&l)C im-mcr's iHontljIn tlxflitor. 



75 



eel almost iiiiiiucii ii|iu-il continuance of good 

 health, up to this time. 



I hare henrd several gentlemen fiom the 

 northern States who have visited this pari of 

 Virginia, express fears, that the working farmer 

 and mechanic, together with llieir wives and 

 daughters, would be considered as holding u 

 lower position in society than they had been ac- 

 customed in their own States, and lie so treated 

 hy the native Virginians; but from my personal 

 observation and experience, these fears do the 

 lailits and gentlemen of the Old Dominion injus- 

 tice. ; for t be industrious, intelligent, and respec- 

 table working farmer or mechanic, is sine lo 

 meet with a cordial and hearty welcome from 

 every Virginian whose favorable opinion is 

 worth having. 



A. NICOL. 



Samly Point, Charles City, Va., > 

 March 7, 18«. \ 



The Potato Rot. 



liny. Isaac IIii.i.— Dear Sir: As the potato 

 rot (so called) has occupied a vast amount of 

 thought, time and talent of the whole civilized 

 world for the past four years: and as all that has 

 yet been sard or written about it has been of but 

 little avail to any one, according to my way of 

 thinking, I thought 1 would write yon no experi- 

 mental or theoretical probabilities, hut a plain 

 statement of facts, which have happened lo a 

 small farmer down in the State of Maine. 



In 1843, I planted one acre of potatoes just as 

 1 was learned to do by n.y honored father, and 

 always up to that year I bad been blessed with a 

 good crop. But in the fall of 1843, — lo and he- 

 boid!— with the exception of one row, my pota- 

 toes were not worth the digging; and as i 

 thought there were men who knew more than 1 

 did, 1 spent much of the following winter in 

 reading, thinking and compaiing all that had 

 been said about the rot. In the spring my mind 

 was like the tempestuous ocean, settled upon no 

 one thing ; and as it is work or starve here 

 with us — life or death was set before me — 1 be- 

 gan lo look around myself It is said that "ne- 

 cessity is the mother of invention," and I 

 thought the Giver of all had spared me one good 

 row. And why was that? I examined the field 

 anil ascertained it was upon the top of a ridge, 

 where two furrows in the former year had been 

 turned together by ploughing. And then I had 

 put the plough to the beam, not less than ten 

 inches; 



Iu 1844, I spread my manure on the grass 

 land early in May, ploughed ten inches deep, 

 harrowed, dragged a chain and planted May 

 10th. In the fall had 200 bushels good, round, 

 bard, mealy potatoes. In the spring of 1845-6 

 anil 7, I have pursued the same course with the 

 same results; and at this time, 1 have in my cel- 

 lar, potatoes I should be proud to set before any 

 ex-Governor of a neighboring State, should busi- 

 ness or pleasure call him this way. My brother 

 farmers who happen at my house at meal time 

 enquire bow 1 raise such good potatoes; I tell 

 them I do not know, as all I have done has been 

 very simple. If our fanners will manure a dry 

 piece of land, plough deep, barrow, (bag a 

 chain and plant from the 20th of April In the 

 lOlh of May, and if they do not have a reasonable 

 quantity of good potatoes, all I have to say is, it 

 is contrary to my experience. 



One tiling 1 wish to censure our funnels for — 

 when any of us happen at their bouses at dinner 

 time, we do not get an invitation to dine with 

 them as often and as general as we ought, I 

 think it mainly proceeds from a false delicacy of 

 the ladies; saying they "did not expect compa- 

 ny " — " we are not prepared " — " it is not good 



enough," &c. If my wile wishes me to make a 

 dinner on poorer food than she is willing my 

 neighbor should eat, I want them to know it, anil 

 I will always invite them to stop and see. I am 

 not in the habit of writing for the papers, but if 

 you ran get one idea from the foregoing worth 

 preserving, and will knock oft' the knots and trim 

 this up " lit to see company," you are at liberty so 

 to do. 



