THE POTATO DISEASE. 131 



America, where ihey have been cultivated, may possibly bcowinfj to the oriT:inaI 

 vegetable havin!,^ ceased to be soundly propagated, by the gradual decay of the 

 power to produce it in the cuttings from the original plant, pretty much as we 

 have seen our pear and peach trees fall ofl' when grafted from original stocks. 

 Perhaps if imporlations of the spontaneous article should be made, and by culti- 

 vation made wliat our former crops were, we might again have a generation 

 of potatoes equal to any. It is Avorth examining into, and when we consider llie 

 mode of propagation by cutting out pieces with eyes from previous growths pro- 

 duced in the same icai/, it is not surprising that ^/e/er/'^ra/zo^ should follow. How 

 otherwise can you account for so universal a destruction ? I had a good crop 

 at my country place near town. On Friday night we gathered some fine young 

 potatoes ; on Saturday we could not get one sound one, and had to dig up the 

 whole. They had all been infected with the same disease. The cholera, sup- 

 posed to be excited bv a microscopic insect, is progressive, and runs its course 

 from Asia to Europe and to America in due time ; but if the potato disease is 

 caused by a similar insect, it is rather extraordinary that it should make its ap- 

 pearance simultaneously all over the world. 



The suggestions of the wiiter of the preceding are worthy of attention ou eveiy account. 

 Though he disclaims all pretensions as a practicid fanner, he is well enough read in the lit- 

 erature of all nu'al arts to know that it is by no means to practical men exclusively that we 

 are indebted, eitlier for the history or the improvement of fniits and vegetables. 



We unaffectedly regret not having been left at libei-ty to give his name, because, besides 

 other rea-sous, it is a part, and we trust he will believe no small part, of our reward, that our 

 labors should atti-act the regards of cultivated men, and be by them considered, such as they 

 are, as tlie gi'owth of a venial ambition to raise the ai'ts of Agriculture and Horticulture in 

 public favor, and to cause them to be studied and followed as pursuits tbit eminently com- 

 port with high and various mental cultiu'e, while they conduce to the health of their votaries. 



By gentlemen wlio have ships going to South America, no time should be lost in bringing 

 home the natiu^al potato. At tlic same time, we should entertain the hope of realizing the 

 desideratum in tliis case as soon by planting the apple of the potato we have, with a view to 

 the establislHiient of a n<;w variety eipial to the Mercer, or the Kidney, or the Foxite, out of 

 the great number of mferior kinds to be thus obtamed from tlie seed of any given variet)-. 

 These arc the cases to which agiicultunil and horticultiu-jil societies would do much better 

 to apply tlieir {nenriunis tluui to the greatest quantify of this thing or that, the production 

 of which requires Ijut little skill and develops nothing new. 



Mr. Teschemachkr, of Boston, we believe was the first to pronounce the o[)Inion tliat the 

 cause of this dre;ulful malady is a fungus belonging to the class of moulds, and the genus 

 Botrytis ; and in this he is susttuned l)y tlic concurrent opinion of Professor Moruen of 

 Liege, whose Essay may be found in the first volume of the Moxthly Jourxai. of Agricul- 

 ture, and seems to be regarded as one of the most authoritative papers which has appeai'ed 

 on this subject. As to the influence of variety — " Veiy early kinds," says the last-named, 

 wn-iter, " have escaped and are fit to be presen-ed, for they were full gi-own befi)re tlie fiin- 

 gU8 made its appearance." 



As regards the raising of potatoes fi-om seed, Professor jM. remarks that •• Thus is a matter 

 of great imj)ort;mce and veiy advisable, provided the seed or apple be procured homforeign 

 regions ; and he urges that " The reason why potatoes equally long cultivated, but more 

 recently introduced than others, have better been aide to resist the disease, is the manifesta- 

 tion of a more energetic vital action ; and this greater energy wtis a necessany consequence 

 of the plant being transferred into another and better soil." Tliis reasoning, we confess, ap- 

 pears to us to be anything but conclusive, uidess it were shown tliat the soil of Germsmy is 

 a " better," as well n-s " another " soil than that of England. " It is," says the writer l>cfore 

 us, " farther a fact of experience that the seeds of a plant will be better able to produce va- 

 rieties that will live and thrive in their new native country, the more distant the country of 

 the parent plant is. Instances are t;iken from the dahlia, which has umumerable varieties 

 in Europe, but none in Mexico, its natural country ; of the camelia, which is nearly of uni- 

 form appeiu-.mce in China and Japan, but of which niunbers of vaiieties ai-e i-aised in Eu- 

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