255 



accordingly their supplies are procured from abroad. Hundreds, I may- 

 say thousands, of bushels are sent annually from this county to Vermont. 

 I have known one hundred thousand barrels of this vegetable to be 

 grown in a single year, at the town of Danvers, in which I reside; occa- 

 sionally the crop is cut off by insects. 



ON THE BLIGHT AND CULTURE OF THE POTATOE. 

 BY JOHN TOWNLEY, MOUNDVILLE, MARQUETTE CO., "WIS. 



A celebrated French naturalist, whose vanity kept pace with his ac- 

 quirements, desired to have inscribed on his tomb, "a genius equal to the 

 majesty of nature," but, as was well said, a blade of grass was sufficient 

 to confound his pretensions. 



Great undoubtedly is the progress made in science and art during the 

 present century : "we travel by vapor, correspond by lightning, and paint 

 ■with the sun ; yet amid all our boasted achievements, now and again cir- 

 cumstances arise as if to remind us of the still limited extent of our intel- 

 lectual vision, that we yet see as through a glass darkly. We have wit- 

 nessed, for instance, the potatoe plant suddenly stricken with disease; the 

 leaves prematurely shrivelled and died ; the food of the people perished. 

 The mysterious visitation formed a prominent topic in speeches from 

 thrones — in debates of legislators, and in leaders of newspapers. Essays 

 and treatises, almost without number, were written on the subject, and 

 when we call to mind the various conjectures which have been hazarded; 

 the explanations which have been advanced to account for the malady, 

 surely there is cause for humiliation. In no country was greater 

 excitement caused by the disease than in Britain ; the loss of the crop 

 there in one season was of the estimated value of upwards of ^50,000,000, 

 and hundreds of human beings who had subsisted chiefly on potatoes 

 were hurried to premature graves. The Government was necessarily 

 alarmed and perplexed at the appearance of so formidable an evil. What 

 •can be the cause of it? How long is it likely to continue? Can we by 

 any means subdue or prevent it? were their anxious inquiries. Unable 

 to solve these questions themselves, they appointed a Royal Commission 

 to inquire into the matter. Grave savans, botanists, chemists, doctors of 

 philosophy, proceed to Ireland; they inquire into the condition of the 



