The state rights democrat. [volume] (Albany, Linn County, Oregon) 1865-1900, 1871-04-07
THE POTATO FEVER.

/
/ One Of tho best satires upon the
mania for rushing headIong into the
cultivation of new varieties of Pota-
toes md seeds-said to possess mar
yellous qualities, is the following
from the Prairie Farmer:
MARK TwArs's WONDERFUL POTATO.
Some of our readers, or their
neighbors, may be in want of q form
of certificate to append to descrip-
ton OF some vegetable novelty, real
or imagined, and we offer the follow
ing as one OF the host:
Mark Twain has been visiting
Beecher's farm, Greeley's farm, and
the farms Of many of our leading city
farmers, so that he has fallen com
pletely in love with the business, and
especially the part of it which raises
the wonderful new seeding. He
stated his agricultural line by the
announcement of a new potato. He
thus tells it's origin: 81 obtained It
by crossing the yam of the tropics
with the Canadian thistle, and by
carefully selecting and cultivating
the specimens for several seasons I
have secured product that perma-
neptly combines the earliness OF the
former and the endurance of the lat
ter; in other words, my potato Is a
rare combination of speed and bot
tom, and it will do to bet on. I
christencd il the Early Stunner-a
name suggested by its extraordinary
qualities and performances"
MIR. Twain, however, not having
had much experience farming,
thought best to place in the hands of
some reliable man in which the pub
lie has confidence, and publishes
heaps Of testimonials. We give a
specimen from Dir. John Smith, q
respectable butcher, whose reputa-
ton for veracity is 50 well known
He says:
81 am perfectly satisfied with the
Early Sumner. The pound that I
purchased Of you will do me. In
fact it has already done me, so that
l shall not want any more. The day
a..c-- H. ! planted them my swine made
raid on the patch, and I supposed
l had lost my crop. You may i'm
agine my disappointment, when the
foremost hog. after briskly opening the
first hill, suddenly dropped the slice
of Summers he had found there, and
with an expression of disgust and
modification walked off on his ear,
sadder and wiser hog, followed by
the remainder of the drove. Ny
hogs usually range on my potato crop
and hog-proof potato las long been
my hope. hailed the Sumner with
enthusiasm as being the thing for
poorly fenced fields"
DIR. Jones, the celebrated physi-
clan, also gives the follwing testimo-
ny:
Having no ground of my own, I
planted a pound of the ''Early Stun
ners" in the macadamized road, op-
posite my residence. One of my
neighbors recommended an applica-
ton of plaster, as he thought the
road had been Summer followed"
too much to raise crops without stim-
ulant; as this was my first expert
ence in agriculture, I acted upon his
suggestion, and applied one of AL
cocks porous plasters to each hill
The result was amazing. On the 1st
day of July I had ten bushels of
Buckeyes; July I'd one hundred
bushels of Pinkeyes; July 4th, pair
of black eyes; July 9th, twins; July
7th, had to dig my potatoes or give
bond to keep the peace.
Accordingly 1 hired couple of
Irishmen, sunk shaft in my front
yard, tunneled under the road, ond
soon struck magnificent vein of po-
toes. / shall never know how many
bushels there were, for rumor got
abroad that there was an irruption of
of predatory Fenians. Before the
mornings sun burst, the last potato
had disappeared, and I was ruined. -