128 
CONDENSED CORRESPONDENCE. 
(Hontoimlr (Eorrapontonu. 
EXPERIMENT WITH THE POTATO. 
Our veteran friend, Judge Ford, of Morristown, 
N. J., informs us that he planted in his garden on 
the 3d of May last, without any. manure, 15 Mer¬ 
cer potatoes, apparently sound; and that on the 
27th of the same month, some of them had thrown 
up shoots an inch above the ground. The tubers, 
producing them, were carefully taken up, from 
which 60 sprouts were plucked, and then restored 
to their bed, in order to produce more. These 
sprouts were planted upright, with their tops half 
an inch below the surface, in conical hills or 
mounds of earth, a foot high, one to each hill, three 
feet apart, and containing no manure. 
On the 3d of June, 60 sprouts more were taken 
off and planted in another row, three feet distant 
from the one named above, and treated in every 
respect the same, the tubers which produced them, 
being returned again to their bed, where, without 
further care, they were suffered to grow. The re¬ 
sult, was, that the old tubers produced a great num¬ 
ber of exceedingly small ones, each of which was 
half destroyed with putridity and rot; whereas, not 
one of those grown from the sprouts had the slight¬ 
est sign of disease at the time of digging them, on 
the 23d of September, and had not shown any up 
to the middle of February. No hill gave more than 
one potato of the size of a goose egg ; but a con¬ 
siderable number of them were quite too small for 
the table. 
Two other rows were also planted with Mercers, 
from the same parcel of seed, within the distance of 
20 feet from those described above; and before their 
young tubers had acquired half the size of a hen’s 
egg, in spite of the application of lime and fine 
charcoal, and the cutting off of their tops, they be¬ 
came infected with the disease, and a fourth part of 
them had to be thrown away. 
The treatment of the sprouts, Judge Ford thinks, 
was improper in the following respects : —1. Only 
one solitary shoot was set in a hill, instead of four. 
2. The mounds were so elevated, that, by shedding 
off the rain and dew, their sides were exposed both 
to the influences of the sun and wind, and conse¬ 
quently became too dry to nourish the plants. 3. 
If there was no disease in the sprouts, as he sup¬ 
poses there was not, a liberal dressing of manure 
might have been applied to the ground, and like¬ 
wise in the hill, and a large yield of sound pota¬ 
toes, he thinks would have been raised. 
PROPOSED HEDGE PLANT. <• 
We have received a communication from Mr. S. 
D. Ingham, of New Hope, Pa., accompanied by a 
small package of the seeds of a species of thorn 
(cratsegus), from the Alleghany range between the 
White and Red Sulphur Springs, in Virginia. His 
attention was first drawn to this plant, by observ¬ 
ing that, wherever the cattle had browsed off the 
tops, in an old field, a remarkably close and bushy 
growth was formed without any other trimming. 
The stem of each bush, he represents to have been 
as thick as his wrist, and capable of making from 2 
to 3 feet of very thick hedge. 
The seeds, or haw^s, he says, can be obtained in 
great abundance at the last-named place, and if an 
easy mode of propagating them could be devised, 
he thinks that this thorn would make an excellent 
hedge plant. The package he has sent us, he 
wishes to be placed into the hands of some one for 
experiment, with the view of learning the best mode 
of propagation. If any amateur, or experienced 
nurseryman, is desirous to make the trial, a part or 
the whole of the seeds are at his disposal. We 
would suggest that they be treated in a similar man¬ 
ner as recommended for those of the Osage orange, 
at p. 105 of the present number; and for future 
sowing, when the haws are ripe, to mix them as 
soon as gathered, in a heap of earth, where they 
must remain for a whole year, turning them over 
several times in the course of that period, in order 
to facilitate the decomposition of the pulp and husk. 
They may then be separated from the earth and 
sown in beds of finely-prepared soil, and covered to 
a depth of about one fourth of an inch. Thus 
treated, when sown in the autumn of the second 
year, they will vegetate the following spring. 
CULTIVATION OF POTATOES. 
Mr. John W. Bailey, of Plattsburgh, N. Y., in 
an interesting article on the culture of the potato, 
which we regret to condense, for want of space, re¬ 
commends that all lands, designed for that plant, 
should be thoroughly drained, so that water will 
not stand upon any part of the field; that a good 
soil, inclining to sand, gravel, or loam, is to be pre¬ 
ferred, avoiding clay, and even a clayey subsoil, if 
possible, as they do not permit the water to pass 
off so soon as required. The ground, he says, 
j should be plowed and planted as early in the 
| spring as practicable ; and the potatoes dug as soon 
as they are ripe; after which they should be put in 
a dry and airy place, and kept until cold weather 
makes it necessary to remove them to the cellar, 
where they should be kept as cool as possible 
without danger of freezing. 
In the selection of seed, he makes choice of the 
hardiest varieties, and for the last two years, he has 
applied lime, plaster, and w’ood ashes, in the hill, at 
the time of planting, with good results. 
Hot Lye a Remedy for the Peach Borer. 
—Mr. J. 8., of Stockholm, N. J., writes us that he 
•heard of a well authenticated case, in which a wo¬ 
man, laboring under the maddening influence of 
jealousy, deliberately took an axe, and levelled to 
the ground, a fine young orchard she had helped to 
plant; and being intent, also, upon the destruction of 
some favorite peach trees, then beginning to decay, 
she prepared a strong lye and poured it, while hot, 
about their roots. But what was her surprise, 
when she found that the trees put forth, flourished, 
and bore more fruit that year than they were ever 
known to do before. 
Care of Stock. —Mr. W. G. B.. of Newark, N. 
J., recommends that pigs have a warm place and a 
clean dry bed. “A pig,” he says, “does not love 
dirt for dirt’s sake, and will thrive much better if 
kept clean.” He further says, “A dirty hide will 
waste a cow’s flesh faster than food will add to it. 
* * * Curry cows every day and keep them per¬ 
fectly clean, for filth and thrift are ever opposed.” 
