1853. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



469 



a noble pride in all that pertains to hia occupa- 

 tion ; and if he continues the same course of fann- 

 ing, I confidently predict that his will be the model 

 farm of the eastern part of Maine. Veritas. 

 Boston, Aug. 22d, 1853. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 POTATO DISEASE. 



To THE Editor of the Farmer : — You and your 

 readers must be heartily tired of seeing the above 

 caption. Among the hundred certain remedies 

 which have been prescribed, I believe all have 

 proved failures. I will state facts, and leave all 

 to make their own conclusions. 



It was first noticed here generally in 1845. In 

 other portions of the State it had before been se- 

 vere. That year the disease attacked them after 

 fully grown and ripe. Had it been understood, 

 most of the crop might have been saved ; while, 

 without any knowledge, nearly all were lost. All 

 sorts of experiments, as mixing lime, &c. with 

 them, were tried without success. The spring 

 following I carried from va^ cellar more than one 

 hundred bushels, and spread them on less than 

 ten square rods of ground — soil, a secondary for- 

 mation of coarse gravel — one mile from, and two 

 hundred and fifty feet above the Lake, (precisely 

 the same soil as they grew in.) They were spaded 

 in, and having some parts not wholly decayed, 

 they grew ; were thinned and cultivated, producing, 

 some twenty bushels ; were dug late in the fall ; 

 put on the bottom of a warm, damp cellar, with 

 others above them ; taken out in May following 

 perfectly sound. 



Does any one want stronger proof Jhat the dis- 

 ease is n'ot in the potato or the soil 1 



Another season I had given special directions 

 to my farmer to keep close watch of his potatoes, 

 and should they be struck with blight to pull the 

 whole at once, leaving them in the bill as they 

 grew. I was absent some weeks, and instead of 

 watching the tops, he daily pulled a few hills in 

 the wettest part of the field for a week, and find- 

 ing all sound, neglected it. He soon after found 

 they were rotting badly. The hills pulled, (about 

 100,) scattered through the lower part of the 

 field, were found perfectly sound, and the others 

 near them entirely worthless. 



Some three or four years since, I noticed the 

 disease had just appeared when potatoes were 

 ripe, but tops perfectly green. Knowing a widow 

 lady who had planted an acre and had a large 

 crop, (more than throe hundred bushels,) I imme- 

 diately called on her ; found the whole struck 

 witlf^fclight where, one day previous, to my cer- 

 tain knowledge, there was no symptom of it. I 

 told her to have the whole pulled immediately, 

 which was done within six hours. They were dug 

 during the following week, spread in dry places, 

 and the whole saved in good order. One row, 

 left for an experiment to satisfy her father, (an 

 old gentleman of more than seventy years of age,) 

 accidentally present, in ten days were perfectly 

 rotten in the hills. 



A favorite theory has been that the potato has 

 Rux OCT, and that we must produce new ones from 

 seed. Facts have shown that the new sorts have 

 been most liable to rot. Have not experiments 

 and facts fully demonstrated that the disease is 

 atmospheric, and that no precautions can produce 



any eflFect further than they change atmospheric 

 influence ? Also, that after the potato is grown 

 and ripe before struck with disease, if they are 

 promptly attended to by pulling or cutting the 

 tops on its first appearance, the entire crop may 

 be saved, when a few day's delay may cause a 

 total loss. C. Goodrich. 



Burlington, Vt., Aug. 13, 1853. 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE NEW HAMP- 

 SHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



A volume has recently appeared from the press 

 of Butterfield & Hill, Concord, N. H., that de- 

 serves more than a passing notice. The typo- 

 graphic and artistic execution are highly creditable 

 to the press from which it has issued, and to the 

 taste of the committee who had the oversight of 

 its publication. This volume contains the trans- 

 actions of the State Agricultural Society, for the 

 three years of its existence, and although it does 

 not equal in size the more ponderous tomes of some 

 other States, yet we look upon it with much inter- 

 est, as the commencement of a series of publica- 

 tions that are destined to take an honorable place 

 in the agricultural literature of the country, and 

 to exert an important influence upon the prosper- 

 ity of the granite State. New Hampshire has a 

 hard soil, which is more remarkable for the pro- 

 duction of noblemen, than of luxuriant vegetation. 

 Its early settlers were principally employed in 

 lumbering, trading and fishing. But for two gen- 

 erations past, at the present time, and for all fu- 

 ture time, agriculture has been, is, and must be 

 the leading occupation of its inhabitants. We are 

 glad to see her people stimulated by the doings of 

 sister States, especially of Massachusetts and New 

 York, imitating their example and walking in their 

 steps. Years ago they took them for their 

 pattern, in the matter of education, and now, in a 

 similar spirit, they are taking hold of the work of 

 agriculture. Although a majority of her legisla- 

 tors have ever been farmers, and all of them have 

 been elected by inajorities of farmers, yet they have 

 ever extended a reluctant and parsimonious hand 

 to aid the most important interest of the State. 

 But although the government has done but little, 

 comparatively, a healthy public opinion has been 

 forming, individuals have been industriously at 

 work. Gov. Hill accomplished a good Avork through 

 the columns of his agricultural paper. A large 

 portion of the State is better suited to grazing than 

 to any other culture. Hence we should natural- 

 ly expect her people to be greatly interested in the 

 raising and improvement of stock, and much has 

 in fact been done in this direction. The example 

 of New Hampshire's most eminent son upon his 

 farm in Franklin, as well as that of many of her 

 most intelligent citizens, has not been without in- 

 fluence. The products of the dairy have been 

 greatly improved within our own recollection, both 



