boy large enough to dig potatoes knew that to let potatoes lie exposed to the rays of the sun, one half day even, had a tendency to injure them; and I am of the opinion that potatoes spread in the sun for several days, agreeably to the directions of the writer above named, will be found to have acquired a property from that luminary, or from the atmosphere, or from both, (perhaps they imbibe oxygen from the atmosphere, which may tend to render them poisonous,) which will disqualify them for the use of man or beast. In proof of this position, I will adduce a little of my prac tical experience in point. I exposed about a bushel of the kidney potatoes to the sun in the open air, and, on examination a few days after, L found that their upper surface had become changed from white to green; and that although they remained perfectly sound, as when first left out, yet they smelt strong; and on cutting and tasting them, their interior was found as green as their exterior, and they tasted as strong as they smelt. "In regard to the time of digging, and the mode of preserving them, I found, on inquiry, that many were inclined to dig early, as they said, in order to save them; but such persons were unable to separate the good from those which at that early part of the season were imperceptibly defective; and were obliged, after letting them remain a few days in their cellars, to carry them out again, a filthy mass. Others concluded it would be better to let them remain, good and bad, in the ground, as long as they could, and not freeze up, when, on digging them, they might with safety put those that then appeared fair into the cellars; and I think this is the

judicious course. I have just dug mine, and find that the defective are obviously so, and need not be mistaken. How admirably potatoes keep in the ground! Why, sir, it is as natural for them as for chipmunks and woodchucks to remain in the ground. And were potatoes as well secured from the frosts, light, and atmosphere, as are those quadrupeds, we should find in the following spring, that, instead of coming out shrivelled and ugly, resembling those animals, they would come out improved in appearance and flavor.

"There are various ways of preserving them in the cellar, (though many prefer burying them deep in the sand upon a side hill, in order that they may not be injured from rains,) better than the usual mode of turning them down upon the cellar bottom; for, when thus treated, they usually taste of the ground. In order to keep well, they should, on being taken out of the ground, be put immediately into tight bins, (the more dirt with them the better,) which, when filled within about six inches of the top with potatoes, should have a covering, as of straw or boards, or perhaps of dirt, sufficient to exclude them from the light and air.

"NORTH ADAMS, MASS., October 26, 1844."

"ISAAC HOLMAN.

"All experience is uniform in showing that potatoes should never lie exposed to the influences of the atmosphere. How rich when cooked as soon as they are dug, provided they have had time to ripen in the ground. Wet weather could not be the chief cause of the rot, for in New England it has not been a wet summer. Within 30 or 40 miles of this city it has been an uncommonly dry season, including the whole of September, when potatoes rotted most."-Edilor Massachusetts Ploughman.

"The following are a few facts which I have collected from observation and inquiry:

"1st. Potatoes in this vicinity have rotted in grounds naturally both wet and dry-perhaps a little oftener in the latter. Those potatoes slightly hilled in hoeing have suffered most. Observe: I do not give this as a reason, but simply as a fact.

"2d. The rot has prevailed most in ground most highly dressed with barn manure, especially if placed in the hill. When potatoes were planted without any manure, they have rotted very little. Two pieces on similar ground, (rather wet,) the one manured from the barn, the other with hair, lime, fleshings, &c., from the tannery, both applied in the hill; the first rotted badly, the other very little. Two pieces, the first dressed broadcast, and in the hill, from the barn; the other broadcast, with a compost of barn manure and swamp muck, muck and ashes, and clear manure, both drythe first was planted early, the latter late; the first rotted in the field, and being dug in the hot weeks in September, rotted after being put into the cellar; while the latter, dug at odd jobs from the middle of September to the middle of October, suffered very little. This piece had plaster put on at the time of planting, and after the potatoes were up.

"3d. The Chenangos have rotted most, the old whites and yellows next, and (of the kinds raised to any extent here) the reds have rotted least. In some instances, the tops have rotted near the surface of the ground, and come, when pulled, without drawing any earth or potatoes with them. Sometimes the rot causes the potato to become white and hard-a sort of dry rot. In others, it is wet-changing the potato to a mass of putrid matter, giving out an extremely offensive odor. Sometimes the heart of the potato becomes decayed, leaving the outside fair; while others rot upon the outside first.

"4th. It is a fact, too, that stock and swine fed upon these potatoes, partly decayed, have, in some instances, been evidently injured by them. Others, having been fed liberally from the same, have received no detriment.

