208 POTATO DISEASE. 



Short's methods, consisting in trodding down the stems and cov- 

 ering them six inches deep with soil, is not only too expensive for 

 general use, but has not proved specially efficacious, for if the cov- 

 ering is done early, the potatoes, though they remain sound, are 

 small and unripe, while if done late, the stems decay rapidly under 

 such a cover of soil, and develop so much heat and moisture, that 

 the fungus multiplies extraordinarily, and the rot, so far from being 

 checked is greatly aggravated. 



Prof Bollmann of St. Petersburg, proceeding from the conviction 

 that the cause of the disease goes into the field with the seed tuber 

 proposed to destroy that cause by heat. He directed to dry the 

 tubers by artificial heat until they had shrunken together and lost 

 a good share of their moisture. This method in his hands, and in 

 the hands of others, has succeeded in some cases ; in others it has 

 failed. It deserves more careful and extensive trial. The failures 

 that have been observed in attempting to test this method may 

 easily be accounted for without supposing that the method itself 

 is a failure. It appears highly probable that the spores of the 

 fungus might be destroyed by a dryness that would not damage the 

 potato bud. Ai'tificial drying, however, would likely be conducted 

 at too great a temperature, such as to destroy some of the potato 

 germs. The potato should be cut into small pieces, with one eye 

 to each, and then allowed to dry perfectly at a low or only mode- 

 rately high temperature, until they are hard and brittle.* 



Mr. Holland, (Sussex county, England) cultivates the potato in 

 th"^ following manner : The land was dunged in autumn, ploughed 

 again on a mild day in winter, and furrowed at planting time, at 

 distances of thirty inches, as deeply as possible, in a northeast and 

 southwest direction. On the ridges thus thrown up, a furrow 8 

 inches deep is made, and the potatoes dropped at distances of six 

 inches ; they are then covered with the finest, lightest earth to be 

 had. Twice monthly the soil is hilled up against the potatoes. 

 When the blight manifests itself, its progress is carefully watched 



*The practice of an extensive potato grower and close observer in this State, may 

 be noted as in some measure corroborative of these suggestions from Prof. Bollman. 

 Plon. A. B. Dicliinson informed us, in visiting his farm in Steuben county, 5 or 6 

 years ago, that it was his uniform system not only to cut the potato into small thin 

 pieces with one, or at most two eyes in each, as above recommended, but to allow of 

 their becoming quite dry by exposure to the atmosphere, and as a farther preven- 

 tive of rot, by afibrding additional protection' against moisture, to coat the cut pota- 

 toes with a thin covering of tar and plaster before planting. Eds. Co. Gent. 



