NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



231 



not be taken for granted that it is exhausting gen- 

 erally, for some crops flourish well after potatoes. 



Some years since, a correspondent communicated 

 the result of an experiment, and asked for an expla- 

 nation of one so strange. He planted a piece of 

 land partly to corn and partly to potatoes, and then 

 sowed to grass. On the com land, the herdsgrass 

 succeeded well, and the clover failed ; on the potato 

 land, the reverse appeared. 



We accounted for the difference in this way : In 

 the potato, particularly in the top, is much lime ; 

 and this substance was exhausted by the potato crop, 

 and this element being deficient, the clover failed, as 

 lime is one of the principal constituents of clover. 



Corn contains a large quantity of silex or sand, 

 which is dissolved by potash, and taken up into the 

 plant, forming the outside of the stalk, and giving it 

 stiffness and firmness. This is the same material as 

 glass, and some persons in working among corn- 

 stalks have cut their fingers with this substance. 

 Hordsgrass also contains a large quantity of silex, 

 and it has a stiff stalk. On lands composed mostly 

 of mud, there is a deficiency of sand, and herdsgrass 

 lacks firmness and falls to the ground when only 

 partially grown. As corn and herdsgrass require a 

 large portion of sand and potash, it may account for 

 the failure of one after the other, where there is not 

 a good supply of these ingredients in the soil. 



Further experiments and nice observations are 

 necessary to show that potatoes are generally very 

 exhausting. 



THE GREYLOCK POTATO. 



We are indebted to Hon. A. Foote, of Williams- 

 town, Mass., for a barrel of his new variety of potato, 

 called the Greylock. They arc well shaped and of 

 good size. We have tried some for the. table, and 

 though they were evidently injured by exposure to 

 the air, they were nearly equal to any other with 

 which we are acquainted. We shall have them 

 planted in such a Avay as to give them a fair trial. 

 Mr. F. gives us the following account of their origin 

 and habit of growth : " It is an accidental cross be- 

 tween the Carter and Mercer, — taking the com- 

 plexion of its skin from the dark color of the Mercer, 

 and that of its flesh from the whiteness of the Carter. 

 It is a vigorous grower, produces as well as the 

 Peach Blow, [Western Red,] and in texture and flavor 

 is not excelled, in my opinion, by any known variety. 

 Side by side, the last season, the tops of my Peach 

 Blows 'were badly blighted, while those of my Grey- 

 locks remained in all their freshness. Time of ripen- 

 ing somewhat early, but not so early as that of the 

 Mercer. Like all the finer varieties, it is subject 

 (here) to the ' potato disease,' but in a less degree 

 than cither of its parent varieties. Its origin is 

 dated back four years." — Albany Cultivator. 



THE INFLUENCE OF AGRICULTURE. 



We have occasionally given valuable extracts from 

 the address of General Josiah Newhall, before the 

 Essex Agricultural Society, last fall. Here follows 

 another, showing the very salutary moral influence 

 which agriculture has on the nature of man : — 



The pui-suit of agriculture is not only favorable to 

 man's physical well-being, but is eminently condu- 

 cive to the improvement of his moral nature. The 



farmer is that favored being who is permitted, as it 

 were, to stand in the laboratory of the Infinite One. 

 While many of those engaged in other useful and 

 important occupations are necessarily confined within 

 the narrow limits of theii- study or workshop, his 

 office or place of business is the vast temple of na- 

 ture. He seems, more than others, by his daily 

 occupation, to be admitted to nearer approaches to 

 Him, whose humble cooperator he is, in producing 

 the means of sustaining life. While the artist and 

 mechanic, by their skill and ingenuity, as they oper- 

 ate upon dead matter, can produce results in accord- 

 ance with their wishes, he feels that, in dealing 

 with the vital principle, without the direct smiles of 

 Heaven upon his labors, he can produce nothing. 

 When the rain is withheld, and the "heavens be- 

 come as brass, and the earth as iron," and vegetation 

 seems to be perishing, how often is his eye directed 

 to the horizon, that perchance he may see, as did the 

 servant of the prophet, a cloud rising, though not 

 larger than a man's hand, and giving promise of the 

 needful blessing ! He beholds, therefore, with the 

 deepest interest, the progress of vegetation from the 

 opening of the vernal season to the closing autumn. 

 When the mighty forces of nature are quiescent, he 

 sees their silent energy in the beaming sun and the 

 gentle zephyr. And in their awful manifestations, 

 he recognizes in the lightning's gleam the glance of 

 that eye whose all-pervading sight reads the un- 

 spoken language of the heart ! And in the bursting 

 thunder, and the fearful earthquake, he hears, with 

 awe, the accents of " the voice that shakes all na- 

 ture's frame." 



The volume of nature is wide spread before him ; 

 and whatever may be the dogmas which men may 

 have derived from other sources respecting the char- 

 acter of the Creator, he here reads in this " elder 

 scripture " the impressive and all-subduing lesson 

 that God is good ; that his paternal care is extended 

 to every creature ; and that all, from man to the 

 humblest insect, are the monuments of his exhaust- 

 less love. 



With such exhibitions daily before him, and with 

 a knowledge of the divine economy in the natural 

 system, where every thing changes, but nothing is 

 lost, — where from apparent annual death arise new 

 forms of beauty and loveliness, — the farmer, after a 

 life well spent in the pursuit originally assigned him, 

 bows to the law of his being, wraps his mantle about 

 him, and lies down in the sleep of death, with the 

 most unshaken faith in the accordant lessons of na- 

 ture, and of revealed religion, that he shall awake 

 in those celestial scenes, the glories of which " eye 

 hath not seen nor ear heard." 



THE APPLICATION OF LIME. 



The use of lime as a remedy for mildew among 

 cucumbers, and the disease of the potato, is highly 

 recommended by English writers, and no doubt, ju- 

 diciously applied, will prove of much value in this 

 department of horticulture. Water in which lime 

 has been slacked or soaked is efficacious in all pos- 

 sible ways for the destrviclion of insect life. The 

 syringe, applied with it to trees infested with cater- 

 pillars, soon clears it altogether. Sprinkled on grass 

 lawns, wliich it whitens till the rain washes it off, it 

 drives the worms down, or brings them to the sur- 

 face very quickly. Syringing plants, says the Hor- 

 ticultural ^Magazine, which have the bug, or wall 

 fruit trees, (they are sometimes covered with ants, 

 earwigs, small caterpillars,) and afterwards with 

 clean water, is of great service, and lime dusted, or 

 lime-water sprinkled, on gooseberry and currant- 

 trees, cleans them as completely as if they had 

 never been attacked. Laid round a bed liable to the 

 attacks of wandering snails and slugs, it prevents 



