1872 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
291 
Digging and Storing Early Potatoes. 
We know ii large potato-grower in Western 
New York who dug ten or a dozen acres of 
Early Rose potatoes last year in August. He 
was offered forty cents a bushel for them at the 
time, hut thinking they would be higher he 
pitted them in the field. He apprehended no 
danger, and it was only for some casual reason 
that he opened one of the heaps, when he was 
surprised to find it so hot that he could scarcely 
bear his hand in it. Had they been left a few 
days longer every potato would have been 
spoiled. As it was, he immediately drew them 
into his barns and basement cellar, and was glad 
to take the first offer he could get for them. 
Early potatoes should be barreled and mar¬ 
keted as soon as they are dug, or else they 
should be placed in thin layers or small heaps 
in a barn or cellar, and turned over occasion¬ 
ally if there are any signs of heating. If this 
can not be done, it is better to leave them in 
the ground until cool weather sets in. In the 
case we have alluded to, the farmer dug them 
because he wanted to sow the land to winter- 
wheat. The expense of handling potatoes is so 
great, that, as a rule, those farmers make the 
most profit, especially in the case of early pota¬ 
toes, who ship them directly fronvthe field. 
Shad-Planting in the Mississippi Valley. 
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE. 
Denver, Col., July 8th, 1872. 
Connecticut River shad were planted in the 
South Platte yesterday, after a five-days 
passage from the hatching-boxes at Hadley 
Falls, Mass. This brief item of news will be 
read with more interest a few years hence when 
the shad has taken possession of the Platte and 
the streams below, and fishing stations are as 
numerous upon their banks as they now are 
upon the Hudson and the Connecticut. We 
all know that Jhe shad could be eaten here in 
the fresh state, brought over the plains packed 
in ice, and served up at the tables of the rich 
as a rare and costly delicacy. But can the 
Alosa, •prcestabilis of our Atlantic streams be 
transplanted to the valleys of the Ohio, the 
Missouri, and the Mississippi, and become as 
plenty and cheap as they are in their native 
streams ? Can the sons of the East take along 
with them their fish as they do their cattle, 
and make them a source of pleasure and profit 
in their new homes? These questions, dis¬ 
cussed by fish culturists for a few years back 
with great interest, got into Congress at the 
close of the session, and a small appropriation 
was made to test the practicability of planting 
shad west of the Alleghanies, and of trans¬ 
ferring some of the varieties of the Salmon that 
swarm in the rivers of the Pacific to the 
streams of our Atlantic coast. The appropria¬ 
tion was put in the hands of Prof. Spencer F. 
Baird, United States Fish Commissioner, who 
acted with great promptness in the matter of 
shad-planting. We took interest enough in the 
Agriculturist families of the great West to take 
a share in the work of distribution. Seth 
Green was at the close of the sliad-hatching 
season upon the Hudson, and started with 
25,000 fry for the Mississippi, near St. Paul, 
Minn. We left Hadley Falls at six o’clock 
A.M., July 2d, with 2,000,000 shad fry, just 
taken from the hatching-boxes in the river. 
The season is several days later than last year, 
but the parent shad are more numerous, and 
Mr. Smith, who has charge of the hatching, in¬ 
formed us that they were larger than he had 
seen in late years. Seven-pound fish were not 
uncommon in the hauls he made for spawners. 
We had nine eight-gallon tin cans for the fry, 
supplied with Connecticut River water, and an 
extra can of ice to keep the water of proper 
temperature. The shad has a much more deli¬ 
cate organization than the Salmonidm, and the 
range of temperature within which the ova 
will hatch and the fry will live is much more 
limited. We have not determined these limits 
very accurately, but the few essays that have 
been made at transplanting shad show very 
clearly that the temperature must not be much 
above 80° nor under 60°. The weather was 
very much against us, a sultry July morning 
with the thermometer at 84°, and by noon 
reaching 96° in the cars. We got a change of 
water at Albany from a city hydrant, which 
proved to be good. Frequent partial changes 
were made at the railway stations during the 
day and night. We reached Salamanca, on the 
Erie road, on the morning of July 3d, and put 
400,000 fry, in good condition, into the Alle¬ 
ghany, one of the large feeders of the Ohio. 
The stock was made very large here, as it must 
necessarily supply the whole river. 
