304 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Oct. 
come steel blue or rusty, are dying: the others look 
healthful. 
I have planted about three acres of potatoes on a 
gravelly loam, a little richer than was desirable, as it 
has induced too great rankness of herbage. It is here, 
I conceive, that my principle danger of disease lies. 
The field had been a pasture for some years. It was 
turned over by the plow last November. My seed was 
planted from April 28th to May 2nd, inclusive. The 
seed was put in between the furrows with a grub hoe, 
from 4 to 6 inches deep, and the whole field immediate¬ 
ly harrowed both ways. • I have hoed it twice, making 
no hill at all, but leaving the ground clean and mellow 
about the plant. 
The whole field appears now as though moderately 
hilled, from the upheaving of the soil during the forma¬ 
tion of the tubers. I have found no trouble from my 
potatoes rising out of the ground as my nieghbors 
feared. 
In cases of the rapid progress of disease, I have for¬ 
merly mowed off my vines to prevent the transmission 
of morbid matter formed and forming in the herbage, 
to the tuber. But the disease has advanced so slowly 
this year, that I have not done this. My varieties are 
all early, but the process of maturity has undoubtedly 
been a little hastened by diseased tendencies. 
August 31th. Have just discovered a slight discolo¬ 
ration on two or three tubers, enough to warn me of 
the possible rapid approach of others in the rear. The 
drying up of my potatoes, is evidently in steady, though 
not rapid process. 
The Newbtjrgh Experiment on the Potato. 
In the New-York Spectator for July 3rd, I see the 
notice of an experiment on the potato, communicated 
to the Executive Committee of the State Agricultural 
Society, at its recent meeting at Buffalo. 
In that experiment, potatoes were planted in a very 
deep rich soil, in a forcing house, kept at as even a 
temperature as possible, without the use of artificial 
heat. Yet when the potatoes were dug, about three 
weeks before, (that is, as we may calculate, about the 
1st of June,) they exhibited signs of disease. Hence 
the inference is drawn that sudden alternations of tem¬ 
perature, or varying conditions of moisture, have no 
agency in the production of this disease . 
But let us see. 
1st. The cultivator shut up a mountain tropical 
plant in the necessarily close air of a green house. 
This was probably done about the 1st of March. The 
plant therefore, could have had but very little fresh air 
during the first two months of its growth. 
2nd. He planted it in a very deep rich soil—a, soil 
in which every familiar cultivator of the potato knows 
it will not do well? ? smce it will scarcely form tubers at 
all. 
3d. He planted a vegetable accustomed to a cool 
mountain air, in the necessarily hot atmosphere of a 
green house. In such a house, the temperature would 
almost unavoidably, in cold and bright days in the 
months of March and April, run up to 100°. These 
circumstances—*a close air, rich soil,—-and hot atmos¬ 
phere—are the very predicament in which tropical 
plants are most likely to suffer. 
Altogether, I consider the experiment a most unfor¬ 
tunate one, and tjie inference drawn from it as a per¬ 
fect non sequitur. I am not practically acquainted 
with the management of forcing houses, either with or 
without artificial heat; but I have cultivated hot and 
cold beds, for the last fifteen years, and a part of the 
time, almost by the acre; and I have yet to learn that 
any plant that will admit of cultivation at all in our 
atmosphere, can be carried through its whole progress 
to maturity as healthfully when thus protected as when 
it is permitted the enjoyment of open culture through 
at least a part of its course. 
The physiology of the potato disease, whether 
viewed in relation to this single species, or to the 
whole class of tropical and semi-tropical plants, seeme 
to me not to present any profound questions or inseru- 
tihle phenomena. The recency of its seizure on the po¬ 
tato is the most difficult question, and that I think i§ 
satisfactorily discussed and referred to exhausted ener¬ 
gy in the essay just referred to. 
Diseased indications in other, especially tender plants 
—the Season, #c.-—The months of July, and of Au¬ 
gust thus far, have been very similar to that of August , 
1847. The coolness, dampness and darkness have been 
without a parallel in some years. The season has been 
exceedingly like that of the north of Europe, so far as 
I know it descriptively. 
The temperature has ranged during the day from 55° 
to 75° (rarely 80°) and during the night from 50° to 
60°. The consequence is, that the aspect of autumn 
shows itself prematurely; nor do I believe that any de¬ 
gree or continuance of good weather will restore the 
aspect of nature to its wonted appearance at this sea¬ 
son of the year. 
1. Hardy Plants. 
Asparagus, Spinach arcd Pie-plant have been abun¬ 
dant. 
Onions have suffered somewhat from a eool midsum¬ 
mer, the bulbs exhibiting a tardiness in forming. 
Parsneps and Peas have done well, the last showing 
little tendency to decayed pods as formerly when pota¬ 
to disease existed. 
2. Half hardy Plants. 
Beets are good. 
Cauliflowers started well and formed some fine 
heads, but now scatter badly, considering the coolness 
of the weather. 
Cabbage, Early, has been unusually good,—a little 
more injured by insects than formerly. 
Cabbage, Late, has done well with me, but in my 
neighborhood has suffered severely and extensively from 
the formation of turnep-shaped appendages on the 
roots. 
Carrots, Lettuce, Radishes and Turneps, have don© 
well. 
3. Tender Plants. 
These have all been backward in growth, but espe¬ 
cially in fruiting, except in eases of extraordinary pro¬ 
tection from the coolness of the summer. 
It is well known to the cultivators of tropical fruits 
and plants in this climate, that in cool and unpropitious 
seasons, their blossoms either do not fructify at all, or 
if they do, that the fruit drops off prematurely. Thus 
it was through the whole month of August, in 1847, 
and thus it has been during the present season. 
Beans, Bush. —These have rusted badly in the foli¬ 
age, but less than in 1846 in the fruit. 
Corn, that was planted early in deep warm soil, has 
sustained its verdure and continued its growth notwith¬ 
standing summer chills. It has thus illustrated the 
law that vegetation that is deep rooted, and that has 
mostly formed its tissues, stands cold weather much bet¬ 
ter than that which has done neither. 
But early corn exhibits ears few and small. 
Cucumbers .■ —This is the hardiest of all those, vines 
usually planted in the garden, and especially in the 
power of its herbage to live through damp and chilly 
weather, and to fruit under similar circumstances. But 
it commenced fruiting late; and specimens marked for 
seed early in July, were ruined by the long continued 
chill that immediately followed; while the younger crop 
of fruit then gathering, became stunted, pale and bitter 
and so unfit for market. 
