364 [Assembly 



porous nature : and when the seed begins to grow, it has full 

 freedom, and is efifectually protected from being too closely 

 pressed upon or squeezed up, as is often the case in hard clayey 

 soils. Its advantages in every respect will prove incalculable ; 

 and from personal observation on Mr. Woolley's fafm, I do not 

 hesitate to pronounce tan bark a sovereign and effectual remedy 

 against the potato rot, and which should be used by every farmer, 

 partially, if you choose, during the next season for sowing the 

 potato seeds. This information ought to be extensively circula- 

 ted ; and in writing to the Farmer's Club upon this subject, I feel 

 I but discharge an imperative duty, when I take into considera- 

 tion the dreadful ravages of this blighting disease, for the last few 

 years in particular, sweeping, as it has done, over the European 

 and American Continents, like the Asiatic simoon or the cholera 

 itself 



Respectfully Yours, 



GEORGE D. BOWLING, 



Editor and Proprietor Dtiily ilomirg News. 



President Tallmadge remarked that we are too apt to adopt 

 crude and incongruous notions in reference to questions on which 

 some mystery rests. This one of vitality of seeds is in that pre- 

 dicament. That it still is a subject of wonder — an object of 

 common and cf scientiSc inquiry — the wonder of our new set- 

 tlers, who beholds oaks and maples spring up where he has just 

 cleared off a veteran forest of pine trees ; white clover also, appa- 

 rently dormant for centuries under the old forest, now at a clear- 

 ing — showing its beauties, as if it had been just planted by the 

 settler. These and many analagous observations have made me 

 a doubter all round about the question — patience and more re- 

 search may remove doubt, but at this day, the doUbts are still 

 good. The banks of our river Hudson can show you districts 

 wliere, after you have fur some three or four years ceased plow- 

 ing, the land sends up a thick crop of red and white cedars. 

 The succession of the animal races is equally mysterious. Our 

 business is to look for facts. 



To suppose that the seeds have laid dormant for such a period 

 of time, is an incongruous and improbable supposition. The 



