146 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



from sliding', and lift at the nose of the boat with a 

 lever us the team starts. 



Perhaps a quarter of the stones ouglit to be small 

 ones, to make a stronsa: wall. Provide plenty of tim- 

 ber for stieks; if the wall is 28 inches at the bottom, 

 cut it 24, 21, 18, 16 and 14 inches, and of the longest 

 kinds the most, and let the wall-layer split them to 

 suit himself. I like best to lay wall by a frame. 

 Take a piece of scantling about 28 inches long for 

 the bottom, two strips of board 4 or 5 inches wide 

 and 5 feet long for the sides, a piece from 8 to 12 

 inches long and 4 or 5 wide I'or the top, and nail to- 

 gether — fasten to a stake back of it, and have a plumb 

 to show when it is perpendicular. The plumb may 

 be a stone ; or take a brass knob made for an ox's 

 horn, run a wire down through the middle, and fill 

 with lead ; or set a small egg shell in ashes or sand, 

 put in little pieces of iron or other heavy stuff, and 

 till with melted lead. Set the frame from 1| to 2 

 rods from the wall already laid ; fa^steu one end of 

 your line ti a tapering stick stuck into the wall, and 

 run it around the frame and fasten at the other side 

 of the wall, as before. When you get near the top, 

 run a line from the top of the frame to the top of the 

 wall; and if you pay any attention to your lines, you 

 may have a good shaped, true, perpendicular wall. 



You may put your woi-st stones into the bottom 

 of the wall; but above the lower tier, till you get up 

 2 J or 3 feet, make strong work, if in your povvcr — using 

 plenty of sticks, and don't be afraid of their rotting, 

 if they are good timber. I once laid over some half 

 wall built 18 years before, and part of the sticks in it 

 were Chestnut cut from an old rail fence that for- 

 merly stood there, about half of which I put in again. 

 Esquire Rice, the builder of the former wall, said he 

 thought Basswood would last 50 years. I have not 

 the least objection, however, to making tlie fence so 

 it will stand good after the stieks rot ; much of it 

 ought to do so. Eveiy tier of stone may have a tier 

 of sticks, 1 or 2 feet apart, split IJ to 3 inches wide, 

 and a quarter to a half an inch thick. The longest 

 sticks should be the largest, and all may vary in shape 

 to fit difterent places. I insist on breaking joints in 

 the middle of the wall, as well as at the sides, as on 

 the inside work mainly depends its strength, especially 

 near the bottom, where it generally commences falling. 

 Many stones ought to reach well into the center. 

 Don't make a weak spot without knowing it, or fas- 

 tening it well with good stones, sticks, &c. At the 

 poorest spots I seldom hesitate what kind of stones 

 to get next, and at the best spots never ; the poorest 

 I see, unless they are too poor, I leave for a ditch or 

 other place for poor stone. Leave plenty of stones, 

 if they are not needed at the bottom, that will reach 

 across at the top, as they will add strength to the wall 

 and facilitate the laying. I like to see large chunked 

 stones on top. New beginners often have the sticks 

 too long for the ])lace they put them in. They may, 

 as a general thing, be so short as not to catch the rain. 



A man of suitable turn to make wall, with his mind 

 intent on the l)usiness. Mill devise more and better 

 ways to strengthen it than I can tell him. Don't turn 

 the face side out, unless it will lie just as well so; 

 the handsomest wall is that which stands up straight. 

 The cheapest way to add to the beauty, is !o have it 

 pretty level on the top, if you do net get aome of it 



too low. Flat stones, or those lying firm and having 

 a good shaped top, laid skillfully in the middle, adds 

 nnich to the strength of a wall. If tied on 1 or 2 

 inches to a side stone, either below or above, es- 

 pecially if there be much weight on them, and the 

 grip be a fair one, they will not easily get loose. 

 Hannibal, N. Y. John Watson. 



THE POTATO — ITS DETERIORATION 

 AND IMPROVEMENT. 



Mr. Editor: — I have been a tolerably close ob- 

 server of that esculent vegetable, the potato, culti- 

 vating it with gi'eat success, notwithstanding the curl 

 rot, or malady, as it is called. Since I have ascer- 

 tainen the fact of the potato being a mountain plant, 

 I have looked as far back as 184G, and have since 

 that period cultivated it on upland, and it may be 

 from that source that I owe part of my success.^ 



There are four principal reasons which my expe- 

 rience tells me are the causes of the decay of tha 

 potato. They are — ^^rs<, late planting; seeond, c\)i- 

 ting sets ; third, ravages of insects ; fourth, thick or 

 close planting. 



First. I usually plant as soon as the gi-ound is suf- 

 ficiently dry to plow. In so doing I think they have 

 the benefit of that cool moisture incidental to the 

 fii'st part of the season, which is conducive to the 

 growth of potatoes, thereby enabling them to come 

 to a great state of maturity before the extreme heat 

 in the latter jiart of the summer. Two years ago I 

 planted my potatoes in April, and at harvesting I 

 had no rotten ones ; and on the 3d of J une of the 

 same year I let a neighbor have some of the saiuc 

 sort of seed which I had planted, and he planted 

 them, but in a short time after he harvested them 

 they nearly all rotted. I have observed this hi many 

 other instances. 



Second. I never cut my sets, except when I d<:> 

 it to try experiments, as I beUeve they loose much of 

 their juice and vitality. Last year I planted sixty-six 

 hills with uncut sets of medium size. I then ctt 

 some large ones through the middle, dropping tl' ; 

 seed ends in one pile and the stem ends in another, 

 and iDlanted sixty-six hills with sets of the stem cnd<. 

 and sixty-six hills with sets of the seed ends, aloni-- 

 side of the uncut sets. In harvesting, the uncut sein 

 had no affected tubers, while those from the stem eml.-j 

 had one gallon of afiected tubers, and those from tin' 

 seed ends had three-fourths of a bushel of aflecu! 

 ones, and the former yielded a bushel and a half m( r. 

 than the latter. 



Third. There are two kinds of insects worthy nf 

 notice. One is a small black bug about the size of tlie 

 Ilea,' that jumps very much like thal^ insect when iqi- 

 proached, which gnaws the cuticle off the leaves auil 

 youBig shoots ; it also works on cabbage, turnij/ ^ 

 radishes and peppergrass. The other is a large \ i> 

 riety, growing from a half to three-fourths of an inch 

 long; some of them are of a dusky-brown hue, Mhiie 

 others are brown, striped with yellow. They were s-* 

 numerous here three years ago that they devounul 

 the leaves of my potatoes, beets, beans, and many 

 other vegetaliles; they then traveled off to the wooil- 

 land, falling aboard of vegetation there, and devouring 

 it hke so many herbiverous animals. My potatoea \ 



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