14 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Jan. 
BSE 
think, profitably make copious extracts, will show. 
At the meeting where this investigation was first pro¬ 
posed, £100 were at once subscribed, and it is proposed 
to raise £500. The queries have been spread among 
the farmers in every part of Scotland, and numerous an¬ 
swers have been received. The counties of Sutherland, 
Rosshire and Caithness, are the only ones which the 
disease has not yet visited; elsewhere, the best authori¬ 
ties agree in stating that a considerable proportion of 
the crop is irremediably destroyed, and much of the re¬ 
mainder infected. In some places they go so far as to 
despair of saving enough for seed. Mills for manufac¬ 
turing potato starch, are daily coming into operation, 
and work with very great success. It seems clearly es¬ 
tablished that the diseased potatoes are not noxious 
either to man or beast. I have myself .eaten them with¬ 
out injury. 
The form of disease most common, first shows itself 
as a discoloration upon the skin of the potato. When 
the skin is removed, there appears a black or brown 
spongy mass extending more or less toward the center 
of the tuber. 
In the other form an acid is produced which converts 
the starch into gum and sugar, the water of the potato 
itself dissolves these, and the whole flows in a ropy 
mass, like thick honey. 
In this last form, they are beyond recovery, and pro¬ 
bably useless. In the first, they may profitably be fed 
to cattle, or be made into starch or potato flour. 
Various methods have been proposed for checking, if 
not remedying entirely, this latter form. The best ap¬ 
pears to be to spread them out to dry in thin layers, 
frequently picking them over, and when it is necessary 
to pit them, to put them in small pits lightly covered, 
and having tiles running through them so as to ensure 
ventilation. Thorough drying and careful picking has, 
in many instances, seemed to arrest the progress of the 
disease for the present at least. 
Dusting them over with lime and covering with some 
absorbent material, such as peat ashes, or charcoal, is 
I believe of some efficacy. The Government Commis¬ 
sioners in Ireland, recommend surrounding each potato 
with ashes and lime, so that it should be quite distinct 
from every other. This may do very well for a few 
hundred tubers, but I apprehend that those who have 
500 or 1000 bushels, will not approve of wrapping up 
each potato in ashes, like an orange in paper. Even if 
all the ashes were got, and the trouble of packing 500 
bushels gone through with, in one week’s time they 
might want picking over again, and then the whole 
elaborate edifice would have to be demolished. 
I have seen few United States papers of late, and 
therefore know little of the extent of this disease in 
our country. I hear that it is very bad in Maine and 
New Brunswick. At any rate, I think that the publi¬ 
cation of the enclosed queries would indicate to our 
farmers the points to which they should direct their at¬ 
tention. Very truly yours, 
John P. Norton. 
The papers accompanying the above letter of our es¬ 
teemed correspondent, consist of the proceedings of 
the meeting at which the subscription of £500 was pro¬ 
posed to be raised, to defray the expenses necessary to 
a thorough investigation of the cause, character and 
progress of the potato rot, and a circular from Prof. 
Johnston, detailing the particular points on which in¬ 
formation was desired. The investigation was entrusted 
to Sir Wm. Jardine, for the entomological part, to 
Dr. Greville, for the botanical, and to Prof. John¬ 
ston and Mr. Fleming, for the chemical and practical 
part of the inquiry. The circular of Prof. Johnston 
shows the minuteness and extent to which it is intended 
to pursue the investigation, and we have reason to an¬ 
ticipate the most valuable results; though, in the lan¬ 
guage of Prof. J., “ it is at present doubtful whether 
any thing can be done to arrest the disease; and more 
doubtful still, t chat can be done, when , and how. If 
these doubts are to be removed, it can only be by aeon- 
joined scientific and practical, or experimental inquiry.” 
—[Ed. Cult. 
AGRICULTURE OF SWITZERLAND. 
