VOL. VI. 



ROCHESTER, NEW YORK. AUGUST, 1845. 



NO. 8. 



PUBLISHED MONTHLY. 



BY B. F. SMITH 8l CO, PROPRIETORS 



M the Seed Store, Front Street, nearly opposite the Market. 



DANIEL LEE, EDITOR. 



FIFTY CENTS A YEAR: 



fire copies for Two Dollars ; Eight copies for Three Dollars. 

 All payiiients to be made in advance. Money and subscriptions, 

 by a regulation of the postmaster general, may be remitted by 

 post masters free of expense. "S^" Address's. F. Smith & Co. 



POTATOE ROT. 



The editor of this paper has devoted much time, 

 for the last three weeks to the investigation of the 

 cause of this alarming and most destructive malady. 

 He has examined affected plants in Oneida, Chenan- 

 go, Cortland, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Monroe coun- 

 ties. At an agricultural meeting held in the village 

 of Oxford, on the 16th of July, Judge Hyde of that 

 place presented several potatoe vines having all the 

 outward characteristics of the blight. These vines 

 had one or more grubs in the pith of each vine, that 

 measured one inch and a quarter in length, and about 

 a sixteenth in diameter. These larvae had eaten a 

 passage through the centre of the vine, (commenc- 

 ing where it emerges from the earth,) a foot or more 

 in length, and then made an opening out through the 

 shell of the stem. Judge H., who is a close obser- 

 ver of natural phenomena, and an excellent farmer, 

 has promised to keep these grubs till their final 

 transformation into winged insects. 



The writer of this searched for these grubs for 

 two weeks through other parts of Chenango county, 

 and in Cortland, Onondaga, and Cayuga counties, 

 without finding any till last evening. Those that I 

 now have were found in vines which grew in the 

 garden of David Wright, Esq., of Auburn, to whom, 

 and Col, Sherwood, I am much indebted for furnish- 

 ing me with means of conveyance to remote parts 

 of the county, to make observations on rust on 

 wheat, diseased potatoes, kc. Both the wheat and 

 potatoe crops are much affected in Cayuga and On- 

 ondaga counties, and not a little in Monroe. The 

 diseased potatoes and wilted vines, obtained at Au- 

 burn, contain grubs precisely like those seen in Ox- 

 ford. I have brought them to this city (Rochester) 

 for farther examination. There is hardly a bushel of 

 new potatoes in this market which do not contain 

 more or less tubers already attacked with gangre- 

 nous spots, similar to the malady of last season. I 

 have just been to the vegetable market, in company 



with Mr. L. B. Langworthy, to compare the pota- 

 toes with diseased ones which I have collected in 

 Cayuga County, and have also examined several 

 patches in the suburbs of the city, in company with 

 the same gentleman . The diseases he e are identi- 

 cal in character with those in Cayuga and Cortland, 

 I can discover no difference in the blotches on the 

 tubers in this vicinity and those which I have seen 

 in Oneida, Chenango, and Madison counties. There 

 are two distinct insects now feeding on the potatoe 

 plant in all Central New York ; one that resembles 

 in size, form, and I think habits, the striped cu- 

 cumber beetle, cHQcenis vittata of Fabricius. This 

 insect is mostly of a dark-brown color, with narrow 

 white streaks along its body. It eats the tender 

 tops and buds for blossoms, and causes them to wilt. 

 It hides under the potatoe leaf, and is easily caught. 

 It does but little mischief. Dr, Harris calls it Phy- 

 tocoris lineolaris; order Hemiptera. 



The perfect insect which punctures the potatoe 

 vine just above the ground, and deposits the egg 

 that forms the large active worm which I have got, 

 is probably a beetle ; although it may belong to the 

 Lepidopiern, or butterfly and moth family. The egg 

 is deposited in the pith of the vine. When it hatch- 

 es, the grub, or larva, eats off the vine all but its 

 thin bark, or covering. The length of the vine 

 thus eaten out from the centre varies from one to 

 six inches. The vine wilts, turns brown, and dies 

 sooner or later, according to the extent of the in- 

 jury. The hole where the grub eats out and es- 

 capes, can often be found. In a large majority of 

 cases, the larva have made their exit, and of course 

 are not to be seen. The following is a representa- 

 tion of it: 



Mr. Wright, of Auburn, suggested, that when the 

 grub changes into a beetle, miller, or perfect insect^ 

 it might descend into the hill and sting the young 

 potatoes, and thus cause them to rot ; or perhaps 

 leave the egg to be planted with the tuber in the 

 coming spring, I have just examined the diseased 

 blotches on many potatoes with a good glass, and 

 discern nothing like the nit of an insect. The de- 

 composition of the potatoe is, I think, sufficiently 

 accounted for by its unripe and defective condition. 

 The organization of the elements that form statch 

 and vegetable albumen is very imperfect. Hence, pre- 

 mature decay ensues. The law of vitality in a perfect 

 tuber, which prevents the play of chemical affinities 



