120 [Assembly 



althougli one of them is two feet nine inches in circumference, 

 it now weighs only eight pounds, whereas it would probably 

 have weighed in its vigor sixteen or seventeen pounds. Nearly 

 three months ago, I furnished Mr. W. H. Parker, the excellent 

 caterer and proprietor of the fashionable hotel, St. Francis, a 

 turnip that was three feet in circumference and weighed eighteen 

 pounds, to be served up whole in the ladies ordinary ; and sub- 

 sequently, I supplied the keepers of the restaurant in Kearney 

 street, with two turnips that weighed twenty pounds each. 



It may be satisfactory to state, that the seed was brought di- 

 rectly from England, and was represented to me to be of the 

 white, flat, Dutch sort. The turnips were grown without irriga- 

 tion, and without being moistened by rain, as the seed germina- 

 ted at the close of the rainy season. 



I have lately been told by Gen. Vallejo, that he has heretofore 

 seen many such specimens of the turnip family. I cannot, there- 

 fore, claim any merit for producing these in my garden, which 

 is composed throughout of a black, fertile soil, of a depth of two 

 feet. The wonderful fruitfulness of the soil in California, needs 

 nothing from me to enlarge the interest already so generally 

 taken in horticultural pursuits in this State. It is rapidly ex- 

 tending from one end of the country to the other*. 

 I am, respectfully, your ob't. serv't., 



H. TOLER. 



POTATO ROT. 



Mr. A. 0. Houghton, of Rahway, N. J., with whom we have 

 been acquainted several years, assures us that he has preserved 

 his crop of potatoes, or a large portion of them, for five years 

 past, by the following process : As soon as the appearance of 

 disease presents itself in the top, he immediately pulls the tops 

 of the entire field and leaves them upon the surface, pressing 

 down the tubers that may show themselves with tlie foot. On 

 digging his potatoes at the proper time, he has uniformly found 

 them sound, and they have kept as well as the crops of former years. 



