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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



FEBRUARY 18, 1S34. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, FEB. 12, 1834. 



EXPERIMENTAL, AGRICULTURE. 



Brighton, January 27th, 1S34. 



Thomas G. Fessenden, Esq. — Dear Sir, You 

 will doubtless recollect that in May last you gave 

 me fifteen Foxite potatoes to plant, observing they 

 were sent you as a superior kind of the early po- 

 tatoes, and you had only left at your office those 

 you gave me, which you thought rather smaller 

 than the average of those sent you. I planted 

 them ou the 23d of May in good loamy soil, mak- 

 ing ten hills; into each hill I had a shovelfull of 

 good but coarse barn yard manure, well mixed 

 with the earth at bottom of hills, and after divid- 

 ing the potatoes, cutting them as nearly in halves 

 as could be done and not touch the eyes ; the 

 ten hills were planted with three halves in each 

 hill, and hoed through the season so as to keep 

 the ground light and free from weeds. Ou the 

 18th of October (the tops having been dead for a 

 month or more) they were dug, and produced 

 three hundred and four potatoes, measuring one 

 peck and a half good measure. They were nearly 

 of an ecpial size, but I thought rather smaller than 

 the seed you gave me. I have preserved them all 

 for planting another season. I was disappointed 

 in not having a greater yield; but with me the 

 last season potatoes were generally of a good qual- 

 ity, but the quantity less than usual, owing proba- 

 bly to the long spell of dry weather after the tubers 

 began to form. 



On the 19th April last, John Prince, Esq. sent 

 me six quarts of spring wheat, which he received 

 from a friend in Halifax as a superior kind of 

 spring wheat — and wished me to make trial of it. 

 I prepared a small piece of ground which I thought 

 favorable for wheat, being a light but naturally 

 rich and deep loam ; it was lighily manured, not 

 more than at the rate of eight loads to the acre, 

 of manure from the barn cellar ; the ground 

 ploughed and harrowed so as to be mellow and 

 fine, then sowed the wheat in rows, struck out by 

 a light plough fifteen inches apart. It came up 

 well, and soon spread so much that it could not 

 be hoed but once, after running a very small 

 plough through the centre of the rows; the plough 

 had double mould boards. The wheat soon cov- 

 ered the ground, and was sown too thick as ap- 

 peared very evident ; it was also sowed too late, 

 and was on that account more affected by the dry 

 spell which came on when the heads began to 

 form, and continued till it was fit to reap, and 1 

 think the ripening was accelerated by the dry 

 weather ; it was reaped July 26th, threshed and 

 cleaned the 2d of August, and measured one bushel 

 and thirty quarts. It was so dry when reaped, 

 and threshed, that I think had it been reaped one 

 week sooner it would have produced lull two 

 bushels; the kernel was larger and whiter than 

 that of the Gihnan spring wheat which I raised 

 the same season. I have kept the wheat for seed. 



On the 26th June last, I received from Thomas 

 Nutall, Esq. Curator of the Botanic Garden, who 

 had a day or two previous returned from England, 

 two potatoes, accompanied by a note in which he 

 says, that they are called the Black Apple Potato, 

 which are in high estimation in Ireland, keeping 

 perfectly well and retaining their flavor and meali- 

 ness till after the potatoes planted the season after 

 (they the Black apple), had come to maturity, and 



dug. Mr. Nutall received a very lew of the pota- 

 toes from a gentleman passenger in the ship with 

 biin, who procured them in Ireland to cultivate on 

 his farm in one of the middle States. A trial was 

 made of a few on board the ship a few days before 

 she arrived in Boston, and they were pronounced 

 superior to those used on the passage on board the 

 ship, although they had been thought of an excel- 

 lent quality. I have a man who has lived with 

 me several years, a son of Erin and quite an ob- 

 serving and intelligent man, who on being shown 

 the two potatoes without any intimation whence 

 they came from, or any one particular in relation 

 to them, expressed much pleasure that I had got 

 some Black Apples, and of himself gave them all 

 the good qualities Mr. Nutall had mentioned in his 

 note, observed he was well acquainted with them, 

 and no one who loved potatoes and cultivated 

 vegetables should be without them, as it would 

 enable him to have the best of potatoes the year 

 round. I planted the two potatoes the day I re- 

 ceived them, June 26th, cut the eyes from them, 

 making thirteen in number, and placed them in 

 three hills, four in each of two hills and five in 

 the third. The two potatoes weighed half a pound. 

 I thought them very heavy for the size, and ap- 

 peared hard and firm, as much so as potatoes 

 when dug in the fall, no appearance of sprouting. 

 A shovelfull of coarse manure was put in each 

 hill, the soil favorable for potatoes, except that it 

 had been too long under cultivation being a vacant 

 place in my nursery from which trees had been 

 removed in the spring preceding. — I have thought 

 that grass land newly turned up, was far better for 

 potatoes, corn and many other vegetables, not 

 only tending to increase the quantity, but giving a 

 different and better flavor to potatoes, melons, tur- 

 nips, &c. The weather had become very dry at 

 the time of planting the two potatoes, and I had 

 occasion to use the water-pot very often after 

 stirring the earth, which was done every week. 

