SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 527 



vailed in nearly all parts of the United States during the 

 last summer. For this we cannot suggest any remedy, 

 except that, in all our cultivation, we aim to guard 

 against a state of drought which prevails through all our 

 country, to a far greater extent than the contrary dur- 

 ing the crop-growing season. We hear of the same 

 drought prevailing in Ohio to so great a degree that 

 there is not foliage enough to carry the stock through 

 the winter in the northern part of the State. The soil here 

 is a stiff clay, and from the personal observation of one 

 of the committee during the last summer, he is convinced 

 that the use of the subsoil plough upon this soil would 

 greatly tend to lessen the tendency to loss of crops from 

 drought. 



From Maine we hear of an almost total loss of the 

 staple crop of our friends in that cold region of the 

 Union, from that mysterious and very serious disease 

 among the potatoes 1 that has not very inaptly been 

 likened to the cholera in its ravages. It is of the ut- 

 most importance that all the information tending to cure 

 this hitherto incurable disease should be concentrated, 

 and for that purpose we recommend that the members 

 of the corresponding committee in the several States 

 which have been appointed at this meeting, communicate 

 with the committee in this city all valuable facts that 

 they can obtain upon this subject. 



From the southern part of the wheat-growing region 

 we hear great complaints of the ravages of the weevil. 

 The Convention are anxious to gather information upon 

 this subject. We learn that the destruction of the crop 



1 The potato disease or rot made its appearance in northeastern 

 United States in 1843. Between that time and 1850 it spread 

 over most of the northern half of the country, and reduced crop 

 production almost half. American scientific knowledge was not 

 sufficiently advanced to discover either the cause or method of pre- 

 vention of this plant epidemic, later recognized as the late blight 

 of the potato. Bidwell, Percy W., and Falconer, John I., History 

 of Agriculture in the Northern United States 1620-1860, 374-76 

 (Washington, 1925). 



