yvm\u.v*o\tt. aw 
TWO DOLLARS 
YEAR.] 
“PROGRESS AND IMPROVEMENT.’ 
[SINGLE NO. FIVE CENTS. 
MOOKE’S RURAL RW-YORKER, 
AN ORIGINAL WEEKLY 
Agricultural, Literary and Family Newspaper. 
CONDUCTED DY D. D. T. MOORE, 
WITH AH ABLE COUPS OP ASSISTANT EDITORS. 
ThB Rural New-Yorker is designed to be unsurpassed in 
Value, Purity, Usefulness and Variety of Contents, and unique and 
beautiful in Appearance. Its Conductor devotes his personal atten¬ 
tion to the supervision of its various departments, and earnestly labors 
to render the Kurat. an eminently Reliable Guide on the important 
Practical, Scientific and other Subjects intimately connected with the 
business of those whoso interests it zealously advocates. It embraces 
more Agricultural, Horticultural, Scientific, Educational, Literary and 
News Matter, interspersed with appropriate and beautiful Engravings, 
than any other journal,— rendering it the most complete Agricultu¬ 
ral, Literary and Family Journal in America 
I All communications, and bnsiness letters, should be addressed 
to D. O. T. MOORE, Rochester, N. Y. 
Foe Terms and other particulars, see last page. 
THE POTATO DISEASE: 
ITS CAUSE AND REMEDIES. 
In the Rural of July 24tfc, we gave an avticle 
from the Buffalo Commercial Advertiser under the 
above heading. The fact that the cause of this 
disease is not yet ascertained, with any degree of 
certainty, and that it still exists unchecked, so far 
a3 the agency of man is concerned, entitles any 
reasonable explanation of its cause and any feasi¬ 
ble plan for it3 euro to fair and fall consideration. 
The candor with which the statements in the arti¬ 
cle from the Commercial were made, and the denial 
of any secret or patent cure, induced us to lay the 
matter before our readers. The past week we were 
favored with a call from the gentlemen who claims 
to have made this important discovery, Mr. Alex¬ 
ander Henderson, of Buffalo, and we have exam¬ 
ined the insects he brought with him, and caught 
scores of others in the potato fields around our 
city. We have also had them sit for their por¬ 
traits, so that all our readers may he able to take a 
look at them. 
* The insect when about twenty days old appears 
as shown in figure 1, and feeds upon the potato in 
the ground. Sometimes they are found upon the 
stalks, but in that case they are not hatched on 
the potato in the ground, but upon the leaves of 
mullen or some other plant, as is not unfrequently 
the case. When hatched in the air they are of a 
pale green color, but in the ground they are white. 
Figure 2 shows the insect as it appears about forty 
days after hatching. Figure 3 exhibits the full 
grown insect, magnified, as it appears a few days 
after emerging from the ground, the line 6 showing 
the natural length. Figure 4 shows the insect 
with its wings expanded. Figure 5 shows the front 
of the head and the proboscis, very highly mag¬ 
nified. This singular instrument is composed of 
three parts, the center being a slender, strong and 
flexible tube, which is inserted in the potato for the 
purpose of sucking its juice; the other parts seem 
designed as guards, to defend the tube from injury, 
or to give it strength or steadiness when in opera¬ 
tion. In the center an enlargement will be ob¬ 
served, and at this point, when viewed through a 
microscope, the juices can be seen in motion, 
having the appearance of the working of a valve. 
The insect is said by some to be the Phytocoris 
linealaris, or Caprus oblinatus of Say. 
Whether these insects are the cause of the potato 
rot, or not, it is very certain they are numerous in 
almost all potato fields, and may well be watched. 
They are so abundant that every farmer and farm¬ 
ers’ son can catch them, and we hope our readers 
will not be satisfied with the picture we give, but 
will form an acquaintance with this bug by per¬ 
sonal examination. 
Every one has noticed, on going into a potato 
field, about the middle of July, that many of the 
tender top^are drooping and withered, and in this 
way the blossom buds generally fail, so much so 
that many patches of potatoes scarcely perfect a 
flower. Later in the season, many of the stalks 
are killed down to the ground. That these things 
had something to do with the rot, has been the 
general opinion, but in what way has not been well 
understood. This Mr. Henderson states is caused 
by the insect, a drawing of which we give, and 
which he considers the sole cause of the potato 
rot. It has a proboscis something like a curculio, 
with a long tube like a musquito, with which it 
punctures the stem and sucks its juices, as can be 
seen by examining the insect while feeding, 
through a lens. It not only sucks out the juices, 
but poisons the plant, causing it to droop and de¬ 
cay immediately. In two hours after the puncture 
is made the leaves will he found withered, and if 
there are several punctures on the same stalk in 
three or four days it will be found dead to the 
ground. 
