239 



In the Patent Office Report for 1851-2, (page 467,) is a communi- 

 cation signed P. Prescott, Superintendent of Farming for Sioux. He 

 writtjs from St. Paul, Minnesota, and says that his potatoes grew well 

 until the middle of August, about which time there were cold rains for 

 several days, after which the weather c'eared, and there were three 

 nights 80 cold as nearly to produce frost. The weather then became 

 yery warm, and in 6veor six days black spots appeared on the leaves of 

 the potatoes, and in ten days afterwards the tubers were affected. 



He then states, " I am confident this dreadful disease is caused by 

 the state of the atmosphere, and that some powerful agent being depos- 

 ited on the leaves, checks the progress of the alkali, and causes the 

 decay. I have positive evidence that the disease is not confined to the 

 potato, for the same dews produced the same effect on my tomatoes, 

 cabbages and rutabagas. The rutabagas all rotted, I have not harvested 

 one of them. The effect of the dew was most apparent on the toma- 

 toes; those parts where the dew collected heaviest, being soonest turned 

 black." 



Mr. J. Clapporton, an eminent agriculturist thus describes the pro- 

 gress of the rot in Ireland in 1854. In a letter to the " Leinster Ex- 

 press," an Irish Provincial paper, he states that " during the last eight 

 days the atmosphere has been highly charged with electricity; thunder 

 showers are always sudden, partial and heavy, and under present cir- 

 cumstances we have not seen anything remarkable in this particular, but 

 the effect has been of more hurtful tendency than we have experienced 

 for many years. Within the last six days, the potato disease has been 

 very decided in its action ; it is extending from the leaves to the tubers 

 but not with alarming rapidity, as the leaves are always smitten or se- 

 riously disorganized, for several weeks before the tubers are affected." 

 This is the testimony of one of the most scientific farmers in Ireland. 



The potato crop has been seriously damaged by the rot, in the season 

 that has just passed. The potatoes in the neighborhood of Quebec^ 

 were perfectly safe and free from all symptoms of disease, until they 

 were visited by a thunder storm ; after which they immediately became 

 black, and rotted away. In every part of Europe and America, the 

 potato blight of 1845, was heralded by thunder and lightning. 



After hll this overwhelming testimony, produced from some of the 

 most enlightened nations of the world — it will be absurd for any indi- 



