No. 10. 



Potatoes — JVew Varieties. — Editorial Notices. 



325 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Potatoes— NeAV Varieties. 



There has for a couple of years past been 

 so widely prevalent over our country a seri- 

 ous disease in the potatoe, and their price 

 now in our market being 75 or 80 cents a 

 bushel, I believe everything having a bear- 

 ing on this matter, cannot fail to be interest- 

 ing both to producers and consumers of this 

 royal esculent. I therefore take the liberty 

 to forward the enclosed for the Cabinet. I 

 find it in a late number of the Massachusetts 

 Ploughman. I do not know that there is 

 anything in it that is new, but it may serve 

 to keep all awake to the subject 



^ P. O. 



Fhiladelphia. 



The rot in the potatoe, which prevailed so 

 extensively last fall, has caused a good deal 

 of inquiry into the subject of new varieties 

 of this root. Some farmers are of opinion, 

 that on account of a mysterious something — 

 some unknown law in the physiology of the 

 potatoe, the vital principle of those kinds 

 most subject to the rot has become exhausted, 

 and that it is necessary to renew from the 

 seed and obtain some other variety which 

 shall take the place of the exhausted kind, 

 We do not know how correct this opinion is, 

 Without pretending to know more than other 

 people upon the subject, or of deciding the 

 question in controversy, we may say, that 

 we are inclined to think that the theory 

 which attributes the rot to the uncommonly 

 hot weather in the fall, is as near right as 

 any. But, nevertheless, the subject of re- 

 newing existing varieties from the seed, or 

 of introducing new ones in the same way, is 

 worthy of consideration by our farmers. We 

 have been told that some farmer in Brewer, 

 near Bangor, in Penobscot Co., did, some 

 years ago, renew the Chenango or Mercer 

 potatoe, as they are sometimes called, by 

 sowing the seeds from the ball, and selecting 

 those for planting which nearest resembled 

 the original stock, and thereby derived much 

 benefit, having a more healthy and productive 

 kind. 



We have been favoured with many speci- 

 mens of seedling potatoes, by individuals who 

 have amused themselves in producing new 

 varieties. Gen. J. Robinson, of Waterville, 

 has a very fine variety which he produced in 

 this way. Dr. Leach, of Sangerville, sent 

 us specimens of a large variety of his, select- 

 ing from numerous varieties, which he ob- 

 tamed from the seed. Rufus Moody, of Mon- 

 mouth, has several varieties. Other farmers, 

 in different sections of the state, have tried 

 similar'experiments with like results. The 



principal trouble is to obtain a kind that 

 every body shall like so well as to cause a 

 demand for them, and make them W\q pets 

 of the market. • 



Among the thousands of varieties that 

 have been produced by the different experi- 

 menters with seeds, but very few have been 

 adopted as standards. The Chenangoes, 

 which were produced by Mr. Gilkie, have 

 had a great reputation. The Butmans, first 

 raised by Mr. Butman, of Dixmont, have a 

 good reputation in this vicinity, altliough 

 they are not so productive as some. We 

 have always done best with them on a moist 

 soil. The Carters, which were first obtained 

 by seed sown by a Mr. Carter, of New York, 

 and which, if we mistake not, are also some- 

 times called White Farinas, are in good 

 repute. 



Mortality of Trees planted where 



CERTAIN Noxious PLANTS HAVE GROWN.— 



It has been observed that oil paint on trellis, 

 injures trees in contact with it — often de- 

 stroys them. It appears that some trees 

 destroy plants of which they are made the 

 props— as, for instance, the Rhus and the 

 Aylanthus, whose juices are capable of poi- 

 soning plants as well as animals. 



It is known that vegetables during their 

 vitality deposit in the earth where they have 

 lived deleterious juices, which destroy plants 

 put into their places. This fact is new enough 

 to many who find very beautiful plants de- 

 stroyed in succession in grounds where nox- 

 ious plants had been growing. 



It would be well to know the other sus- 

 pected plants, besides those above mentioned. 



THE FARMERS' CABINET, 



AND 

 AMISRICAM- HERD-BOOK. ' 



Philadelphia, Fifth Month, 1845. 



The extract from the Edinburgh Review, on page 

 30C, on the Importance of Manure, will bear two or 

 three readings, not only by all those who make no 

 pretensions to good farming, but it is quite likely by 

 every one who feels the importance of manure to his 

 land. " What merit, as a farmer, can that man claim- 

 who, though he annually lays five tons of guano or 

 bones, or rape dust upon his farm, yet allows what is 

 equal to ten or twenty tons of the same, to run to 

 waste from his farmyard, in the form of liquid ma- 

 nure." Let every one look to his cowyard next fall, 

 and see if improvements may not be made around it, 

 and in reference to the saving of the essential parts of 

 his manure, which will be but little expensive, and re- 

 lieve him from the purchase of costly foreign manures- 



