22 Taste in Horticulture and in Designs. 



you will be induced to continue in your course ; and by such 

 suggestions as you derive from foreign periodicals, (not al- 

 ways to be followed, indeed,) and from your own observa- 

 tions, that your Magazine will, as its title imports, become 

 the medium of " all useful discoveries and hnpi-ovevnents in 

 rural affairs." 



We have lately seen that a meeting of the proprietors of 

 the Public Garden in your city has been held ; in which were 

 taken some active measures to carry out the plans of that 

 Institution, as modified and improved, by the introduction 

 and planting of all native trees and shrubs, and by making it 

 a pleasant and profitable resort of the citizens of Boston. We 

 trust that efibrts so laudable will be carried into effect ; and 

 that success in its project will cooperate with the efforts of all 

 lovers of horticulture, in elevating the public taste, and in 

 thereby improving the public morals. 



December 8, 1 846. 



Art. III. Observations upon the Potato Rot. By J. S. B., 

 West Scituate, Mass. 



As the disease which has affected the Potato for a few 

 years past, both in the United States, and in Europe, has ex- 

 cited a great deal of anxiety among agriculturists, and is yet 

 involved in some mystery, any attempt, however humble, to 

 throw light upon this subject, and to explain the nature and 

 progress of this disease, cannot fail to attract the attention of 

 those engaged in tilling the soil, whose wealth and prosperity 

 are more or less affected by this prevailing epidemic. 



Having pursued, during the past season, a series of original 

 investigations upon the subject, the following are the conclu- 

 sions to which I have arrived. The disease has not prevailed 

 so extensively this year as it did in 1845 ; but yet, complaints 

 have reached us of its ravages in some places, and almost 

 every where slight traces of its existence have been perceived. 

 I discovered such indications in my own garden, and having 

 the facilities at hand, determined to give the subject a careful 

 examination. 



