232 



NEW ENGLAND I'ARMER. 



May 



We have been led to tho^o remarks by seeing 

 an advertisement in the hist number of tlie Coun- 

 try Gentleman, headed '■^Potato Rot — a remedy by 

 wise importation and reproduction. ■ Valuable pota- 

 toes for sale, 4"r."' These potatoes are for sale by 

 Cliauney K. (ioodrieh, of Ctiea, N. Y., and are 

 what he calls "The Rough Purple Ciiili," import- 

 ed at great expense from South America in 1851, 

 and they are now ofiered for sale at the very mod 

 erate price ofeigiit dollars per bushel. ]Mr. Good 

 rich says that in 1853, his seed potatoes were scat- 

 tered over twelve Northern States and that re- 

 ports? have been heard from nine States, and Init 

 two cases of rot have been reported. Now taking 

 JNIr. Goodrich at his own word and his seed pota- 

 toes and importations, and we say they are not a 

 "wise remedy' against potato rot." Because if 

 they were, they would not rot at all under any 

 circumstances of cultivation or soil, climate, ttc. 

 That new and valiuible varieties may be brought 

 out by Mr. Goodrich's plan by importing and pro- 

 ducing seedlings from the ball we do not doubt. 

 But tlic system is not new at all, as it has been 

 pi-acticcd by a great many other cultivators since 

 the *'rot" made its appearance. But that. this 

 sj-stem of importing and reproducing from the 

 ball, will give that hardiness of constitution which 

 Mr. Goodrich tells for, we do not so readily be- 

 lieve. And possibly iiis seed potatoes may be worth 

 the price asked for them, as every cultivator will 

 be his own judge on that point. What we con- 

 tend against is, of offering for sale seed potatoes 

 of that character as a sure remedy against "rot"' 

 when it is no such thing, as Mr. Goodrich well 

 knows. We repeat Avhat we have often said be- 

 fore, that as yet no certain or sure remedy against 

 the "jiotato disr'ase" has been found out. But 

 if ever sucli a remedy can be found out, it will be 

 worth wliile to have it made known, and let the 

 "finder" be well rewarded for his labor. 



Yours truly, L. Dcrand. 

 Derby, Ct., Feb. 25//;, 1854. 



USE OF GUANO. 



There seeems to be still considerable misappre- 

 hension as to the proper way of applying guano as 

 a fertilizer, and a word or two at this time, when 

 so many are making preparations to use it, may 

 not be inappropriate. The question is often asked 

 whether guano will prove a permanent fertilizer — 

 that is, as permanent as the common manures of 

 the farm? Our own experience on this point has 

 not been extended through a sufficient space of 

 time, to justily the expression of a decided opin- 

 ion. We have supposed, however, tliat the coars- 

 er and less concenti-ated manures of the farm would 

 have a more permanent action than guano. For 

 instance : we have sujjposed that an acre of sward 

 land, plowed, manured with twenty loads of the 

 common barn-yard or cellar manure, and planted 

 with corn two years, receiving the same quantity 

 of manure the second year that it diil the first, and 

 the third year sowed with oats, or barley and grass 

 seed, would continue to produce fair crops of grass, 

 much larger tlian an acre of the same land would, 

 treated with 300 pounds of guano to the acre, for 



the same time. Coarse manures, covered up in 

 the soil, undergo a process of fel-mentation, and 

 i^rudually give off their ))ropertieK to the roots ia 

 which they come in contact ; while guano, already 

 highly concentrated, and volatile, must, we think, 

 give off its ammonia, and other properties, much 

 sooner than the coarser manui'es. 



L5xcking experience ourselves, as already men- 

 tioned, wc have sought to learn that of others, 

 and in that experience find our opinions abundant- 

 ly sustained. 



Com. Tuos. Ap. C. Jones, a gentleman of exten- 

 sive travel, and the hero of tlie Monterey aflair on 

 the Pacific during the war with Mexico, cultivates 

 a farm ifi Fairfax Co., Va., about 12 miles from 

 the city of Washington. Most of tlie land of that 

 county had become so impoverished by repeated 

 tobacco crops, that it was proverlnal, that the 

 more of it a man owned the poorer he was. We 

 have passed his fiirm many times and S3en his fine 

 wheat, cornand clover fields, in wide contrast with 

 those of many of his neighbors, and once called at 

 his mansion to have a little social chat with hiu; 

 on subjects agricultural, but he was not at home. 

 We know enough, however, of his modes of cul- 

 tivation, and his chai-acter for uprightness anA 

 sound discrimination, to place great confidence in 

 whatever he says in relation to these subjects. 



Com. Jones presented an essay to the Maryland 

 State Agricultural Society, last fall, upon which 

 the Judges awarded him the prize. This essay is 

 mostly a detail of his own practice and experiences, 

 and a paper which we should be glad to lay Ijefore 

 our readers without abbreviation ; but it is too 

 long, occupying eight or ten closely printed pages " 

 of the American Farmer. 



But it is with reference to what he says of gua- 

 no that we have introduced the Commodore and 

 his excellent essay. He says, "guano should not be 

 aj^plied the second time to the same land, unless 

 in combination with other fine manures ; nor should 

 it ever be applied in its crude state, to land that 

 is in good heart, i. c., land that will ))ring thirty 

 bushels of Indian corn, or 15 bushels of wheat per 

 acre without it ; not but that gmmo in some such 

 land might increase the product of both wheat and 

 corn, enough to pay for itself, but if it should, the 

 soil will be robbed of its fertility, and will be left 

 in a far worse condition than when the guano was 

 first applied ; at least, such have been my own re- 

 sults in its use, and such is the universal charac- 

 ter of guano in Peru, as I then learned upon per-^ 

 Bonal inquiry, from the mouth of all persons (with 

 whom I conversed) engaged in gardening and ag- 

 ricultural pursuits ai'ound the city of Lima, the 

 cajiitol of I'eru, from whence we olitain the best 

 guano. I have frequently been in Peru, first in 

 1835, again in 18-12 — 3, and more recently in 1848, 

 and on each and every occasion, I took tlie great- 

 est pains to obtain all possiljle information as to 



