THE POTATO DISEASE. 



AN AUTHENTIC AND VALUABLE MEMOIR ON THE POTATO DISEASE. 



TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, AND SENT BY THE TRANSLATOR TO BE PUBLISHED 

 IN THE UNITED STATES. 



The following Essay was kindly presented 

 for publication in the Farmers' Libkary, by 

 J. R. Bartlett, Esq. of New-York. This pa- 

 per, says Mr. B. is a translation from the Ger- 

 man. The original was a Report by C. Mor- 

 REN, Professor of Agriculture in the University 

 of Liege. 



The translation was made in Belgium, and at 

 the author's request, transmitted to the United 

 States for publication, and was received by 

 one of the late steamers. 



Various extracts from this Report have been 

 published in the newspapers, both here and in 

 Europe ; but, as is often the case with extracts, 

 the most important parts of the paper have been 

 left out. 



We have not been inattentive to the much 

 that has been published on this subject in Eng- 

 land, and if we have not permitted it to occupy 

 more space in the Farmers' Library, it has been 

 because these writers abroad have treated rather 

 of the signs of the disease and of what could 

 now be done to turn the diseased root to ac- 

 count, than of the cause of the malady, and the 

 means of preventing it. 



The first thing to be noted is, that while Brit- 

 ish writers ascribe the cause to atmospheric in- 

 fluence, or rather to the cold and variable sum- 

 mer in Europe, we have had an uncommonly 

 dry and hot season here, with the disease in 

 many places as fully developed ; and, moreover, 

 they give directions which fully admit the ex- 

 istence of the fungus. In their early Report, 

 they decry the use of salt, as accelerating the 

 disease, and yet they more recently recommend 

 the use of it to slay its ravages. It is to be noted 

 that Professor Lindley had committed himself 

 in the Gardener's Chronicle, in an early period 

 of the discussion, in favor of atmospheric influ- 

 ence. 



Three instances have been lately published 

 in the New-England Farmer, where, in paral- 

 lel circumstances, Hmc and salthaye saved that 

 portion of the crop dressed with them, while 

 the rest of it perished. 



We know of no one who has so carefully stu- 

 died this subject, with equal facilities and capa- 

 city to investigate it thoroughly, as that accom- 

 plished agricultural chemist and horticulturist, 

 (798) 



J. E. Teschemacher, Esq. of Boston, who has 

 satisfied himself that fungus is the cause of the 

 disease. Several letters, as we understand, have 

 been received by him from England, stating that 

 those who could not find the minute fungus 

 with common microscopes, and hence doubted 

 its existence, have since clearly distinguished it 

 bj' the use of instruments of higher powers, and 

 are convinced of its existence being the cause 

 of the disease. Liebig's expositions are purely 

 chemical, and may just as well apply to the juice 

 of the vegetable fungus, as to the juice of the 

 vegetable potato. In Mr. Teschemacher's letter 

 to the -'New-England Farmer," Oct. 1844, he 

 stated that the grains of starch were uninjured 

 by the fungus. This, in 1845, was made a great 

 discoverj' by Mr. Herapath, in England. In a 

 few numbers subsequent, but in 1844, of same 

 paper, Mr. T. states that, in all probability, the 

 spores attached themselves to the potato-stalk, 

 and so passed down to the tuber ; and we have 

 understood that, in his paper to the New York 

 State Agricultural Society, in 1844 — which, it is 

 to bo lamented, has never seen the light — he 

 states that before the microscope the appearance 

 does not agree with the fungus Erysihe, the 

 cause of the potato scab. Morren saj-s it is a 

 Botrydis — in which, doubtless, he is right. In 

 the same paper, as we liave been told, Mr. T. 

 enumerates sulphate of copper, as well as salt 

 and lime, as preventives. So does M. Morren. 

 In the same paper, and in the '' New-England 

 Fanner," Mr. Teschemacher advocates analyses 

 of the juices of various potatoes, to see if any- 

 thing can be found which, in one kind of juice, 

 will be found less favorable to the vegetation of 

 the fungus than in another — with the view of 

 introducing salt (chlorine of sodium J into thepe 

 juices, through the absorption of the roots, by 

 spreading it on the ground. This is the chem- 

 ical part of the subject. We recapitulate the.se 

 facts for the rightful .and legitimate purpose of 

 showing that, by a public spirited and enlight- 

 ened study of the subject, in 1844, Mr. Tesche- 

 macher, of Boston, had made and promulgated 

 the same views which, in 1845, were taken by 

 the scientific men in Europe ; and which con- 

 curring testimony seems to confirm, and to give 

 solid ground for recommending the application 



