editor’s table. 
101 
®Mtor’ 0 Sable. 
The Potato Disease. —We are constantly receiv¬ 
ing communications on the cause and remedy of the 
inexplicable disease of the potato, often contradictory 
in themselves, few, if any of which , are without excep¬ 
tions. By one class, the cause of the malady is at¬ 
tributed to parasitical fungi; by another, to insects or 
worms ; a third, to exhausted vitality from long culti¬ 
vation ; a fourth, to an improper use of ammoniacal 
or stimulating manures ; a fifth, to the want of lime 
in the manure or soil; a sixth, to drought; a seventh, 
to a superabundance of rain ; an eighth, to a deficien¬ 
cy of electricity in the atmosphere ; a ninth, to an 
excess of electricity; and by a tenth class to a mias¬ 
matic or some unknown agency, the mode of action 
of which, it is beyond human perception to compre¬ 
hend. 
Among the numerous remedies which have been 
recommended, those that seem most to merit atten¬ 
tion, are, the production of new varieties from seed; 
early planting, followed by early harvesting, and se¬ 
curing the crop from wet and frost; and lastly, what 
we suggested in our fourth volume, three years ago ; 
namely, plant on moderately rich, warm land , having 
a good sod, with no manure but plaster, charcoal 
dust, tvood ashes, salt, or air-slacked lime. 
Crops of the U. States in 1847.—A Washing¬ 
ton correspondent of the N. Y. Courier &. Enquirer 
gives the following particulars from the forth-coming 
Annual Report of the Commissioner of Patents :— 
Bushels. 
Indian corn. 
Oats, 
Rye, 
Wheat, 
Buckwheat, 
Barley, 
Potatoes, 
Tobacco, 
Cotton, 
Rice, 
Silk (cocoons)j 
540,000,000 
111,530,000 
31,350,000 
177,000,000 
11,674,000 
5,735,000 
97,018,000 
219,984,000 lbs. 
1,026,500,000 “ 
103,400,500 “ 
404,600 “ 
Great Yield of Wisconsan Wheat.— Mr. B. B. 
Reynolds has just completed the cleaning up of ten 
acres of wheat raised in this town the past season. 
He has 450$ bushels—a trifle over 45 bushels to the 
ttcre. For some nights previously to its being threshed, 
fifteen or twenty hogs had access to the wheat; and 
Mr. R. is of the opinion, that, had it not been for this, 
the yield would have averaged 50 bushels per acre. 
The wheat was of the bearded, red-chaff variety.— 
Watertown Chronicle. 
Legal Bushel of Grain and Seeds in Ohio.— 
The following is a copy of an act passed by the 
Ohio Legislature, in February, 1847, fixing the bushel 
weight of the leading kinds of grain in that state :— 
Sec. 1. Be it enacted, fyc. That, whenever wheat, 
rye, flax seed, Indian corn, barley, clover seed, or 
oats, shall be sold by the bushel, and no special agree¬ 
ment as to the measurement shall be made by the 
parties, the bushel shall consist of sixty pounds of 
wheat, of fifty-six pounds of rye, or flax seed, of fifty- 
six pounds of Indian corn, of forty-eight pounds of 
barley, of sixtv-four pounds of clover seed, and thirty- 
two pounds of oats. 
Sec 2. All laws and parts of laws inconsistent 
with this act are hereby repealed. 
Cultivation and Manufacture of Pepper¬ 
mint. —A correspondent of the Syracuse Journal 
states that there is move peppermint manufactured in 
Wayne county, N. Y., than in all other parts of the 
United States put together. He says that a company 
from New York have purchased the manufacturing 
establishments at Palmyra, with all the mint now 
growing, for which they have v paid $200,000, binding 
those who have been engaged in the business, not to 
grow any more mint nor manufacture the oil for a 
certain number of years. 
Choice Varieties of Apples for Ohio, —In the 
late Transactions of the Ohio Nurserymen and Fruit 
Growers 5 Convention, held at Columbus, in September 
last, Mr. E. Nichols, of Walhonding, recommends the 
following fifteen varieties of apples as adapted for the 
county of Belmont:— 
Early. —Summer Queen ; Early Pennock. 
Fall. —Patterson’s Spice ; Angle Sweet. 
Late Fall. —Fall Pippin ; Rambo. 
Winter. —Redstreak or Wells ; Golden Russet ; 
Belle Fleur ; Spitzenburg (of Belmont); Roman 
Stem or Rawls’ Jannett ; Willow or Willow-twig; 
Roxburv Russet; Polly Bright. 
The above-named varieties, in Belmont, he states, 
furnish fine apples foi every day in the year, without 
extraordinary care. “I have eaten the Queen and the 
Neverfail,” says he, “each of perfect flavor, on the 
same day; the first from the tree, the last from the 
cave of a neighboring tenant farmer, put up in the 
most careless manner ; and I must testify, too, that 
the Neverfail, in flavor, seemed more than a match 
for the Queen, although one year older. The Willow 
is perhaps a better keeper than the Neverfail; and, as 
a cooking apple, is first rate.” 
Oregon Exports. —We see by the Oregon Specta¬ 
tor, that 1,736 barrels flour, 191,000 feet of lumber, 
and 96,000 shingles, were exported from that young 
territory in the month of April last. The Spectator 
anticipates, that the coming season, there will be ex¬ 
ported 10,000 barrels of flour ! 
Cultivation of the Grape. —We understand 
from Mr. George Woodward, of Port Chester, N Y., 
that the unsurpassably fine Isabella grapes, three 
inches in circumference, alluded to at p. 356, in our 
sixth volume, as exhibited at the Fair of the Brooklyn 
Institute, in September last, were raised strictly in 
accordance with the rules laid down by Clement 
Hoare, in his Treatise on the Vine. 
Tobacco Culture in Massachusetts. —The 
editor of the Springfield Republican says, that the cul¬ 
tivation of the tobacco plant has been very largely 
entered into in that vicinity, within a year or two 
past. One gentleman of that town (Springfield), had 
twenty-six acres of it last season. When successful¬ 
ly cured, it proves a very profitable crop, but its cul¬ 
tivation requires much care, and exhausts the soil in 
a large degree. 
A Female Farmer. —The second premium for 
the best cultivated farm in Litchfield Co., Ct., was 
awarded the past season to Mrs. Vesta Hawkins, of 
Watertown. 
The farm contains 160 acres. It has been under 
her management. for the last ten years. The com¬ 
mittee of examination say: “ It is divided the pre¬ 
sent season into 23 acres of meadow, three and one 
half corn, six of oats, one and a half of rye, two of 
buckwheat, a half acre of potatoes, seven acres of 
woodland, and the residue of pasture land.” The pro¬ 
duce of the farm for the past season is estimated as 
follows:—-50 tons of hay, 200 bushels of corn, 133 
shocks of oats, and 150 bushels of potatoes. The stock 
kept on it last season consisted of 26 head, including 
six calves, two horses, and 56 sheep. This farm is 
conveniently laid out in small fields, the fences mostly 
of rails, all in good repair, and with the buildings, 
presents a neat and tidy appearance ; — Ex. Paper. 
Poison from Leaden Water Pipes. —It is stated 
in the Christian Citizen that several persons of 
Worcester, Mass., have suffered during the past year 
from the use of water pumped frcm wells through 
leaden pipes. One individual has entirely lost the use 
of his hands 
