108 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



From tlie Transactions of the London Horticultural Society. 



ON THE POTATO. 



By T. A. Knight. 

 Mr Knight is coiiviiice<l by the evidence of ex- 

 periments, " that the potato plant, under proper 

 management, is capable of causing to be brought 

 to market a much greater weight of vegetable 

 food, from any given extent of ground, than any 

 other plant which we possess." There is no crop, 

 lie says, " so certain as that of potatoes : and it 

 has the advantage of being generally most abund- 

 ant, when the crops of wheat are defective ; that is, 

 in wet seasons." The following observations are 

 extremely interesting : — 



" I think I shall be able to adduce some strong 

 facts in .support of my opinion, that by a greatly 

 extended culture of the potato for the purpose of 

 supplying the markets with vegetable food, a more 

 abundant and more wholesome supply of food for 

 the use of the laboring classes of society may be 

 obtained, than wheat can ever afford, and, I be- 

 lieve, of a more palatable kind to the greater num- 

 ber of persons. I can just recollect the time when 

 the potato was unknown to the peasantry of Here- 

 fordshire, whose gardens were then almost exclu- 

 sively occupied by different varieties of the cab- 

 bage. Their food at that period chiefly consisted 

 of bread and cheese, with the produce of their 

 gardens ; and tea was unknown to them. About 

 sixtysix years ago, before the potato was intro- 

 duced into their g.trdeus, agues had been so ex- 

 tremely prevalent, that the periods in which they, 

 or their families, had been afflicted with that dis- 

 order, were the eras to which I usually hearil them 

 refer in speaking of past events ; and I recollect 

 being cautioned by them frequendy not to stand 

 exposed to tlie sun in 3Iay, lest I should get an 

 ague. The potato was then cultivated in stuall 

 quantities in the gardens of gentlemen, but it was 

 not thought to afford wholesome nutriment, and 

 was supposed by many to possess deleterious 

 qualities. The preimlice of all parties, however, 

 disa|)peared so rapidly, that within ten years the 

 potato had almost wholly driven the cabbage from 

 the garden of the cottagers. Within the same pe- 

 riod, ague, the previously prevalent disease of the 

 country, disappeared ; and no other species of 

 disease became prevalent. I adduce this fact, as 

 evidence only, that the introduction of the potato 

 was not injurious to the health of the peasantry at 

 that period ; but whether its production was, or 

 was not, instrumental in causing the disappearance 

 of ague, I will not ventiue to give an opinion. I 

 am, however, confident, that neither draining the 

 soil (for that was not done,) nor any change in the 

 general habits of the peasantry, had taken jilace, 

 to which their improved health could be attriliu- 

 ted. Bread is well known to constitute the chief 

 food of the French peasantry. They are a very 

 temperate race of men : and they possess the ad- 

 vantages of a very fine and dry climate. Yet the 

 duration of life amongst them is very short, 

 scarcely exceeding two thirds of the average du- 

 ration of fell in England ; and in some districts 

 much less .Dr Hawkins, in his Medical Statistics, 

 states, upon the authority of M. Villerme that, in 

 the department of Indre, "one fourth of the chil- 

 dren born, die within the first year, and half be- 

 tween fifteen and twenty : and that three fourths 

 are dead within the space of fifty years. Having 

 inquired of -a very eminent French physiologist, 

 M. Dutrochel, who is resident in the departmetit 



of Indre, the cause of this extraordinary mortality, 

 he stated it to be their food, which consisted chief- 

 ly of bread ; and of which he calculated every 

 adult peasant to eat two pounds a day. And he 

 added, without having received any leading ques- 

 tion fVom me, or in any degree knowing my opia- 

 ion upon the subject, that if the peasantry of 

 country would substitute (which they could do) 

 small quantity of animal food, with potatoes, id- 

 stead of so much bread, they woukl live mucii 

 longer, and with much better health. I am incline I 

 to pay much deference to M. Dutrochet's opinion; 

 for he combines the advantages of a regidar met ■ 

 ical education with great acnteness of mind, and 

 believe him to be as well acquainted with the ger 

 eral laws of organic life as any person living : an 

 I think his opinion derives some support, from th i 

 well known fact, that the duration of human li( 

 has been much greater in England during the lai t 

 sixty years, than in the preceding period of the sam ! 

 duration. Bread made of wheat, when taken i 

 large quantities, has probably, more than any oth 

 er article of food in use in this country, the effec 

 of overloading the alimentary canal ; and the gen 

 eral jiractice of the French physicians jjoints ou 

 the prevalence of diseases thence arising amongsf 

 their patients. I do not, however, think, or mea: 

 to say, that potatoes alone are proper food for an 

 hutuan being: but 1 feel confident, that four oun| 

 ces of meat, with as large a quantity of good pi 

 tatoes as would wholly take away the sensation 

 hunger, would afford, during twentyfour hour! 

 more efficient nutriment than could be derivei 

 from bread in any quantity, and might be oblaine 

 at nuich less expen.sc." 