1 am respectfully, &C. 



ELIJAH WOOD, Jr. 



Palmyra, Me., April 13, 1848. 



In connection with the above we insert the 

 following: — 



From the Ohio Cultivator. 

 HOW TO RAISE GOOD POTATOES. 



My object for writing at this time is to give you 

 a method for growing potatoes Iree from the rot. 

 I have practised it for two seasons with en fire 

 success, and now have tiUO bushels of fine Mer- 

 cer potatoes in my cellar, all lice from the dis- 

 ease. 



My method is to plough the ground late in the 

 fall or early in the spring, harrow it smoothly 

 before planting time, then haul out say 15 tons 

 rotted manure, spread it broadcast, then lake two 

 horses and a plough, and hack up two full fur- 

 rows, the ftirrows just meeting in the backing; 

 leave a strip one foot wide, and back two more 

 — anil so continue until yon have completed the 

 lot. Then turn about and split these double fur- 

 rows open with a single furrow, then commence 

 dropping your potatoes (pieces of cut potatoes, 

 containing at least four eyes) in the furrows six 

 inches apart. Alter the lot is dropped take your 

 horses and throw two good furrows — (one round 

 of the team to the row) — just making on the top, 

 clearing the row of stones, clods, &c. ; then sow 

 broadcast five bushels common salt over the 

 ground immediately after planting ; cultivate 

 well till the plants are iu blossom and yon will 

 have a good crop; never cultivate potatoes when 

 in blossom. 



When the crop is ready to gather clear the 

 ground, lake your two horses and plough, turn a 

 furrow from each side of [he row ; let a boy pick 

 up ihe scattering potatoes, then turn out the row, 

 pick up the potatoes, then hoe down the ridge — 

 lastly harrow over the ground, pick up the re- 

 maining potatoes, and the work is finished. The 

 agriculturalist must observe that hy this process 

 lie gets a broad loose bed for the potatoes to 

 grow in, also a double depth of soil ; then you 

 are certain of good dry potatoes. I would here 

 observe, that potato ground is the very best for 

 producing a good crop of wheat; anil I would 

 advise farmers to grow a greater surplus of this 

 most valuable root. If there is no i»iarket, store 

 them, and feed to your horses, cattle, and hogs; 

 feed them iu your stable through die winter, 

 give your stock good bedding; clean out your 

 stables once a week ; make as large a manure 

 heap as possible; and you will not be troubled 

 with ihe potato disease, nor that worse malady, 

 arising from always taking out of the meal 

 lub and never returning any; you will thus 

 not come to the bottom. 

 Respectfully, 



T. A. DENROMANDIE. 



Columbia county, Ohio. 



The Progress of the Glaciers. 



The following extract gives a melancholy pic- 

 ture of the gradual enlargement and extension 

 of the Glaciers, an enemy by which — however 

 slowly and silently— the fertile vallics of the 

 Alps in Switzerland, would seem destined, ulti- 

 mately, to be overwhelmed and lost to man ; it 

 is from the "Switzerland in 1817," of Theodore 

 Mugge, recently translated from the German, 

 and published iu England: — 



" In travelling through the Kander Valley, I 

 had ihe company of a pleasant, intelligent man, 

 a Pastor, who, in spite of rain and wind, gavo 

 me a great deal of information respecting the 

 mode of life of the people of bis parish, as well 

 as concerning ihe Mountains around, with which 

 he appeared thoroughly acquainted. 



" He confirmed the account that I have invaria- 

 bly heard from ihe inhabitants of the country, 

 that the glaciers and masses of ice on the Alps, 

 are constantly increasing, and the pasture land 

 diminishing in the same proportion. Many a 

 valley he was himself acquainted with, which in 

 the last century fed large herds of cattle, where 

 now scarcely a single head can pick up a scanty 

 subsistence. Thus, for instance, the Gaster Val- 

 ley a hundred years ago afforded pasture for six 

 hundred cows, during the summer ; fifty years 

 ago, about half that number could find food; 

 now it will barely support seventy. 



