80 The Potatoe Plague. 



who feed upon and destroy the seed plants ; but this is a 

 consequence, and not a cause, for maggots and flies are only 

 to be found on diseased or putrid vegetables ; they riot and 

 banquet on putrefaction ; it is their natural food, and there 

 they are only to be found. Plant, then, a sound potatoe in 

 a good soil, and, properly treated, it will find its way to the 

 surface, and produce a good crop in defiance of maggots 

 and flies. 



The seeds of disease, then, must be in the constitution of the 

 plant. 



In examining a diseased potatoe, which has blind eyes, and 

 will not germinate, it is plain that there is canker on the 

 skin, and plague spots all over it. This, if planted, will cer- 

 tainly be attacked by the maggots and flies ; but the plant is 

 in a state of decay or putrefaction in fact a caput mortuum 

 and it properly belongs to the flies and maggots by right 

 of inheritance. The great object to be attained, then, is to 

 plant sound seed, and the maggots and flies will not relish 

 it. It is generally allowed, and the idea has been long enter- 

 tained, that it is quite impossible to raise seed potatoes in low 

 situations or in a high temperature, without being affected 

 with the curl ; but at an altitude of four hundred feet it 

 entirely disappears. In this there appears to be a very re- 

 markable peculiarity in the nature and constitution of the 

 plant ; but in looking to its origin, general history, cultivation 

 and general management in this country, its success and 

 failure, I have been led to a far different conclusion. In- 

 deed, from what I have already stated, it must clearly appear 

 to every one, that there can be only one cause for the fail- 

 ure of the potatoe plant, to wit, over-cultivation. 



The first practical experience of failure which I met with 

 on my own farm, struck me most forcibly. In the year 

 1 837, 1 had a small quantity of potatoes for seed, which I had 

 received from high grounds. I thought them very fine, and 



