144 
POTATO DISEASE-HOW REMEDIED, ETC. 
who keep sheep along the banks of the Missis¬ 
sippi, some of whom actually give it away for 
shearing, boarding the shearers in the bargain. 
Mr. C. has always found his flock healthy, except 
the foot rot. The sheep also increase very rapidly 
all along this coast, as they breed freely at all sea¬ 
sons of the year. It may seem surprising to the 
people east, that planters do not raise more sheep 
for mutton, even if the wool is not worth saving ; 
but the fact is, mutton is altogether too light a diet 
for negroes. They want nothing more delicate 
than good, fat mess pork. 
The next place below Mr. Camp’s, that I visited, 
belongs to the Messrs. Tilotson. From the river 
to their sugar house, a distance of two miles and a 
quarter, they have laid down a cedar railway, at a 
cost of $2,500, for the purpose of conveying their 
sugar and molasses for shipment. But whether it 
will prove profitable is a mooted point. Others 
have tried the like, and have given it up as a bad 
job. These gentlemen having been brought up in 
a hay country at the nonh, think that they cannot 
do without dry fodder here. So, every winter, 
they put in some 30 acres of oats, harrowing the 
ground smooth at the time of sowing, and after the 
oats are harvested, they obtain a spontaneous crop 
of crab-grass hay, which is very good, if mowed 
early, being the only kind of grass that they can 
cultivate with advantage. 
After leaving Messrs. Tilotsons, December 19th, 
I passed several very fine places, among which 
were those of William Miner, John Miner, Henry 
Dogal, (one of the oldest, largest, and most suc¬ 
cessful sugar planters in the state,) Duncan F. 
Kenner, and of General H.B. Trist, brother to the 
much celebrated “ Don Nicholas,” of Mexican 
treaty memory. General T. is not one of those 
who think it useless to read agricultural works, 
because they happen to be printed at the north ; 
but, on the contrary, his library is well stored with 
such publications as it is for the interest of the su¬ 
gar planter to consult. Solon Robinson. 
The Dog Distemper. —We are asked by a cor¬ 
respondent for a recipe to eure the dog distemper. 
He might, with about the same propriety, require 
of us a prescription for the bilious fever or the 
cholera; for no two dogs are affected exactly alike, 
and what would be beneficial in one stage of the 
disease, would be injurious, perhaps, in another. 
Cooling, and slightly-purging medicines, as sulphur 
and castor oil, are in some cases best; in others, 
emetics and astringent medicines. Eleven years 
ago, the past winter, we cured a favorite spaniel 
bitch, by giving her from three to five grains of 
powdered antimony, night and morning; and three 
months ago, a noble Newfoundland pup of ours, 
seven months old, we cured in a week, by giving 
him sixteen grains of sulphur, mixed with a gill 
of warm milk, and administered night and morn¬ 
ing. His food, during this time, was principally 
milk gruel. We advise our correspondent to 
consult his physician, or some reliable work on the 
diseases of the dog. 
Virtues of Hemp. —By its cordage, ships are 
guided, bells are rung, beds are corded, and rogues 
kept in awe.— Cowles. 
POTATO DISEASE—HOW REMEDIED. 
The researches of intelligent and scientific men 
have been attended apparently with no success in 
their indefatigable pursuit for the causes of the- 
potato rot. It is no part of our intention to ex¬ 
amine the question at this time, but simply to make 
two or three of the most obvious and practical 
suggestions. 
That the recent prevalent and fatal disease is the 
result of long-continued, artificial cultivation, can¬ 
not admit of doubt. That it has been, and still is, 
induced or augmented by the use of putrescent or 
barnyard manures, is in the highest degree probable. 
When the potato, like any other vegetable, is in a 
healthy condition, and sustaining a vigorous growth, 
there is no danger of disease from the presence of 
putrescent manures. But when the seed lies dor¬ 
mant in the earth before vegetation has commenced, 
and especially when the freshly-cut, moist, absorb¬ 
ent vessels are lying in immediate contact with the 
putrid, decomposing manure, there may, and under 
many circumstances, must be injury to the forth¬ 
coming plant; and again, when, from any cause, 
the progress of vegetation is arrested in the sum¬ 
mer, or when growth has ceased in the autumn, the 
presence of these decomposing vegetable and ani¬ 
mal matters may prejudicially affect these fleshy, 
sensitive tubers. The combined effects of this cause 
through successive ages of cultivation, have doubt¬ 
less produced the present tendency to disease. 
Some atmospheric or other causes, which, under 
other circumstances would have been perfectly 
harmless, have kindled contagion in this suscepti¬ 
ble mass, and sent destruction over every region 
where the plant is cultivated. Had it been in a 
healthy, vigorous condition, the cause which now 
produces decay might have fallen innocuous upon 
our fields ; or like the cold blast which fastens a 
rapidly-wasting disease upon the consumptive man, 
it would serve only to freshen and invigorate a 
sound constitution. We believe there is a weak¬ 
ness or want of stamina in the whole potato race, and 
that there is no empiricism, no quick medicaments, 
which, acting like a vomit or cathartic on' the hu¬ 
man frame, will purge the vegetable system of what 
has become hereditary tendency to disease. 
The cure for this must be gradual. Gentle 
tonics must be administered to the enfeebled plant, 
till it regains its former hardiness and strength. 
These, we think, must be found principally in 
fresh, rich turf, or sod, (old meadows or pastures,) 
and in the exclusive use of saline manures. Keep 
from the potato field every particle of putrescent—• 
organic manure—whatever has once been a portion 
of vegetable or animal, and which is now passing 
with more or less rapidity to decay, and which may 
possibly excite a corresponding sympathy from the 
sickly plant, and induce that, too, to join it in its 
rapid career of dissolution. Instead of these, use 
conservative manures, antiseptics, a part of whose 
nature it is to arrest decay or putrefaction. Salt, 
ashes from either coal or wood, lime, plaster, pot¬ 
ash, bone dust, (which, if deprived of its animal 
matter by calcination, is nothing but a mineral salt,) 
old bricks and mortar, burnt clay, charcoal from 
peat or wood, marl or green sand may be used, either 
singly or in judicious combination, as the wants of 
the soil may require. 