Rlr Knight then proceeds to give nn account of 

 the result of his experiments in raising new vari- 

 eties of potato from seed, and in growing crops in 

 different soils and situations. He raises new vari- 

 eties from seeds chiefiy by the aid of artificial 

 heat, by which means he obtains, within the fust 

 year, a specimen of the produce. 



"In raising varieties of the potato from seeds, it 

 is always expedient to use artificial heat. I have 

 trained up a young seedling plant in a somewhat 

 shaded situation in the stove, till it has been 4 ft. 

 and 5 ft. high, and then removed it to the ojien 

 ground in the beginning of May, covering its stem, 

 during almost its whole length, lightly with mould ; 

 and by such means I have obtained, within the 

 first year, nearly a peck of potatoes fiom a single 

 plant. But I usually sow the seeds in a hot-hid 

 early in March, and, after having given them one 

 transplantation in the hot-bed, I have gradually 

 exposed them to the open air, and planted them 

 out in the middle of May ; and, by immersing their 

 stetus rather deeply into the ground, I have with- 

 in the same season usually seen each variety in 

 such a state of maturity, as has enabled me to 

 judge, with a good deal of accuracy, respecting 

 its future merits. I stated, in a former commmii- 

 cation, two years ago, that I had obtained from a 

 small |)lantation of the early ash-leaved kidney ])o- 

 tato, a produce equivalent to that of Gti5 bushels, 

 of SO pounds each per acre ; and my crop of that 

 variety, in the present year, was to a small extent 

 greater. By a mistake of my workmen, I was 

 lirevented ascertaining, with accuracy, the pro- 

 duce, per acre, of a plantation of Lankman's pota- 

 to : but one of my friends having made a planta- 

 tion of that variety, precisely in conformity with 

 the instructions given in my former communica- 

 tion to this Society, I requested that he would 



October 17, 1R32, 



send me an accurate account of the i>roduce • 

 which I have reason to believe he did, for its 

 amount very nearly agreed with my calculation 

 upon viewing the growing crop about six weeks 

 before it was collected. The situation in which 

 this crop grew was high and cold, and the ground 

 was not rich ; but the part wlieie the potatoes to 

 be weighed were selected was perfectly dry, 

 and afforded a much better crop than the remain- 

 der of the field, which was planted with several 

 different varieties. I calculated the produce of 

 the selected part to be 600 bushels per acre ; and 

 the report J received, and which I belieVe to have 

 been perfectly accurate, stated it to be 028. If 

 this produce be eaten by hogs, or cows, or sheep, 

 (for all are equally fond of potatoes,) I entertain 

 no doubt whatever that it will atlord twenty times 

 as much animal food as the same extent of the 

 same ground would have yjeided in permanent 

 ptisture ; and I am perfectly satisfied, upon the ev- 

 idence of fiicts, which 1 have recently ascertained, 

 that if the whole of the raaimre afforded by the 

 crops of potatoes above mentioned be returned to 

 the field, it will be capable of affording as good, 

 and even a better crop, in the present year, than it 

 dill in the last; and that as long a succession of at 

 least equally good crops might be obtained as the 

 ciihivator might choose, and with benefit to the 

 soil of the field. Should this conclusion prove 

 correct, a very interesting question arises, viz. 

 whilhcr the spade husbandry might not he intro- 

 duced upon a few acres of ground surrounding, 

 on all sides, the cottages of day laborers, to and 

 frnm every part of which the manure and the pro- 

 diiie might be conveyed, without the necessity of 

 liiirse being ever employed. A single man might 

 sily manage four statute acres thus situated, with 

 he assistance of his family : and if nothing were 

 taken away from the gromid, except animal food, 

 I feel confident that the ground might be made to 

 become gradually more and more productive, with 

 great benefit to the possessor of the soil, and to 

 the laboring classes, wherever the supply is found 

 to exceed the demand for labor." 



From the New Hamj)sl>ire Spectator. 



DISEASE IN HORSES. 



Messrs Editors— You will much oblige the 

 suhsciibi.'r by publishing in the N. H. Spectator an 

 account of the sickness, death, and jiost-mortem 

 examination of two valuable young horses : and I 

 wish the editor of the New England Farmer, to 

 give .some information through his valuable jour- 

 nal what he supposes was the cause of their 

 death. 



On the morning of the ]2th inst. on going into 

 my stable I found one of my horses had not eat 

 the hay ])ut before him the night before: I offer- 

 ed him water, which he tried greedily to swallow, 

 but in the attempt the most of it was returned by 

 the nose. The horse would take hay into his 

 luouth often and try to masticate it, drop it out 

 and take in more, and thus continued without be- 

 ing able to swallow any — his cheeks and lips were 

 swollen, and there was a discharge of saliva from 

 the mouth. I supposed he had an attack of horse 

 distemper, and paid but little attention to him for 

 that day. On the morning of the 13th the horse 

 appeared very weak and feeble ; I had him bled 

 about 4 pounds, and soon after he was unable to 

 stand up ; respiration became laborious and hur- 

 ried, and he was in great agony, kicking and 



