302 



POTATO EOT. 



Wilder, will preside, and that Everett, Choate, 

 WiNTHROP, witli other eminent gentlemen from 

 other States, are expected to address tlie assem- 

 blage, you will with reason anticipate an unusual 

 treat for the physical and mental man. 



" I am on the point of departing for the Vermont 

 and New Ilarapshiro State Shows, and this fact 

 will account for the insufficiency of my reply to 

 your querie3, and for the haste with which I sub- 

 scribe myeelf. Yours, truly, 



William S. King." 



The New Yorh State Fair is to be held at Elmira, 

 on the 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th, of October. The citi- 

 zens of Elmira are making vigorous preparations, 

 and we confidently anticipate that this will be one 

 of the most saccessful exhibitions ever held. 



The following are the State Fairs yet to be held : 



Hichigajl Detroit October 2 — 5. 



Missouri Brownville " 2 — 5. 



Tenneseee Nashville " 2 — 6. 



Wisconsiji Milwaukie... " 3 — .5. 



niinoia Chicago 



Connecticut Hartford 



Canada West Cobourg 



Iowa Fairfield 



North Carolina-, Ralicgh 



Indiana lodiaoapolLs 



Alabama Montgomery 



Maryland Baltimore 



9—11. 

 " 9—11. 

 ' 9—12. 

 ' 10—12. 

 ' 16—18. 

 ' 17—19 

 '■ 23—26. 

 ' 30-NOV.2. 



THE POTATO EOT. 



The fact is not to be disguised, that in this sec- 

 tion of the Country we are again visited with the 

 Potato Rot — not in a mild and modified form, but 

 in all its former .strength and destructiveness. In 

 the latter part of July, in digging early potatoes, 

 we noticed what we considered unmistakable signs 

 of this disease. We had then heard no complaints 

 on the subject. During August, we examined tlie 

 potato fields in all this section, and saw, we 

 thought, evidences of the onward march of the 

 destroyer. About the 20th of tliis month, we 

 wrote a short note on the subject, which appeared 

 in the September number of the Farmer. It was 

 gimply this : " Unless we very much mistake the 

 signs, we are again to ie troxibled with the Potato 

 Hot:' 



The subject soon attracted the attention of the 

 newspapers, and, as a consequence, the price went 

 up in the New York market. The city editors, 

 however, assured their readers that it was all a 

 hnmbug got up by speculators ; and prices again 

 declined. We have no interest in raising or lower- 

 ing the price of potatoes, but we say, advisedly, not 

 two-thirds of a crop will be saved in this section of 

 the country, and we should not be surprized if the 

 loss was far more serious. Potatoes here are 

 now about thirty cents per bushel. Farmers are 



digging those most affected, and are rushing them 

 into market. Those who have sound potatoes had 

 better keep them a time, until they see the effects 

 of the disease. 



The following article by W. S. Pctrdy, of Brad- 

 ford, Steuben Co., N. Y., we find in the Rural 

 JYetv Yorker of September 22d : 



"The potato rot is making fearful ravages in this 

 locality. At least one-fourth of the crop is already 

 destroyed. As a preventive, I am decidedly of the 

 opinion that your correspondent, Amert Wilson, of 

 Marcelhis, is correct in recommending early digging 

 and thorough drying in the sun. The first experi- 

 ence I had with tlie disease was in the fall of 1844. 

 It commenced in about the same manner as tliis 

 year. I dug my potatoes the middle of September. 

 Thej' were about one-fourth rotten in the hill. I 

 let them dry in the sun, and drew them to the barn 

 and spread them upon the floor 18 to 20 inches 

 deep ; opened the lai'ge doors every morning and 

 closed tliem every evening, and every day or two 

 gave them a thoroiii;]! stirring. The result was, not 

 a potato comraciicod rotting after digging. They 

 were kept in the barn until the cold weather com- 

 pelled me to remove them to the cellar. I then 

 put them in bins, elevated about six Indies from the 

 bottom of tlio cellar, and I never had finer potatoes, 

 or had them kept better. My barn faced to the 

 south, and the sun shone in upon them four or five 

 hours every clear day. A great many of them be- 

 came green, and consequently I supposed they were 

 strong and unfit for eating, but to my surprise after 

 they had been in the cellar a few days, the green 

 ones were as sweet and palatable as the others, and 

 some who used them thought them more so. 



"My neighbor, whose field of potatoes was only 

 separated from mine by the road, allowed his to re- 

 main in the ground for nearly four weeks after mine 

 were dug. He then dug his and put them immedi- 

 ately in the cellar, and buried tliem. The result 

 was that by the first of January, his potatoes were 

 all rotten, and he had to depend upon me for pota- 

 toes for table use and for seeding in the spring. 



" I have pursued a similar course to that above 

 described whenever I have observed the rot among 

 my potatoes, and with the like result. I called on 

 a friend yes'terday in the town of Orange, the next 

 town east of this in Schuyler county, and found him 

 digging his potatoes. His common or mixed variety 

 were about one-fourth rotten. He had two rows 

 of a new variety called the Bermuda potato, intro- 

 duced in this region by the Hon. A. B. Dickinson. 

 There were about one in twenty rotten. He had 

 two rows of a variety that were projiagated from 

 the ball or seed six years ago by Rufus Dow, of 

 the same town. They yield about one-thjrd more 

 than either of the others, and are very fine looking 

 potatoes — not a rotten one among them." 



To MARK Sheep, wirnonT injcry to the Wool. 

 — To thirty spoonfuls of linseed oil, add two ounces 

 of litharge and one ounce of lamp-black : unite 

 them together by boiling, and mark the sheep 

 therewith. 



