PART II. 



THE POTATOE PLAGUE. 



Preliminary Remarks. 



IN the preceding pages I have collected important informa- 

 tion on the history, cultivation, diseases and uses of the pota- 

 toe. I commend that part of the book to the candid attention 

 of the farming community, as it contains much that is new. 

 The views of M. Thaer, especially, now for the first time 

 republished to American readers, will claim their attention as 

 being the mature experience of a distinguished cultivator, 

 after years of observation into the nature of the tuber and 

 the best modes of managing it. 



I now approach the great subject of this treatise with un- 

 feigned diffidence. I would, in the outset, deprecate criticism, 

 by the confession, that the material portions of information 

 contained in these pages are not from my own knowledge, or 

 the result of my individual experience. The work is com- 

 posed of better materials than any one farmer or scientific 

 cultivator could possibly furnish, were he even the most pro- 

 found and practical in the land. It is a condensation of the 

 opinions of farmers and scientific men from every part of this 

 country and Europe, respecting every variety of the potatoe, 



