276 



GENESEE FARMER. 



Dec. 



Hints for December. 



Potatoes have turned out worse than any 

 body anticipated. Look out for your winter 

 stock ; overhaul, examine, and select, or the 

 whole bin will be a mass of putrefaction. The 

 first fair day open those that are buried, and see 

 if all is right. It is a good plan to leave a small 

 hole in the top of the heap where potatoes are 

 buried, and fill with a wisp of straw the size of 

 your arm, as a ventilator. Bagas and turneps 

 will not keep well without this precaution. 



Stable your cattle if possible. The saving in 

 manure will pay for the extra labor, and the 

 saving in quantity of food consumed is clear gain. 

 The animal system is like a cold room with a 

 stove — the colder the weather the more wood is 

 required. The greater degree of cold and ex 

 posure the animal undergoes, the greater quan 

 tity of food is required. The decomposition of 

 food and its recomposition into the various nutri- 

 ments required by the system, is the sole cause 

 of animal heat. 



Don't let you stock get poor by being left too 

 long to subsist on the dead and frost burnt pas- 

 tures ; a stern chase is a long chase, and it is an 

 unprofitable operation to have to lift cattle by the 

 tail all winter, that come into the yard poor. — 

 The cheapest way to mend this defect, is to give 

 each creature about two ears of corn per day, till 

 they recover their flesh. Sugar beets or carrots 

 are still better, particularly for milch cows. 



Store hogs will winter on ruta bagas, but 

 much better on the sugar beet. A greater amouut 

 of nutriment can be produced from an acre in 

 beets and carrots, and with less labor, than from 

 any other crop. One acre of good soil in roots 

 may be made to produce as much actual food, as 

 the general average of fifteen acres in hay. 



Push on your fatting hogs, and to assist them 

 to assimilate and convert their food quickly and 

 profitably, cook all their food, or their stomachs 

 will have to do it at your expence. Remember 

 that Indian corn makes fat only, while other food 

 makes more muscle or red flesh than oleaginous 

 matter. 



Blanket your horses with good sized articles, 

 well lined, with a breast strap and crupper, con- 

 fined by a surcingle. And don't stint them in 

 bedding. It is a comfort to the animal, absorbs 

 the urine, which is worth twelve times as much 

 as the solid droppings, and will add immensely 

 to the manure heap. Digestion is carried on 

 very slowly when the animal system is heavily 

 taxed with labor ; water often, but feed lightly 

 during the working hom-s ; let the principal feed 

 be given at evening when they have ease and 

 quietness to digest. 



Secure cellars and all situations exposed to 

 frost. Glaze all your windows and give the old 

 petticoats, hats, and sun-bannets to the poor, if 

 you have no better use for them. 



See that all the youngsters are at school, and 

 attend strictly to its duties. School houses are a 

 better fortification to defend the liberties of our 

 country, than all the walls and cannon of Quebec 

 or Vera Cruz. 



See also that the young people make a free use 

 of that valuable provision the Common School 

 Library ; and even my adult reader make a 

 proper use of them and other good books during 

 these long evenings yourself. 



Be mindful of the poor and suffering, for those 

 that give to the poor leiid to the Lord ; and among 

 other good acts, don't fail to renew your sub- 

 scription to the Genesee Farmer. ^ 



Potato Rot. 



JIh. J. PiNNEO. of Hanover, N. H., writes to the editor of 



the Boston Cultivator that it had been remarked in that vi- 

 cinity that the potato rot did not affect the hills which were 

 planted in the immediate neighborhood of shade trees, 

 though all other parts of the game field were seriously affect- 

 ed with the rot. The inquiry is, how this can be explained? 

 The editor of the Cultivator seems to ihink that there is 

 no doubt that shade trees protect potatoes from the rot. He 

 says, " They save the potatoes from the extreme heat of 

 the sun, and they prevent dews from falling on them, thus 

 avoiding the extremes of heat and cold, which are doubtless 

 a principal cause of this malady, especially when the chang 

 es are sudden, and the plants are very tender from a luxu- 

 riant growth." 



If there is any virtue in shade to. protect the 

 potato from the rot, it might be well to try the 

 experiment of planting between corn hills, or 

 even every alternate row; although, from our 

 experience, we are not prepared to believe the 

 statement in full — for this year we planted two 

 orchards entirely with potatoes on fall plowed 

 green sward. The apple trees are medium size, 

 set 33 feet apart in one case, and in the other 

 the same with a peach tree between each. They 

 were planted on the 10th to 12th May ; they 

 made very little progress in setting tubers, owing 

 to the great drouth, till after the rains, first and 

 second week in August. They were harvested 

 and laid on a barn floor for three or four weeks 

 to dry. In assorting for table use and feeding, 

 about four-fifths of the Mercers had the rot, and 

 a few of the round pink eyes — but the flesh color 

 and merinoes were almost entirely free of the 

 disease. If there is any virtue in shade, this 

 crop had enough of it. The tops were entirely 

 dead nearly a month before any frost. 



Many close observers think there is no com- 

 munication of virus from the leaf and stem to 

 the tuber, but that the vine dies before the matu- 

 rity of the potato, and they rot as any other im- 

 mature vegetable production does. The Early 

 June, Kidney, and Ash Leaf, that ripen in July, 

 are not liable to this disease ; but they yield 

 only a small crop, and if left till the usual time 

 of digging they are apt to commence a second 

 growth — and if dug when ripe they do not eat 

 well, being kept exposed to the air during the 

 hot weather. L. Manly. 



Monroe County^ Nov., 1847. 



