578 
THE BUBAL SSEW-YOBKEB, 
AUG 34 
care and good judgment should be used in 
coloring, first to secure the exact shade desir¬ 
ed, and then to keep it uniform throughout 
the season, but not throughout the rear. Do 
not try to make June butter in December. 
To do this the changes which are taking place 
in the dairy and the changes in feed also must 
be kept in mind, while a given quantity of 
butter color of known strength is being ap¬ 
plied to a given quantity of cream. In short, 
use common sense. 
ODOR FROM THE MANUFACTURE OF SUPER¬ 
PHOSPHATE. 
C. A. M., Cortland, N. Y .—Is the manu¬ 
facture of superphosphate for fertilizer, as 
at present conducted, offensive to the sense of 
smell? 
Ans —There need be nothing offensive in 
the manufacture of superphosphate. But in 
general, the bones used, and the acid, are 
somewhat too odoriferous for very close ac¬ 
quaintanceship. Frequently the “sludge 
acid,” a refuse of the petroleum refineries, is 
used instead of the fresh acid; this waste acid 
being cheap, but it has a disagreeable odor. 
When Ihe fertilizer is made of rock phosphate 
and pure acid there is nothing disagreeable 
about it. If the manufactory were 40 rods 
only from a dwelling there would be at times, 
when the wind favored it, a disagreeable odor 
that would be annoying to some persons, but 
in no way injurious to health. 
Miscellaneous. 
Y. A. S., College Springs, Iowa. —The 
plant sent is Daucus carota—Wild Carrot. It 
is a vile weed, biennial, and spreads with 
great rapidity. Thorough cultivation is the 
only way to subdue it. 
J. H. S., Amite City, Iowa. —Grass No. 1 is 
Paspalum virgatum. We do not know of its 
cultivation. It is, however, relished by grass¬ 
eating animals, and if cut and dried before 
the seeds harden it is said to make a nutri¬ 
tious hay.| |No. 2 is Tripsacum dactyloides— 
Sesame Grass. Of little value as food. 
A. P. S., Belford, Mass. —What is the best 
remedy for the asparagus pest, samples of 
which are inclosed? 
Ans. —In the box sent we find the eggs, 
larvae and perfect insects of the asparagus 
beetle. Paris-green or London-purple will 
probably prove efficacious. 
M. P. C., Capoosa Works, Pa. —Where can 
I buy the pamphlet, “Food Products,” by 
Thos. Taylor, containing descriptions, etc., of 
12 edible mushrooms. It was “noticed” in a 
late Rural ? 
Ans —Send stamp to Dr. Thomas Taylor, 
Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
D. A. Y., Riverhead, L. I. —My potatoes on 
my Contest Plot, were struck with the blight 
about three weeks ago, and now the leaves 
are dead; but the stalks are still green. Is it 
permissible to dig them now, or shall I wait 
until the stalks are dead? They are rotting 
somewhat. 
Ans». —They can Ire dug at any time. 
L. S., Prescott, W. T. —What is the best 
and cheapest fence for keeping rabbits out of 
an orchard? 
Ans —Any fence, in the R. N.-Y.’s estima¬ 
tion, that would keep out rabbits would cost 
too much. The best suggestion we can offer 
is to use wire netting about the trees. This 
can be done at a small cost, and will prove an 
effectual defence. 
7. F., Danville, III. —What is the best way 
to winter grape-vines? Some say: Bury them 
in tho ground, and coyer them lightly. 
Ans. —For your climate (middle Illinois) 
we should prefer merely to lay the canes 
down, holding them by stones, blocks, sods or 
something of the kind, and then cover them 
lightly with leaves, evergreen boughs or 
coarse litter of any kind. 
DISCUSSION. 
THE ROT OF POTATOES. 
Dr. Henry Stewart, Macon County, 
N. C.—The “rot” of potatoes, so-called, has 
always been a matter of disquiet in regard to 
the possible injury that might occur from the 
consumption of the diseased tubers as food. 
I well remember the first remarkable origin 
of this question, and its great and special im¬ 
portance at the time. It was in 1847-8, when 
this disease ruined the staple food of the Irish 
people and caused a famine so disastrous as 
to have become one of the standing finger¬ 
posts of history. It was followed Jby an ep¬ 
idemic which destroyed a vast number of'its 
victims, and which, with the actual,"starva- 
yation, mostly helped to reduce the popula¬ 
tion of the unhappy island from eight millions 
to less than five. Tne question then arose, 
was this disease—then called the Irish fever— 
a result of the consumption of the diseased tu¬ 
bers. This subject was discussed in medical 
circles and became very interesting to the 
physicians and medical students who volun¬ 
teered in large numbers to assist in the crowd¬ 
ed hospitals hastily erected for the accommo¬ 
dation of the victims of the epidemic. 1 was 
one of the students in the largest hospitals in 
London, who thus volunteered, and spent sev¬ 
eral weeks in the west of Ireland, where the 
epidemic was the most virulent. I mention the 
circumstances because I believe it was the 
first time that the question arose and I know 
of no special injury of the kind occurring 
since, although several practical tests have 
been made in feeding the diseased tubers to 
swine and other animals. 
