114 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Aug. 1845 



in living' matter, like the rotting of dead animals, 

 and dead plants, has ceased to be operative in the un- 

 ripe potatoe. It absorbs oxygen with greater or 

 lees rapidity, according to its soundness or unsound- 

 ness ; and soon resolves itself into water, gases, 

 mould, and minerals. If potatoes are dug and cx- 



Eosed to the decomposing influence of light, free air, 

 eat, and moisture, they will rot with increased ra- 

 pidity. Let them remain as long in the ground as 

 practicable, and bury them promptly after they have 

 oeen dug. One gentleman that owns a farm near 

 to this city, lost 3000 bushels last fall, which rotted 

 in heaps soon after they were taken from the hill. — 

 We trust that the loss of this important article of 

 food will not be so great this year as last. Never- 

 theless we are not without our fears that it will be 

 greater. Already we have complaints from New 

 Hampshire and Massachusetts. 



Any information calculated to throw light on this 

 interesting subject, will be thankfully received by 

 the Corresponding Secretary of the New York State 

 Agricultural Society, and published for the benefit 

 of the whole community. 



One hundred pounds of dry potatoes contain four 

 pounds of ash, or mineral matter. Of this, 51 per 

 cent is pure potash. Many experiments in growing 

 potatoes and other plants in artificial soils, have 

 demonstrated the important fact, that this alkali 

 plays a material part in transforming carbon and wa- 

 ter into starch, in all tubers, roots, and seeds. — 

 Hence, potatoes watered with weak lye, have been 

 greatly benefited by the operation. Those that ap- 



Ely to their fields while planting, a compound made 

 y mixing one bushel of unleached ashes with half 

 a bushel of hme, quarter of a bushel of plaster, and a 

 quarter of a bushel of common salt, and put a small 

 handful into the hill with the seed, and another on 

 the hill after it is covered, have had the best success 

 in raising potatoes. 



I am not prepared to suggest at this time any 

 preventive against the ravages of the insect that is 

 now destroying thousands if not millions of bushels 

 of this tuber. 



Hens. — In order to fatten fowls rapidly, they should 

 be well supplied with charcoal, broken into small pie- 

 ces. They will become very fat if shut up and fed 

 on this substance alone. 



Alb. Qiiar. Jour, of Agriculture & Science. 



If the editors of this Quarterly have any well au- 

 thenticated facts, which show that " fowls will be- 

 come very fat if shut up and fed on charcoal alone" 

 wc should be pleased to see them published in that 

 valuable Journal. If the large per centage of car- 

 bon in coal and carbonic acid can be transformed by 

 digestion alone with the addition of water, into 

 "fat" without the intervention of an organizing 

 plant, the discovery is worth knowing. Charcoal 

 can be purchased on most farms in this State at from 

 2^ to 6 cents a bushel. Since there is no duty on 

 American " fat" on entering the ports of Great Bri- 

 tain, the manufacture of our boundless forests into 

 coal, and this coal into fat fowls, lard-oil, butter and 

 tallow, without the aid of corn, peas, roots, or plants 

 of any kind, will greatly simplify all our farming op- 

 erations. 



Turnip Fly. — The Western Farmer and Gardener 

 Bays that repeated and varied experiments have pro- 

 ved, that half an ounce of sulphur mixed with a 

 pound of turnip seed, will completely prevent the 

 ravages of the fly^ 



SCIENCE WITH PRACTICE. 



Every farmer should adopt for his motto, " Knowl- 

 edge with Labor," or, "Science with Practice." — 

 Knowledge without labor, and labor without knowl- 

 edge are alike nearly worthless. But knowledge 

 with labor, or science with practice, gives to the 

 honest cultivator of the earth, the best possible 

 chance to acquire both wealth and distinction as a 

 successful agriculturist. 



Suppose a farmer wishes to sow land enough this 

 fall to yield him at the least possible expense, 500 

 bushels of good wheat, free alike from rust, smut, 

 and chess — what knowledge does he need to accom- 

 plish this object? Will any experienced farmer say 

 that, to produce this amount of grain at the least 

 cost in land and labor, no knowledge of the mineral 

 constituents of his soil, of vegetable mould and 

 muck, of an excess of moisture in the surface, or 

 subsoil — no knowledge of the substances that Na- 

 ture must have to form a perfect wheat plant, and 

 the condition in which those substances should bo 

 placed, is useful to the wheat-grower? 



It is a sad sight to view forty acres of wheat all 

 blackened, and shrunken with rust, involving a loss 

 of several hundred dollars, because the owner de- 

 spised a knowledge of those simple laws of nature, 

 which produce this parasite plant on the stems, 

 leaves, and heads of his wheat. It is painful to wit- 

 ness the toiling husbandman, harvesting fifteen bush- 

 els per acre, where the amount of seed sown, the 

 thorough tillage, and the hard work performed, 

 would, by the aid of a little more knowledge of the 

 nature and properties of wheat, have given him 30 

 bushels per acre. Thousands of farmers will reap 

 this season an average of thirty bushels of corn on 

 land that might grow seventy quite as well, with 

 an equal amount of labor, if scientifically applied. 



Too many farmers unwittingly prepare their wheat 

 crop just right to be stricken, as it is termed, with 

 rust. They fail to drain their wheat fields most 

 thoroughly, and thereby induce the growth of sick- 

 ly imperfect wheat plants, which fall an easy prey 

 to parasites. They place their seed in soils that 

 contain too much vegetable mould, and too little of 

 the alkalies, potash and soda, too little of the alka- 

 line earths, lime and magnesia; and too little phos- 

 phorus, sulphur, and chlorine. The young wheat 

 plant finds its nourishment as a lamb would find his, 

 provided you give it a gill of its mother's milk a 

 day, diluted in a pint of bad water. 



There is but little study, little knowledge, and 

 no science brought to bear on the feeding and raising 

 of wheat plants in the state of New York, which 

 makes twelve million bushels of grain. The habits 

 of this head-bearing plant, and what it needs to 

 form ajii'm, bright, ^/assy stem, which Uredo — rust, 

 cannot grow upon : and what it needs to develop a 

 long ear, well filled with plump kernels, are matters 

 that pertain to wheat culture, most sadly overlook- 

 ed by those that toil too much with their hands, and 

 exercise too little those nobler faculties of reason and 

 common sense, which God has given them. 



Every rational being that happens to have a mouth 

 to feed, should study the science of transforming 

 earth, air, and water into good, light, wheat bread. 

 It is hardly possible that this knowledge will be ut- 

 terly valueless to any one during the whole period 

 of his existence, whatever his pursuit in life. 



As a general rule, it is cheaper to grow 30 bush 

 els of wheat on one acre than on two, provided the 

 une of the land was given to the cultivator. On an 



