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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 POTATO ROT. 



Mr. Cole: — Having been informed that the leg- 

 islature of the commonwealth of Massachusetts 

 have oifered a premium to the person who shall dis- 

 cover and make public a remedy for the vegetable 

 disease commonly called the "potato rot," and 

 having no personal acquaintance with any of the 

 officers of your Slate government, I beg permission 

 to submit a brief statement, through the columns of 

 the New England Farmer, to those functionaries 

 that have cognizance of this matter. 



I have strong hopes that I have discovered a sure 

 remedy or preventive of this formidable disease, 

 and the discovery was made by a mere accident. 

 I am a very small farmer, improving less than two 

 acres of land, but for the last fifteen years have in- 

 variably cultivated a small "potato patch" for the 

 supply of my own family with this almost indis- 

 pensable esculent. 



In the fall of 1849, on harvesting my little crop 

 of potatoes, I found them somewhat diseased, but 

 not to any very serious extent. After they had 

 been in the cellar some weeks they began to rot, 

 and continued so to do during winter, till they were 

 nearly all destroyed. By some mistake or negli- 

 gence a few hills of this crop of potatoes were left 

 in the field through the winter, and on digging 

 them out in the spring, a large proportion of them 

 were found to be sound and free from any disease, 

 and I have good reasons for believing that among 

 those left out, not a potato was attacked with dis- 

 ease after the frost penetrated the ground so as to 

 reach it. These potatoes thus renovated by that 

 most powerful disinfecting agent, /rosi, were again 

 planted, and produced the only sound potatoes which 

 I raised last season; the remainder of my crop, 

 about thirty bushels, all rotted during the fall and 

 winter. 



1 am not qualified to "discourse learnedly" on 

 the foregoing facts, yet they appear to me as hav 

 ing an important bearing on the subject which has 

 attracted the attention of the Massachusetts legis 

 lature. 



The potato is indigenous to this country, and 

 grows in its greatest perfection in the northern and 

 middle latitudes of the temperate zone, and nature 

 points to the frozen ground as the place of rest for 

 the bulb during winter. The "potato rot" appears 

 to be a malignant, putrid and contagious disease, 

 attacking a species of the vegetable kingdom as 

 putrid fevers, cholera, &c., do the human species; 

 and if severe frost is the great disinfecting agent 

 and specific in the latter case, may it not stand in 

 the same relation to the former 1 



The potatOjlike a pampered child, hasbeen"killed 

 with kindness," or possibly like the chronic epicu 

 lean, it may be diseased by over repletion; but what- 

 ever may be the cause of its decay, it would seem 

 that it can only be restored to its primeval health 

 by a return to the stern and chilling regimen point 

 ed out by nature's unerring index. To reduce the 

 foregoing theory to practice is very simple. Let 

 the crop of potatoes remain in the ground through 

 the winter, and dig them after the frost is entirely 

 out of the ground in the spring; those which sur- 

 vive will be renovated and probably exempt from 

 future disease. 



To plant in the fall without any manure in the 

 hill, might perhaps answer for an early crop, if the 



disease has not made too great progress in the po- 

 tatoes which are planted. Leonard Loomis. 

 Tolland, Conn., April 2^, 1851. 



Remarks. — After having a great many old things 

 on the potato rot repeated, our correspondent has 

 presented a new idea, and we hope it will be test- 

 ed. But from our experience we should think that 

 potatoes not dug would be very liable to be de- 

 stroyed by frost in a climate as variable as it is in 

 this section. Sometimes we have a snow late in 

 fall or early in winter, before the ground freezes, 

 and the snow lies on all winter, and the ground is 

 not frozen. Again the ground is bare most of the 

 winter, and changes from severe frost to comparative 

 heat and the reverse are great and sudden, and in 

 such cases the potatoes at the usual depth would 

 be frozen and thawed frequently. Yet we are 

 pleased to offer this new suggestion for considera- 

 tion. 



For the Ifew England Farmer. 

 FARMERS AND FARMING. 



Mr.. Cole: — Notwithstanding farming is looked 

 upon by many as not so honorable a business as 

 some other kinds, in my opinion there is no busi- 

 ness or occupation more honorable and indepen- 

 dent than tilling the soil. The man who owns a 

 farm, and has a clear title to the same, is the most 

 independent of "Nature's noblemen." There is no 

 occupation in the known world about which so 

 many good things may justly be said in its favor. 

 It may not bring so many dollars directly into one's 

 pocket, but like casting "bread upon the waters," 

 after many days the husbandman will reap the re- 

 wards of his labors. 



But suppose the farmer does not increase his 

 stores like the manufacturer, or others pursuing 

 different occupations; he is the partaker of his own 

 toils. He earns the bread he eats by the sweat of 

 his onm brow, and can repose under the branches 

 of his own vine and fig-tree. The great desire of 

 mankind seems to be to get wealth — and while 

 striving to do so, they can have no more than they 

 wish to eat and drink, and even after they have 

 amassed all they desire (if that ever happens,) noth- 

 ing but a living can be had out of it, — and this the 

 farmer, with his small means, is pretty sure al- 

 ways to have. 



The farmer possesses many advantages over those 

 of other occupations. The first of which is, he is 

 generally blest with health and a vigorous constitu- 

 tion. Certain it is, that there is no healthier busi- 

 ness carried on than tilling the earth. Another ad- 

 vantage the farmer has, he leads a serene, quiet 

 and peaceful life; is not troubled in his mind about 

 the fall and rise of stocks, — like the manufacturers, 

 merchants, speculators, &;c. To the lover of na- 

 ture, there is nothing more pleasant and delightful 

 than spending his time in the fields, cultivating the 

 ground. In the spring of the year, there is no 

 other place so musical as the fields and groves 

 which skirt them. The very air is alive with the 

 merry little songsters. From every shrub and hedge 

 the tuneful warblers pour forth their enlivening 

 notes to cheer and gladden the farmer in his labors. 

 The every day scenes of a farmer's life are 



