308 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



color, was here i/seZ/" absent, and had been foi years; 

 in its place was the color of the old pine rails that 

 had served for half a century. On applying the 

 paint we found the trimming very oil-thirsty, much 

 more so than the clapboards, which were yet noth- 

 ing but a good red, and covered with so good a body 

 (if paint that a less quantity was sufficient to the 

 yard for the first coat than was required for the se- 

 cond upon the trimmings. Now, to keep in taste, 

 it becomes necesary this fall, as a matter of econo- 

 my to repaint the trimmings; but the red is as if it 

 were but yesterday laid on, and so will remain from 

 five to ten years to come. These being naked facts, 

 I have settled upon the conclusion, that the interest 

 of the cost of white painting will paint and keep 

 painted red in good taste through all coming time. 



Any one who would practice economy in house- 

 painting, needs but to adopt my taste and be satis- 

 fied that the above statements are true; and I will 

 prove'them to the satisfaction of any skeptical in- 

 quirer who will favor me with a call at the old red 

 house in Lyme, N. H. Harris Allen. 



Lyme, N. H., Aug. ISth, 1851. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 WINTER WHEAT. 



Friend Cole: — If I mistake not, you have been 

 among the advocates of the u-heat crop, so that 

 whatever deficiency appears on my part, you will 

 please supply. 



It would seem an imperious duty as well as ne- 

 cessity, that a general movement in this branch 

 of agriculture should (without loss of time), be 

 adopted. 



The potato rot (not this season fully developed) 

 admonishes every farmer of his duties to himself 

 and his dependencies. 



Where rests his substitute for this unsafe and 

 valuable esculent? It must be that ivhcat is his 

 only safe reliance. At all points in New England 

 we hear the most flattering accounts. 



We can only look with surprise at this long 

 neglect. The farmer will raise his corn and all 

 small grains of little value as compared with wheat. 

 In the vicinity of Boston, his straw (valuable and 

 productive as rye straw) will sell for as much as the 

 best of hay. 



His doubts can easily be satisfied by making 

 trial. When he looks at the wheat statistics of 

 our country (see Patent Office reports) where in 

 (New York,) Rensalaer, Hudson, Westchester 

 and other counties, only 7 or 8 bushels to the 

 acre are produced, and all the West producing so 

 small crops to the acre, on the average, he will be 

 surprised, and say, / ivill cultivate well and beat 

 them. From all the West and South, they cry 

 out against rust, weevil, hessian fly, smut, &c., as 

 the existing evils, more or less. This year they 

 are fortunate; so in New England, the crop is be- 

 yond all expectation. 



Sow and lay down to grass early in September, 

 editor of the Ploughman's notions of sovk'ing grass 

 seed with wheat to the contrary, nothwithstanding. 

 Crude notions may be expected if practical expe- 

 rience is deficient. The best grass fields I have 

 seen, is where they were laid down with winter 

 wheat. The quantity of dead wheat roots seem to 

 operate as a manure to nourish the grass, while 

 the young wheat seems to protect and shelter the 

 young grass in winter. 



On high grass lands, wheat may be sown late in 

 September. Mr. Joseph Stone, of Westchester, 

 sowed as late as the middle of October, and got 

 over 20 bushels to the acre. 



This I thought a test on what I called pooi wheat 

 land. Sod wheat does well, and an exhausted piece 

 of mowing is good to turn over for wheat. De- 

 scending lands are best. We say — and ive mean 

 ivhat loe say — let every farmer take up the matter 

 in earnest, and if not this, the next year icill give 

 him his reward. Yours, Essex. 



Boston, Aug. 25lh. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 POTATO ROT. 



Mr. Editor: — The newspapers, both agricultu- 

 ral and most all others, seem to be teaming on the 

 potato rot (so called; perhaps the cholera would be 

 quite as applicable,) and I have taken great pains, 

 from the beginning of that incomprehensible dis- 

 ease, to find out the cause of it. I have noticed 

 the opinions of very many of the ablest writers in 

 this country on the subject, and all are entitled to 

 respect for the eflxirts they have made in trying to 

 ascertain the great secret of this formidable disease 

 or pestilence. And, by the way of an honest 

 apology for myself, I will here state that I have 

 never written to the editors of newspapers but 

 once before in my whole life. Now, sir, if I shall 

 be able to satisfy you that my views are correct, 

 you are at liberty to publish the same in the Far- 

 mer. 



1st. I contend that the potato rot (so called) is a 

 disease of that plant, and that opinion I have fully 

 entertained from the beginning of it in this State. 

 I have listened to the bug and insect theories 

 enough to satisfy me, that nothing short of the 

 power of the Almighty causes the above mentioned 

 rot; if this is not so, let some of our philosophers 

 define the cause, and prescribe the remedy. Again, 

 if any one will prove that bugs or insects of any 

 kind are the cause of the aforesaid, the remedy is 

 ready. There is a cause, no doubt, operating 

 somewhere. But I will now reason from experi- 

 ments of my own. 



Mr. Editor, you will recollect that in 1838 or 9, 

 I exhibited to you in the Yankee Farmer Office, at 

 Portland, (Me.,) three potatoes, the 3d year from 

 the seed of the ball; said potatoes weighed 1 1-2 

 lbs. each, I think, which no doubt you will re- 

 member. I have cultivated the same from that 

 time to the present, without any serious injury of 

 the rot; and I have never done that which I believe 

 to be one cause of deformity in potatoes, if not a 

 remote cause of rot, namely — cutting them up to 

 plant. I have always planted perfect potatoes of 

 middle size in one hill; and up to this day my po- 

 tatoes bare tremendous crops of apples or balls. I 

 planted two acres early last May, and the balls 

 now are full of growth. For this kind I received 

 a premium in 1840, at the fair in Cumberland Co., 

 and once since, by another gentleman. Last year 

 I tried an experiment, as follows: — I had about 

 1 1-2 acre in once piece, the soil as near alike as 

 any that could be found. I planted Chenangoes 

 and some other early kind on the end where I be- 

 gan to plant; then I planted about three-fourths of 

 an acre to my own kind, then one bushel of a kind 

 new in this vicinity, called the Oxford Premium, 

 then finished out the piece with the Orange or old 

 kind of Yellow potato. 



