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poonce upon the fruit of our labors, and destroy our prospects at the 

 ^ery moment when we think we are about to reap an abundant harvest 

 The next crop that contributes most largely to our tables is the potato. 

 So prohfic in its yield, so grateful to the palate in the various forms in 

 which it may be cooked, and so good a substitute for any other vegeta- 

 ble food, that it has aptly been styled the poor man's bread, and to the 

 poorest and most distressed nation in Christendom, it has become so 

 much the chief article of diet as to have been re-christened the Irish 

 potato, though but comparatively a new emigrant to that island. 



Potatoes and bread every man must have, but if one be so poor that 

 the feread is unattainable, which happily in this country is rare, a little 

 ^pot of ground, bought or hired, suffices for a year's supply of this de- 

 licious vegetable, and Providence seems kindly to have endowed it ■with 

 suoh properties as to make this cheap food no mean substitute to the 

 poor man for many things that load the table of the prosperous farmer. 

 The importance of this vegetable as an article of food can be best 

 appreciated by remembering how frightfully near a whole nation came 

 to starving a few years since, principally from the failure of this crop, 

 and that as it was, thousands of the poor Irish sunk starving to their 

 graves before the liberal bounty of the world could reach them. 



The mysterious dise^ise of the potato that thus far has defied investi- 

 gation, and baffled all enquiry into its origin, its character or its remedy, 

 seems permanently fastened upon us. Agricultural Societies have been 

 Ift>eral in their offers of premiums for a rehable remedy, individuals have 

 stepped in and offered large rewards for successful experiments, while 

 other individuals have published pamphlets for sale, and after taking 

 the purchaser's money and pledging him not to divulge the secret, though 

 tiliey have entirely failed to give him light as to the nature of the dis- 

 ease, have at least taught him wisdom by reminding him anew of the 

 old adage, never to buy a pig in the poke. 



Indeed, so mysterious is the disease that a citizen of Michigan, who 

 has looked deep into the other world through the aid of spiritual man- 

 ifestations and table dancing, thinks he has discovered in it something 

 akin to human depravity, and publishes a pamphlet in which he traces 

 the potato pestilence to the disarrangement of that great electrical sys- 

 tem which keeps woilds moving in their sphere, and the dead out of 

 their graves. 