" This same complaint I heard repeated in 

 many different quarters, by the herdsmen on the 

 Em ka and in the Grisons. The ice and snow 

 are continually augmenting, the glaciers are 

 pressing down more and more into the rallies, 

 and filling them up; the temperature is sinking, 

 the soil deteriorating and growing marshy. 



" What can be the cause of this alarming 

 change ? Are the Alps rising higher, forced up- 

 wards by some powerful action of subterranean 

 fire, a cause that is conceivable with the chalk 

 formations? or does the alteration of climate 

 proceed from accidental causes ol a temporary 

 nature? This much is certain, that where large 

 trees once grew, no tree will grow now ; and 

 that large roots are found beneath what is now 

 everlasting snow. In some vallics, where the 

 mountain sides are clothed with firs, they are 

 evidently dying away, and no art can make a 

 young plantation prosper. In the I'sern Valley, 

 the few pines left by Snwarrow remain, but they 

 do not increase; and in descending from the 

 Weugner Alp, at the foot of the Jiingfraii, to the 

 Griudewalde, you see. tg the left, a iiunil er of 

 dying pines, whose blackened branches have as 

 spectral an appearance as those on the Alienford, 

 in Norway, beyond the polni circle. On the 

 Wengner Alp itself attempts have been made 

 for years to encourage ihe growth of trees — but 

 they cannot succeed ; and it is not till three or 

 four hundred feet lower that they flourish in 

 luxuriant vigor." 



Winter Squash. — Mr. Samuel O. Tabor of 

 Slatersville, K. I , gives us the result of ihe pro- 

 duct of a piece of ground, 40 by 50 feet in ex- 

 tent, devoted to winter squashes. The yield was 

 700 pounds, of which (i70 pounds wen' sold for 

 §10. The product was at the rate of 15,000 lbs. 

 per acre, and at the [nice for which the above 

 portion was sold, would he worth $23731. The 

 soil is described as "yellow loam" — the manure 

 from hog-yard. The squashes were of the 

 striped crook-necked variety, and were planted 

 in hills six feet apart. — Albany Cultivator. 



Keeping Bkef fresh. — In preserving beefi 

 the ribs will keep longest, or five or six days in 

 summer; the middle of ihe loin next; the rump 

 next; the round next; and the shortest of all 

 the brisket, which will not keep longer than 

 three days in hot weather. — Combe. 



Insects abont Fruit Trees. 



It is of the greatest importance that all insects 

 about fruit trees should be destroyed. This de- 

 sirable end is effected in a variety of ways, one 

 of which I will mention. As soon as your trees 

 begin to cast their fruit, turn in your swine — no 

 matter how many, if your orchard is of conside- 

 rable size, and permit iheiu to remain there till 

 the fruit attains its maximum size. By examina- 

 tion you will find that almost invariably every 

 apple, pear, or oilier fruit that falls pren aturely, 

 contains one or more worms. These, [he hogs 

 will destiny, and thus prevent injury from the 

 same source in succeeding years. When: ibis 

 method cannot he adopted, all the fruit that drops 

 early from I lie boughs, should be carefully and 

 frequently picked up, and fed to the swine in 

 their styes. Lime and ashes, applied In consid- 

 erable quantities, operate both as a stimulant to 

 the trees, and as n remedial agent in checking 

 the ravages of the rurculios and other itisective- 

 rons depredators. Salt, also, in small quantities, 

 is decidedly beneficial to most plants, and many 

 are benefitted by it when the quantity applied is 

 large. 



'• By experiments which 1 have recently made 

 wiih sab," writes a friend long distinguished for 

 bis enterprise and intelligence iu the pursuit of 



