116 ON ROOT CROPS. 



JOSEPH SPELLING. JR'S. STATEMENT. 



You are undoubtedly aware, that the failure of the potato 

 crop the present season has been a source of disappointment, 

 perhaps not a little discouragement, to farmers in general in 

 the cultivation of this vegetable, throughout the State. As it 

 fell to my lot, the present year, to harvest our little crop of po- 

 tatoes alone, I thought it would be a good opportunity to make 

 a little inquiry into the nature of the disorder, and try if possi- 

 ble to get at some clue to a remedy. But this was undertaken 

 with a very faint hope of discovering any thing useful or satis- 

 factory. Having but little confidence in theories, unless sub- 

 stantiated by actual experiments, I at first thought it best to say 

 nothing about my investigation to any one, till I could prove 

 by actual experiment, something which might be beneficial ; 

 but when I considered, although I might not be able to furnish 

 the requisite knowledge or ability to obtain a good crop, yet 

 perhaps I might furnish a key to it, and thereby assist some of 

 my fellow laborers who are still remaining under the same dis- 

 advantages which I have labored under, not knowing where 

 to plant, how to plant, or what to plant, I concluded to com- 

 mit the results of my investigation to writing, with the hope 

 that I shall be pardoned wherein I am found to be behind the 

 age, either in knowledge or literature. 



I do not attribute the cause of the potato disorder to an in- 

 sect or animacule burrowing in the plant. If it can be demon- 

 strated by optical glasses, that insects inhabit the vines or ani- 

 macuies the rotten potatoes, I contend that they exist there, 

 not as a cause, but as an effect of the disorder. The cause of 

 the disorder I attribute to the want of a certain principle or 

 element in the soil, which is indispensable to the health of the 

 potato plant, and which has in many parts of Massachusetts, as 

 well as in Ireland, become exhausted. I believe that this ele- 

 ment exists in natural deposites in many places throughout the 

 State, not far below the surface — perhaps no deeper than the 

 sub soil. Furthermore I am aware that it still exists in the 

 surface soil, perhaps in considerable abundance in some particu- 

 lar places, but unless those who plant know that it exists there, 



