86 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
floor of the house, in tin pans; remains from 36 to 48 
hours, when the cream is taken off and put in large 
stone pots; water is placed in the churn and stands over 
night; the cream is churned slowly but steadily; the 
butter is washed in cold spring water; the butter-milk 
is worked out, and the salt worked in—stands 24 hours 
when it is again worked and lumped. We use a * butter 
worker,’ and generally add three-fourths of an ounce of 
salt to a pound of butter. We think the butter is firm¬ 
er, more waxy and even, if the churning occupies from 
45 to 60 minutes, than when brought in less time.” 
m - 
Agricultural School. 
Governor IIuNt, in his message to the Legislature 
of this State, calls attention to the importance of es¬ 
tablishing an Agricultural School and Experimental 
Farm. He says:— 
It cannot be doubted that an institution of the cha¬ 
racter proposed would promote the dissemination of 
agricultural knowledge and elevate the condition of the 
people. In its formation I would recommend an addi¬ 
tional department for instruction in the mechanic arts. 
Identified in interest, each imparting strength and vigor 
to the other, the agricultural and mechanical classes com¬ 
bined may De said to constitute the substantial power 
and greatness of the commonwealth. The free spirit of 
our institutions and the incentives to effort in which this 
county abounds, are peculiarly favorable to the de¬ 
velopment of inventive genius and rapid advances in the 
useful arts. Our unparalleled progress may be attribu¬ 
ted in no small degtCe to the successful skill of our Ar- 
tizans in originating and perfecting the varied improve¬ 
ments which increase the productiveness of labor in 
most branches of human industry. Yet from the nature 
of their pursuits and the necessity which subjects them 
to a life of toil, too many of our youthful mechanics are 
deprived of those means of intellectual improvement 
which the State has provided for other professions. The 
beneficial effects of an Agricultural and Mechanical 
School will not be limited to the individuals who may 
participate directly in its privileges. The students 
graduating from such an institution, elevated in character 
by moral and intellectual training, and endued with that 
knowledge of the natural laws and practical sciences 
which unites manual labor With the highest exercise of 
the reasoning faculties, will become teachers in their 
turn, imparting to those around them the light of their 
own intelligence, and conferring dignity upon the common 
pursuits of industry by an honorable example fo useful¬ 
ness in their varied occupations. The eleVation of the la¬ 
boring classes is an object worthy of the highest ambition 
of the statesman and the patriot. Under our republican 
System of Government the political power of the State 
must always reside among the men of industry aftd toil, 
whose virtuous energy is their best patrimony. The in¬ 
telligence which qualifies them for the duties of self-go¬ 
vernment, affords the only sure guarantee for the perpe¬ 
tuity of our free institutions. 
The Potato Disease. 
Ens. Cultivator —In your number for September I 
brought down the history of the potato disease fof the 
present year, to August 10th. I remarked in that arti¬ 
cle, that “ I anticipated painful results.” Painful in¬ 
deed, they have been. Many fields around me' are not 
worth digging. So uncertain has been the condition of 
potatoes, that consumers in our city, until quite recent¬ 
ly, have been afraid to purchase more than the supply 
of a day or two at a time. It may be hoped that time 
has so far purged our fields, that the portion of the 
crop now sound, will remain so during the winter, if 
wisely stored. 
Feb. 
I. Causes of Increased Severity. 
' In my last article in your paper, I observed, that the 
disease is, this year, “ more obviously connected with 
hot and wet weather, and less with that which is cold 
and windy, than in former years.” Indeed, I consider 
that this last cause is what has given the disease this 
year, its frightful malignity. The effect of it was to 
fcover the herbage of the potato with a white mildew, 
which not only destroyed the leaves, but also to a consi¬ 
derable extent, the solid stems; and often, also, the seed 
balls, aiid the very foot-stalks on which they grew. 
The obvious effect of such mildew would be, not only 
to destroy the elaborating process of the plant, but also 
to throw into the circulation a mass of half elaborated 
and poisoned matter, quite sufficient to corrupt the tu¬ 
bers, aside from the influence of the ordinary causes of 
disease which had be'eh previously operating, as detailed 
in my last article. That article was closed in the midst 
of that weather, and before its effects were pointedly 
seen. 
The melon, tomato, corn and other tropicals, bore it 
without much injury, as it is just what they are liable to 
in their native regions, especially during the annual 
“rainy season.” But the potato, being a mountain 
plant, and so accustomed to a cooler, dryer, and purer 
atmosphere, was well high destroyed by it. A friend of 
mine, who recently spent some time in Mew-Grenada, 
says that “ the climate aroiihd Bogota, where the potato 
is grown in the greatest perfection, is not warm enough 
to produce melons and tomatoes in perfection, so that 
they are usually brought oh the backs of mules from the 
low and hot regions; and that the thermometer does not 
vary, during any one day, more than five degrees. 
Frosts, ahd our high summer heats, are there equally fin- 
known ; and the cabbage and pepper live through the 
whole year, and are, there, biennial plants.” 
We, by endeavoring to grow the potato in a soil and 
climate hot beyond its constitutional requirements,—ono 
adapted, during the Season of growth, to the melon, to¬ 
mato, &.C., have outraged its capabilities. This, \Vith a 
failure to renew it frequently froril the seed-balls, has 
brought it to the verge of ruin. Nor should it be for¬ 
gotten, that in our anxiety to get large crops, and large 
tubers, we have grown it in too rich a soil, which, taken 
in connection with the preceding causes, has overworked 
the excitability of the plant, and made its structure open 
and vascular, like a hot-bed production. Hence it feels 
changes, through which, even in this unsteady and un- 
genial clime, it once passed in comparative safety. I 
have taken the gfofind, in my Essay on the Potato Dis¬ 
ease, (published in the “ Transactions of the State So¬ 
ciety for 1847 & 8,) that the potato, in most of its con¬ 
stitutional requirements, rafiks, not with tropicals, but 
with the cereal crops, and the hardy fruits and vegeta¬ 
bles of temperate and cool climates. In harmony with 
this position, the hot and wet weather which gave the 
finishing impulse to the potato disease this year, rotted 
the fruit of the plum before it was ripe, and defoliated 
its branches. 
The fruit of the peach was also occasionally injured. 
Grapes, whether foreign or native, especially where they 
grew most luxuriantly, were very generally affected, the 
leaves frequently falling before the fruit was ripe, and 
