SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR. 
239 
years. As there was a great failure in saving seed this 
spring, owing to the uncommon hard winter, and many 
good farmers have entirely lost their seed by not having 
them covered deep enough, there must certainly be a 
small crop the present year ; I will give you my plan of 
digging and putting up, which I have successively tried 
for t'.venty years, in which time I have always had good, 
sound potatoes. I always dig my potatoes just before the 
killing frosts come ; as soon as my potatoes are dug 
(which I always do with a long scooter plow by running 
one furrow in the centre of my bed, so as to throw the 
potatoes on top of the earth) I raise my bed about one 
inch above the surface and then place my potatoes either 
in round or long banks ; I then place good dry corn 
stalks around them so as to entirely cover the potato and 
then I cover with dirt at least one foot thick, never leav- 
ing any air-hole about my potato banks, after covering 
with dirt, as above-named ; I then place good shelters 
over them, made of beards. 
Now, if you deem these plans worth any thing to you 
or any of your numerous readers, you can dispose of 
them in any way you see proper. 
Very respectfully yours, 
Daniel Harrist. 
Mount Hickory, Ala., May, 1855. 
DISTEMPER IN HORSES AND HOGS, ETC. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — Being desirous of 
gaining a little information through the medium of your 
excellent periodical, I embrace this opportunity of com- 
municating with you. 
I have recently lost some valuable horses with a disease 
I know nothing about. I thought it was blind staggers at 
first and acted accoi'dingly, but the horse died. When 
the other was taken I altered the treatment, as some 
thought it was bots, but to no purpose ; for he, too, died a 
few days after the other. Since then 1 have been told that 
ii was Indian fever. Whatever it is, it seems to be an 
epidemic ; for several of my mules show symptoms of the 
disease now. If you or any one among your numerous 
readers can furnish me with a recipe for the disease I shall 
feel grateful. 
I have lost a good many hogs with a disease common- 
ly called “thumps.’’ The lungs of the animal seems to 
be attacked in the first instance ; general debility is the 
consequence and death soon follows. Can any of your 
subscribers give any light on the subject, or, what would 
be better, a cure for the disease'? 
Why will a rose bush that has been well manured and 
watered, too, in dry weather and produced buds bountiful- 
ly, have many blooms that wither and die on the stem'? 
What do you mean by mulching'? Excuse the ignorance 
of a Subscriber. 
0:nla, Fla., May, 185fi. 
I'Ecp l evaporation from the leaves, we think causes 
the rose -dooms to wither. To mulch, is to over the earth 
3 or •' mCics thick with straw, leaves, sawdust or litter, s'o 
as £■; k'cen it moist ai.d prevent this evaporation. — E ds.] 
-O- — 
y-'- v. OT- '^p.iOM Corn. — A Virginia paper states that 
1 Ar n who ref’cntly purchased Winchester’s 
’ ■ . ci>nt.' .pp'.g 0 acres, fork '■>. 000, has realized half 
■iiU sum f u' or-: ; rop ot broum corn this season. Mr. 0. 
had .l act'^s under cuitivaaon, from v/hich lie realized 
4v.,0‘.!;/ pounds of 'iroom straw, and sold it at prices rang- 
ing from .'.7. 50 to qflO per hundred— averaging fuil S8. 
In addition to this, he gathered about 3,000 bushels of 
seed, worth “5 cents per bushel, or J:750 for the lot— or 
$4,000 for the produce of only dO acres ; which, deducting 
for cost of cuitivaiion, leaves ^3,000 net. 
PLO'WmG STUBSLE LAND, ETC. 
Editors Southern Cultivator— I am one of the un- 
fortuiiate whose lot it has been to oversee for several years, 
and have read the Cultivator smcQ 1852, and will con- 
tinue to read it as long as it is published. Please let me 
have your ideas on tlie advantage of plowing land or 
trying to plow where old, dry crab grass. is half leg high 
after you get your cotton beds made and sown. If the 
spring is dry the cotton will not come up. I notice where 
fire broke out from a log heap and burnt the grass off, the 
plowing was done a great deal better and a good stand of 
cotton up in a few days. The true plan would be to turn 
this grass over in September or October, but we have no 
time then— cotton is to pick. When we try to run our 
side harrows on this grass or stubble land we do no good, 
and when the hoe comes, especially if the ground is a 
wet, this old grass sticks so bad on their hoes that they 
cannot get along. 
My remedy is to turn this grass under with a two 
horse plow and follow in the same furro\v with the sub- 
soil plow. Our neighbor, Dr. Bailey, treated one of his 
fields in this way and the result is he can have 25 rows 
hoed to the hand. W^hen some of his neighbors works 
horses and average 7 vows to the hand — rows four hun- 
dred and 40 yards in length. The field above named v/as 
turned over last fall. 
As I write so bad I will close. There are a great many 
things, and important ones, too, that are compelled to be 
neglected in cotton picking time. Accept my wishes for 
the advancement of our agricultural knowledge, &c. 
Yours truly, F. 
Alhboro, Ala., Alay, 1856. 
CHICORY, OR SUCCORY. 
Editors Southern Cultivator — Enclosed you will 
please receive some Chicory or Succry, or CJiicoruro^ 
inhjbus, a grass seed. I have just received it from Fran- 
kenthal on the River Rhine, Bavaria, It is a good winter 
grass; can be cut at least four times in a year for hay, or feed 
off every month. For hay, sow broadcast in well worked 
land after a rain. To cultivate for the roots, which are 
used as a substitute for coffee, plant in drills and keep the 
weeds down — it bears a blue flower. The roots to be 
dried in the sun or an oven and roasted as coffee. Cut 
the grass off in October, say two weeks before you take 
up the roots. They must be washed clean before drying. 
It will grow in pine woods land, if not too dry ; but, of 
course, will do better in land well manured. Sow one 
pound of seed to an acre. 
I have about tiiree or four pounds that I might spare, if 
any of your friends should wish to try it. 
Yours truly, E. M. Rusha, 
54 Girod-street. 
New Orleans, La., Alay, 1856. 
GOPHERS, GR “SALAMANDERS.^’ 
Editors Southern Cultivator — As I am very anx- 
ious to find some .remedy for the gophers or salamanders 
(diey commit depredations upon my garden, destroying 
ray vegetables by the whoiesale) I will make inquiry 
i through your vfluable journal. I read the Cultivator 
\ would hail ihe remedy with joy. Inquire of your intelli- 
; gent correspondents. I use strychnine and arsenic on 
potatoes. Whether this kills them or not, I cannot say ; 
but one tiling is certain, they cease their depredations in 
that part of the garden for a time. 
Respectfully yours, 
Texas In«.uikse. 
Sjrnncfidd, Te^cas, May, 1856. 
