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readily under the combined influence of sun and air, the skin of the young potato is very tender, and probably suffers from cold and dampness in the soil in autumn. Whatever may be the explications of the fact, some varieties that I cultivate, whose foliage, under every variety of weather, is strong, but whose tubers, instead of commencing their formation about the 20th of June, as is common, do not begin their growth until the 20th of August, and even in some cases, much later; some such hardy varieties, I say, are found diseased in tuber late in autumn.

23. On the use of small potatoes for seed.-Practically, I have found no difference in results between the use of large and small potatoes for seed. My experiments in this respect, have extended to various kinds, on various soils, and through many years. I have not, however, practiced it upon the same variety and on the same soil, and through a succession of years. Theoretically, I should be opposed to this latter course. An occasional use of small potatoes for seed, especially where you do not save the crop for the seed of the next year, I think entirely safe, neither leading to disease nor diminution of crop.

24. Reasons of the increased liability of the potato to disease in late years. This increased liability is a painful fact. The reason of that fact, as adduced in the essays of former years, is exhausted energy. (See Transactions for 1847 and 1848.) This exhaustion of energy is believed to be the result of long cultivation from the tubers, instead of occasional reproduction from the seed balls. Our climate, moreover, is clearly less congenial than its native one, being shorter in season, less uniform, and exhibiting wider extremes of temperature. We have also over-stimulated it, in our anxiety to get large crops. Manuring it for this purpose has made the plant more vascular, as well as overworked its excitability. The proofs of these positions, formerly adduced, were largely inferential, and collateral. The remedy was also of the same character. That remedy was reproduction from our hardiest old sorts, reimportation from its native clime, and reproduction from such imported sorts, when they were not quite fitted to our climate, in the first instance,

by length of season. The confident tone in which this remedy was proposed, was considered by some chimerical. The justification of that confidence is now found in simple matters of fact, respectably attested and still open to the scrutiny of the incredulous. In short, importations have been made, seedlings have been produced from them, and also from our old varieties. The result of all is, such a character for hardiness and all other good qualities as affords the assurance, that a few varieties of the highest character have already been obtained, and that speedily such varieties will be obtained in great numbers. Meanwhile, all other remedies for potato disease, in the shape of change or renewal of soil, antiseptic remedies, and remedies directed to the repulsion of insects, have failed or been at best but temporary in their influence, and have not reached the root of the evil.

I have not in this, or in former papers, attempted a minute exhibition of the mode in which, probably, vegetable productions become degenerated by age. This is not a work for me, but for the most acute and discerning of vegetable physiologists. Excepting the slight show of explanation here, and in former papers, (See Transactions for 1847, p. 453-454, and for 1848, p. 418-421,) I have contented myself with the simple assumption of generally admitted facts.

EXPERIMENT BURYING POTATOES.

(The annexed account of an experiment made by Mr. Goodrich, during the past year, having been received while the Transactions are being printed, and being important as regards the disease of the potato, we give it aninsertion.)

May 8th, 1851, I buried twenty tubers of potatoes about two feet deep in the cellar of an outhouse. The object was to ascertain whether they could be preserved over one summer so as to be used the second year for seed. The place of deposit was favorable, as the cellar was cool and underlaid with living quicksand about three feet from the surface, whose temperature is to-day, at two feet from the surface, 55°. They were deposited in a flower pot and this set in another one larger, the whole was covered with

an earthen plate and this again by a board; no earth was put in. The sorts of potatoes deposited were two varieties of home seedlings of 1849, one of South American Chilis, and three of more common sorts.

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They were dug out May 20th 1852, having been buried one year and twelve days. 1st. They all had grown during the last year and formed vines which had decayed much as they would have done in a heap in the field. The tubers formed amounted to forty-eight, some of them very small. They were none of them as large as those buried, and were by weight probably from one third to one half the weight of those buried.

2. The old tubers were mostly decayed as in ordinary experience, but one of them was found sound except that it was a little cracked, while some others, though retaining their shape, were soft.

3. The tubers were colored like the originals but not so deeply. 4. They were all sound, since they endured none of those severe atmospheric changes which are conceived to be the cause of the disease, as manifesting itself in recent years.