"These are a few statements which I can substantiate at any time. I send them to you, to use in any way that will best promote the objects we have in view, viz: detecting the cause, and finding a remedy for the disease. Disease I have inadvertently called it. Perhaps I am in error here: it is the very thing to be decided; and I would not arrogate so much to myself. It has been by many here (being a new thing under the sun to them) attributed to the extremely hot weather during the last week in September; but, if that were the cause, why did not pieces on similar ground, and under the same cultivation, suffer alike? By others, it has been ascribed to drought; but, if this were the cause, why have some wet lands, and wet places in certain pieces, rotted more than the dry lands near by ? In this particular, nothing seems to be uniform-the rot prevailing sometimes in wet, at others in dry soils. Light on the subject we earnestly seek. "Yours, with much respect, "S. F. PERLEY.

"NAPLES, October 17, 1844."

cominents.

Our Naples correspondent has our thanks for the above facts and He agrees, in the main, with most farmers who have taken particular notice of the rot. It is certainly difficult to account satisfactorily for this unusual visitation. We are not very confident that we are correct, but we will suppose the extreme heat of September is the chief cause of the rot, and see how that supposition consists with the other facts of the case.

"That heat is the chief cause of rot, generally, in fruits and roots, none will deny. Apples, in heaps, always rot sooner in hot weather than in cool weather; and potatoes and turnips are often spoiled by rot when they are put in large heaps, in cellars, early in September. Extreme heat, therefore, without any unnatural moisture, will cause potatoes to rot.

"All will agree that September was unusually warm. No one can show a whole week in that month, within forty years past, of such hot weather as we felt in the latter part of that mouth. The air is often as hot in July, and not often hotter; but we have reason to suppose that the long continuance of hot weather in September caused the earth to be warmed more and deeper than a hot turn in July will do. The sun and air cannot warm the soil so deep in the summer months as in September, for the same reason that June, with a vertical sun, never has the air so warm as the air of July. So, also, it is usually warmer, each day, after the sun has passed the meridian, than when he is directly over head.

"Now, supposing our conjecture to be right, let us see whether all the other facts that have been noted correspond, or whether any of them are irreconcilable with the supposition. All our correspondents agree that grounds highly manured from the barn yard have more rotten potatoes than when none is applied; and that when it is put in the hill, the case is worse than when it is spread over the ground. These facts corroborate our conjecture, for all know that barn manure increases the heat of the soil.

"Another agreed fact is, that sandy loams have a larger proportion of rotten potatoes than clays have; and all know that sandy loams are warmer than clayey loams. We have yet heard of no instance, in Maine, of red potatoes rotting on cold clays.

"But why have Chenangos and blues rotted more than long reds? We believe the fact to be, that early Chenangos were uncommonly good, and free from rot. We heard no complaint of any that were dug as early as August; they were not exposed to the heat of September. But late Chenangos, blues, and other kinds that ripen earlier than the long red, suffered more, because they were more ripe; for all ripe fruit and roots rot sooner than the unripe; and the long red seldom ripens before the frost comes; it often remains unripe till spring, when it is found rich and good. Oranges and lemons are plucked in the West Indies while green, otherwise they would rot on their passage.

"But some potatoes are more hardy, more enduring than others; the long reds have now held out longer than any other kind, and rather improve with length of years. They may resist decomposition longer than common potatoes.

"Another fact stated by our correspondent, and confirmed by numerous witnesses, is, that potatoes which were hilled up most with earth suffered least. In cool summers, potatoes yield best, when they are not planted deep; but many of our visiters tell us this season that their deep-covered potatoes are better than those which were buried slightly. Now, it is well known that farmers are much inclined to put less earth around their plants in hoeing than they formerly did, and that they make no hill for their corn. The objection to hilling corn is, that the roots are buried in cold earth. May not the modern practice of hilling but slightly have some effect to produce rot in a very hot season?

"On the whole, we have uo facts presented that militate with the sup

position that the extreme hot weather late in the season, when the earth must have been heated uncommonly deep, was the principal cause of the

rot.

"The only objection to this supposition, in our own mind, is, that, in New York, and in some other places, the same complaint of rot that we now hear was made last year, when September was not an uncommonly hot month."Editor Massachusetts Ploughman.

From the New England Farmer of October 30, 1844.

We had marked, for transfer to our columns, an extended account (given in the London Gardener's Chronicle) of the late discussion at Glasgow respecting the causes of failures in the potato crop; which latter (as our readers may already know) has been for several years similarly affected in Great Britain, as it has for the two last years in portions of this country. In preference to publishing the lengthy account above referred to, we copy the following synopsis of it from the Dublin Farmers' Gazette, which gives the sum and substance of the discussion:

"Potato failures.-In last week's paper we had the pleasure to copy from a Scottish contemporary a report of the highly interesting discussion which took place at one of the forenoon meetings of the Scottish Agricultural Chemistry Association in Glasgow, on the subject of potato failures. This meeting had been announced for some time. Some very eminent agriculturists attended it; and nothing can better show the exceeding difficulty of the question mooted, viz: What is the cause of the potato failures and is there a remedy for them?' than the discrepancy of opinion advanced on the occasion.

