208 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



in character, useful in its tendency, and is evidently from the 

 pen of one accustomed to present his views in a clear and per- 

 spicuous manner. This essay furnishes information and sug- 

 gestions valuable to farmers, wherever located, and affords 

 gratifying evidence that we have, among that worthy class of 

 our fellow-citizens whose peculiar profession is to cultivate 

 the soul rather than the soil, those who are qualified to 

 discuss the most difficult topics, and give direction and 

 encouragement to thinking men, and especially to those belong- 

 ing to the great interest of agriculture. 



" The committee consider this Essay on the Potato, written 

 by Rev. John M. Merrick, of Walpole, as one of the best 

 which has been presented to the society." 



In the following remarks, I confine myself within a narrow 

 range, and leave unsaid many things respecting the culture, 

 gathering, preservation and uses of potatoes, which might 

 perhaps have been interesting to the farmers of Norfolk Coun- 

 ty. I shall speak briefly of the history, uses, planting, and 

 diseases of the potato, in the hope that this imperfect essay 

 may provoke my fellow citizens to deeper investigations, to 

 more numerous and intelligent experiments with reference to 

 these subjects. Diligent inquiries and accurate experiments 

 promise the only satisfactory results. The members of this 

 society are earnestly requested to preserve their farm journals, 

 that at some subsequent occasion we may compare notes, and 

 from our united efforts, increase our knowledge and learn the 

 best methods of applying it to practice.* 



1. History of the Potato. — It is remarkable that the history 

 of a plant which has exerted so great an influence upon the 

 civilization of the world, should be involved in so much obscuri- 

 ty. It is difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain the time at 

 which, or the nations by whom, it was transported from South 

 America to distant regions. The Spaniards found it only in 



* I have recently received a letter from an intelligent member of our society now 

 in England. From diligent inquiries, in several agricultural counties, he learns 

 that the potato rot prevails extensively this season ; and that the potatoes not dis- 

 eased are very few, small, and of inferior quality. Such facts here and there should 

 furnish a motive to careful and continued experiments, if we would not abandon 

 the cultivation of a plant so intimately connected with our agricultural prosperity. 



