NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



69 



country but little attentidn has been given to the 

 subject, nor has the changing of the seed been at- 

 tended to of any consequence, as a preventive of the 

 rot. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 HEALTH. 



Heaven never granted a richer boon than health; 

 and, without it, all other blessings are comparative- 

 ly valueless. Yet it is often lightly esteemed and 

 carelessly thrown away, and 7iev.cr fully apprecia- 

 ted until it is gone. I have seen the mistress of a 

 splendid mansion, surrounded by every luxury 

 which wealth can command, lying upon her couch, 

 pale and miserable, fretful and unhappy. Within 

 her reach were the most delicate viands and exquis- 

 ite fruits, yet she could partake of none. Health 

 was no longer hers. She had pai-ted with it for 

 the sake of gratifying her vanity, by wearing thin 

 shoes, to display the beauty of her foot, and now, 

 when consumption was preying upon her, she re- 

 pented her folly, but it was too late; and though 

 she would willingly give all that she possessed, 

 the priceless treasure could not be recalled. The 

 thin, ghastly-looking gentleman, who reclines in 

 his luxurious easy chair with his gouty foot upon a 

 pillow, sighs and groans in anguish and thinks of 

 the many weary nights of pain, when the bed of 

 down and the silken covering could bring him no 

 repose. How he envies the plough-boy who whis- 

 tles on the green fields, whose step is elastic and 

 whose heart is light and gay at his toil, while his 

 sleep at night is sound and refreshing. 



What is wealth to the invalid but a bitter mock- 

 ery which can yield no happiness. Then prize 

 the rich boon of health, ye who possess it, and lift 

 your hearts in gratitude to God, even though your 

 lot may be one of poverty and toil. e. 



other places, where the potatoes have decayed and 

 become extremely offensive, soon after they were 

 gathered. No one can question the accuracy of 

 Gov. Hill's statements; for there is no man in N. 

 England who has been more obseiving, or who has 

 sounder common sense in explaining what pertains 

 to the interests of the farmer. I take it for granted 

 therefore that the rust that spread over his potato 

 field, was a different species of annoyance -from that 

 which is generally termed the potato rot; and the 

 use I would make of this fact is, to encourage farni- 

 ers in deseriminating all the peculiarities of the in- 

 juries that happen to their crops, so that they may 

 be assigned to the right class. So long as our ob- 

 servations are general and indefinite, there will be 

 little or no hope of defining the cause, or of apply- 

 ing a remedy. In the diseases affecting the human 

 system, it is not uncommon that very different af- 

 fections pass under the same name; as for instance 

 fever or consumption, but no intelligent physician 

 would presume to prescribe for either of these com- 

 plaints, without knowing the constitution of the 

 patient, and the peculiarities of his situation. The 

 same care and knowledge is needed, in prescribing 

 for vegetable phenomena. 



My experience is too limited to have great con- 

 fidence in my own judgment, but still I cannot but 

 think, that much can be done to remedy the .incon- 

 venience complained of by careful attention to selec- 

 ting seeds, free from taint if possible, and to place 

 them in ground properly manured, and best adapted 

 to their healthy growth. 



Danvcrs, Feb. 1, 1851. J. w. p. 



FARM ACCOUNTS. 



A friend has sent us a leaf from the 

 transactions of the Essex Agricultural 



commg 

 Society. 



For the New England Farmer. 



LOSS OF THE POTATO. 



The agitation of this subject cannot fail to elicit 

 much valuable information. Because there is no 

 one prepared to come forward and explain at once, 

 all the incidents connected with the decay of the 

 potato, some are disposed to say, the public are no 

 wiser for the descussion. One thing, at least, I 

 think can be asserted with confidence, that there is 

 more than one cause for the decay of the potato; that 

 what is called the rot, is an entirely different af- 

 fection from what is called the blight or the rust, 

 upon the potato; the blight or rust invariably begins 

 first upon the vines, giving them a discolored and 

 frost-bitten appearance — followed in some instances 

 with the decay of the tubers — and in some, without 

 any such decay. A remarkable instance of this oc- 

 curred the last season, in the extensive fields of po- 

 tatoes cultivated by Gov. Hill, at Concord, N. H., 

 on which were raised 1800 bushels of sound pota- 

 toes; 1000 of which he now- has in good condition. 

 In the month of August, about three weeks before 

 they obtained their full growth, they were all at 

 once struck with a blight, that gave them a dark 

 and frost-bitten aspect, and checked their growth, 

 and of consequence cut short the quantity antici- 

 pated; nevertheless they so far matured as to be 

 gathered, and to be, as they now arc, of much val- 

 ue. This affection upon these potatoes could not 

 have been such as has been experienced in many 



of the Essex 

 We extract the following from an Essay on Farm 

 Accounts. We have not the author's name yet. 



The young farmer who expects to enrich his land 

 by some magical process, will be as much disap- 

 pointed in his expectations as he is ignorant of the 

 process of improvement. A mere theory, even if 

 clearly defined, is idle and useless if unattended 

 with practical observations; and the more practical 

 information a young farmer can acquire, the deeper 

 versed he becomes in the mysteries of his profes- 

 sion — those magical secrets, which enable his more 

 experienced neighbors to bring home money from 

 market. The lawyer finds the mysteries of his 

 profession in almost innumerable volumes of Di- 

 gests and Reports — the mariner is guided by the 

 science of previous navigators, as laid down in 

 books and on charts — the soldier learns how to ma- 

 noeuvre large bodies of men by reading accounts of 

 successful campaigns — the statesman gleans wis- 

 dom from volumes of debates — and the editor seeks 

 the mysteries of catering for the public taste, in 

 old files of popular journals. But where can the 

 young farmer go for dates and details'' He may 

 pick up an old Almanac, containing a few memo- 

 randa of the domestic life of the writer's cows, 

 and the time his goose commenced her incubation. 

 And some meagre details, thus preserved, convince 

 him that a Diary, kept by any practical farmer in 

 his vicinity, would be a more valuable text book 

 than Loudon's gigantic Encyclopedia. 



Washington, as we are informed by Dr. Sparks, 

 kept a diary after he had exchanged his victorious 