 The vines grew luxuriantly and continued growing 

 till cut down by a hard frost. On the 18ih of Oc- 

 tober the potatoes were dug, and from the three 

 hills, obtained 30 small potatoes that did not ap- 

 pear to be half grown ; they weighed four pounds 

 one oz. and I have put them by carefully in a cool 

 cellar, to plant next season. 



I had intended to have given you the produce 

 of a small field of corn in 1832 and 1833, which 

 was thought very fine by many farmers who ex- 

 amined the fields, and I thought myself when 

 growiug, and when ripe it appeared equal cer- 

 tainly, if not superior to any I had met with in 

 both seasons in this vicinity, or in an easterly di- 

 rection for forty miles. The ground was carefully 

 measured, the corn gathered and measured as I 

 thought accurately, but the result was so short ot 

 the quantity raised far and near that I felt afraid 

 to mention it to you, and must think I have de- 

 ceived myself and have not the art of raising corn 

 in the best manner, forming my opinion from the 

 enormous crops which yearly are stated in the 

 newspapers that give information on Agricultural 

 subjects. I allude particularly to field corn, not 

 small patches in gardens and on favorite spots to 

 which unceasing labor is bestowed, an amount of 

 labor if applied by a farmer to his corn field at 

 the rate of labor for years past would indeed re- 

 quire a great crop to pay the expenses of cultiva- 

 tion, and have enough left to encourage him to go 

 on. I cannot but suppose that such crops are 

 raised as meet the public eye ; but I wish you who 



have always been friendly to me, to inform me 

 what besides good deep and frequent ploughing, 

 manuring in the hole with a large shovelfull of 

 good manure, or dividing the quantity of manure, 

 spreading and ploughing in one half, weeding 

 early, ashing the corn at the two first weedings, 

 and half hilling and hilling at the two last hoeings, 

 first selecting the best of seed corn, and the kernels 

 five in number placed carefully forming a square 

 each kernel four inches apart and one in the cen- 

 tre — you will oblige me by saying what further is 

 required to obtain one hundred liushels to the 

 acre. 



I beg of you to be particular in giving me the 

 information requested, and am with sentiments of 

 regard, yours respectfully, 



GoRHAM PARSO.NS. 



Bt the EniTOR. We are happy to perceive 

 that our respectable correspondent is disposed to 

 promote the cause of husbandry by that great 

 source of improvement, experiment. An able writer 

 on agriculture says, " If improvements be wished 

 for, experiments should be carefully recorded. If 

 this be neglected, husbandry must be expected to 

 remain in its present low state. For want of such 

 records, a good deal of useful knowledge has been 

 already lost. Though many have made experi- 

 ments, by which they have satisfied themselves, 

 but few have recorded them. The experimenters 

 themselves have forgotten them, to such a degree, 

 that they are apt to misrepresent them, when they 

 attempt to relate them. And too many suffer 

 useful discoveries to die with them."* 



We aspire to nothing more than the privilege 

 of printing and publishing records of experiments 

 made by experienced and scientific cultivators, like 

 our friend to whom we are indebted for the above 

 communication ; but if we can in any degree pro- 

 mote the great cause of agricultural improvement 

 by hints derived either from reading or observa- 

 tion, we shall contribute our mite with alacrity. 



The "Foxite potatoes" mentioned by Mr. Par- 

 sons, were received from Mr. Benjamin Cooper, of 

 Camden, New Jersey, and were part of a barrel 

 which that gentleman was so good as to send as a 

 a present, and were distributed in small parcels 

 among such Cultivators as were inclined to propa- 

 gate them. They were originally from England. 

 Mr. Cooper. stated, in substance, that about twenty 

 years since he obtained a few, and planted them, 

 and has continued to do so from that period to the 

 present time without a change of seed, and they 

 are still as good and productive as they were at 

 first. "But I am always careful not to make use 

 of the best for cooking or sale and plant the refuse. 

 When this is done, I do not marvel at the common 

 complaint of seeds degenerating. It is a good 

 practice, and should be done every few years, to 

 he careful when the crop is gathering, when a 

 large number of good sized fair potatoes are at- 

 tached to a stalk to put them by, and plant them 

 for seed."t 



With regard to the Black Apple Potato, we can 

 only say that we feel much interest in the success 

 of an experiment, which bids fair to be instru- 

 mental in giving us a new and valuable variety of 

 that excellent root. We cannot find, in any of our 

 books, any notices of a variety of the potato with 

 that name. Loudon, however, mentions the "Black 

 skin, mealy, white and good ;" and the "Red apple, 



* Deane's New England Farmer, 

 t See N. E. Farmer, vol. xi. p. 273. 



