The Potaioe Plague. 93 



and the grasses, and the mossy growth on the bark of fruit 

 and other trees. This is demonstrated by the fact, that if 

 we apply strong alkalies in sufficient quantities to any of these 

 plants, before they are attacked by the fungi, they will not be 

 attacked ; and if we supply them after they are attacked, 

 they will soon he freed from them. It is to this purpose that 

 our most successful farmers and fruit raisers apply salt and 

 lime to protect wheat from rust, mildew or blight, and smut, 

 and put ashes and lime upon corn to protect it from the 

 " snuff-box," and sow ashes on potatoes to save them from 

 the rot, and wash fruit trees with whale oil, soap or other 

 alkaline substances, to restore them to health. . These alka- 

 line substances, too, by uniting with the carbonic acid, pre- 

 vent the commencement of decay. This commencement in 

 all carboniferous substances, is called, in chemistry, the sac- 

 charine fermentation, the product of which is a sweet sub- 

 stance, which gives food to flies, bugs, &c., and which flies 

 and bugs are also charged by other scientific gentlemen, with 

 being the cause of the potatoe rot, and other diseases of 

 plants. The Hessian fly, in my opinion, finds nothing suited 

 to its palate in a healthy stalk of wheat, or one that has 

 enough alkali, and therefore does not attack it ; but in a sickly 

 plant, or one with a deficiency of alkali, she finds the sweet sub- 

 stance upon which she .feeds, and there lays her eggs ; which 

 eggs, in the course of time, hatch and produce worms, and if 

 the plant is in such a condition as to furnish food for these 

 worms, they will still remain there ; but a healthy plant will 

 not furnish that food, the same in regard to the wheat 

 worm, muck worm, and all other worms that attack plants. 

 I am led to this conclusion by numerous observations and 

 some experiments. - I have found that where there was a 

 proper quantity of alkaline substances, plants were not injur- 

 ed by worms, bugs, or flies, in any other way than by being 

 eaten up by them. And, indeed, they are not so apt to be 



