1848. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
93 
at the same time as the above. In ten days, from the 
1st to the 10th of June, she gave an average of 20 
6 -10th quarts per day; in the same length of time, from 
the 1st to the 10th of September, an average of 14 
4-10th quarts per day. 
Wm. S. Lincoln, of Worcester, offered one cow. 
She was seyen years old, and calved 27th May. In ten 
days, ^ from the 1st to the 10th of June, she gave an 
average of 16 7-10th quarts per day, which yielded in 
the ten days, 16 lbs. and a fraction of butter. From 
the 6th to the 15th of September, she afforded an ave¬ 
rage of 10 4-10th quarts per day, which yielded in the 
ten days, 14 lbs. 10 oz. of butter. 
Nahum Warren, of Shrewsbury, offered a cow, four 
years old, from which 13 lbs. of butter were made in 
10 days in June; and 10 lbs. in the same length of time 
in September. 
Jacob W. Watson, of Princeton, offered a cow, 
from which 18± lbs. of butter were made in ten days, 
from 10th to 20th June; and in ten days, from the 10th 
to the 20th September, 13® lbs. 
Charles E. Miles, of Shrewsbury, offered two cows 
six and seven years old. They had been kept for the 
purpose of fattening calves for veal. One cow calved 
on the 15th of February. When taken to the show, in 
September, she had a calf by her side, and she had then 
fattened four calves, whose veal weighed 380 lbs., and 
sold for $30.40. The other cow calved on the 25th of 
March. She fattened her own calf and four others, 
whose weight of veal was 450 lbs., and sold for $36. 
Mr. Miles had three other cows which were used for 
fattening calves. From the five, 2,050 lbs. of veal, 
which sold at an average of 8 cents per pound, and 
brought $164. 
The Committee make some observations in regard 
to the quality of milch cows which are worthy of at¬ 
tention : 
i( It is supposed that a cow of medium quality will 
give, for two months after calving, 12 quarts of milk 
per day; four months following, 7 quarts; two months, 
4 quarts; one month, 2 quarts—amounting to 1,860 
quarts, or an average for nine months of about seven 
quarts per day. It will take ten quarts of milk to 
make one pound of butter; thus producing about 186 
lbs., which at 16 cents, amounts to about $30. Sup¬ 
pose every farmer to resolve that he would keep no 
cow that did not hold out as a good milker for ten 
months in the year, and that did not give, for two 
months, 16 quarts per day; four months, 12 quarts; 
three months, 7; one month, 2—amounting to 3,090 
quarts, or an average of ten quarts per day for ten 
months? Is.it not practicable to have, throughout the 
country, cows as good as the last described?” 
Potato Disease or Rot. 
We have received from Rev. Chas. A. Goodrich, of 
Hartford, Ct.,an ajticle first published in the Hartford 
C our ant, in reference to the potato disease. An enu¬ 
meration of some of the causes assigned for this mal¬ 
ady is given from an English paper, the principal of 
which are:—Attacks of parasitical fungi, insects, 
(“ the idlest of all speculations.” says the English au¬ 
thority,) frost, lightning, exhausted vitality, bad culti¬ 
vation, manures, miasmata, such as produce cholera in 
men, and other epidemics. Mr. G. thinks none of these 
causes appear tenable, 11 unless it be the last.” He 
observes—“ it seems apparent, at least to the writer, 
that the disease did not originate in the soil, nor is it 
attributable to any defect in the potato itself. The 
remote cause is some peculiar change in the atmos¬ 
phere, which we may never understand: the proximate 
cause, consequent upon that change, is the derange¬ 
ment of the functions of the stalk and leaves .” 
Mr. G. holds that the leaves and stalks are first af¬ 
fected, through this atmospheric influence, and that 
the vitiated juices are transmitted to the tubers, thus 
laying the foundation for their disease and decay. Its 
effects, he believes, are something in proportion to the 
stage of growth the tubers are in when the tops are 
attacked. Hence he observes — u If the tuber was but 
half grown, the stalk would be proportionately green, 
and the injurious process would be longer continued. 
If the potato was nearly ripe, still the process might 
proceed, and acrid food be transmitted sufficient to 
cause its decay in the course of weeks or months. 
And does not this,” he continues, “ account for the fact 
that potatoes which appear fair and sound for some 
time after they are housed, ultimately betray symp¬ 
toms of disease, and in the course of the winter be¬ 
come worthless? They were inoculated with the dis¬ 
ease, and in process of time the infection breaks 
out. Upon this theory different varieties would suffer 
unequally, being more or less hardy, and the same va¬ 
riety on different soils might also be differently af¬ 
fected. * * * * 
11 Should the inquiry be made, why some fields, either 
in whole or in part, escape the ravages of this disease, 
while contiguous crops are entirely ruined, the reply 
is, that it will be in season to answer the question, when 
the interrogator shall explain why some peach trees es¬ 
cape the yellows, while others wither and die under 
that scourge—or some pear trees escape tjie blight, 
while neighboring ones are ruined; and especially why 
the frost plays such 1 fantastic tricks’ in afield of corn, 
nipping here and there some whole rows, and then 
again sparing nearly every alternate hill.” 
As to remedies, Mr. G. thinks it is “ by no means 
certain that a remedy may not yet be disovered,” and 
he advises that experiments be multiplied every suc¬ 
ceeding year. His “ chief hope,” however, is that “ in 
the course of a few years the cause of the injury in 
the atmosphere will gradually disappear.” 
Suggestions to Farmers. 
I sometimes fancy to myself, when I hear persons 
who live on the rich and fertile prairies of the west, 
praise the luxuriance of their soil, and boast of the 
bountiful crops they yield with little labor, that they 
ought to be regarded somewhat as we now look upon 
those early settlers in the Mohawk valley, who, it is 
said, were in the habit of carting the manure made 
upon their lands to the river, and throwing it in, for 
fear, that should it remain, their lands would become 
too rich. 
In their wisdom, supposing their lands could never 
be exhausted, they continued to plow the same fields, 
until at last “ a change came o’er the spirit of their 
dreams,” and they found to their cost, that the lands 
they supposed inexhaustibly fertile, had become sterile 
and unproductive; and such I think will be the result 
of the present system of cultivation pursued by our 
western friends. Chemistry shows us that by taking 
a succession of crops off from the same ground one 
year after another, without any return to it, the inevi¬ 
table effect must be ultimately, that it will lose its 
fertility. The lands of our county, especially the 
richer portions of it, have quite too commonly met with 
this usage. A few years since it was not unfrequently 
remarked by our farmers, that they formerly received 
good crops from particular portions of their lands, but 
that then they could not get crops from the same 
ground that would pay the trouble of cultivation. 
Something, they said, must be wanting in the soil, but 
what they did not know. Chemistry has solved this 
problem, and it is now beginning to be understood by 
them, that their soil must be fed with proper food as 
