MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND AET. 
189 
written or printed tallies, for a public garden, because 
remarkable plants or trees can be better and more fully 
described in a catalogue than it is possible to do on a 
tab v, however large it may be. X would also recoin- 
mend amateurs and others desirous of improving their 
acquaintance with plants, to adopt this plan, for it will 
be frequently found, that when the name is w ritten in 
full, and placed beside a tree or plant in a garden, the 
memory is not sufficiently taxed, the name being merely 
glanced’ at and soon forgotten; when, however, the 
name has to be ascertained, by reference to a catalogue, 
it will be found that the memory clings much moro 
tenaciously to it than when so readily seen at any time 
without trouble. 
THE POTATOE; ITS CULTURE, DIS¬ 
EASE, AND PREVENTIVE. 
By Lewis Markham, Armidaie. 
In my letter, publithed in the Magazine of Science 
and Art, for the month of December, in a treatise 
on Smut, I there mentioned that seed had two dis¬ 
tinct duties to perform—one portion supplied vege¬ 
tation, the other seed, or productiveness. I now 
feel much pleasure in being able to state to the 
society the result of a most satisfactory experiment 
on this subject, which I have no doubt will prove 
interesting to all agriculturists. 
On the 80th of October last, I cut a potatoe in 
two, one half I scooped out similar to an egg shell, 
the. other half I left solid ; I planted them both in 
the same soil, two feet apart. On the 3rd of De¬ 
cember, a plant from the solid half appeared above 
the surface, and on the evening of the 4th a plant 
appeared from the hollow portion. This proves, 
beyond a doubt, that the abstraction of the heart, 
or dour of the potatoe, did not in any way check 
its vegetative qualities, for since then, the hollow 
portion has thrown up two additional plants, which 
in health or appearance there is not the slightest 
distinction from those of the sounder portion. I 
shall feel much pleasure in communicating to the 
society the result of their productive qualities, 
which, I have no doubt, will prove that the larger 
the seed, the stronger the plant, and the greater the 
produce. 
In treating on the potatoe, and its disease, to 
show the importance of the subject, it is only 
necessary for me to state, that, owing to this dis¬ 
ease, a great number of people in Ireland died of 
actual starvation. The disease passed away like 
any other epidemic, and the potatoe is again begin¬ 
ning to take precedence of all other produce as'food 
for the lower order of the Irish population, conse¬ 
quently any light that can he thrown on the sub¬ 
ject might hereafter prove of imporant advantage. 
For the culture of the potatoe in Ireland, the 
land was ploughed in beds, six feet wide, with fur¬ 
rows on each side, for the purpose of earthing the 
plants; the potatoes chosen for seed were the mid¬ 
dling size, and each potatoe was cut into four or 
more sets, consequently the productive portion 
allowed to eacli set must have been very small. 
The sets, after being cut, were allowed to remain in 
heaps for eight or ten days, so as to admit of the 
healing of the out; during this period they were 
kept in an open house, exposed to the action of the 
atmosphere. 
I shall now confine myself to the result of a 
seven-acre field of my own, planted by six women. 
For this purpose they use a long-handled spade, 
and carry the sets in an apron bag in front; the 
spade is held in the left hand, and pressed by the 
right foot; the handle is then pushed forward, and 
the ser is thrown in behind the spade j when the 
spade is withdrawn, the set is left in slanting ; hole 
narrow at the bottom, and wide at the top, with an 
embankment thrown up in front, caused by the 
spade being pressed forward to widen the hole. 
The beds in this field faced east and west, and the 
wind at the time blew from the westward. It will 
be borne in mind that the women changed their 
position every alternate six beds, that is, if they 
planted six beds while facing the west, the next six 
they planted while facing the east, and so on 
throughout the field. 
The disease at this period was scarcely known ; 
but, on seeing the plants coming up so very irregu¬ 
lar, I began to examine the cause. On searching 
where no plants appeared, I found the sets entirely 
rotten, without the slightest appearance of vegeta¬ 
tion, and from this I concluded that rot set in very 
rapilily; however, the result of my examination 
was, that, in proportion to the quantity of set 
absorbed by the plant, so was its health and appear¬ 
ance, and so it proved with regard to productive¬ 
ness ; hut what seemed most extraordinary was, 
that there was a marked difference in every alter¬ 
nate six beds. It will now he remembered that the 
wind blew directly into the holes of all those beds 
planted as the women faced the east, while it blew 
harmlessly over all the others, from the slanting 
position off the holes, and the embankment thrown 
up in front. From this I concluded that the dis¬ 
ease was an epidemic, caused by atmospheric action 
upon the sets, both in the ground and out of it; 
and feel perfectly satisfied that had the sets been 
dipped in some kind of varnish, that would protect 
them from this action till vegetation took place, 
the rot, or disease, could then have no very ma¬ 
terial effect. I have come to this conclusion from 
the fact, that by atmospheric action are all things 
influenced. To it we are indebted for the state of 
our general health, and to atmospheric action may 
be attributed all epidemics. On it is all creation 
depending for existence, and a very slight ad¬ 
ditional compression would he quite sufficient to 
extinguish for ever all animated nature. 
SIMPLE MODE OF RAISING WATER 
BY CATTLE POWER. 
In a land with a climate so hot and dry as that of 
Australia, where rain doe3 not fall for weeks and 
months together, and where, at such seasons, the face of 
the country becomes scorched, and vegetation withers 
and disappear for want of sufficient moisture to keep it 
alive, the importance of a cheap, simple, and effective 
way of raising water for artificial irrigation, need not be 
much enlarged upon. 
My attempt to supply this great desideratum has been 
called forth by reading in the Empire of the 1st ultimo, 
an account of a trip down the Murray, copied from the 
Melbourne Argus, In that paper, while pointing out 
the happy change which a plentiful supply of moisture 
would effect on’the produce of the garden, the orchard, 
and the vineyard, the writer suggests, as a means of 
attaining it, the employment of ordinary pumps, worked 
by an “ linpulsoriuoi,” or moveable floor on an inclined 
plane, upon which a horse is placed. To those who 
have had any experience in such matters, or given the 
subject much attention, it will he sufficiently apparent, 
that, irrespective of original cost, machines that r<*quire 
any great degree of nicety in construction, aud a share 
of mechanical skill in working above what is commonly 
professed by bush labourers, are not calculated to be of 
any general service in the wilds of Australia. 
