194 ANNUAL REPORT 



land, and continued propagation from tubers alone. No subject 

 connected with agriculture ever more thoroughly engaged the at- 

 tention of not only agriculturists and scientists, but the whole 

 civilized world. Every experimental farmer, President of Agricul- 

 tural Society, or College, sought to make himself popular in ad- 

 vancing some new thing for the prevention of the disease. Many 

 of these were tried, among them that of cutting off the tops. My 

 neighbor said to me, "Dr. B., Professor of Agriculture, says that 

 the disease first attacks the vines and if you cut them off the pota- 

 toes will not rot." I suggested the trial of one row through the 

 £eld, but he with more faith than I took his scythe and mowed 

 the tops from the entire crop of two acres. The result was favora- 

 h\e: he had \evy fine potatoes with very few rotten ones, hence he 

 came to the conclusion, that if he had cut them off a little earlier, 

 before the tubers had formed, he would have had no rotten ones. 



It might be observed that few of the varieties cultivated up to 

 the time of the appearance of the rot are now to be found; they 

 have been replaced by others. 



Conspicuous among those who maintained the theory that the 

 failure of the crops was due to the weakness of the plant, resulting 

 from long cultivation, was the Reverend C. E. Goodrich of Utica, 

 N. Y., who about this time commenced a series of experiments and 

 procured a fresh supply from its native localities in South America, 

 in raising and crossing seedlings there resulted thousands of seed- 

 lings. Some of the most excellent varieties were the Early Goodrich, 

 the Harrison and the Garnet Chili. The Early Goodrich was the 

 earliest potato we had ever grown and the Garnet Chili was the 

 parent of Mr. Breese's famous seedlings, which in turn have given 

 us nearly all the varieties that are now attracting so much attention. 



Other diseases, such as the curl blight and scab have become 

 common, and all cultivators are more or less familiar with them. 



As to the cause and prevention of these diseases incident to the 

 potato, it is not necessary for me to write, as nearly every profes- 

 sor has his dogma and every cultivator his theory, and still it re- 

 mains obscure. 



Many think we are on the verge of an entire failure of the 

 crop, and without doubt we have cause for alarm, when we reflect 

 that only three years ago the farmers of western New York were 

 growing and shipping more than any other section of the Union, 

 and that last season the scarcity was so great that Irish potatoes 

 brought a dollar and a half a bushel in the Rochester market. 