Another very hot day, with about the same 
range of thermometer. With careful watch¬ 
ing we got through with our charge safely, 
and put about 400,000 fry into the White 
River at Indianapolis on the morning of July 
4tli. We had now but one can of fish left, 
much reduced in numbers by the journey, but 
still lively and in good condition. We deter¬ 
mined to make an experimental trip to this 
point to test the practicability of stocking 
rivers remotest from the sources of supply. If 
they could be transported a five-days journey, 
and the last half of the way over a region af¬ 
fording no suitable water for them, there would 
be no insurmountable difficulty in supplying 
every stream in the land. The weather favored 
us for the last three days, so that the consump¬ 
tion of ice was small, and the frequent change 
of water less necessary. We reached Denver 
about 10 a.m., July 7th, five days and five 
hours from Hadley Falls, and planted about 
2,000 fry in Platte River. They seemed to be 
at home in the new waters, and at once headed 
up stream. We found no good water for the 
fry west of the Mississippi, except at Wilson’s 
Station on the Kansas Pacific road. 
Of course the planting of shad in these 
streams is an experiment. However men may 
differ about the probabilities of success, all will 
agree that success is exceedingly desirable. 
The principal objections urged against the 
stocking of the streams are the extreme length 
of the rivers and the large amount of sedi¬ 
ment in the waters. But some of the shad 
streams are six or seven hundred miles long, 
and if the fish will go this distance to seek 
a spawning-bed, why would not the instinct of 
propagation carry it still farther, if it were 
necessary ? Some twenty years ago Dr. Daniels, 
of Georgia, carried a few shad spawn from the 
head-waters of the Savannah to those of the 
Alabama. The shad are now abundant not only 
in the Alabama, but in the Black Warrior, a 
large stream which joins it before it reaches 
the Gulf. These rivers are quite as muddy as 
the Mississippi and its branches. The proba¬ 
bilities are, that if a stream has clear water of 
a suitable temperature for spawning, the shad 
will find it, and deposit their spawn, no matter 
how remote it may be from the sea. Three 
years must pass before the results of the present 
planting can be known and all doubts be 
solved. W. C. 
Why Do not the Eggs Hatch? 
I would say in reply to Connecticut (p. 255), 
that the keeping of fowls in small yards is not 
a sufficient reason why the eggs do not hatch, 
and that in this part of the country the same 
difficulty is complained of by all parties, whether 
the fowls be thorough-bred or dunghills, either 
yarded or running at large. I read a large num¬ 
ber of the poultry journals, and find the same 
complaint everywhere. I have talked with many 
breeders and farmers, and all agree that the ex¬ 
perience of this yeur is different from any previ 
ous one, and all complain alike of poor results. 
The trouble is not caused by small yards, and 
the fact that the same results are attained, at 
least in this region, from fowls which run at 
large, shows that it is not. Moreover, th6 eggs 
are not infertile, as he claims. My experience 
shows that in a large proportion of the eggs the 
chicks will be partly or fully formed, but for 
some unaccountable reason they fail to complete 
the process of incubation. I have in some cases 
found that fully formed chicks would have the 
head turned in such a way that they could not 
pip the shell, and so would fail to come out. 
One of my hens sat until the twenty-seventh 
day, and then came off with but one chick, A 
previous examination had shown but one bad 
egg, which I removed, and I kept her at it. After 
she came off, I found the remaining eggs all con¬ 
tained chicks, those partly formed being alive. 
Other investigating men tell me that they also 
find few bad eggs, but many that contain un- 
liatclied chicks in various stages. We find then 
that small yards do not cause infertile eggs, anti 
again, that tlia eggs are not infertile. But why 
do they not hatch ? If “ Connecticut ” will 
bring forward his other nineteen reasons, it may 
be that we shall find the true solution among 
them; but please let the reasons be based on 
careful examination into cause and effect, and 
do not jump at conclusions. I have been giving 
the matter careful consideration, and am obliged 
to confess my self apparently no nearer a solution 
oftlie problem than two months since. Ohio. 
Ogden Farm Papers.—No. 31. 
A neighbor, who is a very good farmer, ac¬ 
costed me recently on the subject of transplant¬ 
ing beets, saying, “ I agree with a good deal 
that you write, but not with all,” etc. I told him 
that the last thing I expect from any man who 
has brains of his own is that he should agree 
with me in everything. “ Opinions differ,” and 
when I find a man who accepts all the opinions 
of another I set him down as of small account. 
It is much more satisfactory to have the partial 
assent of one who does his own thinking than 
the entire assent of one who lets me do his 
thinking for him. The most good that any 
agricultui’al writer can do, is to set his readers 
a-thinking. No matter that they agree or dis¬ 
agree with what is written, the one thing need¬ 
ed, or the most important thing, is that they be 
stimulated to harness their brains in with their 
farm teams, and do their work with a fuller 
consciousness of its real character. It is, of 
course, important and interesting to a farmer 
to be told how to do this or that sort of work, 
but it is far more important that he be made to 
realize that all his work is founded on a rational 
basis—on “science,” if this mucli-hated word 
may be allowed — and everything connected 
with it will become daily niore and more inter- 