The diseased tubers were cooked and eaten 
by the physicians, and a good d^al of other 
investigation was made, all of which resulted 
in a unanimous opinion that the fever which 
prevailed was the effect of the low condition 
of vitality among the half-starved, and in 
many cases completely starved people, whose 
food was either wholly destroyed or reudered 
inuutritious by the disorganization of the 
starch tissues of the tubers, by the so- 
called disease, the character of which was 
then unknown. Scarcely a sound potato could 
be found and the blackened tubers, only 
partly esciped, were commonly eaten, not 
only in Ireland but also in England and Scot¬ 
land, out of dire necessity, and yet, excepting 
among the impoverished Irish, there was no 
outbreak of disease. The cooking of the pota¬ 
toes wholly destroys whatever might have 
been injurious, or might have been supposed 
to be so, and the effect of the disease in the 
tubers was simply the partial destruction of 
their nutritious substance. So far as I have 
since been able to learn through occasional 
reports on the same subject, in various publi¬ 
cations made from time to time, and from 
my own experience in feeding diseased pota¬ 
toes, I have never had any reason to doubt the 
accuracy of the belief resulting from the very 
careful study of the question under the cir¬ 
cumstances mentioned. 
Since then the rot of potatoes has been a 
subject of scientific study by the most skillful 
investigators, chiefly by Professor Smith of 
England, and (especially so) by Frof. De 
Bary of the University of Strasbourg, who 
discovered the manner of the hibernation of 
the fungus and the character and life history 
of the resting spores, and who set at rest all 
doubts and conflicting opinions about the 
biology and peculiar nature of the disease. 
The result ot De Bary’s invegtigations were 
published in ihe Report of the Royal Agricul¬ 
tural Society in 1875, and, so far as 1 Know, 
nothing has been added to what was then 
made known. The blackening of the tubers 
is due to the growth of the spores, or fruit and 
seed, of the fungus, just as the black mass of 
smut appears in the ears of corn, or of wheat; 
and while these spores may be. and undoubt¬ 
edly are, when eaten in large quantities, 
poisonous and productive of disease in ani¬ 
mals, producing gangrene of the extremities, 
as was the case in Kansas two or three years 
ago, yet cooking completely disorganizes them 
and destroys their vitality and power of in¬ 
jury. Consequently diseased potatoes may be 
eaten with impunity by persons when they arc 
cooked, and when fed to animals in the same 
condition, are wholly innocuous, the nutritive 
quality only being deteriorated to the extent 
of the destruction of the starch and cellular 
tissues of the tubers. 
Possibly some lingering doubt may remain 
in the minds of some persons through the sup¬ 
posed analogous case of the poisonous mush¬ 
rooms, whose virulent character is not de¬ 
stroyed by cooking; but there is no analogy 
between the two cases. The poison of the in¬ 
edible mushrooms is inherent in their sub¬ 
stance, and consists of a peculiar alkaloid ot a 
similar character to that of the wild parsnip, 
so-called, or cow-bane, (Archemora rigida) or 
the poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) and 
is not destroyed by cookiDg, while the organ¬ 
ism of the smut or potato fungus (Phytopthora 
infestans) is wholly destroyed and rendered 
harmless. Indeed thousands of animals eat 
smutty corn and fodder with impunity, and 
pigs will eat raw diseased potatoes without 
harm, as I have found by several tests. Quite 
possibly any harm that might occur to animals 
through the eating of the rotten potatoes may 
be due to disturbance of the digestive organs 
rather than to actual poisoning, and in 
consequence of the excessive quantity of in- 
nutritious matter; just as fatal diseases of ani¬ 
mals are caused by similar results from the 
excessive use even of food that in moderate 
quantitif s would have been healthful. There¬ 
fore I think all doubt whatever may be dis¬ 
charged from the minds of per.-ons iuterestod 
in the'question. 
Hut, thg term “germs of rot ’ 1 is used ip this 
question, and this term calls for some remark. 