The habits of the insect, so far as ascertained by 
Mr. Henderson, we will endeavor to state briefly. 
The egg is found on nearly all potatoes, glued to 
the skiD, and is planted with the seed. They are 
oblong, whitish, and so small as scarcely to be dis¬ 
tinguishable to the naked eye. With the aid of a 
lens they are readily observed, and from half a 
dozen to thirty or forty can be found on most of 
the potatoes when dug in the fall, or exposed for 
sale in onr stores in the winter and spring. After 
the seed is planted, these eggs hatch out in from 
six days to a month, depending on the warmth of 
the soil and air, and produce a lively, little, white, 
transparent insect, without wings. We saw one 
five or six days old, and through a lens magnify¬ 
ing ten times, it looked like a small, animated 
dovv-drop. After hatching they feed on the old 
set, and then the tender roots, until the young 
potatoes begin to form. In about ten days after 
hatching, they cohabit, and during the summer lay 
their eggs, for the next season’s crop of insects, 
on the new potatoes, on which they also feed, 
causing the rot by the punctures they make. About 
two months and a half after planting, the insects 
being full grown, emerge from the ground through 
the openings in the soil around the stem, or the 
crevices very common in potato hills, especially 
on stiff soils, and commence feeding on the tops, 
causing the decay previously spoken of. In 
stormy, cold weather they leave the tops and creep 
into the ground, wherever a crevice can be found 
=■ Gable for the purpose, but they are not able to 
burrow in the soil. 
The puncture of the stem does not affect the 
tuber, and only kills the stalk to its connection 
with the root, but the tuber, when punctured, com¬ 
mences to decay immediately, the disease pro¬ 
gressing with greater rapidity when the season is 
wet and warm, or when the potatoes, after digging, 
are kept in a moist, warm place. Drying potatoes 
thoroughly in the sun and air, after digging, ar¬ 
rests the disease, to a great extent, and if they are 
kept dry and cool during the winter, it makes but 
slow progress. As soon as tho potato is punctured, 
a fungus growth appears on the outside, readily 
seen by the naked eye, hut very carious when 
viewed through a glass. The eggs that are on the 
potatoes when dug, will remain dormant until 
after they are planted the next spring, if they are 
kept in a dry, cool place; but if placed in a warm, 
moist atmosphere, they will batch out in six days 
or more, according to the temperature, and the 
insects thus hatched will commence their depreda¬ 
tions in the fall or winter. This is one reason 
why many potatoes put away apparently sound in 
the fall, are found rotten before spring. The 
presence of these newly batched insects can always 
be detected, as from the punctures they make the 
juices exude, and they are always moist on the 
outside. Potatoes when observed in this condi¬ 
tion in the cellar, should be taken out and dried 
thoroughly. 
This insect has a great preference for the finer 
varieties of potatoes, such as the Mercer, and if the 
Mercer and Merino are planted in the same hill, the 
Mercer will he first attacked, while the Merino will 
not be touched, unless the depredator is forced to 
it for want of more palatable food. Long manure, 
by keeping the ground porous, affords the insect 
fine facilities for working among the tubers, and 
therefore should not he used. Stiff soils, where the 
growing potatoes cause cracks and crevices in 
which they can work, are also favorable to their 
operations, while in sandy soils where the ground 
is always light and fine, they work with difficulty. 
Keeping the ground light and mellow by frequent 
stirring, will do a good deal towards retarding their 
ravages. 
Dry seasons are unfavorable to the increase of 
this insect, as in all experiments they are found to 
perish when kept in a very dry atmosphere, and 
this accounts for the fact that our potatoes rot 
much worse when we have wet summers. Mr. 
