Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1838-11-01

SPEED THE PLOUGH.
From the Genessce Farmer.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES IA

The history OF some of our commonest
agricultural aud horticultural products,
furnishes useful lesson respecting the
beneficial effects Of careful cultivation.
The husbandman may read. in the case
oil the potato particularly, not merely
the effects produced by accident in the
introduction of useful plants. but the vast
improvements resulting from judicioas
culture.
The speech Of Col. Knapp, in deliv-
ering the premiums awarded by the A :
merican Institute to the individuals re-
siding in Newark, embraced many curl :,
GUS facts, which will probably be read
with profit by intelligent farmers. W..
quote few paragraphs.
Every thing in this country, (said
he,) has been brought forward by pro-
duction. In this bleak cline, but few
OF the sustaining fruits of the earth were
here indigenous, or in perfect state.
Even the Indian Corn, so often consid,
cred native here, was with difficulty
acclimated. Ii was brought from the
south, and by degrees was coaxed to ri i.
pen in northern latitude. The abort
gines who cultivated it. taught the pill
grims how to raise it; they pluck ed the
earliest ears with the husk and braided
several OF them together, for the next
years seed. and their care was rewarded
BY an earlier and surer crop.
The Pumpkin brought from Spain,
was hrst planted i'll Rowley, Massach HUI
setts, and il was several years before
they came to hard, knotty shell, which
marks the true yankee pumpkin, such
as are selected for the golden pies of
Their glorious thanksgiving festival.
Our Wheat was with difficulty accli.
mated. That brought from the mother
country had grown from spring till fall,
buf the season was not long enough to
ensure crop. it was then sown in the
iaii, grew under the SHOWS in winter
ana catching the earliest warmth of
spring yielded lis increase by mid SUN
mer.
Asparagus. which is now the delight
OF all as an early vegetable, and for
which several millions of dollars are paid
our gardeners yearly, is of late culture in
TINS country. AT the time OF the revo-
luton, asparagus was only cultivated OIL
the seaboard: this luxury had not then
reached the farmer of the interior.
The history Of the potato is singu>
lar one. Rees' Ency clopedia states that
tbe potato was first brought from Virgil,
MIA, by Sir Walter Raleigh, to Ireland.
The writer should have said from South
America, in the latter part of the six
teenth century. He had no idea of its
ever being used as an esculent, at that
time. 1t was pointed out to him as n
beautiful flower, and Its hard. bulbv root
was SAID, by the natives. to possess me-
dicinal qualities. He took il TO Ireland,
where he had estates presented to him
oy queen Elizabeth, and planted it in
his garden. The flower did not improve
oy cultivation. but the root grew larger
and softer. The potato, in its native
ped, was coarse ground nut. The
thought struck the philosopher to try
Inc potato as an edible, and boiling
and roasting it. found it, by either pros
cess, excellent. He then gave some of
the plants to the peasantry, and thew
soon became, in meas ure, a substitute.
1or bread, when the harvest was scanty.
The potato was successfully cultivated
IN Ireland, before it was brought TO Eng>
land it grew in favor by slow degrees.
and was so little known when our pill
grim fathers came to this country that
Ut was not tho't of as crop in the New
World. ltwo'd have been an excellent
thing Tor them if they had been acquain,
ed with the value OF the potato. twas
not I'LL l7l9, that the Irish potato reach
ed this country. a colony of Presbyte.
Tian Irish, who settled in Londonderry,
IN New Hampshire, brought the root
sVith them. This people found their
favorite vegetable Hourishing well in
new ground. By degrees their neigh.
oors came into the habit of raising the
potato but many years elapsed before
ehe cultivation Of it was general amono
che yeomanry Of the country. Long at,
ter they were cultivated in New Epq-
lard, they were held in contempt, and
the master mechanic often had 10 stipu-
late with his apprentice that he should
not De obliged to eat potatoes. An aged
mechanic once informed me that he rails
ed nine bushels, having at that time
Al745) dozen apprentices, he did not
venture to offer them boiled potato
with the meat, but left them in the cell
lar Tor the apprentices TO get and roast as
they pleased he soon found that be
should not have enough for seed and he
Locked up what was lett. The next
year he raised the enormous quantity of
shlrty six bushels; the ueighbors stared