220 Potato Disease. [April, 



tried the experiment with good success. I intended to have made 

 the trial myself last season, but lime was not to be had short of 

 sixteen miles, and being called from home at the time the experi- 

 ment should have been made, I did not make it until after my re- 

 turn, when it was too late in the season to produce its full eifect; 

 but still I procured and used it, and my potato vines were kept 

 green some two weeks longer than those of my neighbors, and 

 when I dug my potatoes they were but little affected, being gene- 

 rally good and sound. 



As a further confirmation of the correctness of the theory, I have 

 had the boldness to advance, I may mention the following circum- 

 stances, namely. Two of my friends complained to me that their 

 gooseberries had been entirely destroyed for several years, by a 

 disease in the form of a blight or mildew. It occurred to me that 

 the cause was the same as that which produced the disease in the 

 potato plant, and I advised them to throw lime on them; they did 

 so, with entire success. The ibllowing circumstance will show 

 the effect of lime on fruit trees. A friend of mine from Ulster 

 county, informed me that a neighbor of his had a fine row of plum 

 trees, which blossomed well every year, but bore no fruit. He 

 thought the failure was caused by insects, and for the purpose of 

 destroying them, threw fine lime over the trees while they were in 

 blossom; the result was, he had to brace up his trees to prevent 

 their being broken down by the excessive crop of fruit. 



I would therefore recommend that farmers should use dry fine 

 lime on their potatoes as soon as they are fairly out of the ground, 

 and again after hoeing; the lime will not be lost, if it does no 

 good to the crop, it will enrich the land; but I think its good 

 effects as a remedy for the disease will be apparent, and it will 

 cost but little to make the trial. 



Thus far I have considered the disease in its effects on the po- 

 tato while growing in the field, I will now consider it in its effects 

 on the potato after being taken from the ground. 



I have noticed that when potatoes were dug early and put into 

 an upper room, or in a cellar, a considerable part of which is above 

 ground, where a candle would burn clearly, (thereby denoting the 

 presence of much oxygen,) they would decay, wdiile those which 

 were placed in a close dark cellar immediately after digging, have 

 kept well. Last winter a person in Albany requested me to bring 

 him ten bushels of Carter potatoes, I did so; they were, as far as 

 I could discover, entirely free from disease. About two weeks 

 afterwards I saw him, when he told me that they were rotting; I 

 replied they were sound when I brought them, which he acknow- 

 ledged. 1 saw him again in about two weeks, when he told me 

 that on examining them, he found that only those that were on 

 the outside of the h(.'ap (as they were laid on the basement floor,) 



