266 



Tlie Potatoe Disease. 



Vol. XI. 



purpose of examining the mountains of Am- 

 herst, and are so well pleased that they have 

 determined to bring hither a flock of 9(.)0 

 superior sheep in the spring. 



Unimproved mountains are worth in Am- 

 herst from 25 cents to $1, and at the latter 

 price, that can be had, which when cleared 

 or tilled, will spontaneously cast up green 

 Bward and white clover in superior order. 

 The Cold Mountain, the Tear Jacket Moun- 

 tain, and the Rocky Mountain, are superior 

 for grazing sheep, to any other lands I have 

 ever seen. These all lie in the county of 

 Amherst, and are one continuous ridge, 

 without any ugly breakers, and all very 

 rich. But few trees and bushes are found 

 here, and wherever the sun can get fairly 

 at the land, the green sward and clover 

 have possession. The broom is a great pest 

 on our arable lands, but on the mountains 

 no broom is to be seen, except where poor 

 and slaty; and here it is not the broom pro- 

 per, nor a pest, but a sedge; which grows 

 scattering and yields some food. 



There are but few flocks of sheep in this 

 county, mine being the largest, say 400; 

 and unfortunately they have the rot amongst 

 them, introduced by a flock of 90, which I 

 purchased in the county of Rockbridge. 

 This is the only case of rot I have seen for 

 many years, and trust I shall never see it 

 again. I know of no remedy for rot except 

 high feeding, but from experience will say 

 for certainty, that oil poured into the nostrils 

 of a sheep will expel the worms therefrom ; 

 and that spirituous liquor will destroy the 

 poisonous effect of ivy and ianrel, and I be- 

 lieve any other poison on the stomach of a 

 Bheep — and why not of any other animal f 



I am always ready, and take delight in 

 casting in my mite for the advancement of 

 the cause of agriculture, but hope no stran- 

 ger will write to me a private letter on the 

 subject of agriculture. Indeed I am per- 

 suaded very few would thus write me, if 

 they understood my qualifications and works, 

 Za. Druhhond. 



Feb. 22nd, 1847. 



From the American Farmer. 



Potatoe Disease. 



To the Edifor of the American Farmer : 



Dear Sir, — So much has already been 

 said upon the subject of the rot or disease 

 in potatoes, that there seems neither roou) 

 nor occasion for saying any more on the 

 subject, nor do I intend to venture a word 

 as tending to start or suggest a new hypoth- 

 eeis — holding, as I do, to my old theory, that 

 to atmospheric influence alone is to be as- 

 cribed the cause of the disease, and repeat 



ing my advice to farmers, to discard all nos- 

 trums, and to plant in such soils and with 

 such manures, as from time immemorial had 

 been found best adapted to the culture of the 

 potatoe. For until we have a return of the 

 ordinary and genial weather of our aatumns, 

 we are not likely to be favoured with crops 

 of sound potatoes. 



It may be admitted, however, that the 

 deleterious eflfects of the atmosphere might, 

 in some degree, be shunned or modified; for 

 instance, early planting of early sorts, might 

 by ripening, and being gathered in all Au- 

 gust, escape; as also, deep planting on light 

 soils — the soils best adapted to the potatoe — 

 by rendering the tubers more impervious to 

 the excessive heat and humidity, that other- 

 wise would the more readily reach them if 

 nearer the surface, and proportionally affect 

 them. But I am totally opposed to adventi- 

 tious and concentrated manures. The barn- 

 yard manure, long litter from the stables, 

 and plenty of it, the world over, is the ma- 

 nure for a good crop of potatoes. It is the 

 manure I have always used, and who in my 

 region can compare with me for raising fine 

 potatoes'? Sometimes, it is true, I have used 

 gypsum, sprinkled on the manure, raked in, 

 over the sets, in the furrow — but why did 

 I thisi Not certainly to weaken or dissi- 

 pate the manure, but to protract its efficacy, 

 keeping as long as possible a continuity of 

 its strength throughout the formation, and 

 pending the whole time of the growing of 

 the potatoes. By this means you could trace 

 distinctly the blackened manure, in lime, on 

 the surface of the ground, as turned up by 

 the plough, on taking out the crops; this 

 was so obvious and striking in 1842, that 

 when I had seeded the same land that fait 

 with wheat, a gentleman remarked, that the 

 manure I had used was uncommonly well 

 rotted to have harrowed in so finely. He 

 was not a little surprised when told it was 

 rotted in growing the potatoes, which had 

 just been taken from the same ground. That 

 season I had over four hundred bushels of 

 fine Mercer potatoes to the acre, and the 

 next season fifty bushels of white wheat to 

 the acre, without any additional manure. If 

 an abundance of unfermented stable manure 

 be a cause, a prevailing cause of rot, why 

 was not this crop rotted, and why have not 

 the crops, so manured for a century, been 

 diseased 1 



I have been led to these remarks, from 

 reading an article in your last number on 

 the potatoe disease, from the pen of my spi- 

 rited and intelligent friend, W. W. W. 

 Bowie, Esq., than whom, a more ardent 

 and chivalric champion can nowhere be 

 found on the field of agriculture. But if 



