120 



GENESEE FARMER. 



May. 



ily. Among all the remedies whicli have been 

 tried, in addition to washes of soap suds, lye, 

 &c., the fumes of burning sulphur, and other 

 pungent gases, as ammonia, burnt leather and 

 the like, have proved most useful. These all 

 operate in the same way as stale urine and de- 

 caying manure under plum trees, (as mentioned 

 by Mr. Barrv in the last Farmer,) to keep oft 

 curculios. In this warm climate, insects are 

 more abundant and troublesome than at the north. 

 Every intelligent man should study their habits, 

 and aim to add a little to the common stock of 

 the public information in regard to protecting 

 the community from this great evil. 



^The best hedge that we have seen in the Uni- 

 ted States extends about a mile along the high- 

 way on a plantation of 3000 acres, near this city. 

 It is the Cherokee Rose, which is now in full 

 bloom, presenting a magnificent floral spectacle, 

 and filling the atmosphere with delicious perfume. 

 No animal without wings can get over, or through 

 it. Having stood forty or fifty years, it still prom- 

 ises a g<jod fence for a century to come. 



The owner and occupant of this splendid es- 

 tate, Mr. DeLaigle, was a St. Domingo p-lanter 

 at the time of the insurrection and dreadful mas- 

 sacre by the blacks, and was so fortunate as to 

 escape to the United States, 



i Cotton plants look beautifully, and the weather 

 ris auspicious ; but this crop has to- encounter 

 many hazards before it will come to maturity and 

 be gathered. To keepitclear of grass and weeds, 

 both negroes and mules have to start early in 

 the morning, and move lively much of the season. 



The Potato Rot. 



The Boston Courier contains a communica- 

 tion from Professor Horsford, of Cambridge, 

 giving the views of Baron Liebig, the cele- 

 brated chemist, and Dr. Klotsch, an eminent 

 vegetable physiologist, keeper of the Royal 

 Herbarium, in Berlin, on this baffling disease. 



The substance of Dr. Klotsch's discovery is annexed : 



In the ^th, Gth and 7th week after setling the tubers, and 

 in the 4th and 5th week after planting out germs furnished 

 with roots,, or at a time when tlie plants reach Itie heigl)t of 

 six to nine inches above the soil, we pinch off the extreme 

 points of the branches or twigs to the extent of lialf an inch 

 downwards, and repeat this on every branch and twig in 

 the 10th and 11th week, no matter what time of day. 



The consequence of this check to the development of the 

 stem and branches, is a stimulus to the nutritient matters 

 in the plants in the direction of the increase, both of roots 

 and of the multiplication of the branches of the stem above 

 ground, which not only favors the power of the root, but 

 also strengthens the leaves and stalks to such a degree, 

 that the matters prepared by the physiological action of 

 these parts are increased and applied to the formation of 

 tubers. The checking of the transformation in the leaf is 

 equivalent to the interruption of the natural change of the 

 leaves into calyces, coralla, stamens and pistils, which is 

 efifected at the expense of the nuJritient matter collected in 

 the plant : and these, when this modification c-f the leave.'^ 

 is arrested, are turned to account in the formation of tubers. 



Led by these views, I made, in [846, experiments on 

 single potato plants, carefully marked, by pinching off the 

 ends of tlie branches. They were so readily distinguished, 

 in their subsequent growth, from the plants beside them, 

 by more numerous branches, larger and darker foilage, that, 

 in truth, no marking was necessary. 



The produce from these plants of tubers was abundant, 



and the tubers were perfectly healthy — while the plant.? 



next them, which had not been so treated, gave uniformly 



a less produce, at the same timethe tubers were rough on the 



surface, and in many instances attacked with the prevailing 



disease. This experiment was incomplete, and did not give 



a positive result, but it was not yet encouraging for mc. 



Ill In the middle of April, 1847, an experiment was made OD 



l:^eaches, tigs, and grapes are thought to be I a low lying fie'd with the round white potatoes, generally 



beyond the reach of late frosts, which sometimes | cultivated here— a variety which had not suffered much 



dp^trov them in the Southern States The cul- ^'■°'" "''^ '^'',''^'® T-'^'i' ''''' =}PPP''i>'ed in 1845. The pota- 

 aesiro} mem in lue oouiiiern oidieb. j. ut, cm ; ,05, „,ere planted in the usual way by an experienced hand. 



ture of these valuable fruits will one day be of After weeding them in the end of May. I renewed my 



imrnense account in this mild climate. Enter- experiment by pinching off the point-s of the branches of 



. . , J- 1 -1 every second row, and repeated this in the end of June. — 



prising gardeners are now sending by railway U,>he result surpassed all expectations. The stalks of the 



and steamers, screen peas to northern cities. Our 1 plants not ireai 



peaches will be in New*York, Albany, and Bos- 

 ton, at least three weeks before those from New 

 Jersey. The same steamboats which bring Mas- 

 sachusetts ice to this city, take back southern lux- 

 uries in payment. This coasting trade is yet in 

 its feeble infancy. 



There is a great lack of competition in steam- 

 ships. It is but 700 miles from Charleston to 

 New York — while the fare between the two cit- 

 ies is three times as high as it is between Buffalo 

 and Chicago, a distance of 1050 miles by water. 

 Continuous railroads from Savannah and Charles- 

 ton to Nashville in Tennessee, and thence to 

 Louisville, will soon alter the complexion of 

 steam navigation on the Atlantic, between the 

 northern and southern cities of the Union. — 

 Cheap travelling and greater intercourse are ne- 

 cessary to remove sectional pi-ejudices, and make 

 us one in feeling and .sentiment, as we are one 

 in language, religion, government, and interest. 



Augusta, Ga., April, 1848. 



plants not treated on my plan were long, straggling, and 

 sparingly furnished with leaves, the leaves themselves- 

 small and pale and green. 



In the next field, potatoes of the same variety were plan- 

 ted on the same day, and left to nature. They appeared iii' 

 the first six weeks healthy, even strong, but gradually ac- 

 quired a poor aspect as the lime of flowering and fruit- ap- 

 proached, and finally exhibited precisely the same appear- 

 ances as the rows not treated by pinching off the extremities, 

 in the field in which my experiments were made. 



The harvest began in the surrounding fields in the month 

 of August, and was very middling. The tubers were 

 throughout smaller tlian usual, very scabby, and within 

 these fields, to a small extent attacked by the wet rot. 



In the end of Augu.«t, the difference between the rowa 

 treated by me an:! iiiose not treated became so striking, 

 that it astonished all the work people in the neighborhood, 

 who were never tired of inquiring the cause. On the 

 contrary, the rows treated as above were luxuriant and in 

 full vigor, the plants bushy, the foliage thick, the leaves 

 large and dark green, so thc-t most people supposed they 

 had been later planted. 



But the diffi-rence in the tubers was also very decided. 

 The tubers in the plants in the rows treated on my plan 

 were not indeed larger, but vastly more numerous, and they 

 were neither scabby or affected with any disease whatever. 

 — .\ few Imd pushed, (which was a.scribed to a late rain,) 

 and were, apparently, incompletely developed, while scab 

 and wet rot attacked more and more the tubers of other 

 plants which also fell off on tlie slightest handling. 



