144 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



any number of snch farmers with an equal number of men who 

 started with them in business as mechanics or traders, will show 

 that tlie balance is not always with the latter. Great fortunes 

 are not made, but a comfortable support, exempted from the 

 fluctuations incident to mercantile pursuits. May we not hope 

 that the present financial difficulties will turn the attention 

 of young men from the over-crowded paths of trade to the more 

 natural, and in the long run equally profitable business of farm- 

 ing ; more natural because agriculture is the foundation of the 

 support of a being sprung from the earth and living upon its 

 bosom ; equally profitable, as may be proved by a comparison 

 of the results of variou-s forms of industry extended over a 

 term of years. Let them bring the same enterprise and skill 

 to farming, which they display in other lines of business, and 

 rural life will be attractive and delightful. 



The potato crop has almost every where suffered from rot, and 

 from the unproductiveness which the disorder has occasioned. A 

 great variety of experiments have been made to avoid the rot, 

 and to increase the crop, with generally unsatisfactory results. 

 It seems to be tolerably well established, that strong and rich 

 manure promotes too rapid fermentation, and while it increases 

 the growth of the tubers causes them to decay. It may also be 

 stated that potatoes have usually done best on light land, old 

 pastures, or fields recently reclaimed from the forest. Also? 

 that potatoes planted early succeed better than those planted 

 later. Perhaps the same result would be attained if they were 

 planted very late ; for if the object of early plantuig is to secure 

 cool, moist weather, that may be had in the fall as well as in 

 the spring. The idea is that the disease is caused by rust, and 

 that rust is occasioned by warm and sultry weather, and the 

 object of very early or very late planting is to avoid the rust at 

 a time when the vines are most easily affected by it. Whether 

 any importance is to be attached to this view, every farmer 

 must determine from his own experience. 



One of our most judicious cultivators planted his potatoes with- 

 out any manure and covered the ground with meadow hay and 

 straw. This prevents the growth of weeds and keeps the land 

 from drying in warm weather, and saves the labor of hoeing. 

 Another saturates the straw with brine and thinks it not only 