In a letter to the Editor of “ The Cultivator, ” dated 
Marti gny, Switzerland, 4th Oct., 1845 
Luther Tucker, Esq. —Switzerland is notthecoun- 
try in which to look for extensive agricultural invest¬ 
ures or improvements; yet something may be learned 
from an abstract of their modes of deriving a livelihood 
from the earth. Small as is the country, there can be 
found within its boundaries nearly every variety of soil, 
and every variety of product, excepting such only as 
are peculiar to a tropical climate. 
Cheese is perhaps the most common article of agri¬ 
cultural trade; and the cows and goats from whose milk 
it is made, are to be found upon mountain sides more 
than four thousand feet above the level of the sea. 
That of the Grisons, and the district about Grueyere is 
in most esteem, but neither are by any means equal to 
English or American manufacture; they are both poor¬ 
ly pressed and poorly kept, and to those who have delicate 
nostrils, the taste is by no means their least offensive 
property. Butter is not a general article of consump¬ 
tion, and is principally made for the eating of the sum¬ 
mer voyageurs. It is only tolerably good at the best, 
and frequently very poor. By far the best agricultural 
districts are to be found in the vicinity of the larger 
lakes, particularly Geneva, Constance, Zurich, and along 
the borders of the Aar and Rhine. The Italian cantons, 
and the portions about Lake Neufchatel, I have not yet 
visited. The cattle in the flat countries are good, and I 
have seen many herds of excellent beeves fattened upon 
the river meadows; the mountain cattle are small, stout 
limbed, mostly of a dark grey color, with whitish noses 
and bellies, extremely gentle, and well suited to their 
situation. To the necks of nearly all, whether single 
or in droves, bells are attached—not our ordinary cow¬ 
bells—but properly formed, and good sounding metal, 
which jingling together upon a hundred hill-sides, 
make a mountain melody that no traveller in Switzer¬ 
land can forget. Sheep are rough formed and coarse 
wooled, though I have tasted very delicate mutton in 
many districts. Swine are a long legged and long 
bodied race, of a tawny red color, better fitted for moun¬ 
tain scrambles than for the tooth of a gourmand. Goats 
have their own excellencies, and constitute the sole 
wealth of many a mountaineer whose summer pastures 
are higher than our highest mountains. 
The tilled products of the higher regions, are pota¬ 
toes and oats, with a few turneps, and here and there a 
bit of hemp. Next after these succeeds Indian corn and 
cabbage. Still lower, beans and pumpkins, with patches 
of vines upon the warmer hill-sides, and grass and gar¬ 
dens, and orchards, in the river valleys. Fences, except 
in the neighborhood of the larger towns, rarely occur, 
and division of lands is marked by stakes, or by a mere 
furrow, and sometimes even by less distinguishable 
bounds. Perfect agreement appears to exist among 
neighbors in respect to property, and I have seen in the 
mountains overhanging lake Geneva, peasant men and 
women gathering crops of rowen in a dozen different 
parties from the same field, where there was no appa¬ 
rent line of division, yet putting their rakes back to 
back without a word of dispute. Nor was the crop, 
though limited in individual cases to a spot of only a 
few rods square, without its value; since every blade 
was collected with the most scrupulous care, and carried 
off the field in blankets upon their backs. A few acres 
constitute wealth, and a half dozen goats make a dowry 
for a mountain bride richer than as many thousands in 
the valleys of New-England. One roof covers home 
and herd, and in the dirtier districts goats and bipeds 
mess together. Most of the farm labor is done by the 
women, and I can say little for their dexterity at 
the work. Implements are in general better than those 
in use in France. Scythes are short, broad, and of good 
metal; rakes of wood, and lightly made; forks of wood 
tipped with goats’ horns. Plows, except in the vi¬ 
cinity of the great routes, are of clumsy construction, 
but do their work well. Carts or wagons, over many hun¬ 
dred square miles of agricultural territory, are things un- 
