1847 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
21 
alive, from forty to forty-five hundred, and give propor¬ 
tionate dressed weights. Their beef is generally of 
good quality, and is well liked in Boston market. 
It may be proper to say a word in regard to the man- 
mer of feeding working oxen. For common farm labor, 
it is seldom that anything more than hay or grass is 
required; though it should be remembered that the hay 
is of the best quality. When they are kept constantly 
at hard work, some more nutritious substance is given. 
Meal of Indian corn is most frequently resorted to, and 
it is thought that the best mode of using it is to mix it 
with chopped or cut hay. a Cob-meal,” as it is called, 
or meal from the corn and cob ground together, is much 
approved. The quantity of meal given to each ox, 
varies according to the severity of the labor, from two 
to six quarts per day. [ To be continued .] 
RENOVATION OF THE POTATO —THE POTATO ROT. 
Messrs. Editors —Among the premiums given by 
the State Agricultural Society the past year, were two 
for the best seedling potatoes, and the greatest variety 
of seedlings. Mr. N. S. Smith, of this city, received 
them both. As he is a near neighbor of mine, and I 
can speak from personal observation, I have his per¬ 
mission to give some account of his mode of culture and 
success. 
He began four years since to plant seed from potato 
balls, and has every year planted not only the tubers 
from the improved seed, but the seed from the newly 
produced tubers. In the potatoes springing from the 
improved seed of each successive year, there has been a 
manifest improvement in size, quality, and quantity; 
so that this year I counted thirty-six sizeable table pota¬ 
toes, that came from one hill, or rather from one seed, 
and all attached to one stock or vine. Many of these 
potatoes, growing from seed planted last spring, weigh¬ 
ed from five to seven ounces each. The seedlings have 
the most fair and healthy appearance, with no signs of 
the prevailing disease, though they consist of many 
varieties. On two outer sides of his garden, all of 
which is of the same soil, exposure, &c., Mr. S. planted, 
the past year, some eight rows of common potatoes 
purchased in the market, consisting of pink-eyes, nesha- 
nocks, or mercers, and flesh colored; next to these, on 
two sides, he planted some twenty rows of different 
varieties of his improved kinds; and next to these he 
planted seeds taken from the balls last spring. These 
all had the same soil, culture, and attention. I should 
say here, that he first started the seeds in a hot bed, 
and afterwmrds set them out in a furrow about two feet 
apart,—one plant making a hill. 
But mark the result when dug. Of the varieties first 
above named, many were badly diseased; the nesha- 
nocks most, the pink-eyes next, and the flesh-colored 
least. The improved varieties, growing by the side of 
these, showed scarcely any thing of the disease, and the 
seedlings none at all. At least, I have been unable to 
discover any up to this time, though I witnessed a con¬ 
siderable portion of the digging, and have examined 
very carefully among some twenty or thirty bushels. 
A friend of mine in Niagara county, plantod a large 
quantity of seed a few years since, and procured new 
potatoes sufficient to stock his farm and several others, 
but they were very small the first year, and the pro¬ 
duct, though vastly superior to the common varieties, 
did not wholly resist the rot. Mr. Smith’s, on the con¬ 
trary, by being improved from year to year., seem to 
have acquired such a hardy and perfectly healthy cha¬ 
racter in their renovated constitution, as to resist per¬ 
fectly the disease, and to yield abundantly of large 
sized potatoes. Indeed, I often thought, as I witnessed 
the digging, that the hills of seedlings yielded more, on 
the average, than the common potatoes that had been 
planted with four pieces in a hill. Mr. S. intends to 
follow up his experiments with the potato, and is confi¬ 
dent, that with the assistance of a boy, he can plant as 
much ground with potato plants in a day, as two men 
can with potatoes in the ordinary way. In this way 
he is confident, that however the rest of the world may 
fare, he shall have a supply of the very best potatoes, 
free from disease. 
In view of the above and other considerations, I am 
induced to offer a few remarks: 
1. The potato has greatly degenerated—it exhi¬ 
bits many symptoms of exhausted vitality. This is 
evident, not only from the disease so universally preva¬ 
lent, but from the small quantity produced in a hill, for 
many years past. The remark has probably been made 
by farmers thousands of times within a few years, that 
potatoes do not yield half so much as they did twenty 
or thirty years ago, and the product is decreasing every 
year. Another evidence of their degeneracy is the fact, 
that they are beginning to be very deficient in balls or 
seed —many large patches and fields being found wholly 
without them. In Mr. Smith’s garden not a ball could 
be found during the whole summer on any hill planted 
with common potatoes, while the vines of his renovated 
potatoes, and even the seedlings of last spring, were 
covered with balls. Another evidence still, is the 
watery and insipid character of those that escape the 
rot, compared with the potatoes that were grown 
twenty-five to thirty years ago. Those gifted with a 
vivid recollection, will not fail to perceive the contrast. 
2. It is believed that an effectual remedy for the po¬ 
tato disease is within the reach and application of every 
man. Mr. Smith’s experiments show what it is, and 
how it is to be applied. Not that the seedling of one 
year or two will, in all cases, be sufficient to give the 
potato a perfectly healthy and hardy constitution; for 
like some diseases in the human constitution, that run 
in the blood to the third and fourth generation, some¬ 
times, before they are perfectly eradicated, it may re¬ 
quire the renovating process for three or four years. 
The main reason why the public has been faithless as 
to the success of this remedy, is, that the experiment 
has been tried only for one year. This not proving 
effectual, has led to discouragement and unbelief. Let 
the experiment of renovating potatoes on Mr. Smith’s 
plan, be universally adopted and followed up for a 
series of years, and if any thing can arrest and eradi¬ 
cate the disease , this will do it. The general degene¬ 
racy shows that renovation is what it needs, and how 
can it be renovated except in the above way ? 
3. The potato disease, having been now for some 
years in operation, and ascertained to be nearly univer¬ 
sal wherever potatoes have been cultivated, is evidently 
not accidental, arising from soil, climate, atmosphere, 
rain, or sunshine, but constitutional. Hence the remedy 
must correspond with the disease. And what can 
reach the case but a process of renovating, by planting 
seed ? This process may be commenced and followed 
up by every farmer and gardener, and the result cannot 
fail to be beneficial. H. A. Parsons. 
Remarks. —If it were true that the potato disease 
