ENEMIES OF THE POTATO. 123 



looking potato among them. But if you will plant them 

 away from buildings, you will have no trouble from scabby 

 potatoes. Whatever may be the cause, it is easy enough to 

 get rid of it. There are many worse things than scabbi- 

 ness, I have no doubt. Probably no vegetable is so foully 

 dealt with as the potato. It is planted in swamps, among 

 rocks, and everywhere. It is manured with all manner of 

 foul compounds. As to this fish-guano, if it were a good 

 remedy, I would not use it. It is not treating the potato 

 respectably to feed it with such manure. I doubt if the 

 potatoes would not partake of the nastiness. I had some of 

 the wretched stuff, and the neighbors complained of it more 

 than half a mile off. I would not put that upon any field. 



There is a little hard-shell worm that has troubled me more 

 than anything else in raising potatoes, and that is the wire- 

 worm. I have never found anything that would prevent his 

 work. I have been troubled every year, more on low laud 

 than on high, and sometimes they have nearly spoiled my crop. 

 If any one can throw any light on that creature's habits, 

 I would like very much to hear him. I have tried salt 

 and ashes and lime, and many other things, and nothing Avill 

 drive that fellow away. He is a hard-shelled, pernicious 

 fellow, and stands all manner of hardship and ill-treatment. 

 Some people have recommended picking them out of the 

 potatoes and pulling their heads off. That is a good process, 

 if people have nothing else to do, but rather tedious. If any- 

 body will tell me how to get rid of this wire-worm, I will tell 

 him everything I know about potatoes in return. 



Mr. Cheever. I won't undertake to tell the gentleman 

 how he can get rid of all the wire-worms on his farm, even if 

 he will tell me all he knows, which might be a good bargain ; 

 but he has suggested a remedy. Drain your laud until it is not 

 too wet, and the wire-worm cannot live there, to any extent. 



Mr. Brown. I have done j ust that. He is on the best-drained 

 land I have. He stands any manner of treatment with me. 



Dr. Nichols. I am inclined to think that in the cultiva- 

 tion of potatoes we overlook the importance of the use of 

 plaster. I have been in the habit of using plaster on my 

 potatoes for a number of years, and it seems to me that 

 it is a most excellent fertilizer to use in connection with 