The germs are the resting spores of the fun¬ 
gus and these only; and these are the brown¬ 
ish-black substance which discolors the tub¬ 
ers, before the diseased parts decay and form 
the fetid pulp which is the result of the rot. 
The substance of the tuber may dry up and 
become dead, and yet contain the germs of 
the “rot.” A potato that is not discolored 
and is free from the usual decayed spots is 
quite free from the disease, although when 
stored in pits or in a cellar, the sound pota¬ 
toes may become infected by contact with 
diseased ones. The germs are apparent in 
the tubers and where these are free from dark 
spots or patches they are healthy and conse¬ 
quently healthful. A word may be spared 
here for the remark that if the diseased pota¬ 
toes are separated from the sound ones and 
these are kept in a dry place and sprinkled 
with air-slaked lime, any germs of the rot that 
may adhere to them will be destroyed by the 
lime and all infection prevented. This easy 
method will secure from injury potatoes not 
already diseased, and will stop the progress 
of the disease unless the decay has made con¬ 
siderable progress, so that no apprehension 
need be felt in regard to the germs of the rot 
in this way. 
The second question lately asked in the Ru- 
rat, is partly answered above, and may be 
more fully answered by the statement that so 
far no special injury or disease to persons has 
been known to occur. If any injury should 
result from the use of diseased potatoes it 
would most probably appear in diarrhoea or 
cutaneous eruptions, as sore mouth and gan¬ 
grene of the extremities, in animals to which 
the raw diseased potatoes may be fed. 
The life of the germs or resting spores con¬ 
tinues at least for a year, but how much 
longer is not known. It is probable that the 
germs may remain in the soil many years, 
being of an oily character and resistant to de¬ 
cay, like the smut spores. The fact that po¬ 
tatoes are grown for several years without 
any appearance of the disease and may then 
be affected in a wet, warm season, which is 
favorable to the germination of the spores, in¬ 
dicates that the spores may remain in a dor¬ 
mant condition for several or many years and 
then germinate when the favorable moisture 
and warmth occur. 
The danger to public health through the dis¬ 
tribution and use of diseased potatoes is 
scarcely worth attention. No disease that 
has been attributed to it has been experi¬ 
enced since the Irish epidemic referred to. 
As no one eats raw potatoes, and cooked ones 
are entirely safe, it is simply a question of do¬ 
mestic economy in regard to the waste result¬ 
ing from the decay, and this is settled by the 
aversion of consumers to purchase damaged 
tubers. The loss will be to the growers who 
may reduce this to a minimum by digging 
the potatoes as soon as may be, carefully 
sorting out the souud ones, drying them thor¬ 
oughly, and storing them in airy bins or bar¬ 
rels ventilated by means of holes in the sides, 
and dusting them with air-slaked lime. Toe 
unsound ones should be dried, dusted with 
lime and kept on a floor in an airy shed and 
used, cooked, for feeding to pigs, for which 
they are worth as much as sound ones, less the 
waste of destroyed tissue which is very small 
in those potatoes which are not badly diseased. 
Cooked potatoes are worth twice as much as 
raw' ones for feeding, and will return 25 cents 
per bushel to the feeder,.in the pork. I might 
say, in conclusion, that my crop is rotted to 
a small extent and that I am diggiug them 
and treating them as above mentioned, stor¬ 
ing them in a dry shed on a board floor raised 
from the ground, liming them, and covering 
with straw the heaps, made quite shallow so 
as to air them freely I expect to have no fur¬ 
ther loss. I am feeding the badly rotted ones 
to pigs and the others to cows, uncooked to 
test the questions here raised. The only rot 
in my crop is in a piece of highly-manured 
wet land. 
COST OF FARM LIVING. 
H. V., Cranford, N. J.—The article by J. 
N. Muncey, on page 508, in relation to cost 
of living on a farm, buying groceries, etc., 
treats of a subject of great importance to 
farmers. I am under the impression, from 
my observation, that very few farmers keep 
accurate accounts, or know what their sup¬ 
plies cost them for any given period. Did 
they do this, and give tho farm credit for the 
cash value of what they conmtne from it, 
they might find that the farm paid better 
than they think. Fanners do not realize the 
value of these things that seem to come to 
them so freely, as do those who pay cash for 
them. There is no earthly reason why farm¬ 
ers should not combine for the purchase of 
ueeded supplies. On the contrary, there is 
every reason why they should. Combination 
is the power which is stirring the manu¬ 
facturing. mercantile and financial world 
to its foundations. The class which does 
not combine will get left. As Mr. M. 
suggests, the dealers will object to this. One 
of them has bad the brazen effrontery to do 
so in the Rural. I used to be an advocate of 
home-trade, patronizing home merchants, 
and keeping the money in the home town. I 
was in the small-fruit business. I had straw¬ 
berries to sell; the grocer would pay me 
just what he could buy s'rawherries for 
in the city. To be sure the latter were 
picked green, were shipped hundreds of 
miles, aud were very poor specimens. Then 
he was mad, because I proposed to sell them 
direct to customers, and get what they were 
worth. This experience repeated a few times 
cured me of the notion that I must spend my 
money at home to “build up the town.’’ 
