ESCULENT ROOTS POTATOES. 175 



richly repay all its cost. That most fanners could 

 not afford thus to treat their entire farms at once, is 

 very true ; yet it does not follow that they might not 

 deal with field after field thus thoroughly, living on 

 the products of 40 or 50 acres, while they devoted five 

 or six annually to the work of thorough renovation. 



A quarter of a century ago, we were threatened 

 with a complete extinction of the Potato, as an 

 article of food : the stalks, when approaching, or just 

 attaining maturity, were suddenly smitten with fatal 

 disease usually, after a warm rain followed by scald- 

 ing sunshine the growing tubers were speedily af- 

 fected ; they rotted in the ground, and they rotted 

 nearly as badly if dug ; and whole townships qpuld 

 hardly .show a bushel of sound Potatoes. 



A desolating famine in Ireland, which swept away 

 or drove into exile nearly two millions of her people, 

 was the most striking and memorable result of 

 this wide-spread disaster. For several succeeding 

 seasons, the Potato was similarly, though not so ex- 

 tensively, affected ; and the fears widely expressed 

 that the day of its usefulness was over, seemed to 

 have ample justification. Speaking generally, the 

 Potato has never since been so hardy or prolific as it 

 was half a century ago ; it has gradually recovered, 

 however, from its low estate, and, though the malady 

 still lingers, and from time to time renews its rav- 

 ages in different localities, the farmer now plants 

 judiciously and on fit ground, with a reasonable hope 

 that his labor will be duly rewarded. 



