106 The Potatoe Plague. 



likely to sneer at my simple theory and remedies as was 

 Naaman, the Syrian, when told by the prophet to wash seven 

 times in Jordan, and he should be healed. The proud offi- 

 cial turned away in anger and scorn, but a serving girl fol- 

 lowed after him, and asked, in the language of simple 

 common sense, and according to the strict rules of analogy : 

 "My lord! if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, 

 wouldst thou not have done it ? " The multitude miscon- 

 ceive the operations of nature: they are continually looking 

 for great things, and let opportunities slip that would induct 

 them into a more intimate knowledge of the ways of Provi- 

 dence. Putting water upon fire is a simple remedy, but it 

 is efficacious. " Cease to do evil ; learn to do well," is a 

 simple remedy to amend a bad life and bad habits, but it is 

 abundantly able to transform a spirit of darkness to assimila- 

 tion with the purity of angels. It is by looking for simple 

 causes that the greatest results are obtained. 



DETERIORATION OF SEED. All the causes we have 

 named would naturally tend to the deterioration of potatoe 

 sets, and it is not at all surprising that most of the seeds of 

 varieties, now in use, have become so weak and disorganized 

 as to produce diseased tubers, and so furnish food for fungi, 

 and an excuse for ascribing the general decay to all the 

 other causes that have been assigned. Mr. Knight, the first 

 President of the London Horticultural Society, and one of 

 the greatest men of his time, limited the duration of varieties 

 in a state of perfection to from fourteen to twenty years, and 

 remarked that the experience of most farmers would witness 

 for him that no variety, then in cultivation, and esteemed a 

 good sort, could be traced back more than twelve years. On 

 the other hand, it has been stated, and individual experience 

 has proved, that with care, varieties have preserved their 

 original vigor for nearly half a century. This last is no doubt 

 the truth with regard. to varieties, if proper care has been 



