Diseases of the Potatoe. 33 



I conclude this part of my subject, by extracting the fol- 

 lowing article by Morrill Allen, an intelligent, practical far- 

 mer, of Massachusetts. The extract properly belongs, per- 

 haps, to Part II, of this work, but it is also connected with 

 the present chapter. He says : " There have been sufficient 

 indications of the existence of disease, and advances, to justify 

 some general attention to the subject, and the employment of 

 such preventive, or remedial means, as may seem to cultiva- 

 tors the most likely to prove efficacious. Until the causes of 

 the malady shall be more satisfactorily investigated, no rules 

 can, with implicit confidence, be given for the treatment. 

 The farmers must do as physicians are sometimes obliged to 

 do in cases of undefined bodily disease, prescribe to the 

 symptoms. This practice is attended with great uncertainty, 

 yet the results of it in experience sometimes prove highly 

 valuable. The different causes to which the disease in pota- 

 toes has been ascribed, lead writers to suggest a great variety 

 of remedies in accordance with their views of the probable 

 origin. Let farmers select and apply such as their reason 

 and judgment best approve, and it may be that merely prac- 

 tical men will, in the course of their experience, clearly 

 prove what theory has hitherto failed of doing, the moving 

 cause of the difficulty. If, as supposed by some, it be of 

 insect origin, then salt and lime would seem proper applica- 

 tions, and these are also strongly recommended by persons 

 who think that fungus is the producing cause of the disease. 

 Those who suppose it arises from atmospheric influence 

 may properly apply the same means which would be recom- 

 mended by those who believe it the result of excessive 

 growth. Preparation of the soil, and a course in the culti- 

 vation likely to "produce an even growth is unquestionably 

 important in this and other crops. Some persons seem con- 

 fident that the rot in potatoes results wholly from deteriora- 

 tion in the seed. If this be true we may not expect to avoid 



