AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
307 
jmUmi3.iu wi»P OTa)j ■»!■■> 
For the American Agriculturist. 
POTATO EOT IN MAINE FORTY YEARS AGO. 
Messrs. Editors : Since the potato rot has 
prevailed so extensively wherever this most 
important vegetable is cultivated, it has often 
occurred to me to give an account of a simi¬ 
lar disease, which was well known in parts 
of the State of Maine, say from about 1815 
to 1820 or 1825. It may be that descriptions 
of it have been given by others, but I have 
not met with them. 
The writer was then a boy, and worked on 
a farm in Bristol, which is situated on the 
sea coast, in the south part of Lincoln Co. 
The description is entirely from recollection. 
The farmers there, at that time, planted 
their potatoes almost exclusively in hills, 
like Indian corn ; and it was characteristic 
of the disease which prevailed there, that it 
would attack separate hills in all parts of a 
field, thus indicating, as many at the time 
supposed, that it originated in the planted 
tubers. Its ravages were much less destruc¬ 
tive than those of the modern disease, as it 
seldom affected more than a tenth, or per¬ 
haps an eighth part of a whole field ; and 
never appeared in the tubers after their re¬ 
moval from the ground. Sometimes a part 
of the vines in a hill would be attacked, 
while the other part would remain healthy ; 
and the disease never seemed to be commu¬ 
nicated from one hill to another. 
Sometimes a few hills would be seen dis¬ 
eased at the time of hilling—the last of June 
or first of July—and in the progress of the 
season other hills, in different parts of the 
field, would be attacked in the same manner, 
without any apparent connection with the 
former. But generally there would be no 
appearance of it, as I recollect, until as late 
as the first of August, or later. 
The disease would be first indicated by a 
slight wilting or curling of the edges of the 
leaves, and generally the whole of the rest 
of the plant would soon, if not immediately, 
put on a deeper green. If the roots were 
examined at this time, they would be found 
more or less diseased, but the plant would 
often continue to grow for some time, the 
stalks becoming even stouter than those of 
the healthy plant, but not increasing so much 
in length. 
As the the disease progressed, multitudes 
of small tubers would form on the lower 
part of the stalk, but above the ground, and 
the stalk would become hollow like the de¬ 
caying trunk of an old tree, the roots and 
proper tubers becoming involved in the de¬ 
cay. Generally the tubers in their decay, 
which would always commence at the part 
where the stem is attacked, would change 
to a soft pulp or .jelly, but sometimes they 
would be quite hard and white, but rotten 
throughout. 
Late in the season it would generally be 
found that the plants in the hills first attacked 
would be entirely decayed, while in other 
hills the disease w’ould be in every stage of 
its progress. As stated above, I never knew 
the disease to attack the tubers after their 
removal from the ground, except that single 
ones in which the rot had already com¬ 
menced would continue to decay. 
It will be perceived that this disease was 
essentially different from the modern potato 
rot, in several particulars ; and the opinion 
was generally entertained that it originated 
in the tubers planted. The farmers there¬ 
fore reasoned that, by obtaining their seed- 
potatoes from distant localities, where the 
disease was unknown, it might be entirely 
avoided. This was done to some extent, 
and I think with beneficial results. 
Where the writer resided the disease was 
at its worst about the years 1818 or 1820, 
and little is recollected of it after the latter 
period. Whether it extended beyond a few 
towns, on the sea coast in Lincoln County, 
the writer is also uninformed. The mod¬ 
ern disease has been as destructive in Maine 
as elsewhere. Jay Jay. 
Middletown, Conn., Jan. 15, 1854. 
For the American Agriculturist. 
LABOR WANTED IN INDIANA. 
I see in your paper, and likewise in others, 
that the day laborers are out of employment 
in the cities at the east, and suffering for the 
necessaries of life, on account of not getting 
work. Please advise them to emigrate 
west, where there is plenty of work, and but 
few laborers. Wages for common work are 
from fifty cents to $1 per day, for male labor, 
and women help from $1 to $2 50 per week. 
We have land to clear, rails to make, 
ditching to do, barns to build, woods-pasture 
to make—and, in fact, all kinds of work to 
do pertaining to making farms and farming. 
There are plenty of farmers improving but 
slowly on account of the scarcity of help. 
Provisions are plenty and cheap—corn 37c. 
to 40c. per bushel; wheat, $1 25 to $1 35 ; 
pork $2 50 to $3 50 per cwt. 
VEAZEY PRICE. 
Somerset, Wabash Co., Ia. 
CAVALRY HORSES. 
A paper appeared a few months back, in a 
highly popular publication, on the subject of 
cavalry horses, in which the writer assumed 
that the bulk of those at present used in our 
army were too large; that to cross our or¬ 
dinary breeds with thoroughbred horses 
would only add to the evil, inasmuch as it 
would add upright shoulders and washy con¬ 
stitutions to overgrown size ; and suggested 
as a remedy the cross witli Arabian sires. 
