1851. 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



141 



effectually answer the purpose intended, and save me 

 much anxiety, as well as trouble in having to visit 

 my tender vines -.wice a day to bug. 



The best watermelon I have ever seen, is the 

 Hanover, with white seed and red " meat,''' After 

 the vines commence rnnnin<r, the boxes can be re- 

 moved and packed away safely until another year. 

 No work is required after the first, second, or third 

 week, as it is disadvantageous to disturb the vines 

 after they have commenced running pretty freely, 

 being liable to be bruised or broken, and the ground 

 around the hills being barren gives entire freedom to 

 the vines to run, and the melons to ripen, without 

 being shaded or injured by weeds or other growth. 

 S. W.— Virginia, Jipril, 1851. 



A CHEAP STUMP MACHINE. 



Messrs. Editors. — I wish to know from you, or some of 

 your worthy correspondents, relative to a stump machine. 

 1 have sixty acres of what we Buckeyes call barrens, — the 

 growth of the timber on it is from one foot down to a small 

 twig. I wish to procure a machine that has sufficient power 

 to pull small stumps in a green state. Let me know through 

 your valuable paper the kind most suitable for small stumps, 

 the cost of the machine, and where it can be obtained. J. 

 S. Funk. — West Liberty, Logati Co., Ohio. 



In the April number we gave a description of a 

 stump machine. This however may be too cosily 

 and too difficult to obtain for genera! use. We now 

 give a plan of another, and one that can be made by 

 any farmer with the aid of a blacksmith. It was 

 published in this journal some years since, and many 

 of our subscribers have used it with advantaore. 



" There may be many of your readers living, like 

 myself, on farms not very heavily timbered originally, 

 and which have been cleared long enough for the 

 roots of the stumps to become considerably decayed, 

 to whom it would be some object to obtain a small, 

 cheap and simple stump machine, which would 

 answer th^ir purpose as well as one more costly. In 

 the sketch 1 is a round pole 10 inches long, 4 inches in 

 diameter at the largest end, which is well banded. 

 Into this is inserted a bar of iron 2 by 1\ inches, 

 drawn to half that size at the end inserted into the 

 pole, and 2 feet long. Near the end 

 of this, two notches are cut, a little 

 over 4J inches apart. In the mid- 

 dle between these, a hole is punched 

 and a link 6 inches long inserted, as 

 seen in Fig. 2, which represents 

 the bar, large hook to hitch under a 

 root of the stump, a link inserted in 

 each, and a connecting hook. The 

 links are made of round % inch 

 Swede's iron, the connecting hook 

 of 1 ^ do. ; the large hook of a bar 

 Fig. 2. of old sable iron 18 inches long, 



bent round edgewise* 3 is a frame consisting of two 

 oak planks 3 inches thick, 8 wide, and 7 feet long 



pinned together at the end through a piece of 4 inch 

 scantling, between the planks. There are two rows, 

 4^ inchesapart, of 1^ inch holes through these planks; 

 the holes being 3^ inches apart in the rows, from 

 center to center. The holes in the right hand row 

 are one inch lower than the opposite ones in the left. 

 Through these holes two iron bolts, as large as the 

 holes, are made to pass for the bar or lever to rest upon. 

 To use this machine,.il is set up as seen in the 

 figure ; 4 being a board for a brace, the lever placed 

 between the planks, the notches resting on the two 

 bolts, and the hook hitched under a root. Now ele- 

 vate the end of the lever, (vv'hich needs a short pole 

 attached by a ring to the end of a long one,) with- 

 draw the left hand bolt and raise it one hole higher ; 

 now depress the end of the lever and raise the right 

 hand bolt ; and so on as high as yQU wish. The cost 

 of the machine was $7 — iron $4, making $3. Any 

 blacksmith and carpenter can construct one. With 

 a team and sled and stone boat to draw the machine 

 about, I have seen two hands, on a lot that had been 

 cleared fourteen years, pull in a day from sixty to a 

 hundred stumps, mostly from ten to eighteen inches 

 in diameter. T. W. — Ontario Co., 1849. 



POTATOES. 



Potato Rot. — Last spring I planted several varie- 

 ties of potatoes, many of them mixed in the same 

 row and in the same hill ; soil rather moist, rich, 

 loamy, some parts sandy, clayey, &.C., and some with 

 decaying vegetable matter, as chips, fragments of 

 bark, grass, weeds. Sic, intermixed. Among the 

 varieties of potatoes were the Sardinias, or flesh col- 

 ored, the White and the Purple Pinkeyes, Mercers, 

 Large English Whites, and several others Of the 

 Purple Pinkeyes there appear to .be ^wo varieties — 

 the one resembling the Long White Pinkeyes, the 

 others more coarse and irregular in their appearance. 

 At the time of digging, several of these last were 

 affected "by the rot, (the dry rot chiefly,) and some 

 few of the others, more especially of those that grew 

 amidst the decaying vegetable matter. Most of the 

 coarser- variety of the Purple Pinkeyes, which at the 

 time of digging were apparently sound, have since 

 been destroyed by the same cause, the dry rot. 



Seedlings. — A few years ago I sowed some pota- 

 to seed, and the result not proving satisfactory, I 

 repeated the experiment last spring. The season 

 was cold and backward, and the plants did not come 

 forward till late. I then transplanted about a dozen 

 of them, which did very well, although they were 

 late, and were overtaken by the frost while yet green 

 and thrifty. I dug them, however, and found among 

 them four or five distinct varieties, though only two 

 or three appeared decidedly new. Some were long, 

 white, smooth, with shallow eyes ; others similar in 

 size and shape, and of a beautiful, though not deep, 

 red ; the largest over three inches long and three in 

 circumference ; others similar in color, but differing 

 in shape, the largest over three inches long and about 

 five in circumference, smooth, flattened or com- 

 pressed ; others white, round, deep-eyed ; and others 

 very pale flesh-colored ; fee. The greater part of 

 them were small. I have kept them in an open box 

 in a cool and tolerably dry cellar. On examining 

 them January 10th, I found a large number of them 

 affected with the dry rot. The kinds described above 

 are least affected. It is my intention to repeat the 

 experiment. H. — Doivn East, March, 1851. 



