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NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



OCTOBER 1, IS38. 



SICKNESS IN THE WEST. 



The editor of the Bangor Whig, now travelling 

 in the U est, writes — 



I cannot say I am so well pleased with what I 

 have seen in the western country as I anticipated, 

 but I am but ill qualified to judge as yet. One 

 thing is certain, this part of tlie country, if it ever 

 arrives at tlic greatness predicted, must do so 

 through the deprivations and sufl'erings of the pre- 

 sent generation. The present settlers are working 

 hard for posterity — will posterity reward them ? 

 The conmion comforts and conveniences of life are 

 given up, — people merely stay, dragging out an 

 existence ; toiling and sweating for the improve- 

 ment of a country which it will take years to bring 

 to a istate of civilizatior.i, if one may so term it, 

 '''be cities of the west are cop.ifortable compared 

 to tlie interior settlements, but even those are at 

 present miserable places for men to live in, but yet 

 they are inhabited. Chicf.go, for instance, on Lake 

 Michigan, is below the level of the water in some 

 places, and no where above it. No cellars can be 

 <lu<T because of water. Here lurk bilious and in- 

 tcrmitlBnt fevers and agues. 



The past summer, throughout the whole country. State. 



Indiana has established a scientific and agricul- 

 tural college. 



Georgia passed an act at the last session of her 

 Legislature, to " Incorporate the Board of Agri- 

 cultuie and Rural Economy, of the State of Geor- 

 gia." 



Massachusetts has undertaken an agricultural 

 survey of the State ; and a proposition was recently 

 submitted to her Legislature, to give a bounty on 

 wiieat.* This State has given a bounty on silk 

 produced by her citizens. 



The Legislature of Maryland, a few weeks since, 

 had a proposition before it to establish a pallern 

 farm and agricultural schools. 



Kentucky is organizing a state board of agricul- 

 ture, or state society. 



The Legislature of Michigan lately had the sub- 

 ject of establishing state and county agricultural 

 societies before it. 



Maine gives a bounty of 5 cents on each pound 

 of cocoons raised in the state, and 50 cents for 

 each pound of silk reeled in the State 



Connecticut gives a bounty of $1 for each 100 

 mulberry trees of five years growth, and 50 cents 

 on each pound of reeled silk, the growth of the 



as you are aware, has been remarkable for its in 

 tense heat, and great drought — through the west 

 this has been the case in a most extraordinary de- 

 gree. The consequences are now being experi- 

 enced, and they are indeed awful. A wide spread 

 pestilence extending from the Ohio to the Far 

 West, is sweeping many to their graves, and causing 

 an immensity of suffering. Places have been de- 

 serted, and the cattle turned in the unreaped fields. 

 Whole towns have been sick — six or eight patients 

 to a family — none have escaped, far and near this 

 disease has stricken the weak and the strong. It 

 is a bilious fever, not very fatal it is true, but ex- 

 ceedingly distressing. I have scarcely seen a good 

 looking countenance since I left Detroit. This 

 fever is natural to this new country, and always 

 prevails during the latter part of the summer in 

 some places, and to some d<'gree, but it has never 

 before made the sick tremble, and the well man 

 turn pale. The fever will undoubtedly stop as 

 soon as cold weather approaches. 



WHAT HAVE THE STATES SEVERALLY 

 DONE TO ENCOURAGE AGRICULTURE? 



'• Grains of sand the mountains make." 

 Maine, with a population less than 400,000, last 

 year gave .'J7(!,000 to her citizens engaged in agri- 

 culture, out of her public treasury, as a bounty on 

 wheat. 



A bill was recently introduced into the Legisla- 

 ture of New York, appropriating $20,000 for the 

 promotion of agriculture and the household arts. 

 This bill proposes a premium of $500 for the dis- 

 covery of an efficient remedy for the grain worm, 

 an insect now doing much damage to tlie wheat 

 crops in the north-eastern states — the formation of 

 a museum containing complete sets of niineralogi- 

 cal and geological specimens — premiums for im- 

 proved agricultural implements, and superior crops 

 — and last, though not least, it authorizes the State 

 Board of Agriculture, wliich it creates, to procure 

 as many copies of the " Cultivator" and '■'■Monthly 

 Genesee Fanner," as there are common school dis- 

 tricts in the State, and furnish one copy of each 

 to each school district, to be used as occasional 

 class books. 



Vermont gives a bounty on silk, of 10 cents on 

 each pound grown in the State. 



Pennsylvania gives a bounty of 20 cents on each 

 pound of cocoons, and 50 cents on each pound of 

 reeled silk, the growth of the State. 



The Congress of the United States propose to 

 give the President the power to lease any unap- 

 propriated lots in the District of Columbia, for the 

 term of ten years, for the encouragement of the 

 cultivation of the sugar beet, and the production of 

 silk. 



