NEW ENGLAND FAEMER. 



135 



practical knowledge. Some would say that he was 

 a man of science, and he was doubtless well ac- 

 quainted with many sciences ; but had he been well 

 skilled in vegetable physiology and practical horti- 

 culture, he would never have made that noted 

 remark which has long been a stumbling-block in 

 the road of improvement. 



We will notice one more erroneous view, which 

 many take of this subject ; and that is, that science 

 favors the opinion that the stock has no effect on the 

 fruit of the scion. Now, as science is a system of 

 facts, we ask how science can be in opposition to 

 facts. How can one truth be in opposition to an- 

 other ? There is many an error passing under the 

 plausible name of science. 



For the New England Farme>: 

 DIARRHOEA IN CATTLE. 



Mr. Cole : On Tuesday, February G, 1819, while 

 sledding wood with my team, I observed that 

 one of my oxen was affected with " diarrhcea or 

 looseness," (as j'ou call it in the " Veterinarian,") 

 fully equal, or worse, than cattle have, when changed 

 from hay to grass in the spring, when the grass is 

 flush. The next day and the day after, the rest of 

 my oxen (four in all) and two cows in milk, kept at 

 the same barn with the oxen, were badly affected with 

 it ; and about the same time four last spring calves, 

 kept at another barn one hundred rods distant from 

 the oxen, were taken ; also ten cows, and four steers 

 kept in a field fifty rods from either the oxen or 

 calves, were in a similar case, all within a week from 

 the first ox. My horse and sheep (over one hun- 

 dred) have not been affected by it, although they ate 

 with all the cattle of the same kinds of hay, and 

 drank with them from the same streams. No other 

 cattle in the vicinity, that I can hear of, have been 

 affected in a similar way. 



They were taken very violently, and the dung ran 

 from them in a full stream ; they ate but little, for 

 one or two days, but got better of the diarrhoea 

 after about four days : they lost much of their flesh 

 at the time ; but have now regained it, and are well 

 and hearty to appearance. We "doctored" but 

 little, indeed none except two or three animals. The 

 weather was exceeding cold at the time, the ther- 

 mometer being below zero frequently in the morning. 



As to the condition and keep of the cattle, I would 

 say, the oxen, two cows in milk, and the last spring 

 calves Avero in good flesh, and had been regularly 

 stabled or had lain in comfortable sheds, and fed on 

 good hay, mostly from the barns. Some of the hay 

 was cut the past season, some the year before. The 

 other cattle were kept on poorer hay, and lay on the 

 ground : they were in ordinary flesh : all were at- 

 tacked alike, whether kept on good or bad fodder, or 

 stabled or not. These cases, considering the time of 

 the year, &c., Sec, are new to us, no such thing ever 

 hajipening in this region before, so far as I can learn. 

 CHARLES B. AYER. 



Peeston, Ct., March, 1849. 



Editorial Remarks. 



We can assign no cause for the disease named by 

 Mr. Ayer. Its occurrence in cold weather is very 

 unusual. Yet there must have been a general cause, 

 and a local one too, though it may be beyond the 

 power of investigation. Analogous cases are not 

 imfrequent. Sometimes a disease, affecting bipeds 

 or quadrupeds, prevails in some sections, while it is 



a time of general health in other regions of the 

 same country. Again, a disease is confined to a 

 single district, neighborhood, family, or to an indi- 

 vidual. We have known a large family to be all 

 afflicted with a severe, and in several cases a fatal 

 disorder, while all the neighbors escaped, though 

 often attending upon the sick and the dying. 



THE CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO. 



Editors Cultivator : ily own experiments of eight 

 years with the potato have very much encouraged 

 me to continue the alternate culture of seed and its 

 seedlings, with careful selections. 



The p)rocess does materially improve the potato in 

 7iew and excellent varieties — in health and i^roductive- 

 ness. At the same time, much depends for success 

 upon a proper situation and preparation of soU, 

 manner of cultivation, time of planting, lifting, and 

 good storage. 



Good upland soil, deep thorough ploughing, earlj' 

 planting, with well cultivated approved seedling 

 varieties, in shallow drills, early weeding, light hill- 

 ing, early lifting, and dry airy storage, do more for 

 the redemption of the potato from disease, than all 

 the nostrums the world can devise. 



Potato seed, though it produces generally several 

 different varieties in its seedlings, will not be likely 

 to i^roduce varieties or qualities with which it has 

 no connection. If new and choice varieties be ex- 

 pected from sowing the seed, care should be taken to 

 obtain seed from good varieties, or in the immediate 

 neighborhood of the same. 



Seed from the balls will transmit from a diseased 

 stock, in some degree, that disease to its seedlings — 

 to some varieties more than others. 



Some have gathered balls from any where, with- 

 out regard to the character of the stock, planted the 

 seed, and finding in the seedlings disease and infe- 

 rior specimens, abandoned at once the experiment ; 

 and in their judgment, seedling potatoes are no bet- 

 ter than old ones. 



The same laws that govern the apple, peach, and 

 strawberry, in their culture for new and choice vari- 

 eties, govern also the potato. If a new choice seed- 

 ling apple, pear, or strawberry be desirable, why not 

 a now and excellent potato ? But neither is to be 

 obtained without the use of their seed, and may be 

 not without a scries of experiments, with careful 

 selc-ctions. 



Potato seed, from properly selected, well cultivated 

 seedlings, combining through the seed the best varie- 

 ties at home and from abroad, is among the most 

 valuable seeds to be found in market. 



Potato seed may be sown, like the tomato, early in 

 hotbed for an early crop ; or, like cabbage, in a rich 

 bed in a warm place, and transplanted ; or with a 

 seed planter in the fields, with great profit ; or broad- 

 cast, on rich, fine soil, and lightly harrowed in, with 

 no other cultivation, and the crop of young seedlings, 

 the very best, for planting the next season. 



Early sowing the seed and early lifting give the 

 potato a tendency to early ripening. Lifting the 

 potato before it has perfected it» growth, it is found 

 dryer in cooking, will keep better through the win- 

 ter, vegetate earlier in the spring, and become more 

 hardy in its constitution. 



Medium sized potatoes cook better, of finer quality 

 and flavor, will plant more groujid by the bushel, 

 and are more exempt from disease. 



Nipping ofi'the weeds, just below their roots, soon 

 as their appearance, is a better remedy for the potato 

 disease than nippinj the vines. 



My crop of the last season, combining all my 

 best varieties through the seed fi-om home and 



