630 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



to doctor them, for when one has been sick with it 

 for three or four days, and then begins to get bet- 

 ter, it takes it a long time to recover so as to 

 thrive again. 



I witili to inquire where I can get some young 

 ganders, of the Poland breed, lately figured in 

 your paper. Theo. G. Lincoln. 



Taunton, Mass., Sept. 21, 1868. 



SCIENTIFIC AND PRACTICAL FARMING. 



In one of your late numbers I noticed a com- 

 municatitm in which the writer complained of the 

 contradictory doctrines of writers and speakers on 

 agriculture, and asks what is the use of hearing 

 speakers or studying writers whose teachings arc 

 thus diverse and cuntr.idictory ? The great amount 

 of Wilting and speaking on this subject is worth- 

 less. Yet there are men who are capable of in- 

 structing the farmer, — men of science in the full 

 sense ot the word. I saw in the Independent a 

 short time since a statement of wh.at compused the 

 potato, l)oth the vine and tl)e tuber, and then told 

 what nuniurc would nffoid the articles needed for 

 their growtli. I thought that writer capalile of 

 instructing me, and I preserved the piece. Speakers 

 and writers in order to be of service to us must 

 tell what composes the dilT^-rent plants we grow, 

 both stock and grain, and what artificial manure 

 we must i)l)iain to supply any defect in the soil; 

 and also niu>t be able to explain the properties of 

 the ditfcrei.t soils, and until a man can do this he , 

 had better be engaged in growing potatoes than 

 telling others how to do it. 



But this is not the ma^n thing that I wished to 

 notifc in that communication. He said that writ- 

 ers dilfcrcd as to the Ijest way to plant potatoes. 

 Some said cut them in small pieces and put the 

 hills near together, while others said plant large 

 potatoes and put them further apart. When I 

 read that, I was astonished that we should call on 

 Avriters for inf'rmation on a subject which can 

 only be obtained by actual experiment of the ag- 

 riculturist. And yet i* theie a man in New Eng- 

 lanl who c.nn give us the information on this topic 

 which we need, liascd on absolute and repeattd ex- 

 pcrimerit^? I have this year tried, on a small 

 scale, different ways of planting potatoes, and will 

 give the results. In each, the rows were twenty- 

 five feet long. 

 One large potato in each hill, 2 ft. apart, pro- 



du'Cd 30 lbs. 



One large potato eplii in two, in each hid, 2 ft. 



apart produceil 22| " 



Petal es cut so as to take about one third as 



much scea, hille eighteen inches apart, pro- 



duc.d 21 " 



The potatoes were the largest where the large 

 potatoes was planted whole, and the smallest 

 where a potato was split, and both parts put in the 

 hill. Brother farmers, give us experiments, not 

 theory. Plovgh Joogek. 



Went Poland, Me., Sept. 25, 18G8. 



Rem AUKS.— The allusion to the contradictory 

 teaching of speakers and writers on agricultural 

 subjects, with which our corr.espondent com- 

 mences his article, may possibly lead some of his 

 readers to ask how he can harmonize his idea of 

 the qualifications which a man should possess l)e- 

 forc he assumes to teach farmers, with his closing 

 appeal for "experiments not theory." This dis- 

 crepancy i-i, however, to our mind rather apparent 

 than real. Between the scientific and the practi- 

 cal there is no conflict or opposition. As Mr. 

 Johnson says in his new book on ''IIow Plants 

 Grow," science and art "arc, as they ever have 

 toccn and ever must be, in the fullest harmony. 



If they appear to jar or stand in contradiction, it 

 is because we have something false or incomplete 

 in what we call our science or our art ; or else 

 we do not perceive correctly, but are misled by 

 the narrowness and aberrations of our virion." 

 There is, however, a great difference between sci- 

 entific dreaming and scientific theory. Science is 

 simply facts reduced to system. And in this sense 

 every practical farmer is, to some extent, a scien- 

 tific man. "No farm," continues Mr. Johnson, 

 "was ever conducted without physiology, chemis- 

 try and physics, any more than an aqueduct or a 

 railway was ever built without mathematics and 

 mechanics. Let the farmer throw away the knowl- 

 edge of facts and the knowledge of principles 

 which constitute his science, and he has lost the 

 elements of his success. The farmer without his 

 reasons, his theiory, his science, can have no plaa; 

 and these wanting, agriculture would be as com- 

 plete a failure with him as it would be with a man 

 of mere science, destitute of manual, financial, and 

 executive skill." So far, then, as the farmer has 

 reduced the facts of his- experience and observa- 

 tion to a system, he is a scientific man, while the 

 inferences and assumptions of the learned are 

 often far from scientific. "We doubt whether facts 

 have yet been reduced to so complete a system 

 that any man can do all our "Old Subscriber" 

 thinks the man in the Independent has done, or all 

 he demands of those who presume to tell others 

 how to raise potatoes. And until such men do 

 arise we join in his appeal, "Brother farmers, give 

 us experiments, not theory !" 



TO PROTECT TREES FROM MICE. 



Will you or someof your correspondents inform 

 me and others that would like to kn iw, if 

 there is anything in the form of a wash that will 

 not be ivijuVious t')voun<; trees, that can be applied 

 to them late in the fall to prevent the ravages of 

 mice duiing tiic winter season. I recollect of hav- 

 ing seen a number of different ways recommended 

 to prevent mice from gnawing the hark from trees, 

 l)Ut all of them seem to be attended with con- 

 siJcrablc trouble, — such as tn'ading the snow 

 down around them, banking thin up with dirt, 

 wrapping them with birch bark and many other 

 similar vi medics. If a farmer has IVom one to 

 five hundred young apple trees, it is no smalt job 

 to proteit theni hv any of the above modes ; where- 

 as if there could be some kind of cheip wash 

 applied that would answer the purpose, i: would 

 he hut a small job to make the application, and 

 thousands of young trees would be baved annually. 



Dixjield, Me., kept. 19, 1868. J. J. T. 



Remarks. — We should be particularly pleased 

 to be able to give our correspondent the informa- 

 tion desired, as he informs us that though upwards 

 of fifty years of age this is his first attempt to 

 write anything to appear in the columns of a news- 

 p.ipcr. To preserve trees from rabbits and sheep, 

 a washing with fresh blood from the slaughter 

 house, has tjeen recommended ; also soot and milk 

 mixed with a little soft soap; also a wash of old 

 cow manure and water, soaked several days and 

 applied with a brush or swab, when a little thicker 

 than whitewash. But all such applications arc lia- 



