PRACTICAL FARMER. 



171 



FARMERS CAN DOUBLE TUE VALUE OF THE STATE. 



What say you to the above assertion, brother 

 farmers? Have you faith enough in your own 

 j)o\vers to try it? We li.ivR not the least fIoul)t, 

 but that if you really set yourselves about it, you 

 can do it, and very easily too. You can make two 

 spires of grass grow where but one grew before, 

 and that too, witliout nuich trouble. You can 

 double your crops of corn, and that too, with a 

 proportional increase of profit. You can increase 

 your crops of wheat, rye and oats, and you can 

 sow twice as much as before, and find a ready mar- 

 ket for all you can raise. 



You can grow twice as much wool as is grown 

 at present in the State, and soil it for cash dov/n. 

 You can plant the mulberry and grow silk, and 

 from this single article alone, double the amount of 

 cash now paid for the whole of the produce. All 

 these things you can do, with a very little extra ex- 

 ertion, and thereby double the value of the State, 

 in a very short term of years. We have said no- 

 thing of raising twice as many bushels of roots, 

 and thereby being enabled to keep twice as many 

 hogs, and causing them to make twice as much ma- 

 nure as now ; but this too may be done. 



We know of but one thing to prevent these 

 things being done ; and that is a belief among too 

 many of our farmers, that they have arrived to per- 

 fection, both in knowledge and practice. Now so 

 far from this being the case, we boldly assert, that 

 there is no man in the State of Maine that j'et 

 knows, irom j-ractical experience, the powers of an 

 acre of land, that is — what it is actually capable of 

 being made to produce. We mean no dispar.ige- 

 meiit to the intelligence and industry, or even skill, 

 of our farmers in general, but vCe do say that they 

 can both be wonderfully improved, and we have Ih- 

 variably found it to be the fact, that our best farm- 

 ers are willing to acknowledge this, and are striving 

 to improve themselves and their farms, and all 

 about them, but there are so many self-satisdeel ones, 

 holduig back and trigging the wheels of those who 

 would do better, that it is at least an uphill work 

 for tliem. What is the source of wealth either pub- 

 lic or private ? Judge Buel sj.ys it is land and la- 

 bor , and he adds the following" sentiment, whic!) 

 ought to be treasured up in the minds of every 

 farmer in the world. "The more fertility we can 

 impart to the one, and the more intelligence we 

 can infuse into the other, the greater will be the re- 

 turns they make, and the greater our means of hap- 

 piness; for it is wealth rightly employed that ena- 

 bles us to multiply not only our own, but the com- 

 forts and happiness of those around us." 



At this point we will leave the subject for your 

 consideration, proposing to take it up more fully 

 another time. — Maine Farmer. 



Thomas G, Fkssenden, Esq. — Sir : — In your 

 Silk Manual for the present month, page 135, there 

 is a piece " on selecting seed," wherein the writer 

 says, that " during the last few yea?-s, many losses 

 have been sustained in the potato crop, in conse- 

 quence of using unripe seed." I have been con- 

 versant with raising j)otatoes for fifty years, and 

 this is the first time of my hearing that potatoes 

 need to be ripe to vegetate. The writer has not 



Baid they will not vegetate, but an entire failure 

 of a crop I think must mean that. I will give you 

 a little of my exi)erience, I have a number of 

 times had my crop of potatoes lessened one half, 

 by the tops being killed by the drought, and not 

 ft for the table ; and yet those half grown potatoes 

 came up the next year as well as ai;y other. One 

 year my potato tops were all killed by drought be- 

 fore the bulbs were half grown, and there came a 

 soaking rain before the time of year to harvest the 

 crop, and not long after, on going into the field, 

 I found, to my surprise, that my potatoes were 

 coming up ; that is, there were green shoots from 

 the hills. On exanuuing, I found they proceeded 

 from the new half grown potatoes. I planted the 

 same the next spring, and they came up as well 

 as any. This is stated to show that it is not nec- 

 essary that a potato should be so ripe as to be good 

 for the table, in order to have it vegetate the 

 next season. You may cut all the outside off of a 

 potato, and jjlant the middle, and it will come up. 

 So I have taken an ear of corn from the field, 

 when it was just beginning to harden at the ends 

 of the kernel, hung it in a dry place, planted it 

 the next season, and it came up well. Hut not- 

 withstanding, I choose good full grov/n seed of 

 every kind, not because it comes up any better, 

 but because it produces a more stocky, vigorous 

 jflant, than with small seed, and is likely to pro- 

 duce a greater crop. You will dispose of this au 

 you i)lease : it is immaterial to me, whether you 

 " lay it on the table," or throw it under, or dis- 

 pose of it in any other way. A Farmer. 

 Westboro', Feb. 14, 1837. 



Bij the Editor. — There is a difference in opin- 

 ion among agricultural writers, on the subject of 

 ripe and unripe potatoes for seed. Some main- 

 tain the o|)inion expressed in the article in Fes- 

 sended's Silk Manual, p. 135, alluded to by our 

 correspondent. In this, the following passage oc- 

 curs: — "The brevity of the present summer, and 

 early frosts, have, to a very great extent, rendered 

 the products of the soil not only unprofitable for 

 consumption, but wholly unfit for seed. During 

 the last few years, many losses have been sustain- 

 ed in the potato crop, in consequence of using un- 

 ripe seed." 



Tiic writ<^r of an article originally pr.blished in 

 Loudon's Magazine, and transcribed into the jY. 

 E. Farmer, vol. xiii. page 173, states as follows : 

 " I consider tubers well matured, preferable for 

 plaining, because in them the embryo of the fu- 

 ture plant is more perfect than those not yet ar- 

 rived at a state of maturity," &c. 



On the other hand, an English cultivator, in an 

 article first publisheil in Loudon's Magazine, and 

 republi<ihed in the N, E. Farmer, vol. v. page 409, 

 aPs.rt.s as follows : — " Preferring unripe potatoes 