"The general opinion of scientific agriculturists appears to be, that there is a liability inherent in every plaut which has, for a long period, been cultivated in the same soil, to become deteriorated; hence the universal belief in the advantage of changing the seed; and that, in the case of the potato, the most likely means of avoiding failure would be to procure a new generation of plants from seed (not tubers) of a healthy crop. But, in the discussion to which we are referring, Mr. Girdwood's experience gave the death blow to this cherished opinion: the seedlings were found to be as liable to decay as any others.

"Plant your potatoes whole, and use only such seed as have the eye plump; protect from frost, and (says theory) you will have no failures. Not so fast, says Mr. Burnet, of Gadgirth; I have done all this, and still have experienced failures.

"Mr. Alexander, of Southbar, had never witnessed a failure in early planted potatoes. How many, within a few miles of Dublin, would give a great deal to be able to say the same truly. Why, early planted pota toes, with us, are the most liable to failure; and as to this gentleman's other statement, that the failure of potatoes is traceable to some ill-treatment, especially by stowing them in large masses-did it not occur to him that, up to 1832, no failures were caused by such treatment?

"Mr. Allison, of Mears, stated that potatoes taken for seed from those which, for two seasons, had not been cut, would not fail. It is, we fear, mere assertion. Whole potatoes, although not so liable to failure, we be lieve, as cut ones, still, it is notorious, do fail.

"Mr. Anderson, from the north of Ireland, as appears from his statement, has been most successful in his efforts to avoid failures; and the

means he adopts (viz: liming the ground, planting only in drained land, pulverizing the soil well, and not leaving either the manure or seed ex-posed to the effects of the sun and wind) are based on sound practical knowledge. His experience, however, that potatoes which have been prevented from blossoming are not less liable to fail, does not accord with that of others.

"The successful practice of Mr. Reed, as mentioned at the meeting by Sir Robert Bateson, of digging potatoes intended for seed before they are quite ripe, and leaving them on the ground to be dried in the sun, although Professor Johnston declared that he had never heard of it, is known and practised successfully by almost every gardener with his ash-leaved kidneys intended for forcing.

"And as to Mr. Fleming's experience, that the cup potato does not fail, we can only say that such is not the experience of the farmers of this country. "This discussion was, in fact, an epitome of the innumerable essays which for the last twelve years have appeared on the subject of the potato failure, and which may be resolved into this-that we are utterly ignorant of the cause of the failures; and that our only chance of avoiding them is to use mountain-grown (which often means unripened) seed, which has been preserved from heating in narrow pits; to plant in a dry, deep soil-using moist manure, and not permitting the seed to lie exposed, even for a few minutes, to the parching influences of sun or harsh wind."-Dublin Farmers' Gazette.

"I planted between one and two acres-mostly on new land, with very little manure; hoed them once, and got about 250 bushels to the acre. The rot, so much complained of in other places, has affected some, but not very badly; perhaps I should have thought but triflingly of it, had it not been so universally spoken of elsewhere. I think I have seen the like before, or something similar to it. It is what I should call the dry rot. I have examined some of the injured ones, and can find nothing that appears very singular or unaccountable in or about them. A similar rot occurred in my crop of 1838, (I think it was ;) they were pink-eyes I then raised, which were injured. The long reds, to my knowledge, were never so affected. The most of those examined now in a partial state of decay are found, where the least speck of rot has begun on the outside, with the stem and heart also affected in about the same ratio. Those deepest in the hill are generally affected the most. My crop the present season is as mealy and delicious as any I ever used. Among the several varieties raised by many this year, there appears considerable difference as to their liability to that disease-if so it may be called. The long reds, or La Platas, are not touched; while the buckeyes, (a new kind with me,) the whites, pinkeyes, and Irish apples, are more or less affected.

"As to the cause of the rot, we hazard no conjectures. Were it not for the many cogitations of others upon this point, we should be likely to think it owing to some peculiarity in the season. It may be so still; time may tell. The present has generally proved a good season for potatoes. If the rot should come on again the next year, and the next after that, we shall be likely to think more seriously of it. Let us wait and see.

"As to the poisonous effects of this rot, we have no faith in it, further than we believe all decayed vegetables unwholesome for man or beast. "Respectfully,

"BUTTERSVALE, October 29, 1844."

"B. F. WILBUR.