Then when the Grange to which I belonged, 
sent to the city, and bought a large quantity 
of supplies at wholesale prices (which many of 
the members would not have done if the deal¬ 
ers had not been charging from 50 to 150 per 
cent, profit), some of the dealers were furious; 
and one of them raved and swore like a mad¬ 
man. Haven’t the farmers the same right to 
combine as other people ? Apparently not. 
There are many tbmgs that can be bought to 
advantage by a combination of farmers, and 
then divided, which it would not be feasible 
for one farmer to undertake to purchase. The 
Grange has been a great educator in this di¬ 
rection, and if all farmers were united in this 
way, instead of a minority of them, there 
would be a strife amoug dealers to secure their 
trade. Before the Grange agitation, a man 
could not buy goods at wholesale rates, unless 
he were a dealer ; now any man with the cash 
can do so. There is a difference of opinion as 
to the advisability of buying sugar by the 
barrel. Tne margin between the wholesale 
and retail prices is slight. Many claim that 
with a large quantity on hand, it will be used 
more freely than necessary, and that any possi¬ 
blesaving will thus be offset. An immense sav¬ 
ing can be made on coal, but there were former¬ 
ly many railroads which would not ship a car¬ 
load of coal for any one but the regular deal¬ 
ers. The inter-State Commission may settle 
this. Kerosene oil is a very disagreeable 
thing to be bringing from the store in a can, 
slopping all over the wagon, robes, blankets, 
clothes, etc., which is quite a strong argument 
m favor of buying it by the barrel. Some 
think that tea and coffee will lose their 
strength if any great quantity be purchased at 
once; but they will not lose their strength any 
faster under the good housewives’ care than 
they will in the average country store, besides 
being kept a great deal cleaner. If the farmer 
does not feel like buying his goods at whole¬ 
sale, he can ofteu make quite a saving by buy¬ 
ing iu larger quantities of the home grocer. 
My grocer charges 16 cents per gallon for the 
best oil. He will sell five gallons for 14 cents 
per gallon. Soap, lamp chimneys, etc., may 
be bought for quite a discount by the dozen. 
These may seem like small matters, but I 
think the secret of so many farmers’ failures 
is their carelessness m small matters. But 
the greatest saving on the farm can be made 
in the purchase of implements, machinery, 
etc. There are immense profits made on 
many r of these. I am glad this subject has 
been started, and I hope to see it thoroughly' 
discussed. 
CHINCH BUG DISEASES. 
J. R. H., Wellsville, Kansas.— The sev¬ 
enteen-year locust must be a very healthy 
insect until after it has sung its song and de¬ 
posited its eggs, then “ some contagious dis¬ 
ease appears to carry the pests off by the 
million.” Our common grasshopper and its 
cousin the grasshopper of the West are very 
healthy insects until In the fall after they have 
deposited their eggs ; then “some contagious 
disease appears to carry' them off by the mil¬ 
lion.” The chinch bugs—aye there is the rub 
—the chinch bugs are exceedingly healthy 
Insects until late in the spring after they have 
deposited their eggs then “ some contagious 
disease appears to carry them off by the mil¬ 
lion,” then if it should remain warm and dry 
the young bugs will hatch out and be the 
healthiest little creatures you ever saw ; but 
should the weather be cool aud wet, they will 
be attacked by some contagious disease 
like that which attacks young chickens after 
they have been out in a cool, hard rain. 
Last spring “ the oldest inhabitant ” re¬ 
marked that he had never seen more chinch 
hugs come through tho winter than he did 
last. They swarmed in the wheat and oat 
fields to deposit their eggs, which they laid 
“by the million.” This has been a very wet 
season, there being hard rains every few 
days all through the spring. I watched the 
chinch bugs closely in the oat field. After a 
hard rain 1 could see great numbers of very' 
young bugs and eggs washed from the oats 
into the depressions. In that condition the 
young bugs died aud the eggs did not hatch 
I suppose the wise ones would say they died 
pf some eoptugious disease, I am put of 
