1860. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



381 



rather hunt farther for a shoot from some other 

 State. 



In Missouri, the crops look better than they do 

 in Kansas, and -we hope to get our supplies from 

 there, if ours fail us. Now, we seem to have no 

 money, no crops, no people, no prospects, no any- 

 thing. But we expect better times, soon. 



Susie Vogl. 



Sumner, K. T., June 25, 1860. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 CULTURE OF POTATOES AND THE BOT. 



Messrs. Editors : — Having had not less than 

 sixty years' experience in growing potatoes, and 

 having made extensive research and observation 

 at home and abroad, I beg leave to lay before 

 your readers my views upon the potato rot. The 

 rot does not arise from one cause alone, but from 

 several causes combined. The fault is in man 

 himself, and there is no patent vermifuge that will 

 prevent it. 



The first fault is improper cultivation — the soil 

 is robbed of something needful for the plant. The 

 manner of cultivating and keeping, after ripe, is 

 entirely different from what it was formerly. In 

 olden times the soil was newer and more perfect. 

 The plow was put in deeper than some do it now ; 

 the seed was pure ; the hills were made three 

 times as large ; the seed planted on a soft bed 

 and covered a good depth, protected from the at- 

 mosphere ; they v.ere dug right into a basket and 

 carried to a dark cellar, or they were emptied di- 

 rectly into a pit dug for them and covered with 

 boards or straw, and then earth put on so as to 

 raise a heap that would shed the rain, and in the 

 spring they were fresh and good, like new pota- 

 toes. 



The cause of more than half the rot of potatoes 

 is mud instead of insects. Forty-five years ago 

 I planted a plot of ground by the side of a mill- 

 stream with potatoes. The vines were fresh and 

 green, the tubers about as large as hens' eggs, no 

 insect near them — but there came an unusual 

 flood and covered them for an hour, and in 24 

 hours afterwards there was not a sound tuber in 

 the lot ! The same thing happened with me once 

 since, and it has always been so on Connecticut 

 River in case of a heavy flood reaching the tubers. 

 I have been into a field where the owner com- 

 plained of rotten potatoes, and told him where the 

 rotten ones were, and where the sound ones were, 

 by the situation of the hills ; he dug, and found as 

 I said. No sooner do we have a great shower 

 than the word is, I guess this will rot the pota- 

 toes. I guess so, too, but it don't rot mine. I 

 plant them in soft, mellow soil, and so that sur- 

 plus water will drain from the roots, cover them 

 a good depth, and am careful to have good seed, 

 if possible, seed not previously inclined to rot. 



If a man has not wit enough to go in when it 

 rains he will get wet, and if he exposes his pota- 

 toes too much to mud or to the air, he must suff'er 

 the consequence. 



The potato is not like the turnip. It requires 

 a dark, cool place. A man on Long Island had 

 dug half his crop on a fiek' of six acres, which 

 were worth one dollar per bushel, and they were 

 all sound — he dug the other half, and they were 

 mostly rotten. The field, cultivating and seed 



were all the same, and planted the same day ; the 

 cause to mo is very plain : they were all brought 

 out early in the morning and a part planted im- 

 mediately ; the rest stood in the open air and 

 were planted in the latter part of the day, having 

 the disease in them, which increased and spoiled 

 their progeny. 



Another man told me he dug his potatoes and 

 carried one load into the cellar ; the other load 

 remained out all night in the moonshine and 

 they most all rotted, while the first were sound ! 

 The lunar influence was light and air. 



But what is the practice of those who hf\,ve rot- 

 ten potatoes ? No care is used to \have sound 

 seed ; the ground is plowed shallow, seed planted 

 on the subsoil, with scarcely earth sufliciently to 

 cover them, and then small hills. A shower 

 comes, and the tubers become muddy, and a hot 

 sun scalds them. When ripe they are hooked 

 out and are one day in the hot sun, and then car- 

 ried to a light cellar or to market. 



PniNEAs Pratt. 



Deep River, Ct, July, 1860. 



Trial of Mowing Machines. — The Provi- 

 dence Journal, in relation to the trial of mowing 

 machines in Providence on the 26th, each machine 

 being required to cut half an acre, states, that the 

 "New England Mower cut its allotted portion in 

 eighteen minutes, the Manny's in about twenty- 

 one, Wood's in about twenty-three." On the 

 trial of two horse mowers. Buckeye in twenty-one 

 minutes, Ketchum twenty-three, Wood twenty- 

 five, Manny twenty-seven. 



Remarks. — There are many things beside the 

 mere time consumed to be considered in forming 

 an opinion of the merits of a mowing machine. In- 

 deed, whether a machine will cut an acre in thirty 

 minutes, or in sixty, we consider of comparative 

 little consequence. If it is capable of doing it in 

 sixty minutes, cutting the grass evenly, at a prop- 

 er distance from the ground, and with a moder- 

 ately easy draft, it is enough for a one-horse ma- 

 chine. If with two horses, an acre and a half per 

 hour where there is a ton of grass to the acre may 

 often be accomplished. 



Rapidity is not so valuable a quality, as cer- 

 tainty, and ease, so that one can continue in the 

 operation for several continuous hours, if he de- 

 sires to do so. With a good machine, requiring 

 only a moderate draft, and having a five foot cut- 

 ter bar, a pair of horses would cut an acre in for- 

 ty minutes easily. The trouble has been that so 

 much time is required for the horses to rest, and 

 the frequent stops, perhaps just after they have 

 rested, to clean out the clogged knives, or some 

 other obstruction. 



l^^ Forty years ago, a man at Newburyport 

 placed one hundred dollars in an old stocking, 

 where it remained till last week, when it was dis- 

 posed of at an advance of four or five per cent, for 

 old silver. If the same money had been placed in 

 tlie Savings Bank, it would have increased to a 

 thousand dollars. 



