turning to it business men from 

 all directions, cannot be presented than is seen 

 in this westerly view of Manchester. 



Yet more, with it, and without ihe^corporalion, 

 leaving that part of the M'Gregore farm bare of 

 buildings, has grown uj) as a suburb of Manchee- 

 ter on Ihe west side of the river, a beautiful lit- 

 tle painted white village larger peiha|)S than 

 what was ten years ago both the Amoskeag vil- 

 lage above and the Pisrataquog village below: 

 the travel to and from Manchester from all di- 

 rections with loaded teams of merchandize, 

 wood and timber and the various agricultural 

 productions, with faces thitherward, is as that 

 over the great avenues leading into Boston twen- 

 ty years ago. 



Further south reaching Bedford, we find all its 

 villages and most of its farms improving ami ini- 

 pioved from its vicinage to the larger city growing 

 up near them. Few of the advinlages whii li 

 this side of the river possessed before the raihoail 

 turned travel to the other side seem to be lost. 

 The road, relieved from the wheels of heavy 

 teams up and down the river, has become a 

 pleasure grijund for private carriages ndiere it 

 was before almost as bail as coidd be imagined ; 

 nor, if «e may judge from the business of the 

 new tavern near the head of the Granile Bridge, 

 has the railroad conveyance much injined the 

 taverneis upon llie west side of the river. Not 

 even Piscataqung village, on om- way, exhibited 

 any " marks of ruin or decay." 



How charming, within the last twenty years, 

 has become the prospect of the farms in Bed- 

 ford ! Then it had one of the worst roads to 

 Amherst that could be imagined: in that time 



the distance has been short'-'ucd, the rorks sop- 



