258 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
August. 
ftote for the Utoitth. 
Experiments in Potato Culture. —Mr. John Pe- 
reue of Montville, Ct., gives us the result of an ex¬ 
periment which he made last year, to test the compar¬ 
ative value of various commercial manures for pota¬ 
toes. He planted five patches of 24 square feet—soil 
sandy loam, manured the previous year with stable 
manure—with Silver Lake potatoes, with the follow¬ 
ing result: 
Lot. Manure. Product. 
1. None, .. 20 lbs. 
2. 6 lbs. Bone duet,. 23 lbs. 
3. 6 lbs. Guano,.-.29 lbs. 
4. 6 lbs. De Burg’s Superphosphate,.37 lbs. 
5. 6 lbs. Coe’s Superphosphate,. 49 lbs. 
He adds—“Judging from the appearance of the 
vines before digging, I supposed that the guano would 
give the greatest yield. The vines were stouter and 
remained green after the other vines were dead. I al¬ 
ways apply the superphosphate in the hill, at the rate 
of 350 lbs. to the acre. It will not pay me to use it on 
any other crop. I never lose by the rot one bushel to 
the 100 on my dryest soil; but in an adjoining field, 
where the soil is stronger, they rot in a wet season 
badly. I planted potatoes around some young pear 
trees, and mulched them; the result was, two-thirds 
rotted.” ■ 
Prairie Farming.— A correspondent of the New- 
York Evening Post, writing from West Urbana, Illinois, 
gives rather a dismal account of the prospects of prairie 
farmers the present year. He says that during twen¬ 
ty-three days of May they had more or less rain, and 
that during ten of these days “ it came down all the 
time with a copiousness creditable to tropical latitudes.” 
.After alluding to the very unfavorable seasons pf 1844 
and 1851, he says that his experience leads him to 
conclude that prairie farmers of Illinois may make up 
their minds to an order of events about as follows, re¬ 
curring, say once in seven years: 
1. One year great crops and high prices, 
2. One year good crops and low prices. 
3. One year drought and no surplus. 
4. One year excessive rain and no surplus. 
5. One year a general failure of crops. 
6. One year corn will fail, wheat goood. 
7. One year w'heat fail, corn good. 
We learn that the Maryland State Fair is to 
be held at Baltimore, October 26, 27, 28 and 29, and 
trust that the generous efforts of the friends of the So¬ 
ciety to reinstate it in the old condition of prosperity 
and success, may be rewarded by the fulfillment of all 
they can desire in its behalf. 
Wilson’s Albany has taken the lead over 
all other strawberries in this market the present year. 
They have proved much more productive than any 
other variety, the berries of a larger and more uniform 
size, and of a firmer flesh, thus rendering them less 
liable to injury by transportation to market. 
Stock Shows in Kentucky. —We are having a num¬ 
ber of stock fairs this spring that are very interesting ; 
to give you an idea of what we exhibit at them, the 
the horse day at the fair in this (Lincoln) county, there 
were one hundred and fifteen entries, in but one class, 
and that, for general utility. There was some splen¬ 
did mule stock shown—the yearling that took the pre¬ 
mium was fifteen and a half hands high, and there 
was a pair of mules sixteen and a half hands high, 
three years old this spring. The premium horse mule 
colt was four feet four inches high, at two month old. 
There was a very nice show of cattle—Harhams of 
course. “ Tom Moore,” bred by Mr. Thorne, took a 
premium in his class. Noticing in a recent number of 
the Country Gentleman, (by reading which, for the 
past three or four years, I have been greatly benefit- 
ted,) that you would like to have the farmers let you 
know what is going on in their respective localities, I 
comply with the request. R. R G. [We hope our cor¬ 
respondent’s example will be imitated, and that he 
will himself repeat his favors. Eds ] 
Unnecessary Destruction of Timber. —We have 
no means of procuring the article on this subject, to 
which our correspondent S- Roberts, alludes, and if 
we had we could not make room for it at present. Mr. 
W. says—“ Sewage and timber are subjects of vast im¬ 
portance to this country, and I think it would prove a 
service of very extensive benefit if they were more 
fully discussed in our agricultural periodicals.” 
Bucks Co., (Pa.) Ag. Society. —We have received 
the premium list of this most efficient Society, whose 
Fair is to be held at Newtown, on the 29th September. 
A large portion of its prizes are to be paid in books 
and pa pers—among the latter about 200 copies of The 
Cultivator are offered. 
[piPWe have received the Premium List of the 
Susquehanna Co. (Pa.) Ag. Society , most of whose 
prizes we are pleased to see, are to be paid in agricul¬ 
tural books and papers—among them are several copies 
of our journals. The paper does not state when or 
where its Fair is to be held. 
Egyptian Millet. —I enclose you a few seeds of the 
true Egyptian Millet; this grows abundantly on the 
borders of the Nile in Egypt, and is not , properly 
speaking, a rush. It belongs to the family of the Jun- 
cus rushes, and not to the Sorghums, to which the 
millets belong. It grows from 8 to 16 feet high, many 
stalks to one hill—grows generally in tenacious, moist 
lands, the borders of rivers. Moses was found by the 
daughter of Pharaoh among it. on the banks of the 
Nile. It makes a very good fodder for cattle and 
Egyptian buffaloes, and horses will eat it too Qccasion- 
ally. It agrees in all respects with the description of 
it given in your number of the Country Gentleman for 
24th Jnne, 1858, page 401, so 1 refer to that, and con¬ 
firm it. F. A. Nautz. P. S. Will you give notice that 
all parties wishing to correspond wish me, should ad¬ 
dress their letters to Philadelphia post office. This 
will be more convenient for me to get them quick than 
being sent to Winslow, f. a. n. 
Manuring Meadows. —On this subject Thaer, in 
his Principles of Agriculture, makes the remark that 
some farmers give more care to the cultivation of 
meadows than to that of arable land, saying : “ When 
we manure our meadows plentifully, we are quite sure 
of a sufficient supply for our arable land.” This is 
true in the long run, but at first sight it would seem 
poor policy. Grass will grow where grain crops do no¬ 
thing without cultivation and manure. 
Age of Dung-hill Fowls. —A correspondent of the 
Louisville Journal states that he had a dung-hill fowl, 
which died on the 18th of April, that was hatched the 
first week in April 1841, and was consequently over 17 
years old. 
