96 
SEEDLING POTATOES. 
profit realized than by selling the animals in poor 
condition to be driven some hundreds of miles to the 
neighborhood of those cities, and then fattened 
where the materials for doing so are highly expen¬ 
sive. Such, at all events, has been the result of 
railroads in Great Britain. Here is one great ad¬ 
vantage over the western States. This, and the 
present low price of the land, as well as the salu¬ 
brity of the climate, may well be subjects of consi¬ 
deration to those who are about to emigrate. 
It is common to think everything without value, 
which, if not cash, has not some approximation or 
convertibility into cash ; and yet simple-minded 
folks have sometimes thought that cash itself is 
only profitable so far as it can procure happiness 
for ourselves or those whom nature or friendship 
has attached to us. Some, too, who have travelled 
in many countries, have at least fancied that cheer¬ 
ful scenery has a strong tendency to make cheerful 
those who live surrounded by it. Such people, 
though they may wish more frequently to find here 
those tokens of human well-being—neat farm¬ 
houses and thriving sheep and cattle of the most 
useful kinds, will yet see that the hand of intelli¬ 
gent improvement has in many places been at 
work, and must be delighted with the fertile val¬ 
leys and the beautiful hills, everywhere capable of 
high cultivation, which characterize the grass lands 
of Western New York. R. H. 
Buffalo, Feb., 1846. 
seedlingTotatoes. 
Some time ago I promised to give you an account 
of my seedling potatoes. If they possess no other 
recommendation, they are entirely free from the dis¬ 
ease so prevalent all over the world. I have lately 
gone through my bins containing nearly two hun¬ 
dred bushels, and after carefully inspecting them, 
found every one perfectly sound. My neighbors 
have not been so fortunate for the last two or three 
years, and I attribute my success to my method of 
preparing the seed, and subsequent culture. I cut 
two eyes to a set; after which they are spread over 
a barn floor to dry for six or seven days before put¬ 
ting them into the earth, and during this time, each 
set is carefully examined by handling, to ascertain 
the fact of its drying and shrinking properly. Oc¬ 
casionally one or two soft ones are found, which 
are discarded as worthless; the good sets will 
always dry up, and yield but little to the pressure of 
the finger, and these alone are planted. As soon as 
the vines show themselves above ground, I top 
dress them with slaked lime, 40 bushels to the acre, 
hoeing only twice, but using the "plow as often as 
necessary, to keep down the weeds. 
For the last three years I have gone through the 
same operation with other potatoes, not seedlings, 
and have invariably lost one-half of my seed by 
their not standing the drying test; but it is better to 
lose half the seed than half the crop. In cutting 
carefully a potato that is in part affected, you can 
remove the diseased portion, and by submitting the 
seed to be dried, ascertain its fitness for propagation. 
I have found the disease showing itself in a spot 
no larger than the head of a pin, and then gradu¬ 
ally spreading over the whole potato ; is not this 
a sufficient objection to the planting of whole roots ? 
I prefer liquid manure to any other for potatoes, 
and in fact for every vegetable. My opiiiion is the 
result of several successful experiments with this 
essence, but before giving them to you, I will de¬ 
scribe the pit in which I collect all juices and offal. 
It is 6 feet deep, 6 r 0 feet long, and 20 feet broad, 
with a good tight clay bottom, and stoned up on all 
sides. My cow shed is on the north side, and the 
floors of the stalls and passages incline sufficiently 
to allow the fluid excrements to reach the pit with¬ 
out resistance, and the solids are thrown in at each 
cleaning of the stable. The inclination of my yard 
is also towards this receptacle, and the wash from 
it I consider important. By means of a pump I 
draw off the liquid when wanted, and with a hogs¬ 
head placed on a roller, roll and irrigate my mea¬ 
dows simultaneously. Last season I tried the fluid 
for potatoes. I plowed half an acre of ground, and 
after harrowing it well, passed the roller over with 
the sprinkling apparatus attached; put on about 8 
tons of the liquid manure, together with 2 bushels 
of salt, then followed again with the plow, previous 
to planting the seed. Notwithstanding the drought, 
the crop harvested from the half acre was 170 
bushels of a very large size, many of them 4| 
inches in diameter, and very few under 3 inches. I 
never saw a more even crop in my life. For 
gooseberries, raspberries, &c., there can be nothing 
better than manure in a fluid state, and vines thrive 
better and produce much finer fruit when it is used. 
In fact, no plant is more benefited by this application 
than the grape. I believe even in this country it is 
quite a common thing to see a gardener dipping the 
roots of plants intended for transplanting, into a 
paste made of urine and clay, or any earthy sub¬ 
stance. When this is done all flourish, and no 
sheltering from the sun is necessary. 
The use of liquid manure, as a fertilizer, is not a 
novelty. On the contrary, the Chinese, Germans, 
and Italians, have for ages paid great attention to 
the collection of urine, and to the manufacture of 
substitutes, and many artificial mixtures have been 
made with great success. In England, scarcely a 
farm is without its cistern to hold the juices and 
wash of the barn yard, the farmer being obliged to 
husband everything in the shape of food for the 
land. And when chemistry steps in and tells us the 
valuable properties of these fluid excrements, that 
man must be obstinate indeed who will not save all 
and pay some of his dues to the earth with this va¬ 
luable liquid. It is an admitted fact, that all com¬ 
posts, bones, lime, magnesia, &c., are dissolved by 
some means before vegetables will notice them; 
hence, in presenting a fluid manure to them, as the 
salts of the urine have a forcing power, vegetation 
immediately commences. The improvements that 
are constantly being made in the agricultural world, 
and the wonderful facts brought to light by the aid 
of science, show clearly the growing interest evinced 
in making the earth bring forth its full fruits. 
Common sense tells us the earth must be fed, or it 
will become exhausted; and to avoid the fate of 
one of our Southern States, let us collect and pre¬ 
serve everything containing the necessary elements 
of vegetation. Wm. B. Oddie 
The Meadows , Rockland Co., Jan., 1846. 