Henderson thinks that by thoroughly drying the 
potatoes after digging, many of the eggs would be 
destroyed. Lime, sulphur, &c., has no effect on the 
full grown insect, but when they are young they are 
readily destroyed with powdered lime, as are also 
the eggs. The great remedy relied upon, is to roll 
the seed potatoes after being cut and prepared for 
planting, in powdered caustic lime. Another aid, 
would he to plant those sorts which grow deep 
in the ground, as those potatoes that grow the 
deepest are the least affected, and are unharmed 
generally. Using the hoe or shovel-plow, so as to 
keep the ground stirred, and all crevices formed 
by the growing potatoes filled up, until about the 
middle of August, or full three months after plant¬ 
ing, will destroy most of the insects in the soil and 
save most of the potatoes. 
We will now state the experiments conducted by 
Mr. Henderson, by whic i he has been able to de¬ 
cide upon the habits and destructiveness of this 
insect, as previously stated. Mr. II. first found it 
on the potato plants in 1850, and strongly suspect¬ 
ed it of being the author of the potato disease, and 
commenced a series of experiments to test the 
truth of his surmises. The first experiment was to 
place healthy tops under glass with a number of 
the insects, and the result was, the stalks were im¬ 
mediately attacked, and in less than twenty-four 
hours they were plainly diseased, and in from three 
to four days were entirely rotten. This experiment 
was repeated very many times, and with the same 
result. This would account for the destruction of 
the top, but Mr. H. found that the disease of the 
stalk did not affect the tuber or part of the plant 
below the collar, or union of the stalk and root— 
He also found that in growing plants where many 
of the potatoes were very badly rotted, new and 
healthy potatoes were afterwards formed on the 
same roots, showing that the disease was local.— 
The disease, too, almost invariably commenced on 
the upper side of the growing potato, which seemed 
to indicate that the attack was from above. He 
was, therefore, at a loss to know how the tuber be¬ 
came injured, and instituted further experiments 
to ascertain thi3 fact. A number of insects were 
then placed in a glass jar, and after they had re¬ 
mained there an hour or two potatoes were intro¬ 
duced, when they were attacked by the insect in a 
most rapacious manner, and the potatoes were 
pierced very rapidly. At every point where the 
potatoes were pierced a fungus first appeared, the 
disease commenced, and every one rotted. The 
same experiment was tried many times, and in 
some cases the potatoes wore kept in a warm, damp 
atmosphere when they rotted very rapidly; in a 
dry atmosphere they lesust. d the disease much 
longer; and it was found that after thoroughly 
drying in the suD,'if wrapped up In paper, they re¬ 
sisted the disease longer than in any other way, 
but all eventually rotted, about 40 days being the 
longest time it was found possible to keep them be¬ 
fore they became entirely rotten, after being badly 
pierced. 
The next series of experiments was the growing 
of potatoes in glass jars, so that the operations of 
the insect could he observed, to some extent, in 
the soil. After the young potatoes had become as 
large as walnuts, the insects were introduced, and 
entirely destroyed the stalks in three days, but 
made no attempt to burrow in the soil. They were 
introduced into other jars, and whole potatoes and 
those cut in halves placed on the surface. The 
insect first attacked the stalks, then the potatoes, 
always seeming to prefer the part that had been 
cut. They also deposited eggs quite numerously 
on the potatoes, preferring the cut part or any 
little scratch for this purpose, or in the eyes, and 
leaving one egg only at a place. The eggs thus de¬ 
posited hatched in six days. The potatoes rotted. 
Others were placed on potatoes in jars, in similar 
condition, and holes were made so that they could 
go down among the tubers, a privilege of which 
they very soon availed themselves. They attacked 
every growing potato within their reach, but when 
these could not be found, punctured the tender 
roots. The roots, after being punctured, com¬ 
menced to rot immediately, and in three days 
would be entirely rotten from the puncture to the 
extremity. The tubers would show signs of decay 
in three or four days, by the appearance of a 
fungus, and after this the decay was quite rapid. 
Mr. Henderson related a number of other experi¬ 
ments, proving conclusively that this insect will 
produce the rot on any healthy plant in an almost 
incredibly short time,—which we will not now give, 
as any of our readers can try the experiments for 
themselves. 
Those who wish to capture the insect for the 
purpose of trying experiments, can do so the most 
easily by observing wherever the tops of the pota¬ 
toes are withered; by taking such in the hand 
and giving them a shake, most of the insects will 
drop to the ground, and those which fall on their 
backs can be picked up, as from this position they 
cannot easily rise. 
