1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



533 



palieni's body, clothes and blankets become satu- 

 rated with it, like a. sponge with water ; and in air- 

 ing these materials, a mere passing breeze is not 

 always sufficient to carry it away. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ROCKY MOUNTAIN POTATO. 



Mr. Editor: — Many of your correspondents 

 have written about the potato rot ; some have sup- 

 posed they had discovered the cause of the disease ; 

 others had found remedies that had and would stay 

 the hand of the destroyer. I do not profess to 

 have found either the cause or the cure. I sup- 

 pose it is similar to some of the mysterious diseases 

 tha^ spread terror and death in the animal king- 

 dom, that the wisest heads cannot tell from whence 

 they come nor whither they go. But if the dis- 

 covery could be made, it would be worth more than 

 all the pearls that have been found or ever will be. 

 The potato is a great article of food ; millions of 

 our race have almost subsisted upon them ; and if 

 they are not, as the Irishman said, life itself, they 

 are indeed one of the many staffs that prop up an- 

 imal life. 



I therefore think that everything should be done 

 that can be consistently, to save this valuable root. 

 I plant but few potatoes, but I thought I would try 

 a number of kinds. I planted them side by side, 

 ■with the same dressing and at the same time, and 

 when I came to dig them, several kinds were quite 

 bad, but the chenangoes the worst, most all being 

 rotten ; but one kind came out bright and good. 

 I bought the seed in Boston for the Rocky Moun- 

 tain. I should advise farmers to notice this, and 

 get this kind of seed, for they are fine potatoes. 



Danvers, Sept., 1857. G. Wait. 



RATS BECOMING AN ARTICLE OF 

 COMMERCE. 



As civilization advances, human ingenuity is tax- 

 ed to supply man's natural and artificial wants. — 

 Our grandfathers would have said that the distruc- 

 tive vermin which invests our cellars under the 

 name of rats, would be the last thing which could 

 be turned to a useful purpose. Even the fine lady 

 of the present day, who piques herself on her ex- 

 quisitely fitting gloves, would give one of those 

 little shrieks, which she thinks so sweetly feminine, 

 if told that the thumb of her glove was made of 

 ratskin, as more elastic yet tougher than kid. The 

 nineteenth century, in fact, sees rats elevated to an 

 article of commerce. In Europe the fur of the rat 

 is used by hatters, having been found' to exceed in 

 delicacy even that of the beaver. A company ex- 

 ists in Paris, on the principle of the Hudson's Bay 

 Company, to buy up all the rats in France. In 

 London many persons earn a livelihood by hunting 

 rats in the sewers, A late number of the London 

 (Quarterly Review makes these facts the text of a 

 curious and interesting article on the habits of the 

 rats, an animal heretofore considered unfit to be in- 

 troduced into decent society, but which, under the 

 auspices of the (Quarterly, makes quite a respecta- 

 ble figure. 



Nearly every portion of the habita'"'- j;lobe is 

 infested with these vermin. Hardly a \c-sel sails 

 without carrying with it a colony, and thus even 

 the islands of the Pacific are supplied with rats. On 



board the ship they generally keep out of sight 

 provided they can command that great necessity, 

 water ; but if this is guarded against their depreda- 

 tions, they will come on deck on rainy nights to 

 drink, and will even ascend the rigging for the sake 

 of the moisture laying in the folds of the sails. — 

 When very thirsty, they have been known to attack 

 the spirit-casks, and get, like wiser beings, tipsy, 

 though we believe they never beat their wives, even 

 when drunk. Sometimes two distinct colonies are 

 to be found in the same ship ; one occupying the 

 stem and the other the stern. It is no uncommon 

 thing to destroy five hundred in a single East In- 

 diaman, on her arrival at Calcutta. Often, when 

 water has been scarce on the voyage, they volunta- 

 rily desert the vessel the night after her casting an- 

 chor, generally passing to land, in single file, along 

 the mooring rope, though, if this is impracticable, 

 they do not hesitate to swim. The genuine ship 

 rat is a more delicate animal than the large brown 

 rat, and approximates to the original English rat, 

 which is not yet entirely extinct, though som 

 naturalists have asserted the contrary. 



Few persons have an idea of the vast numbers 

 of these vermin. The (Quarterly says, "rats Ere to 

 the earth what swallows are to the air, universally 

 present." But, unlike their feathered rivals, we 

 rarely see them, and hence are ignorant of the 

 countless millions that burrow under our cellars, 

 run up and down between our walls, haunt the 

 sewers of great cities, and devastate the granaries 

 of farmers. But it is about slaughter-houses that 

 they "most do congregate." At Montfaucon, in 

 France, the proprietor of a slaughter-house had a 

 walled enclosure, where, one night, he threw the 

 carcasses of two or three horses, and then went 

 quietly with his workmen, and stopped up all the 

 holes by which the rats had entered it, after which 

 he went in, with these same workmen, each armed 

 with a stick. The rats thus entrapped, were slain 

 by hundreds. In a single month he killed 

 16,050, ai\d 2,650 in one night. It has been 

 estimated that the progeny of a single pair would 

 amount, in three years, to six hundred and fifty-six 

 thousand, if they could all find food and escape the 

 accidents that makes the mortality among them so 

 great. Between the large brown rat and the smal- 

 ler species there exists a mortal antipathy. If an 

 equal number of each breed are put into a cage 

 over night, the bigger ones, if not hungry, will eat 

 off the long delicate ears of the smaller, which they 

 seem to consider a great luxury ; but if half-starv- 

 ed, nothing will be seen in the morning of the smal- 

 ler species, except the tails and bones. 



The rat, according to the Quarterly, has never, 

 received the credit for sagacity which he deserves, 

 although the phrase "as cunning as a rat," testifies 

 to the popular opinion of his abilities. It is not a 

 fable that a rat robs a hen's nest, by laying on his 

 back and holding the eggs between his paws, while 

 his companions pull along. Rats have been seen, 

 one on each side, leading blind or aged rats to wa- 

 ter. A gentleman once noticed that several rats 

 ate at the trough wiih his dogs; so, one day, he 

 kept the dogs back, after the trough was filled, in- 

 tending to shoot the rats when they came to eat ; 

 but the latter was too wise to make their appear- 

 ance till he let the dogs in, when he was afraid to 

 shoot, and this caution they exhibited dayaOerday, 

 till he gave up in despair. Sometimes when fam- 

 ished, a rat will attack poultry. Kats frtquentlv 



