3L. VIII. 



NEW EMIiliAND FARMER. 



Published by John B. Russeli., at jYo. 52 JVorth Market Street, (at the Agricultural Warehouse) — TiioJtAS G. Fessenden, Editor. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1829. 



No. 9. 



AGRICULTURE. 



lai ?URE OF THE SWEET POTATO, &c. 



at the last meeting of the Massachusetts Hor- 

 ticultural Society, Sept. 5.] 



I. A. S. UEAIinOIlN, 



Prcs. iMa83. llort, Society. 



R giRj — Not being able to attend your 



tomorrow, I take tlie liberty to address 



3| tlie subject of the culture o£ the sweet 



and I aui induced to do so on account of 



publication of an article on that culture 



nto the New England Farmer of this day 



Loudon's Gardener's Magazine. The in- 



jns were written by B. W. Stro.vg, Esq. of 



sland, N. Y. I do not question that gentle- 



iti skill and success in that climate, but it is not 



d to our own. His practice is conformable 



of South Carolina, but will not succeed 



The practice of New Jersey is diftereiit 



hat recommended by Mr Strong, as will be 



iy the instructions published in the Mas- 



n etts Agricultural Repository about ten or 



itj years since. Sweet potatoes will produce 



joints of the vine here, but they are of no 



erable size or value, and never ripen. With 



101 best potatoes arc produced, like the Irish 



, as usually called, from strings, (stolones) 



I directly from the planted potato. So far 



ncouraging the growth from the joints, the 



practice is to raise the vines, to vrevent their 



;. Such also is the Ohio practice, in a cli- 



early resembling our own. 



my main object was not to guard our culti- 



against a ])ractice not adapted to our shorter 



;rs, (and they are sho;-ter by about eight 



than those of Long Island as the market 



s indisputably prove ;) my jirincipal design 



acquaint my horticultural friends that there 



I less than Jive distinct varieties of the 

 potato — botanical vaiietie.s, by which I 



varieties, which learne(' men would admit 

 IS distinct, as those of the common potato — 

 g in their stalks, and their leaves, as well as 



or roots. 

 !re is one now growing in my grounds, (I 

 t were any where else) with distinct palma- 

 ves, that is, with five fingered leaves. It is 

 _ ;hless plant. There are milk-white, yellow, 

 3h, and red tubers or roots. Now there are 



o sorts of ant/ value for us, and I wish 

 this should be distinctly understood — 



is a white, and a red variety, with delicate 



and small undivided leaves, both of which 



out tubers freely near the surface of the 



A, which are thick, fleshy, mealy, and profit- 



Ther3 are three other races, boastful in 

 bliage, but severe trials of the patience of 

 iser. A man would do better to give ten 

 3 per bushel for seed of the one, than to re 

 IS a present the seed of the other. Per 



my remarks will seem to deserve some 

 t, when I state that I introduced the culture 

 : sweet potato here, about twelve years since 



I I have constantly devoted 16 square rods 

 )und to them — that they furnish my table 

 August 1st to November 1st — and produce 

 shels on that small quantity of the poorest 



land I have, a sandy loam, in which sand consti- 

 tutes about three fourths of the whole soil. I 

 have never failed, when I had my seed frqin an 

 intelligent quakor in New Jersey ; but accident 

 having delayed their arrival 2 years out of 12, I 

 was oldiged to purchase seed roots here, and the 

 failure has been lamentable. I send to the Society 

 specimens of the three bad sorts, that they may 

 know how to avoid them. They are tolerable at 

 the latter end of the season, but they are too long, 

 too much disposed to ])roduce straggling roots, 

 and not to produce early, well ripened tubers. I 

 beg your members to try them — I wish I could 

 send them the true sorts, that they might witness 

 their great superiority. I think your Society 

 would do well to order from Friend Edmund Dar- 

 nell of Jersey, a regular supply of seed. They 

 would soon learn to distinguish between the good 

 and the bad. 



This will perhaps be thought too long a com- 

 munication on such a topic, but when I add, 

 thct within two years only the Parisian cultivators 

 are awakened to the value of this cultivation, and 

 tint wc, on sandy soils, (let it be noticed, on sandy 

 soils) can grow them to be as sweet and farina- 

 ceous as in South Carolina, (which they never can 

 in Paris,) perhaps this favorite culture so often 

 urged, may be thought to require this ample elu- 

 cidation anil discussion. 



