1849. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
161 
be nailed up and down on the two rails. The boards 
should be about four feet long, and nailed on that side ol 
the rails against which the water is likely to flow. 
This being finished, the fence is also finished, and the 
benefit of it is this: When the flood strikes against it, 
even at a moderate height, the round gudgeons of the 
lower rail will slide up the sloping sides of the mortise in 
which they lie, and the upper rail will, in like manner, 
rise out of the notches on top of the posts, and the en¬ 
tire pannel fall flat upon the ground, secured and rest¬ 
ing on the gudgeons of the lower rail, until the swollen 
stream has spent its force and flowed over it. When the 
swell of water has subsided, all that is to be done to 
restore the enclosure, is to lift up the fallen pannels, 
which will easily turn on the gudgeons as an axle, and 
the fence will be again as perfect and firm as when first 
erected. _ 
A new variety of .Potato from South America. 
A friend of mine received three potatoes from 
Bogota, in New Grenada, last April. He planted them 
on the 27th of that mouth. The season proved rather 
too short for them, since, on the*occurrence of our first 
autumnal frost, Sept. 27th, they were perfectly green, 
and covered with bright blue flowers. They were dug 
by my own hand, about the 10th of October. They 
presented a heavy foliage, and exhibited a length and 
strength of roots, and number of stolens without a pa¬ 
rallel in my experience. The tubers were very nume¬ 
rous, about eighty in each hill, mostly very small, many 
of them not larger than hazle nuts, and apparently as 
hardy as the roots of a Shrub Oak. 
My friend planted.them in a moist, rich clay soil, in 
his garden. I think they would have ripened better in 
dryer and poorer soil. I look upon them as a valuable 
acquisition, not only because I hope they will gradually 
accommodate themselves to our soils and seasons, but 
also, and much more, because their seeds afford a pro¬ 
mising source, whence we may hope to derive new and 
strong varieties of valuable potatoes for general culti¬ 
vation. They afforded twenty-five ripe balls last year, 
each ball yielding about one hundred good seeds. 
The friend who sent these potatoes from South Ame¬ 
rica, said nothing about the character of them as culti¬ 
vated there. As cultivated here, they are uneatable, 
and would seem to answer to the description of the wild 
potato, as noticed in books. 
Both the tubers and the seed of this new variety will 
bo planted with care the ensuing season. C. E. G. 
Utica, Jan. 1849. _ 
New-York and Ohio Stock. 
New-York vs. Ohio.—A paragraph has been pub¬ 
lished in several of the Ohio papers, under the head of 
{< superiority of Ohio stock,” stating that the cow which 
took ‘‘the first premium” at the New-York State 
Show, was purchased by a citizen of Ohio, and was 
offered at two county shows in that state, and 11 failed 
to take the premium.” Now we do not know what 
cow was alluded to, but there is no evidence that she 
was considered the best offered at the last N. Y. state 
exhibition. The article conveys a wrong idea. The 
premiums on cows at Buffalo, were offered and paid 
under six different classes. Those for the first four on 
the list, viz., Durhams, Herefords, Devons, and Ayr- 
shires, were of equal amount —$25 for each of first 
premiums; the other two, for “ native or mixed breeds,” 
and for the 11 best milch cow,” were $20 each. These 
were exclusive of premiums offered on fat cows. From 
this it will be seen that no one cow could be properly 
said to have taken “ the first premium,” without spe¬ 
cifying the class to which she belonged, inasmuch as 
there were six first*premiums. 
iMw for file Hontjj. 
Communications have been received, since our last, 
from Wm. Carter. A Practical Farmer, Agricola, H. 
V. L., David Sill,'J. C. J., Sam’l. James, S. O. Cross, 
L. G. Bingham, 0. F. M., John Johnston, R. H. Drake, 
E. Halley, S. W. Johnson, I. Hildreth, Wm, Bacon. 
Books, Pamphlets, &c., have been received, since 
our last, as follows:—Report of the Com. of Ways and 
Means, on duties on imports, from Hon. E. B. Holmes, 
M. C.—-Elder’s Cottage Garden of America, from the 
publishers, Moss &. Brother, Philadelphia.—Scions of 
the Geneting and Bohanon apples, from Lewis San¬ 
ders, Esq., Kentucky.—Seeds of the 11 Hoo-Sung,” 
from H. Wendell, M. D.—Report of the Commission¬ 
ers of the General Land Office for 1849, from the Com¬ 
missioner, Hon. R. M. Young. 
Agricultural School and Experimemtal Farm. 
—We mentioned in our last that a bill had been intro¬ 
duced into the Legislature of this State, providing for 
the establishment of an Agricultural School and Expe¬ 
rimental Farm. We are sorry to say that this bill did 
not pass the Senate. Subsequently, however, Mr. 
Crispell, as chairman of the Committee on Agricul¬ 
ture for the Assembly, submitted a report in reference 
to this subject, to which was appended the following 
resolution, which was passed by both branches of the 
Legislature: 
Resolved, (if the Senate concur,) That a board of 
eight commissioners, (one from each judicial district,) 
be appointed by the Governor, whose duty it shall be to 
meet at the city of Albany on the 16th day of May 
next, to mature a plan for the establishment of an Ag¬ 
ricultural College and Experimental Farm, and prepare 
a statement of the probable expense of such an institu¬ 
tion, and a detailed account of the course of studies 
and plan of operations recommended, to be delivered to 
the Governor on or before the first day of September 
next, to be by him submitted to the Legislature at its 
next session. 
Under this resolution, the Governor has appointed the 
following gentlemen, to constitute the Board: 
Joseph Blunt, New-York, 1st District. 
A. J. Downing, Orange county, 2d District. 
John P. Beekman, Columbia co., 3d District. 
Samuel Cheever, Saratoga co., 4th District. 
Edmund Kirby, Jefferson co., 5th District. 
Adrian Lott, Chenango co., 6th District. 
Jas. S. Wadsworth, Livingston co., 7th District. 
Wm. Risley, Chautauque co., 8th District. 
Cost of a Lime-Kiln. — u A Subscriber ” at Rut- 
’and, Vt., wishes to know what is the expense of putting 
up a lime-kiln j the kind of stone most proper for build¬ 
ing it ,• the cost of filling the kind of limestone which 
makes the best lime, the quantity of wood, and the la¬ 
bor required in burning, &c. We shall feel obliged 
if any of our correspondents will give the information. 
The Home Department. —A bill for the establish¬ 
ment of a new department with this title, passed both 
houses of Congress at its last session. The department 
has been duly organised, and Hon. Thos. Ewing, of 
Ohio, appointed secretary. We have not yet seen the 
bill, but we understand that the Home Department is 
to have the care of all matters relating to pensions, pa¬ 
tents, public lands, Indian affairs and the Census, and 
that the Secretary of this Department is to conduct 
such correspondence at home and abroad as shall tend 
to promote the improvement of agriculture, &c. We 
think this Department, under judicions management, 
will be of great importance to the industrial interests 
of the country. 
