1854 . 
in perfect safety •without breaking the trot, the horse’s 
hoof not indenting the snow more than two inches, and 
the sleigh not cutting in more than half an inch. I 
have, in years past, commenced rolling when the first 
snows falls, repeating the rolling every snow storm, un¬ 
til, in some drifting places, the hard snow has accumu¬ 
lated to the depth of six feet, and have seen loaded 
teams pass each other as fearlessly and safely as an ea¬ 
gle ivill sail over our hills. 
Another advantage is, that a wheel carriage is ena¬ 
bled, by the use of this roller, to run with ease and safe¬ 
ty, enabling teams to cross over hills and vales in the 
spring, when the snow is melting and the ground is bare 
in spots. Again when the snow is going off, it melts 
gradually, and does not gully the road, as it otherwise 
would.. In 1848, one foot of snow fell in December.— 
I rolled the road from my house to the village, (it be¬ 
ing two miles.) Soon after the wind arose and blew the 
snow out of the road in spots, drifting it in other por¬ 
tions on all the roads in this vicinity. No more snow 
fell that winter. There was no good sleighing or wa¬ 
goning on the roads that were not rolled all winter; but 
on the rolled roads we had both. 
The cost of a triple roller here is $15 and I presume 
there are but few schools or highway districts in Ver¬ 
mont, or in any of the neighboring States where snow 
abounds, which have not team enough to draw a roll¬ 
er. And it would be one of the greatest favors the State 
Legislature could confer on the people to pass an act 
requiring them to furnish themselves with rollers, and 
roll the roads of their respective districts every time 
the snow falls four inches. The same roller will be suf¬ 
ficient to roll the land for a whole district by putting on 
a body and a pair of thills to each roller—thus giving 
you three one-horse rollers. 
There are many districts in this state, where this 
“Holler,” once adopted, would be found indispensable. 
The elevated parts in the southern towns of this (On¬ 
ondaga) county, are some times shut out for days and 
weeks from all convenient intercourse with each other, 
or with their neighbors, and yet with this implement I 
am convinced they might always have good roads. 
Commissioners of Highways, I imagine, already pos¬ 
sess the requisite authority for providing themselves 
with Mr. Thomas' implement. I hope a trial will be 
at once made of it, and the results communicated to 
the public. S. Syracuse, Dec. 1853. 
The Potato Disease in Great Britain. 
The Farmer’s Magazine (London) thus alludes to 
the Potdto Disease of 1853 :— 
When shall we have done with the alarms, the the¬ 
ories, the specifics, and with the reality of the potato 
disease ? That it seems to be now, nearly beyond all 
precedent, serious ; that it has assumed even new pha¬ 
ses of virulence; and that it has utterly, hitherto, 
baffled all possible efforts of man—appears to be ac¬ 
knowledged. Science and skill, practice and experi¬ 
ment, seem all set at one fatal defiance. The Potato 
Commission met, and investigated, and reported ; and 
were as powerless before it as they are before war, fam¬ 
ine, and pestilence. Nor does the tendency to disease 
apparently wear out. If it lies a little more quiescent 
one year, it is only to break out with renewed vigour 
the next: if one species of potato is free one season, it 
is the more severely diseased in the following : nay, 
it seems as if some vast providential arrangement were 
at work, specially to baffle the wisdom of man, and to 
say to his science, his philosophy, and his skill, “ Hith¬ 
erto shalt thou come, and no further !” 
The phase of the potato disease of 1853 is peculiar. 
There are two remarkable characteristics which never 
before attended it. In all former years, the potatoes 
raised under glass gave early indications of the dis¬ 
ease : on this occasion, there were few, if any, com¬ 
plaints on the subject. The next peculiarity was that, 
as soon as the stalks became brown and spotted, the 
disease was ravaging the tubers. But, on this occasion, 
the stalks were brown, in many cases, for weeks before 
any manifestation of the disease took place ; and it was 
hoped it had expended its virus in blackening the tops, 
when the tubers so long escaped. A third peculiari¬ 
ty was, that the crop this year was fully mature before 
the visitation took place ; and hence there was a pros¬ 
pect of a most abundant yield ; the disease set in after 
the heavy rains of September—a time when, other¬ 
wise, the plant was assumed to be safe. But it was 
not the rain which caused it, because in many instances, 
when the potatoes were taken up, and stored away 
carefully and dry, covered so as to have no evil atmos¬ 
pheric influence—still, on openiug the pits or removing 
thecover, if housed, they were just as bad as if they 
had been fully exposed. All precedent, all experience, 
all accumulations of knowledge, all things set at naught, 
with one fell swoop. 
Nor is it peculiar. In the north and south of Eng¬ 
land, in the whole of Ireland, and in the generally 
more favored district Scotland, the disease seems to 
have spread, while in Canada it has appeared with 
great virulence. We have not heard how the small 
islands of Scilly and the Isle of Wight have this year 
been favored, as they have usually escaped in a con¬ 
siderable degree, when others have been sufferers. 
In this country the disease has resolved itself into a 
simple question of the abstraction of so much food— 
fully thirty per cent, of a good crop are already gone ; 
but in Ireland the investigation is more vital and stir¬ 
ring. We have before us a report of the meeting of 
the Chemico-Agricultural Society of Ulster, in which 
the plan of Dr. Bollman was completely canvassed, 
with other modes proposed to arrest, if not to cure, the 
disease. 
Dr. Bollman’s principle seemed to us by far the most 
reasonable of all recommended, if the disease were at 
all inherent from the the parent tuber. Dr. Hodges 
demonstrated the disease to be a fungus, breaking up 
the structure of the potato ; and if there was seminal 
infection, like the smut in wheat, Dr. B.’s plan of high- 
drying the tubers was by far the most rational one we 
knew of, especially as extreme dryness is absolutely de¬ 
structive to the sporules of almost every fungus, and the 
Botrytes, the peculiar fungus of the potato disease, was 
unlikely to find a nidus in so highly-dried a set. But 
if it be first of all atmospheric, as is all but certain, and 
if the decomposing mischief is from without, we cannot 
see how Dr. Bollman’s preparation could be at all ef¬ 
fectual. 
And so it appears it has failed in numberless instan¬ 
ces ; and so has peat charcoal, as well as pulling up 
the stalks, planting in spent tan, and a thousand more 
similar schemes of prevention. 
The whole of the facts, however, lead to this conclu¬ 
sion-plant as early as possible, so as to get a large 
portion matured and sold before the disease sets in, as 
it usually does with groat severity late in August, though 
this year it was about the middle of September before 
it became general. — 
The Progress of Heaping Machines. —It is re¬ 
markable what an impetus has been given to the man¬ 
ufacture of reapers in England, since Hussey and Mc¬ 
Cormick exhibited their machines at the London Crys¬ 
tal Palace. Upward# of thirty patents were taken 
out there during the first half of the present year, and 
among the patentees were to be found men of every 
degree, from Whitworth, of Manchester, the first ma¬ 
chine maker of the day, to country wheelwrights and 
blacksmiths, who were tempted by the cheapness of 
patents under the new law, to protect their crude ideas. 
