NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



11 



EXPERIMENTS ON POTATOES. 



We have been familiar with this valuable root from 

 our childhood, but the disease that has destroyed it 

 to so great an extent, for a few years past, has in- 

 duced us to collect many varieties, and cultivate 

 them on the same land, managing them all in the 

 same manner, to learn their comparative hardiness 

 against the disease, as well as their quality, produc- 

 tiveness, &c. 



In a trial of fifty varieties, we learn some im- 

 portant facts ; but further experience is necessary to 

 come to satisfactory conclusions on some points, for 

 results vary from year to year. Last year the Peach 

 Blows yielded more than the Long Reds ; this year 

 the latter were the most productive. In some cases 

 we had the same jiotato from different sources, and 

 the product, side by side, varied twenty-five per cent., 

 showing a modification, by culture, soil, or other cir- 

 cumstances, that seem to produce a pennanent effect 

 on the seed, or planted tubers. 



Some varieties rot much, others not any. Yet 

 some of those that have not rotted with us, have 

 been affected with others. We think no kind is 

 perfectly exempt from disease, under predisposing 

 causes, such as wet land, warm, wet weather, &c., 

 though some are proof against it under favorable 

 cu'cumstanees. 



To have a v/ider range for selection and experi- 

 ment, we have raised, the present season, new varie- 

 ties from seed, which was collected from different 

 sections, and was the product of potatoes from vari- 

 ous parts of the world. So great was the variety, 

 that in raising from about two hundred plants, nearly 

 every one was distinct in appeai'ancc. This shows 

 the effects of mixing many kinds together, and that 

 potatoes will not generally produce the same from 

 seed. In some cases we raised a quart from a single 

 seed, planted the last of April, and some of the 

 tubers were medial size, showing the great facility 

 with which new kinds may be produced. More on 

 tliis subject by and bj'. 



^ 



Cooking Food fok Stock. — There is no doubt of 

 the advantages, in one point of view, of the cooking 

 of food for some animals : this point is, that the same 

 quantity of food affords, when cooked, a larger por- 

 tion of nutrition. But h there not still a doubt as 

 to the advantages of a general adoption of the cook- 

 ing mode of feeding ? What is true and advantageous 

 on a large scale, will not always answer on a small 

 one : a dinner for one man each day Avill scarcely 

 pay for fuel and the wages of the cook ; but when 

 a hundred, instead of one, sit down to dinner, it is a 

 very different affah-, and the tavern-keeiDcr who 

 would go behindhand in the one case, could afford 

 to ride in his chaise in the other. Will not a similar 

 rule apply well in cooking food for domestic animals ? 

 Most tempting accounts have appeared, from time to 

 time, in the agricultural journals, of profitable under- 

 takings in feeding large numbers of swine upon 

 cooked food ; but I lia .-c never met with much in a 

 small way, upon a limited scale, that seemed worthy 

 of imitating. 



Swine arc mentioned, because it is rather doubtful 

 if much or any advantage is derived in cooking for 

 neat cattle, mUcli cows, or for horses. Perhaps the 

 experiments tended to leave the subject in great 



doubt as regards all animals that chew the cud. The 

 most decisive advantage is believed to have been 

 found in cooking for swine. But why is it that our 

 farmers have not more generally adopted it ? It is 

 not from the cause already adverted to, that expen- 

 sive process may be true economy where a great deal 

 of work is to be accomplished, but will not answer 

 on a small scale. Any farmer can boil his small 

 potatoes, and the meal also, to fatten his hogs at the 

 beginning of Avintcr, with the utensils in constant 

 use all the year round in his family ; but is it not 

 questionable economy for him to go beyond this, and 

 fit up an expensive boiling or steaming apparatus, to 

 cook the food of his few swine ? (And here it occurs 

 to the mind, what should not be forgotten — never 

 mix the meal with or use the water in which potatoes 

 haA'c been boiled, for the food of swine ; for it is 

 well known to be injurious, and to act as a medicine 

 to scour, as it is termed.) 



When, therefore, we see so often such laudable 

 experiments and results in the cooking of food, urged 

 for general adoption, does not the old adage occur, 

 that we may be more nice than wise ? — Farmer's 

 Visitor. 



KLOSS WINTER WHEAT. 



A few years ago various seeds were received at 

 the Cultivator office, from the Commissioner of 

 Patents, which were distributed for experiment, 

 liufus M'Intire, Esq., of Parsonfield, Maine, is the 

 only person who has reported on it. With him it 

 has been very promising, and he made the following 

 report after the last season's experience, which we 

 copy from the Boston Cultivator. We should be 

 pleased to hear something of its origin, and of its 

 culture in other regions. 



" My kloss white blue stem winter wheat passed 

 through the winter perfectly safe, but suffered from 

 rust and the worm. It Avas not sown last fall till I 

 had taken off the corn crop late in September ; thus 

 it did not get up much before winter. I think, if 

 sowed in August, it would have escaped the ravages 

 of the Avorm, and possibly of the rust. A small patch 

 soAvn early in September, Avhere early potatoes grew, 

 escaped the Avorm, and Avas but slightly injured by 

 rust. I have an acre noAv up, and looking green and 

 well, sown early, and half an acre sOAVcd September 

 22 ; so I shall have another trial of it next yeai'. 

 The rust on Avheat and potatoes struck this year 

 unusually early. In common seasons, I think my 

 Avinter wheat Avould have been out of the way of 

 it. I have great confidence that this variety of 

 Avheat is sufficiently hardy to stand oirr scA-erest win- 

 ters. It is the same kind, successfully cultivated by 

 Mr. DrcAV on the Kennebec. I obtained the first 

 specimen of you from the patent office. Can you, or 

 any of your readers, tell Avhere it originated, or Avhere 

 it is cultivated ? " 



ExTKAOIiniXARY EfFECT OF OiL OF AnISESEED UPON 



Rats. — It is a Avell-knoAvn fact that rats entertain an 

 irresistible fondness for aniscseed. A gentleman of the 

 name of Bayley, residing in the Hampstead road, had 

 occasion, a short time since, to take down a small 

 bottle of essential oil of aniseseed from a cupboard in 

 his kitchen, Avhich he accidentally let fall, and the 

 bottle was broken and the contents escaped upon the 

 floor. Before this accident, not a rat had for two 

 years been seen upon the premises, but in a day or 

 tAVO aftcrAvards they made their appearance ; and at 

 this time SAvarm to so great an extent that every effort 

 to exterminate them has hitherto proved unaA'ailing. 