5. They were found, when opened, beginning to sprout. This is a proof of the strong tendency of the potato to germinate when the appropriate season of the year arrives.

6. As they had had no access to soil or water, other than the pervasion of the flower pot by moist air from below, so their growth must have been the result of a mere transfer of matter from the old tubers to the new vines and tubers.

7. They were planted, except the very small ones, May 21st, in nineteen hills, and are to-day, July 31st, quite as flourishing as other hills planted with the same varieties of seed.

8. On the 25th of June, just thirty four days from the time. these new tubers were planted, I discovered that the old sound. tuber, noticed in No. 2 above, was sprouting, the flower pot containing it and the other rubbish of this experiment having been

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left in a somewhat dark and cool position. It was at once planted, and has made a feeble growth of two sprouts four inches long.

9. To those who, on opening heaps of potatoes that had been covered too warmly during the winter, have found young tubers in the middle of the heap half grown; this experiment will not seem at all incredible. Had they been placed in an open box, but still without earth, and set upon the bottom of the cellar, so as to imbibe a little moisture, the superior access to light and warmth, which they would have thus enjoyed, would probably have made the foregoing results larger.

10. This experiment, I think, strongly corroborates the suggestion made in late years, that the heat and light of our climate are evidently too great for the normal requirements of the potato, and that this excess, taken in connection with the sudden and severe changes of our climate, indicate the true immediate cause of that disease, which has made so powerful ravages during the last nine years. When we superadd to this cause, others, such as a course of culture too stimulating, and a neglect to raise it frequently from the seedball, we have all the needful facts for forming a theory of the potato disease; a disease, which is then no longer an inscrutable mystery, but a common liability incident to all tropical plants, when cultivated in incongenial circumstances.

C. E. GOODRICH.

MR. DELAFIELD'S STATEMENT OF FARM LABOR AND

ITS COST.

The following very valuable statement of the comparative view of the labor and its cost, expended on the Oaklands Farm, from January 1847, prepared by J. Delafield, Esq., is given, trusting that it may encourage many of our farmers to a like systematic course-which cannot but result in great good to themselves as well as the community at large.

Amount of wages earned and paid Av'ge cost in cts. of each

to the last day of each month, from the 1st January.

COMPARATIVE view of labor and its cost expended on the Oaklands Farm since the 1st of January 1847, inclusive; 350 acres 273 acres cultivated, and 77 acres wood land.

MONTHS.

Number of days of labor from the 1st January to the last day of each month in the year.

1847.1848.1849.11850.1851. 1847. 1848. 1849. [ 1850.

Av`ge cost in dols. and cts. of each acre of the whole farm, from 1st January to the last day of each month.

Memorandum.

laborer per day from the 1st of Jan y to the last day of each month.

1851. 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851 1847 1848 1849 1850 1851

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September,.. 1,464 1,487 1,412 1,400 1,306610

10 669

73 563

33 548

84 533 61

42

45

40 39

401 761 93 1 621 561 52

1,618 1,637 1,553 1,6281,450 679 October,.. November,.. 1,796 1,785 1,677 1,781 1,574 751 63 780 1,9541,889 1,775 1,8821,702 804 62 818 39.693 61 713 23.667 16 41 December,

12 729

02613 35 626

75 582 45

42

44

38

57 656

44 677

97 623 97

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Average of the five years is Average cost of the five years is Av ge p'rd m cost in 5 y's Average cost per acre in five 1840 40-100 days. $739 40-100 per annum. is 40-100 & 4-1000 pr day years is $2.12

38 40 1 962 10 1 761 79 1 66 Av'ge No for 5 yrs. 5.87

The usual number of stock
on this farın is 20 head
of cattle, 250 sheep, 9
horses, and 20 hogs.

per acre.

The income from all sources in 1847 was $3,044 05 from which was paid for labor $804 62 equal to 26 43-100 per cent. 1848 do 2,565 58

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NOTE. British statistics, estimate the annual agricultural product of the kingdom to be in value £217,551,977; and the amount paid for the labor of production to be £46,752,446, or 23 3-100 per cent. of the products. The area under cultivation being 50,440,000 acres; the cost of cultivation per acre is 9s. 3d. sterling, or $2.06 per acre. The Oaklands Farm costs $2.12 per acre.

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