1862. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



469 



For the New England Farmer. 

 THE POTATO ONION. 



Mu. Editor : — T noticed an inquiry in your last 

 paper from an "Inquirer," iu relation to the cul- 

 ture af the potato onion. I have been in tlie habit 

 of cultivating the potato onion to a limited extent 

 for more than twenty years. "Whether they can 

 be raised to "supply the demand for onions raised 

 from the seed," is a question to be decided by 

 connoisseurs. "The demand will produce the sup- 

 ply." The seed of the common onion will cost you 

 much less than the bulbs of the potato onion. 

 This is a drawback on the culture ; but if they 

 were to come into more general use, the e})icure 

 and the public would realize their value, and re- 

 gardless of cost would purchase no other. For 

 soups and chowders, and, iu fact, for all culinary 

 purposes, they are delicious ; in comparison, all 

 other onions sink into insignificance. 



They are a very early onion, and should be set 

 out or planted as early as the first of April, and 

 earlier if possible. I prepare the ground with a 

 liberal dressing of compost manure, which I plow 

 in and level off with a harroAv or rake ; I then 

 draw a line and dig a trench suificieutly deep to 

 cover the bulb. Place them about three inches 

 apart in the trench, cover carefully and roll with 

 a light garden rollii', or press the earth around 

 them with the feet. Otherwise, if not planted deep 

 enough and the earth made compact when taking 

 root, the onions will be crowded out of the ground. 



Thej' may be set out in rows about fifteen inches 

 apart, or sufficiently wide to allow the use of a 

 wheel hoe, which 1 have found the best instru- 

 ment for weeding them. 



I send you some samples of the potato onion, 

 which I raise. There are other varieties, but none 

 as good. The largest Avill produce clusters like 

 sample — the small onions in the clusters are called 

 seed, and each one of them will, in another sea- 

 son, produce one large one. 



I am sorry to say that the potato onions are not 

 exempt from the ravages of the maggot, as, for 

 two or three years past, we have discovered indi- 

 cations of their presence. I raise from 20 to 30 

 bushels per year, and find no difficulty iu selling 

 them at .$2,(30 per bushel. I have sold them as 

 high as $5,00 per bushel to agricultural ware- 

 houses. I paid six cents each for tubers 20 or oO 

 years since. HoKACE Collamore. 



North Pembroke, Sept. 2, 1862. 



of absolute privation of drink (unless in a moist 

 atmosphere,) is perhaps a limit of endurance. This 

 is the most atrocious torture ever invented by 

 Oriental tyrants ; it is that which most effectually 

 tames animals. Mr. Astley, when he had a refrac- 

 tory horse, always used thirst as the most effective 

 power of coercion, giving a little water as the re- 

 ward for every act of obedience. The histories of 

 shipwrecks paint fearful pictures of sufl'ering from 

 thirst ; and one of the most appalling cases known 

 is the celebrated imprisonment of 14G men in the 

 Black Hole of Calcutta. — Blackwood. 



R,EMARKS. — Our old friend and correspondent, 

 Mr. Collamore, will accept our thanks for this 

 interesting and valuable communication. It is just 

 the information many persons have desired to re- 

 ceive, and is worth the cost of the Farmer for a 

 year to numbers of its readers. 



Thirst Worse than Hunger — The disturb- 

 ance to the general system which is known by the 

 name of raging thirst is far more terrible than that 

 of starvation, for this reason : during the abstinence 

 from food, the organism can live upon its own sub- 

 stance ; but during the abstinence from liquid, the 

 organism has no such source of supply within it- 

 self. Men have been known to endure absolute 

 privation of food for some weeks ; but three days 



For t/ie New Fnqland Farmer. 

 HOW TO SET FENCE POSTS. 



Mr. Editor : — I wish to make, through the 

 columns of your valuable paper, a few suggestions, 

 in regard to the setting of fence posts. I am con- 

 vinced that this part of farm work, as usually 

 practiced, is performed much more frequently 

 than would be required, if they were properly pre- 

 pared and set at first. 



If this is true, the cost of maintaining post and 

 rail or board fences is much greater than the ne- 

 cessity of the case requires ; and he who can in- 

 duce the farming community to look upon it in 

 that light, and act accordingly, will at last have 

 performed a little good. But to the point ; to il- 

 lustrate the subject, I will relate a few facts that 

 have come under my own observation. 



About sixteen years since, my father erected a 

 post and board fence around his barn-yard. The 

 posts were set, as was, and still is the custom, to 

 a wide extent, with the large, or butt ends in the 

 ground, with the exce])tion of three which were 

 accidentally placed with the top end of the timber 

 down. This fact was not noticed at the time, but 

 at the expiration of seven or eight years, all of 

 these posts, with the exception of the three that I 

 have mentioned, were decayed and broken off"; 

 when, upon examination of those remaining, it 

 was discovered that they were set as stated above. 

 Those three identical posts are still standing as 

 originally set, to-day, and bid fair to last a num- 

 ber of years. If that part placed in the gi'ound 

 had been chan-ed, that is, burnt to a coal, I have 

 no doubt but what they would have lasted twice 

 as long as they otherwise would. The process of 

 charring is very simple and easily performed, as 

 one man can prepare one hundred and fifty or two 

 hundred posts in a single day. I never have had 

 an opportunity to determine how long chan-ing 

 will preserve a post, but have seen some treated 

 in this manner taken from the ground at the end 

 of six years, as sound and hard as when placed 

 there. 



I suppose the reason that posts set top end 

 down are preserved such a length of time is this : 

 in all timber, to a greater or less extent, there are 

 many minute canals or ducts, usually visible to 

 the naked eye, extending lengthwise, \vhich serve, 

 when the tree is growing, to convey the sap from 

 the roots through the trunk to the boughs, 

 branches and leaves of the tree. In these ducts or 

 veins there are many minute valves opening up- 

 wards, not impeding the sap in its upward flov/, 

 Ijut Avhich immediately close when a pressure is 

 brought to bear in an opposite direction. Now 

 Mhen the butt end of the post is placed in the 