Mr. Henderson states that he has never failed 
to find the insect wherever there was rot, although 
persons not acquainted with it perhaps might not 
discover it readily at first. On stormy days, too, 
they are not found easily, as they secrete them¬ 
selves in the ground. In answer to the remark 
often made, that it is strange that an insect should 
appear so suddenly and in such numbers as to 
cause Buch a general destruction to the potato 
crop as occurred in Ireland in 1846, it is shown 
that the disease has been known since 1830, and 
from that time was gradually on the increase up 
to about 1846, when it seemed to have reached its 
greatest destructiveness. Facts quite a3 singular 
have occurred in the history of other insects. 
Whenever the disease is very general it acta as a 
check on the increase of the insect, as where the 
potatoes rot badly the eggs on their surface are 
destroyed. 
TO MAKE A MEADOW.—NO. IIL 
Many farmers look upon grass as one of the best 
? substitutes for wheat,” and hence are giving more 
and needed attention to meadows and pastures.— 
The subject of seeding-time and manure, has al¬ 
ready been given some space in onr column, but it 
ia far from being exhausted. We draw again from 
the correspondent of the N. E. Fanner. 
In 1854, he made an attempt to get a large crop 
of grass the first year. An acre of corn-stubble, 
which had received twenty loads of manure with 
that crop, was dressed again with the same amount 
in the spring, and plowed in, then 200 bushels of 
leached ashes were applied and corn planted upon 
it. About ten loads of compost were given in the 
hill. The corn was twice cultivated, the ground 
leveled and cleared of stone, and herds’ grass and 
red-top sown, and raked in with a hay rake. The 
labor was about equal to two hoeings, and the sur¬ 
face was beautifully even. 
The product was a forest of corn-stalks, fifty 
bushels of sound corn, and about the same quan¬ 
tity of smutted ears. There was no grass except 
on a wet place, and under some large apple 
trees. The season was hot and dry. So much 
for a first crop from summer seeding with 
corn. But the ground was clean and smooth 
and in nice condition for fall seeding. So, as soon 
as the ground froze enough to hold the stumps of 
the corn firmly, they were cut off with a sharp hoe 
even with the ground, the rubbish raked off, and 
half a bushel of herds’ grass and a bushel of red- 
top seed sown per acre. It came up early in the 
spring over the whole piece. The summer was 
wet and warm, and over a tun and a half of hay 
was cut; in 1856 and ’57 he had three tuns per 
acre, with three-fourths of a tun of rowen each 
year. 
In 1855 a second experiment in summer seeding 
with corn was successful. The season was wet, 
and the grass did well and gave a larger first «rop, 
than was generally had from late fall sowing. 
Early fall sowing did well in the only instance 
in which it was tried—hut he did not repeat the 
experiment, from observing its frequent failure 
among his neighbors—the young grass not being 
able to stand the frost perfectly, while late fall 
seeding he has never known to fail. 
On the whole, seeding after corn, preparing the j 
ground as detailed in the second paragraph, is 
considered the best method. He would not sow 
any grass seed until confident it will not vegetate 
until the next spring, say from the 20th of Nov. 
until winter sets in. He believes there is an abso¬ 
lute certainty that every good seed will vegetate the 
next spring, and then have the whole season to 
grow before winter frosts. He thinks it more eco¬ 
nomical also, and the labor of preparation less than 
by any other method equally thorough. 
Pieces of late sown grass which have been mown 
two, three and five years,, respectively, average 
three tuns per acre after the first year. They are 
not fall fed, nor is rowen mown unless the after¬ 
growth is so large as to seem to require it. The 
same results, he remarks, should not be expected 
on sandy or gravelly soils, as on this—a clayey and 
rather wet one. 
The secret of success in the cases above, seems 
to us, 1st, the land is put in thorough good order, 
both by tillage and manuring; 2d, a large quantity 
of grass seed is sown, so as to get plenty of plants 
to cover the ground, and they have time and sea¬ 
son to get well established; 3d,neither the land or 
grass is exhausted by fall feeding or over cropping. 
As good results might he expected in “making a 
pasture,” if the same precautions were observed. 
We hope our correspondents will communicate 
experience on these questions. 
RURAL LIFE IN OREGON. 
