12,66 MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



" yet," says he, " we by no means pretend that it is a security against the potato 

 disease." 



The following are the items we find in the same number of his paper, going- 

 so far to corroborate the opinion expressed by Mr. Teschemacher three years 

 ago, and still entertained by him, fortified by more recent instances in the vicinity 

 of Boston : 



Salt a Manure for Potatoes. — I have heard of several instances of sound potatoes being 

 grown where the land was previously dressed with salt, and one very striking' instance has come 

 within my own knowledge. I am satisfied that all light soils that have home diseased potatoes 

 this year, or that is intended for planting potatoes next spring, should be dressed with from 10 to 

 15 cwts. to the acre, applied half now and half in the spring. This application is simple and 

 cheap, and, at all events, can do uo hann. 



Salt a Preventive of the Potato Disease. — A very intelligent laboring man, who culti- 

 vates about 4 acres of laud, informs me that he this year tried the effect of soot and of salt on 

 small portions of his potato crop. The potatoes were planted in drills, and manure from the pig- 

 sties was laid over the sets. In two of the rows soot was sprinkled, in .small quantities, over the 

 sets before the manure was laid on. In three other rows, salt was similarlj- applied. When the 

 potatoes were got up, a short time since, only two or three were found diseased where the soot 

 had been applied, and none at all where the salt had been used. Tho.se to which nothing had 

 been applied except the manure, contained a large proportion of diseased potatoes. The soil 

 on which thi.s experiment was tried is light and gravelly. 



We boast that ours is the best and the wisest Government in the universe, 

 resting on public virtue and guided by superior intelligence ; and so it may be ; 

 but taking a partial view, one might be led for a moment to conclude that wis- 

 dom and virtue are confined to no particular forms, but that " that which is best 

 administered is best." 



Here is a question — this dreadful malady which threatens extinction to the 

 most valuable of all esculents ; raging and increasing now for some years, and 

 which, according to the gloomy theory of Malthus, we might suppose had been 

 sent by Providence as a check upon the natural prolificness of the human race ; 

 yet where is the commission appointed, or the reward offered for its investiga- 

 tion, by any Government, General or State, or any Society or Institute in the 

 whole country ? In England, in France, in Germany, commissions consisting of 

 the ablest men to be found in these countries respectivelv, have been appointed, 

 and well paid, to bring all their powers of investigation, and all the lights of sci- 

 ence to bear on a subject admitted on all hands to be of the greatest national con- 

 sequence ; and even though it were true that neither cause nor remedy have 

 been discovered, to the satisfaction of all, yet the cause of agricultural litera- 

 ture itself has been promoted, and a great service rendered, if only in showing 

 how indispensable are the aids and the instruments of science, to all researches 

 into the principles of vegetable physiology. Ah ! truly, we had forgotten ! We 

 have made a grand display of public spirit ! Congress paid about $20,000, we 

 suppose, for the 250 pages dedicated to this particular object, in that great and 

 brilliant exposition of national industry, the Patent Office Annual. More 

 of that anon. 



A CURIOd.S FACT IN AGRICULTUHE.— W(.' find in tlir New-York Post an account 

 of the pi-otliiction of potatoes in the followniu' manner: A i;ciilleni;in, in the inoiitli of May, 

 conceived that it was necessary to cut (jiie or two more branches from his p-ape-vine, and 

 he accordingly lop])ed olV the lumecessary branches, w-liicli caused them to bleed ; and to 

 remedy this, he split a potato into two i)ieccs, one of which he stuck on the end of the bleed- 

 ing branch. lie then tied a rag fast to the branch, so as to cover the potato and keep it 

 from falling off, and then liift it. The rag was not dislurbtnl again until a day or twro since, 

 when it was removed and found to contain a crop of ll)ur small pot;itoos, wliich had growu 

 froiH the piece stuck on the eud of the brtuicli. 

 (50-1) 