Should this policy be carried out by each State, 

 our citizens will not long continue to eat foreign 

 bread, and our country will regain her usual pros- 

 perity. This is our remedy for the pressure — encou- 

 rage production. — Journal of Productive Industry. 



and their scarcity and high price as yet, have pre- 

 vented their merits in this respect being fully test- 

 ed, by comparison with our other fine varieties. I 

 have now cultivated them for the last three seasons 

 and am perfectly confident they will fully sustain 

 the character given of them by Piince Rohan, in 

 every respect. 



I should be much pleased to hear the result of 

 any experiments in the cultivation of this potato in 

 your part of the country. I have not learned as yet 

 the result of any field culture of this potato for 

 this season ; a few experiments in garden soil and 

 cultivation, (which to be sure, is not a fair test of 

 their field produce on a larger scale,) have been suf- 

 ficiently satisfactory. Two gentlemen of this 

 neighborhood have produced the one from 11-2 lbs. 

 planted the lOtli day of May, in fine garden soil, 

 was taken up tlie 9th of this month, and weighed 

 94 1-2 lbs. The other gentleman produced from 

 1 lb. dug up some days since, and weighed 93 1-2 

 lbs. I can give no accurate account of my own 

 production of them, having planted them in five 

 different locations and different soils, at different 

 dates of planting ; the soil nothing more than mid- 

 dling good soil, sward ground, and some part of it 

 moderately manured, planted in rows 4 feet one 

 way and 2 feet apart in the row, and ploughed but 

 one way, — I believe I should have succeeded better 

 to have planted 4 feet apart each way, and cross 

 ploughed. Yours, respectfully, 



JOHN A. THOMPSON. 



Catskill, .V. y., Oct. 16, 1838. 



For the New England Farmer. 



ROHAN POTATO. 

 Mr Breck, — 



Dear Sir, — I intended to have written to you 

 some weeks since res]iecting my rohan potato, but 

 have been waiting to gather the crop first, that I 

 might state more confidently as to quantity and 

 quality. The very dry hot summer will greatly 

 curtail the quantity ; they have been growing finely 

 however, since the first of Sept up to the 7th of 

 this mouth, when the frost killed the vines. They 

 now bid fair to produce a middling crop and of very 

 fine quality. I have not yet dug them up. I was 

 taught at the expense of one fourth of my small 

 crop last year, that to prevent their loss in weight 

 and to develope their fine farinacious properties, 

 they must be left in the ground as long as the sea- 

 son will permit. The frost kept off a week or two 

 later than usual; with us, which has proved very 

 favorable to our late crops. This potato has fully 

 proved its hardiness and capacity to resist the eflfects 

 of our hot summers and usual droughts, much bet- 

 ter than six other varieties which I cultivated this 

 season. Their extraordinary productiveness is 

 now sufhciently established ; but tlie unfavorable 

 impression that has been given the public respect- 

 ing their quality as a table potato, is still prevalent. 



Rohan Potato. — At the meeting of the Hamp- 

 shire, Hampden and Franklin Agricultural Society 

 the last year, the presiding ollicer of the Society 

 the Hon. Wra. Clark, Jr. was presented by the 

 Commissioner of Agricultural Survey with a Rohar 

 potato. From that potato Mr Clark raised a greal 

 amount, and sent a bushel to tlie meeting house foj 

 distribution after the address. Mr C. C. Nichols 

 formerly of Boston, but now of Northampton, anc 

 occupied in cultivating a small farm in this beauti- 

 ful town with excellent judgment and success, fron 

 three pecks of this potato obtained eighteen bush- 

 els of a large size. 



Mr Roswell Hubbard of Iladley, from the plant- 

 ing last spring of four pounds of the Rohan potato, 

 obtained 1173 lbs. — that is 293 for 1. This potatc 

 will prove a most valuable gift to the country 

 The great fear is that our famiers with their negli- 

 gent habits in this matter will soon suffer them t( 

 become mixed and degenerated. 



It has been supposed they were not valuable foi 

 the table. Some of which we ate yesterday werf 

 excellent. They did not quite equal a pink eye oi 

 a foxite raised on a mountain soil ; but they werf 

 among the fine third in the scale of excellence 

 and when placed in the most favorable locations 

 may be expected to be greatly improved in quality, 



H. C. 



* This proposition was not only submilled. but was accept- 

 ed, and a law passed accordingly Courier. 



We receive daily the most flattering accounts 

 of the produce of the Rohan potato, and think ii 

 will prove a valuable acquisition. The Hon. Enoch 

 Silsby of Bradford inforuied ns a few days since 

 that from four pounds purchased of us last spring 

 consisting of nine potatoes, he has dug enough tc 

 fill a lime cask heajiing full. We suppose thej 

 will weigh at least 240 lbs., which is liO for om 

 planted, and this without any extra care, and whec 

 the potato crop is, generallv, almost a failure. 



J. B. 