— 
Eds. Rural:— I have lately received a number 
of letters from persons in New York, making inquiry 
relative to rural matters in Oregon. To answer 
all by writing to them personally, would require 
more time than I could spend. If you should 
judge that a few short articles would be of sufficient 
interest to your readers to warrant their insertion 
in your paper, it would answer these inquiries, and 
be of value, at least, to those who think of making 
Oregon their home. What I shall write will relate 
to the climate, appearance of the country, soil, pro¬ 
ductiveness, water, healthfulness, present state of 
the settlement of the country, price of land per 
acre, the helps and hindrances to the settler, the 
grains, fruits and markets, and last of all, the mat¬ 
ter which is of highest importance to every right- 
minded man, the moral, religious and educational 
priviliges of the country. No parent would wish, 
(if he sees things rightly,) to take his children into 
a new country to be deprived of moral, mental and 
religious instruction, which might make them mis¬ 
erable for time and eternity. No facilities for ob¬ 
taining the eating, drinking, wearing and sleeping 
blessings of life can compensate for the loss of 
those things which adorn and beautify the soul. 
The Climate —In respect to the climate, Oregon 
is entirely different from the Eastern States. It 
is nearly or quite as warm in summer, but in winter 
the average cold is far less. In the five years of my 
residence in Oregon, we have had each winter about 
eight inches of snow. This has usually come the last 
of December or 1st of January, and lasted from one 
day to three weeks, the wind which prevails from tho 
south-east in winter taking it off sometimes in a sin¬ 
gle day. If, however, the wind remains in the north 
for a few days after it falls, it is quite cold weather. 
This is our freezing time —all the rest of the winter 
water and vegetables rarely freezing at all. Ex¬ 
cepting at this time, which is only of a few days’ 
duration, apples, potatoes and other vegetables 
may be left uncovered in the barn, and last winter 
cabbages stood and grew in my garden all winter. 
There are very few farmers that feed their cattle at 
all, but make them get their living summer and 
winter as they can. This, however, is a barbarous 
custom. Cattle need feeding here in the winter, as 
little feed grows at this time, and though the frost 
kills but little of the summer growth, cattle have 
now become so numerous that it is kept too short 
in the growing time to leave a supply sufficient to 
keep up the increased demand for animal heat dur¬ 
ing the cold rains between November and March. 
To those who have a good range of pasturage, 
however, one-quarter of the fodder needed in New 
York would bring cattle well through the winter 
in Oregon. The saving of three-fourths of the 
time spent in gathering forage for cattle is quite 
an item for the farmer. These items I mention as 
showing well the character of the climate here in 
winter. 
In summer our winds are mostly from the north¬ 
west, though much of the time we would hardly call 
VOL. IX. NO. 32 J 
ROCHESTER, N. Y.,—SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1858. 
J WHOLE NO. m. 
WHITTEMORE’S APPLE PARER AND SLICER. 
This “Yankee Notion” i3 evidently the long- 
sought desideratum for paring, coring and slicing 
apples. Having tried one of these machines we 
can testify to its value for the purposes named. 
Tho inventor, Mr. D. H. Whittemore, of Worces¬ 
ter, Mass,, has devoted much time and patience to 
the perfection of this simple little machine, and has 
obtained patents for it on successive improvements, 
Nov. 11, 1856, Jan. 14, and Feb. 17, 1857, and he 
has also patented it in England. Our engraving 
represents the machine as it appears in operation; 
but we cannot readily describe its mode of work¬ 
ing, as the engraving lacks the lettering necessary 
to refer to the different parts. It not only pares 
the apple, but also cores and slices it, leaving it in 
the best state for cooking or drying. It cuts the 
apple in a spiral form, and can be made to leave 
any sized core, or the coring apparatus can be en¬ 
tirely removed for pariQg turnips, potatoes, &c. 
The operation is simple and speedy. By giving 
the handle five or Bix turns the apple is pared, cored 
and sliced, and can be slid off, in the best state for 
drying, or one stroke of a knife across it cuts it 
into slices for pies; or it can be left alone for 
dumplings and the like, or the hole from which tho 
core has been extracted can be filled with sugar. 
and the apple baked. 
This machine i3 manufactured by Whittemore 
Bros., Worcester, Mass., as advertised in this paper 
and we presume can he obtained of most hardware 
and agricultural implement dealers throughout 
the country. 
. wwiuw.'WfrHiM 'h a -— 
