764 



FARMERS' REGISTER— TORNADO— POTATOES. 



oue uther pj-otected by a row ol' very large locust 

 trees, was levelled with tlie ground or hurled in 

 shattered fragments through the air. The lighter 

 articles, such as shingles, corn and tobacco li-om 

 the cribs and barns, were blown, in some instances 

 more than a mile. Many of the negroes were 

 wounded, and one killed by the fall of the houses and 

 chimneys, and some of those who in the alarm 

 had rushed from the tumbling ruins,were raised up 

 into the air and transported to considerable dis- 

 tances. The track of the whirlwind at this place 

 was (I think) fully a mile wide. As it was diffi- 

 cult, li'om the number of trees which wei-e blown 

 dov/n, to visit every place at which I had heard of 

 the ravages of the wind, I confined my investiga- 

 tion to crossing its course at such points on The 

 roads as could be most conveniently done. After 

 leaving the court house, jail &c., Avhich vv^ere just 

 within the outer circumlercnce of the vortex, and 

 Buffered but little injury, I took the cross-road 

 nearly two miles lower dov»m, leading from the 

 Btage road to Branchester Mill. At ratjier less 

 than half way between these two points, the fury 

 of the storm appeared to have been unabated, from 

 the number and size of the trees that Avere pros- 

 trated, none standing except such as were small 

 enough to j'ield to a shock which none were large 

 enough to withstand; but the Vv^dth of the deso- 

 lating blast was not more than half a mile at this 

 epot. Where I next crossed it, at about four miles 

 further on, its breadth was yet more dimmished, 

 and at the house of Trlr. Benjamin Fenner, (some 

 two miles larther) it was not mora than three 

 hundred yards wide. But the evidences of its 

 fury were as distinct as ever: out of ten houses in 

 his yard but three remained standing. And here 

 v.ras ftirnished a convincing proof that the devas- 

 tation was occasioned by a whirlwind proceeding, 

 (in a neai-ly direct hne) with a violent rotatory mo- 

 tion, and not by a hurricane blowing irom one point 

 of the compass to an opposite one. Two of BIr. 

 Fennefs houses stood nearly opposite, on the east 

 and west sides of his yard: these were unroofed, 

 and carried towards each other so as nearly to 

 meet in the middle of the yard. This proof, how- 

 ever, was afforded throughout its whole course by 

 the trees, which at some points lay thrown with 

 their heads generally towards the east, and at other 

 places, within a verj' short distance, they as gener- 

 ally fell to the west. Many particular trees were ob- 

 served lying traasversely to the general direction of 

 those near them, and in nxany instances the trunks 

 oi' the largest trees were twisted oft" at various 

 heights from the ground, as if by some pov/eriul 

 engine. At about a quarter of a mile from Mr. 

 Fenner's, the breadth of the wind's track did not 

 exceed one hundred yards, and not far from this 

 spot I lost all trace of its course, in a thick wood of 

 the same sort of trees as those which it had over- 

 thrown for the preceding half mile. It thus ap- 

 peared to terminate abruptly, retaining to the last 

 Its full force and velocity, for at but a few yards 

 beyond the place where the last trees were tlirown 

 down or wrenched off, the Avood bore no sign of 

 having suffered fi-om even a moderate gale. As 

 it may be supposed impossible that a whirlwind, 

 proceeding with a violence sufficient to uproot the 

 strongest trees of the forest, should stop at once so 

 completely as not to leave a fallen bough or leaf 

 to mark its further progress, the conclusion seems 

 irresistible that -it ascended suddenly from the 



earth, rose above the tops of the wood, and spent 

 its remaining fuiy in the upper air. Might we 

 not suppose that it had formed an inverted cone, 

 cornpressed and flattened at the bottom, or rather 

 a frustrum of a cone, generating, by a gradual 

 but irregular upward expansion of its axis, a true 

 cone, until its apex being completely formed, its 

 attraction to the earth was overcome, and it rose 

 suddenly into the upper regions of the atmosphere? 

 I am the more led to this supposition from having 

 observed the little whirlwinds so frecjuent in our 

 hot summer days, which, after raising dust, straws, 

 feathers, and other light substances from the earth, 

 cease to mark their further progress upon the 

 ground, but continue to whirl about the articles 

 already coUected, till their strength is dissipated, 

 sometimes at a considerable height in the air. 

 The point at which I consider the whirlwind to 

 have ascejided, is about a mile £md a half south of 

 James River, and the same distance west of Pow- 

 ell's Creek. 



You will have obseived, that I speak only of eo 

 much of this awful visitation as fell under my own 

 view; but when we reflect that this scourge pursued 

 a course of about seventy miles, the aggregate 

 amount of its havoc must have been immense. 

 I have heard the damage in this county alone, in 

 houses and timber, estimated at various very 

 large sums; but as these estimates do not seem to 

 me to have been founded upon any very accurate 

 data, I forbear to repeat them. Yet amidst all this 

 loss and suffering, it is a consoling recollection, that 

 whde numbers of beings were exposed to this im- 

 minent, and, to' them, inevitable danger, the hand 

 of Providence has-been so careful of human life 

 that we have heard of the deaths of not more 

 tlian ten persons. h. 



Prince George, llih May, 1834. 



ON THE CULTIVATION OF POTATOES. 

 Addressed to Daniel P. Curtis, Esq. and communicated for pub- 

 lication in the Farmers' Register. 



Pleasant Point, irarwick county, > 

 - 3Iarch 12, 1834. 5 

 Dear Sir : 



I promised you, some time since, to give an 

 account of my mode of cultivation, and preserva- 

 tion of the Irish Potato (solanum tuberosum) — 

 but, really, the duties of a country physician are 

 so very arduous, that the time has not been my 

 own, or the promise would have been redeemed 

 long since. That one who has been engaged in 

 agricultural pursuits only eight years, should give 

 a useful dissertation on many subjects therewith 

 connected, is not to be anticipated; but crude and 

 iiTegular ideas may lead others, more experienced, 

 to continue the subject to advantage; at least to 

 those like situated v/ith myself, who are compelled 

 to cultivate poor land. Without further remark, 

 I will proceed to give you the history and cultiva- 

 tion of tlie Irish potato. This species of solanum 

 is properly a native of Peru, and may in truth be 

 said to be the most nutritious of all the species, 

 and I am confident there is none more ]iroductive, 

 or more easily cultivated. Doctor Baldwin, late 

 surgeon of the United States Frigate Congress, 

 found this vegetable growing abundantly on the 

 north side of the Rio de la Plata, in wild, unculti- 

 vated situations, and entirely unknoAvn to the in- 

 habitants. He also informs us of its being found 



