94 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMEE. 



Feb. 



Now, gentlemen stockholcler?:, cannot you make 

 a better operation of it, instead of running your 

 mill by water power, just to adopt steam, which is 

 more steady, and soon must be cheaper than wa- 

 ter po'.yer, and form a land-draining company; take 

 down your dams, let nature have free course with 

 her softly-flowing rivers, and allow the promise to 

 be fulfilled, that the earth shall be no more cursed 

 ■with a flood ? The lands thus exposed would be 

 of alluvial soil, of course, free from stones, and 

 from stumps, ready for the plow, at once, and as 

 fertile as the banks of the Nile. 



At no distant day, these things will come to pass, 

 and to encourage that reasonable hope, see what 

 says our untiring friend, D. J. Browne, about 



THE DRAINAGE OF HiVARLEM LAKE. 



This lake was in North Holland, in Europe, and 

 covered 40,000 acres, being 33 miles in circumfer- 

 ence. Its bottom was more than thirteen feet be- 

 low the lowest tide of the bay into which it emp- 

 tied. Such it was in 1839. Now, no lake is to be 

 found; but in its place, in October, 1855, when 

 Mr. Browne visited it, "what had been the bed of 

 a great lake, was then a region of exceedingly fer- 

 tile land, in a fine state of cultivation. It was dry, 

 comfortable and healthy. Numerous neat, quaint 

 and conveniently constructed cottages were seen in 

 various directions ; a population of about two thou- 

 sand dwelt within the palder, (or tract below the 

 level of the sea,) fields of verdure extended far and 

 Vi'ide, enlivened by cattle, horses and sheep, graz- 

 ing on the fruitful meadows." 



Think of such a scene in the bottom of a lake 1 

 and a lake not in a well defined basin of solid rock 

 3r earth, but surrounded, in great part, by wet and 

 marshy lands, so soft and spongy that portions of 

 it rose and fell with the tide. The leading object 

 of reclaiming this tract from the fishes and frogs^ 

 was not so much to subserve the purposes of agri- 

 culture, as to prevent the dangers of inundation, the 

 v/aters of the lake having onct; been driven by the 

 vvind over its banks to the serious injury of the city 

 of Amsterdam, some four miles northeasterly of it; 

 and at another time in the same yeai-, 1836, the 

 city of Leyden, on the opposite side, having sufi"ered 

 like calamity. 



The work was performed by the Government at 

 the expense of about eighty dollars an acre. A ca- 

 nal of some 140 feet width, 9^ feet depth, forty miles 

 length, was cut around the lake, a dyke was formed 

 between the lake and canal, and when all was ready, 

 the water of the lake was all pum])ed out by steam- 

 engines, which are still kept in readiness to remove 

 any surplus water that may, by leakage or breaking 

 away of the works, endanger the security of the in- 

 habitatits, or injuriously affect the fertility of the 

 soil. It is estimated, that the land thus rescued 

 from the dominion of the sea gods, is of twice the 



average value for cultivation of the lands of Holknd 

 generally, there being no waste land in the tract. 

 Upon that estimate it is capable of supporting 



0,000 persons ! or double the present average popu- 

 lation per acre of the two Provinces of Holland. 

 Although, perhaps, we may have no lakes to 



pare in New England, yet there aie many tracts, 

 both on the shores of the sea now flowed by the 

 tides, and upon the banks of rivers, occasionally 

 drowned by freshets, which might be profitably 

 diked and drained. Then we have alder swamps 

 and fresh meadows scattered through all our towns 

 which will better repay a judicious expenditure in 

 draining, than any other farm operation. On the 

 whole, draining, draining, IJrainixg, are the three 

 things for this generation of farmers to attend to, as 

 a general improvement in Husbandry. 



THE POTATO DISEASE. 



While farmers have become almost discouraged 

 in attempting to comprehend the workings of this 

 disease, while the ten thousand dollars reward offered 

 by Massachusetts for the discovery of its causes and 

 remedy remains safe in her treasury. Science has 

 been quietly working away, year after year, in Prus- 

 sia, comparing fact with fact, noting the most tri- 

 fling circumstances, until some very valuable results 

 seem to have been attained. The observations were 

 conducted in the years 1852, 1853, 1854, under the 

 direction of Government officers, with reference to 

 several points, which had before attracted attention. 

 Space can only now be devoted to a brief state- 

 ment of the results of these experiments. The 

 whole article may perhaps find room in some fu- 

 ture number of this ])aper, 



Jis to the color of potatoes most disposed to dis- 

 ease. It was found on trial of hundreds of varieties, 

 that the white and yellow potatoes rotted most, the 

 reds less by nearly one-half, and the blues not at 

 all, although it is not to be inferred that the blues 

 are always exempt. 



«^s to the form of the potatoes most disposed to 

 rot. It was found that of the round or roundish po- 

 tatoes, about one-eighth of the varieties were diseas- 

 ed, of the long potatoes, in v/hich were included 

 only those whose length was twice their breadth, 

 about one-fifth, a much larger proportion, were af- 

 fected, and of the Kidney shaped none were diseas- 

 ed. It was found also, that early potatoes were less 

 liable to disease than late ones — that those jjlanted 

 close, one foot apart each way, rotted more than 

 those more open, l-i by 2 feet a))art, and that the 

 wet portions of the field rotted more than the dry. 

 It was further observed, in these experiments, that 

 varieties recently ])roduced from the seed or balls, 

 were no more exempt than others from disease, and 

 that fields planted consecutive years with potatoes 

 were not more ati'ected than those planted liut one 

 year, though the croj)s seems to have been dejjre- 

 ciated in quantity, and quality. 



