178 APPENDIX. 



Farmers' Club ; the result of which was published in the " New- York 

 Farmer and Mechanic," vol. ii., November, 1844, from which I have 

 selected the following extracts : 



'* That the disease may proceed from some chemical action in the 

 atmosphare, or from peculiar location, as high or low, new or old 

 land, and that some varieties are more liable to disease than others," 

 page 290. 



* That the potato disease was imported from Great Britain two or 

 three years ago ; and that a gentleman, from microscopic examination, 

 discovered in the tubers a growth of fungus, a plant analagous to the 

 mushroom family. These fungi seeds although invisible to the naked 

 eye are readily carried about by the winds, and will penetrate wherever 

 air will. Baing once introduced from Europe, their extensive dissemi- 

 nation here is very easy. These seeds falling on the potato in favour- 

 able circumstances as to moisture, &c. cause the disease," 291.* The 

 application of common salt to the soil, previous to planting, is suggested 

 as a remedy. Lime and charcoal dust sown on the ground after plant 

 ing is also recommended. 



Anoth3r correspondent asserts, " that the disease is an old one, having 

 been long known in Germany, as well as in England, and that there 

 are in fact two distinct distempers, one of which is called dry rot, and 

 the othsr wet rot ; the dry rot often appears in a whitish surface ; if 

 the wet rot sets in, it is black, and soft worms are to be found in the 

 putrifying parts. The direct origin of the disease is a fungus, the 

 rsmote origin is something else. One of the most fertile causes of this 

 disease is the habit of using farm yard manure in a state of fermentation. f 

 Plants, in a healthy growing state, are rarely attacked by the fungus ; 

 probably, therefore, some change takes place in potatoes before the 

 fungus begins," page 307. 



* If it be true that an infectious disease exists amongst the potatoes of that country, much 

 cont tins a less quantity of land than one of our largest States, it may be asked, how a pro- 

 portion could be shipped here in an eatable and plat table condition, after reserving a sufficiency 

 'for a population of upwards of twenty millions of inhabitants, who raise them for their cattle 

 as well as for table use. 



It is upwards of thirty years since I commenced cultivating potatoes, which, according to 

 th? seasons, has been attended with variable success. In 1820 my potatoes were so bad as 

 to be scarcely eatable, I however planted some of them for seed the year following, on land 

 situated near the Bowery, where Third street now is, which was manured with livery stable 

 dung ; and the product was the best I ever eat. Last season several of my acquaintance raised 

 their early and late crops from the same lot of seed, with different results. Those planted in 

 April pr iduced an abundance of excellent potatoes, while the product of those planted in Juno 

 and July were represented as diseased and scarcely worth digging. The difference in all those 

 cases nv.nt have been occasioned by the weather and not by the seed. A change of soil how- 

 fever, will sometimes cause a difference in the quality of potatoes. 



