38 YALE AGRICULTURAL LECTURES. 



combating the Professor's theory of "the progression of 

 primaries by their use in organic nature." Mr. Johnson is 

 a young man, and a bold man ; and if lie has enough facts to 

 base these several assertions upon, I don't blame him for having 

 the manliness to proclaim them. I must say I like this transpi 

 ration theory, for it explains a good many little matters for 

 which a reasonable solution has not heretofore been afforded. 

 As to the stalk-coating affair, and the mineral phosphate busi 

 ness, the case does not as yet seem to me fully proven. 



FIFTH DAY. FEB. 6, 1860. 



The Rev. CHAUNCEY E. GOODKICH, in his lecture, on Saturday, 

 considered the potato-disease in all its several relations, a branch 

 of investigation on which many years of practice enable him 

 to speak understandingly. 



The potato, in a state of nature, is found on the sides of the 

 Andes, and in the adjacent valleys. At the base of the mountains 

 are the tamarind, yam, and banana ; the melon, corn, tomato, 

 and pepper come higher up; and above these is the belt where 

 the potato thrives most vigorously, the climate being equable, 

 and the root not exposed to the frosts. When the same varie 

 ties of potatoes, especially those which ripen at nearly the same 

 time, are cultivated together, they are variously subject to dis 

 ease. Thus the old " Early Mountain June," " Early Pink-Eye" 

 or (Dyckman), of the early kinds ; and the " Carter," and 

 "Western Red " of the late sorts, are peculiarly liable to dis 

 ease. 



If you plant alongside them, however, the imported " Rough 

 Purple Chili," the "Garnet Chili," the "Black Diamond," 

 and the " Early Hartford," they show a much hardier consti 

 tution. And this difference, Mr. Goodrich thinks, is due to a 

 difference in vital energy, which may be owing to a course of 

 replanting, without recourse to the seed-ball, unreasonably pro 

 tracted. Very wet, cold seasons, such as 1857 ; or hot, damp 



