170 



GENESEE FARiMER. 



Nov. 1845 



in an uncongenial clime. While we have every 

 thing in the way of natural advantages with which 

 a merciful Providence could biese a people, and yet 

 we are far behind in eo many thmgs. Should 1 

 write again, I will try and be more concise and more 

 interesting. 1 am awaiting an opportunity to send 

 on the subscriptions for your able and useful paper. 

 Yours Respectfully, T. N. D. 



Wheatland, Loudon County, Va. 



For the Geiiciee Farmer. 



VIRGINIA LANDS. 



To farmers who may wish to purchase land in one 

 of the finest climates in the world, the best soil, one 

 of the handsomest tracts of land is now offered, 

 which ran bo found in the United States, for sale, 

 which lies 11 miles west of the county seat of Lou- 

 don County, Va. It is within one mile of the vil- 

 lage of Hillsborough. The land mu.st be sold to 

 discharge the debts of the owner. I have recently 

 travelled through several States in the Union, and 

 have seen no situation which I consider its equal, or 

 for which I would exchange it acre for acre. For 

 grain growing, wool growing,, and grazing cattle, it 

 is surpassingly fine; for health it is unequalled. — 

 Whole amount, 618 acres; will be divided to suit 

 purchasers; improvements fine. 



A TRAVELLER. 



POTATOE BLIGHT. 



Late foreign papers contain an interesting article 

 OT! this destructive malady, which is doing vast injury 

 and England and Germany at the present autumn, 

 from the pen of Morre:?, Professor of Agriculture 

 and Forest Economy in the University of Liege, dated 

 August 18, 1845. Professor M. regards the disease 

 as the result of funprus, or parasite plant. He says : 



This fungus is of an extreme tenuity; but pullulates 

 or reproduces in an incredible measure. Its trunk is 

 composed of several erect, jointed fibres, bearing at 

 their summits one or more branches, always double, 

 and at the ends of which appear reproductive bodies, 

 in the form of an egg, but which do not really ex- 

 ceed in diameter, the one hundredth part of a milli- 

 metre, or the 393,700 part of an inch. Perhaps it 

 ■will be said that this is a small affair to make such 

 ravages, but I would ask is the itch a disease less to 

 be feared, because the animals producing it exist on- 

 ly in a miscroscopic state ? 



Immediately following the formation of the yellow 

 spot, and the dcvelopement of the hotryiUs upon the 

 potatoe leaf, the stem begins to feel the deleterious 

 influence. Here and there the epidermis begins to 

 turn brown, and finally black : and when the phases 

 of the disease are carefully watched through the mi- 

 croscope, it will be readily perceived that it is in the 

 bark the fatal germ exists. The morbid agent com- 

 municates its action from the bark to the inner epi- 

 dermis, and although this latter does not always 

 show the fungus itself, yet it is not the less fatally 

 affected. To those who have any idea of vegetable 

 physiology, these effects are easily enough explained. 

 The sap, modified into living juices, into vegetable 

 blood, is formed in the leaf, and descends to the stem 

 and roots, through the bark. Here this sap, or blood 

 if we please, becomes diseased, and carries the poi- 

 son of the leaf through the fibres of the whole plant, 

 and the stalk perishes. In fine, so soon as the black 

 spots appear upon the stalks, the leaves dry up and 

 wither, the plant droops, dies and falls to the earth, 

 to disseminate a million fold, the poisonous canker. 



I will endeavor to give soon the, to me, most feasi- 

 ble means of arresting the progress of the disease. 



The infection is soon communicated to the tuber- 

 cle, or potatoe proper ; and if it take its course, this 

 immediately becomes gangrened. A potatoe is not 

 properly a root, but a branch ; it follows, then, that 

 the tubercle contains a marrow, or edible part, and a 

 distinct bark . Between the marrow and the bark, is 

 formed a tissue of fibres and vessels, which answers 

 to wood. This may easily be perceived by cutting 

 a thin piece of potatoe, and holding it between the 

 eye and the light. Well, the infection attacks the 

 part which received the descending sap, and which 

 brought with it the morbid agent of the disease. Up- 

 on a diseased potatoe may be seen a series of spots 

 of various colors, livid, brown, yellow, and sometimes 

 gray or black, which are exhibited upon the ligneous 

 tissue of the tubercle. By watching closely the pro- 

 gress of the malady in potatoes which had been at- 

 tacked by it, I could follow its progress as it gradu- 

 ally advanced, until it reached the heart of the veg- 

 etable, and destroyed its substance. The skin of the 

 diseased potatoe was easily detached, the body did 

 not present that crackling resistance to the knife, 

 but was flatulent and gave forth a faint and subse- 

 quently almost animal odor, analagous to that which 

 escapes from freshly cut mushrooms. Animals even 

 refuse to feed upon a vegetable which may be regar- 

 ded as deleterious as the poisonous mushroom itself. 



From the time when the vegetable becomes gan- 

 grened within, that is, in its cortical part, it requires 

 but a few days — generally three suffice— for the bo~ 

 trifdis, or fungus, to make its appearance upon the 

 outer surface. The white efflorescence first shows 

 itself within what are termed the eyes of the pota- 

 toe, then extends gradually, until it finally envelopes 

 the entire tubercle. Then the potatoe is gone be- 

 yond hope. 



The origin of the disease being known, it becomes 

 the duty of every agriculturist to turn his attention 

 to the destruction of the fungus, for it is painfully 

 true that the smut, rust, mildew, blight and ergot, 

 and all the class of parasitic dise&ses, once introdu- 

 ced into the crops of a country, are almost ineradi- 

 cable. This year the epidemic has been general, the 

 germs exist everywhere, and millions of times will 

 the disease be multiplied another year, if early and 

 stringent measures are not taken for its prevention. 



Prof. M. recommends the burning of the diseased 

 vines and tubers, as the only means of destroying 

 the sporules or seeds of the parasite. Lime, and so- 

 lutions of green and blue vitriol, such as are used to 

 destroy simtt in wheat, are also recommended. 



We are indebted to the Editor of the Buffalo Na- 

 tional Pilot, for a translation of the article, from 

 which we have copied the above. 



Albany Agricultural Warehouse. — We are 



pleased to see, by the last Cultivator, that Messrs. 

 Comstock and Tucker, names well known— the for- 

 mer as Editor of the Central N. Y, Farmer, and the 

 latter as Editor of the Cultivator — have opened an 

 extensive Agricultural Warehouse, in the city of 

 Albany, for the sale of Tools, Seeds, and all articles 

 that belong to rural pursuits. Such an establish- 

 ment was greatly needed at the Capital of the State, 

 and we commend it to the attention of the Farmers 

 of Western New York. 



The tilling of the earth was the first employment 

 given by the Supreme Ruler to the human race. 