I shall send to your meeting tomorrow, a bunch 

 of the Malaga Grape, whose synonymes in the 

 English gardens, are " Hliilc Hamburg," and ^^ Por- 

 tugal." I was disappointed in its weight, which 

 is far less than its bulk would promise — it only 

 '■ eighs three poiuids, while a Black Hamburg of 

 equal size, would weigh six pounds, and would be 

 worth eighteen times as much, if we were to esti- 

 mate it according to its excellencies. I send one 

 bunch of wall-ripened Black Hamburg for your 

 immediate taste and judgment, and I think you 

 will agree with me in my opinion of its superiority 

 to all other grapes. The great bunch hung up in 

 your room will keep perfectly well till your anni- 

 versary dinner. The Hamburg will not keep, and 

 had therefore better be tasted at once. I send 

 also one specimen of the Capiaumont pear, grown 

 on the original tree, sent by Mr Knight. It is of 

 medium size only, as many being larger, some twice 

 as large. It is a fair representation of its beauty. 

 It is not ripe, but artificially promoted towards 

 ripeness by an insect now within it. Of course, 

 it is not a fair sample. I send it, however, as the 

 product of the tree, which grew in Mr Knight's 

 garden, and therefore dear to mo ; for I have the 

 deepest veneration for that distinguished man, not 

 merely on account of his seeking out the means 

 of encouraging Horticulture here, unasked, unso- 

 licited, but on account of his discoveries in the 

 jihysiology of plants. I shall send two fruits of 

 the Passijlora edulis, a stove plant — the fruit is eaten 

 in Mexico and Colombia, and recently raised for 

 the table in England. Its flavor is peculiar, its aroma 

 agreeable to some, and much otherwise to others. 

 So it is with the fig, and the olive, and the pome- 

 granate — but some English gentlemen have built 

 hot houses, merely to raise this plant for the table. 

 It is eaten with wine and sugar, and made into mar- 

 malade. Lu.xury must make great progress in our 



country before this fruit can be an object of cul- 

 ture as an edible article, but this variety of the 

 Passiflora, for its beautiful foliage, and its flowere, 

 though inferior to others, may be cultivated. 

 I am, dear Sir, 



respectfully yours. 



J. LOWELL. 

 Jioxbury, September 4, 1829. 



N. B. The Passiflora came to me as P. Sernt- 

 lata, but is not kuown by that name in England — 

 Mention is ms^e in the article on the sweet potato 

 in this day's 'N. E. Farmer, of the beauty of its 

 flowers. I never saw the flower of the sweet po- 

 tato, and several Carolinians told me that they had 

 never seen the flower. — It is a convolvulus, but 

 it does not flower with us even in the green house. 

 Does it flower in New York ? J. L. 



roK THE NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



TRANSFORMED PRODUCE OF AN APPLE 

 TREE. 



On the (arm of Mr Job Wyeth, in Cambridge, 

 in the vicinity of the Botanic Garden, the proprie- 

 toi* called rny attention to a very remarkable fact 

 in vegetable physiology, and very much at variance 

 with the general opinions and facts on the subject. 

 On a iirodiictive and vigorous Russet apple tree 

 well filled with fruit of the ordinary character, 

 appears a single ungrafted branch bearing 30 Har- 

 vey Apples with smooth skins, not distinguishable 

 in any waj from the other fruit of this variety 

 growing contiguous to the russet. The two trees 

 are so near together that their branches are mutu- 

 ally blended togef^'er, but no russets make their 

 appearance .,n the Harvey tree. That the latter 

 by its influence has given rise to this phenomena 

 on the russet, need not be questioned. 



The great source of change in the productions 

 of the vegetable kingdom, after the minor influ- 

 ence of soil and climate, is now known to arise 

 from the accidents of generation, there existing 

 in the flowers of all plants, parts which maybe 

 termed sexual ; the pistils, or parts attached to the 

 fruit being feminine, while an exterior set of or- 

 gans, (always present, emitting a kind of fertili- 

 zing powder or farina,) the stamens are, by all 

 who have ever attended to Botany, considered as 

 the masculine or fertilizing organs of plants. By 

 the spontaneous influences of nature these parts 

 constantly operate to the production of the seed, 

 and where a si)ecies or kind of ])lant remains dis- 

 tant from a kindred sort, the individuals arising 

 from such seed will be but httle liable to any vari- 

 ation ; while a number of species growing in the 

 vicinity of each other, may naturally be expected 

 to operate mutual changes on their progeny. On 

 some plants these clianges are readily induced ; in 

 others variety is rare. The characters of these 

 variations are also very different in their nature, 

 giving rise to an infinitude of shades, forms, and 

 complications of a few original simple structures, 

 which, by varying their positions and textures, 

 produce an endless diversity of character, and 

 hold out a [lerpetual boon to the industry of man, 

 as exercised in facilitating and inducing these 

 changes. The most wonderful diversity, however, 

 in vegetable nature, has been produced only since 