The assertions of the writer with regard to 
thoroughbred horses I shall at present pass 
over, with the remark that they can only 
have been made by one practically unac¬ 
quainted with the noble breed which he libels. 
But are our cavalry horses too large for 
their work 1 Certainly, not those of the or¬ 
dinary regiments. With regard to those of 
the Life Guards, the Blues, and other heavy 
regiments, the answer may be doubtful; but, 
at any rate, the weight they have to carry 
must be lessened before the horses them¬ 
selves can be reduced in size and substance. 
The work which a troop-horse has to do 
much resembles that of a weight-carrying 
hunter, with the proviso that it is more 
severe, and that speed is not so primary 
an object. Now, the best size for a hunter 
is from 15 hands 2 inches to 16 hands, both 
inclusive. A horse below the former height 
seldom fetches more than a moderate price 
for this purpose; and a tolerably long expe¬ 
rience in the hunting-field convinces me that 
this is not a prejudice, for, although l have 
possessed many excellent horses of small 
size, not one of them was entitled to the ap¬ 
pellation of a first-rate hunter. That is to 
say, whatever might be their speed, however 
extraordinary might be their powers of fenc¬ 
ing, they were unable to go through a severe 
day, in which both endurance and speed 
were required in the highest degree, without 
exhibiting undue signs of distress. On the 
contrary, I have had several horses above 
the size which I prefer—that is, more than 
16 hands—which were able to go through 
runs of more than ordinary severity, with 
ease at the time, and without requiring a 
longer rest than usual to recruit them. I 
conclude, therefore, that from 15 hands 2 
inches to 16 hands is the best size for caval¬ 
ry horses, as for hunters. 
With regard to the use of Arabs as sires 
for cavalry horses, I wish to speak with con¬ 
siderable diffidence, because my own person¬ 
al experience of them is but limited. As 
far, however, as it extends, it is decidedly 
adverse to their employment, unless in ex¬ 
ceptional cases. The few Arabs I have 
seen were characterized by the upright 
shoulders which the writer to whom 1 have 
alluded attributed to our thoroughbred 
horses. They w r ere, moreover low in the 
forehead (an unpleasant conformation for the 
rider), and apt to be too drooping at the pas¬ 
tern. The progeny of Arabian sires, out of 
English mares, is usually small and light of 
bone, though pretty and possessed of showy 
action. Their character is that of park- 
hacks or ladies’ horses ; and they would at 
once be rejected by any officer purchasing 
troop-horses, as unfit to carry even the 
lightest of our 'so-called “ light-cavalry” 
troopers. Unless, then, for the exceptional 
case of an over-sized or enormously power¬ 
ful mare, it is useless to expect cavalry re¬ 
mounts from the use of Arab sires. 
A much higher authority has recom¬ 
mended that recourse should be had to sires 
like the weight-carrying hunter, with the 
view of perpetuating the breed of horses 
under consideration. I am convinced that 
such advice, if largely earned out, would 
lead to the most fatal results. Your readers 
may perhaps recollect that I have always 
strongly insisted upon the necessity of puri¬ 
ty of race on the part of the sire, whatever 
may be the class of animals which it is de¬ 
sired to produce. That the male ought to 
be thoroughbred, or an accredited pedigree, 
and of a higher caste if possible than the 
female, is a maxim unanimously upheld 
alike by the highest theoretical and practical 
authorities in breeding. For my own part, 
I never knew it departed from wilhout sig¬ 
nal failure. Taking only one or two of the 
most obvious considerations connected with 
such a course into account, it is obvious 
that such must be the almost inevitable con¬ 
sequence. On what ground does any man 
who reflects at all, select a sire 1 Why, 
that he wishes her offspring to resemble him. 
But it is well known that the power pos¬ 
sessed by either parent of imprinting their 
own type upon their offspring depends upon 
the purity of blood and antiquity of race of 
each. Thus the offspring of a thoroughbred 
Short Horn bull andacommon cow will fre¬ 
quently resemble very closely the character 
of the pure Short Horn. In like manner, 
when a hackney mare or a W T elsh pony is 
put to a thoroughbred horse, the offspring 
shows indications of being much more than 
half-bred, or in other mares it resembles its 
high-bred sire more closely than its low-bred 
dam. Supposing then that a person wishes 
to have a horse resembling a three-parts bred 
weight-carrying hunter, the most unlikely 
method which he can take to gratify his de¬ 
sire is to put a mare to a stallion so bred. 
Like effects are produced by like causes, 
and by no other. His weight-carrying hun¬ 
ter having been produced not thus, hut quite 
otherwise, so he may be assured that only 
as it was produced, and in no other way, has’he 
any chance of obtaining its like again. A 
