SCABBINESS OF POTATOES. 121 



Mr. Wetherell. I did uot measure it, but I should 

 judge about two or three inches. 



Mr. Cheever. How deep in the potato was the worm? 



Mr. Wetherell. Not very deep ; partly upon the sur- 

 face. About the depth of the thickness of the worm, which 

 was, perhaps, nearly a sixteenth of an inch. 



Mr. Cheever. How could an angle-worm, three inches 

 long and of proportionate size, keep inside of a potato in a 

 hole only an eighth of an inch deep ? 



Mr. Wetherell. It was working along under the skin 

 of the potato. I do not know how it kept itself there. I did 

 not examine particularly to ascertain how it kept itself there, 

 but the fact was before my eyes. President Allen, of the 

 AgriculturaFCollege of Maine, says that lime put in the hill 

 is a very good specific. 



Mr. Paul. On one occasion, in examining carefully some 

 potatoes that were in the condition spoken of, I discovered 

 a very small white maggot, closely resembling the maggot of 

 the* common house-fly, but so minute as to be scarcely visible 

 to the naked eye. From the position of this worm, I became 

 satisfied that it was the cause of the scabby appearance. In 

 conversation with several persons since, I have not found any 

 one who has observed the same thing. I feel confident that 

 the cause of this trouble is not the angle-worm. My impres- 

 sion is, that during the period of growth, this worm punctures 

 the skin, and, in its growth, the skin opens, leaving that 

 appearance of scabbiness upon the surface. Probably an 

 examination by the microscope at the time of growth would 

 show that fact, if it is so. In regard to the remedy, I am 

 quite confident that the use of fish-manure, fish-pomace or 

 fish-refuse in the hill — used carefully, so as not to injure the 

 germination of the potato — would be a remedy. At least, 

 whenever I have used it, as I have done several times during 

 a period of eight or ten years, I have never known my pota- 

 toes to be aflfected in the way that has been described ; and 

 feeling confident that it was a remedy, I have inquired of 

 a number who have used it, and I have never heard of any 

 one who used it who had this scabbiness on his potatoes. It 

 is my impression, therefore, that it is a specific. 



President Allen, of Orono, Me. I merely made the sug- 



