of salt and lime to the soil, as well as to the po- 

 tato itself. Those \\iio, in the zeal of the true 

 naturalist, make such laborious and ])ains-taking 

 investigations for the benefit of society, may be, 

 like Mr. T., indift'erent to the credit of first dis- 

 covery, which, to say the least, is their fair re- 

 ward; but that only enhances the. obligation of 

 the impartial friends of Science evei-ywhere to 

 see that "justice he done, though the heavens 

 fall." 



ITiose most conversant with this subject, witli 

 whom we have conversed, are of opinion tliat 

 potatoes should now be sprinkled with lime, 

 and again when they are planted. Salt, they 

 think, too, .should also be applied to the soil. A 

 gentleman near Boston planted five acres with- 

 out manure, and one acre with gvano. The 

 seed all csime from " down Ea.st," but from dif- 

 ferent places. The five acres are destroyed by 

 ihe disease — the one acre is safe. Yet this ex- 

 periment is not absolnfely decisive — since, as 

 the seed came from various places, it might be 

 that those planted on the five acres were dis- 

 eased, and the other not ; but that i%not proba- 

 ble. 



The reader \\\\\ observe that, throughout M. 

 Morrcn's paper, he does not expres.s any doubt. 

 but says it is thus-and .so; and, from his charac- 

 ter and the station he fills, we may be assured 

 that he would not stake his reputation on any 

 matter of fact of wliich he did not feel certain. — 

 How can it, on reflection, be owing to atmosphe- 

 ric influences, since the di.sease has propagated 

 under very various states thereof ? At the same 

 time, a moist atmosphere is known to be favora- 

 ble to the growth of most _/'(<•«£'/. But where 

 no spores exist, it is believed no atmosphere can 

 produce them. 



It is a gratifying evidence of the earnestness 

 with which the friends of Agriculture are push- 

 ing their inquiries, and enlightening its path 

 with the lights of Science, that the Maryland 

 Agricultural Club has committed this subject to 

 tlie scrutiny of competent investigator^. 



It would seem by the following, from a late 

 London Gardener's Chronicle, that the disease 

 is prevalent, and believed not to he new, in its 

 indigenous regions of South America: 



"Potato Disease in Centual America. — 

 At the Academy of Sciences of Paris, Nov. 17, 

 184.5, Monsieur Boussingault communicated an 

 extract from a letter from M. Joachim Acosta, 

 of Bogota, relative to the Potato disease. It ap- 

 pears from this letter that the malady is very 

 common on the table land of Bogota, that it is 

 destructive in wet seasons, or even every year 

 iu damp spots. This does not prevent l)ie tu- 

 bers being u.sed, when the affected part has 

 been removed. It is known that Potatoes are 

 indigenous to this plain. M. Aco.sta does not 

 [ doubt that the malady has always been known 

 J there, since it excites no alarm in the Indians, 

 . who live principally on Potatoes, il. Boussin- 

 , gault properly remarks that in these countries, 

 (799) 



where cultivation continues without intermis- 

 sion during the year, and where the tubers are 

 consumed without the necessity of storing them, 

 there is no fear, as with us, of a bad harvest, be- 

 cause it may be replaced immediately by a good 

 one. With us. where the culture is annual, and 

 must be preserved through winter, it is natural 

 that we should be more concerned in a malady 

 which mav destroy the resources of a whole 

 year.— jl/. J. B." 



So much by way of introduction to the valua- 

 ble memoir from Professor Morrek — for which 

 we return, in advance, the thanks of the agri- 

 cultural community to the gentleman who has 

 had the kindness to communicate it for publica- 

 tion in this journal. 



POTATO SICKNESS. 

 It is known that a general malady has .stricken 

 the Potatoes in Belgium, and it appears that the 

 crop of this most necessary production is there 

 much compromised. As it is said that this 

 malady threatens also the Potato crop in France, 

 we believe it right to reproduce here the advice 

 that Mr. Morren, Professor of Agriculture at the 

 University of Liege, has addressed to the pub- 

 lic in a letter that we find in " The Independ- 

 ance," of Brussels. Mr. MoiTen, after stating 

 that this evil has for several years existed iu 

 Belgium, although in a less alarming degree, 

 adds : 



" The true cause of the evil is a mushroom, a 

 mouldiness, that the learned will class in their 

 genus 'botrydis,' but that the agriculturists 

 hardly distinguish, and which they call a bum, 

 a fire, a stain, and which some attribute to hu- 

 midity, others to dryness; some to a bad wind 

 come from France, others to insects, &c. &c. It 

 is not, however, indiflPerent to us to know the 

 true cause of the phenomenon, for this knowl- 

 edge will put us in the way of diminishing the 

 scourge, and possibly of destroying it. 



" For some time I have followed every day, 

 and step by step, the progress of the evil, in 

 observing several fields of Potatoes. The malar 

 dy commences decidedly in the upper part of 

 the leaves ; I have even seen the flowers and 

 fruits attacked in the first place. A part of the 

 green tissue loses its tint and turns promptly 

 yellow ; the stain soon becomes more grey be- 

 low, and it is always on the lower surface of the 

 leaf, or on the fruit, where, a day or two after 

 the appearance of the yellow stain, a whitish 

 down shows itself. The microscojie discovers 

 then that this down proceeds from a mushroom 

 which grows between the numerous jiairs which 

 gami.sh the bottom of the leaf of the Potal©-. 

 This mushroom is of an extreme tenacity ; but 

 it breeds and reproduces itself by thousands. 

 Its stems are formed of little straight and parti- 

 tioned threads, which have at their summit one 

 or several branches, always divided in two, and 

 at the end of these branches reproducing bodies 



