20 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



SEEDLING POTATOES. 



Eds. Genesee Fakmek : — Having had some expe- 

 rience in tlie raising of potatoes from the ball seeds, 

 I will give it to the readers of the Farmer^ think- 

 ing it may be interesting to some. My first experi- 

 ment was in 1855, when I obtained a few balls from 

 the vines of Peach Blow, Leopards, and a variety 

 here called English Whites. The seeds were not fully 

 ripe, and only a few came up, ai>d the insects des- 

 troyed all but three of these. From these I ob- 

 tained three or four tubers, about as large as Mar- 

 rowfat peas. I kept them through the winter in a 

 small bag, buried in sand in the cellar. In the 

 spring, I planted them in rich ground in one hill. 

 When dug I found a pretty good yield, but rather 

 small, being from the size of a pea to a partridge 

 egg. The product of these I planted last spring, 

 and they yielded I think about nine or ten bushels 

 — rather a small yield. From their appearance, I 

 think there are three varieties, though there may 

 be four. Two varieties are nearly alike in appear- 

 ance. Of these three varieties, the largest and best 

 is long, round, dark colored, with deep eyes. It 

 yielded this year an enormous number of middling- 

 sized potatoes to each hill. It is an excellent vari- 

 ety to bake, though one end (the seed end) is rather 

 watery, as they were not ripe when the frost came. 

 The next best variety is a white, wnth deep eyes, 

 shape long and some knotty ; an early variety, 

 third variety is nearly white, but some of the 

 largest have a part of the eyes pink colored ; a 

 very handsome variety, but small, very late, and 

 very worthless for this section. This year I have 

 raised about forty potatoes, varying in size from a 

 pea to a dove's egg, mostly seedlings of number 

 three. They are so small I can not tell what, or 

 how many, varieties there are. 



Filcaini, St. Law. Co., N. Y, "W. H. H. PEARSON. 

 ^m-*-^^ 



Bermuda Potatoes. — I have just taken up a 

 small lot of potatoes, a note of which may not be 

 uninteresting to the readers of the Farmer. The 

 seed consisted of six medium sized potatoes, pre- 

 sented by a friend, who called them Bei'mudas. 

 They are of a red color, long and flat in shape. 

 Having cut them in pieces containing otip eye each 

 (72 in number), I planted about the middle of May, 

 in a light sandy soil, and manured in the row with 

 barn-yard manure, and top dressed with leached 

 ashes; horse-hoed twice and hand-hoed once a 

 ■Week, until they blossomed. The result is, two 

 and one-eighth bushels good sized potatoes. Allow- 

 ing each hill to be one foot apart, and rows three 

 feet, we have over four hundred and twenty -five 

 bushels to the acre. — J. O. H., Dillsburg, Oct. 1859. 



m I » 



Comparative Value of Fuel. — Several years 

 since Mr. Marctts Bull instituted a series of exper- 

 iments, in regard to the quantity of heat given out 

 by different kinds of fuel. The result was as follows : 



Hickory, 4 cords. 



White Oak, 4 3-4 " 



Hard Maple, 6 2-3 " 



Boft Maple, 7 1-5 " 



Pitch Pine, 9 1-7 " 



White Pine, 9 1-5 " 



Anthracite Coal, . . . • 4 tons. 



In other words four cords of hickory give out as 

 much heat as 4 tons of coal^ 6 3-4 cords of maple, 

 or 9 1-6 cords of pine. 



PBOPER FOEM AND SHAPE OF CATTLE. 



If there is one part of the frame, the form of 

 which, more than that of any other, renders the 

 animal valuable, it is the chest. There must be 

 room enough for the heart to beat, and the lungs 

 to play, or sufficient blood for the purposes of nutri- 

 ment and of strength will not be circulated ; nor 

 will it thoroughly undergo that vital change which 

 is essential to the proper discharge of every func- 

 tion. "We look therefore, first of aE, to the wide 

 and deep girth about the heart and lungs. We 

 must have both ; the proportion in which the one 

 or the other may preponderate, will depend on the 

 service we require from the animal ; we can excuse 

 a slight degree of flatness of the sides, for he will 

 be lighter in the forehand, and more active ; but 

 the grazier must have width as well as depth. 

 And not only about the heart and lungs, but over 

 the whole ribs, must we have length and roundness ; 

 the hooped, as well as the deep barrel, is essential; 

 there must be room for the capacious paunch, room 

 for the materials from which the blood is to be pro- 

 vided. The beast should also be ribbed home; 

 there should be a little space between the ribs and 

 the hips. This seems to be indispensable in the ox, 

 as it regards a good healthy constitution, and a pro- 

 pensity to fatten - but a largeness and dropping of 

 the belly is excusable in the cow, or rather, not- 

 withstanding it diminishes the beauty of the animal, 

 it leaves room for the udder ; and if it is also accom- 

 panied by swelling milk- veins, it generally indicates 

 her value in the dairy. 



The roundness and depth of the barrel, however, 

 is most advantageous in proportion as it is found 

 behind the point of the elbow, more than between 

 the shoulders and legs ; or low down between the 

 legs, rather than upwards towards the withers ; 'for 

 it diminishes the heaviness before, and the compar- 

 ative bulk of the coarse parts of the animal, which 

 is always a very great consideration. 



The loins should be wide: of this there can be 

 no doubt, for they are the prime parts ; they should 

 seem to extend far along the back ; and although 

 the belly should nol hang down, the flanks should 

 be round and deep. Of the hips it is superfluous 

 to say that, without being ragged, they should be 

 large; round rather than wide, and presenting, 

 when handled, plenty of muscle and fat. The 

 thighs should be round and long, close together 

 when viewed from behind, and the further down 

 they continue to be so the better. The legs short, 

 varying like other parts, according to the destina- 

 tion of the animal ; but decidedly short, for there 

 is an almost inseparable connection between length 

 of leg and lightness of carcass, and shortness of 

 leg and propensity to fatten. The bones of the 

 legs, and they only being taken as a sample of the 

 bony structure of the frame generally, should be 

 small, but not too small— small enough for the well 

 known accompaniment,— a propensity to fatten — 

 small enough to please the consumer ; but not so 

 small as to indicate delicacy of constitution, and 

 liability to disease. 



Last of all the hide — the most important part of 

 all — thin, but not so thin as to indicate that the 

 animal can endure no hardship ; moveable, mellow, 

 but not too loose, and particularly well covered 

 with fine soft hair. 



