ROCHESTER, N. Y., NOVEMBER, 1846. 



Vol. VII. 



No. 11, 



THE GENESEE FAR3IER : 



Issued the first of each month, at Rochester, N. Y,, by 



D. D. T. MOORE, PROPRIETOR. 



DANIEL LEE, EDITOR. 



p. BARRY, Conductor of the Horticiiltural Department. 



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Do varieties of Plants have a period of 

 Natural Existence, and cease to live, 

 like Individual Plants and Animals? 



This has become a question of great practical 

 importance, as well as one of miich scientific in- 

 terest. A majority of Physiologists regard the 

 existing Potato Malady, which prevails so alarm- 

 ingly in Ireland and Great Britain, as the effect 

 mainly of constitutional weakness, in varieties of 

 the plant, indicative of the approaching extinc- 

 tion of such varieties, on the face of the earth. 

 The loss of vital enei'gy has been increased, and 

 hastened, it is believed, by the practice of an un- 

 natural, and injurious course of cultivation. Mr. 

 Rogers of Dublin, who.se researches are pub- 

 lished in the Mark-Lane Express, and received 

 with respect and commendation, attributes the 

 ■decay, and wide spread dissolution of potatoes, to 

 the general custom of allowing them to germi- 

 nate, and form sprouts, of greater or less length, 

 which are broken off' before planting. The pro- 

 duction of these germs, or rather their growth, 

 and waste, consumes a portion of the vital force, 

 as well as nutritive elements of the tuber, which 

 are utterly lost to the succeeding generation. — 

 In any single crop, the loss is of course not great; 

 but carried through many successive generations. 



the injury can hardly fail of being very disastrous, 

 to the constitutional vigor of the emasculated, or 

 mutilated race. As the disease prevails to some 

 extent in our own immediate neighborhood, and 

 has received attention and study at our hands 

 last season, and the year before, we venture a 

 few suggestions in addition to those made by the 

 distinguished Irish chemist. 



When the germ of a seed or tuber begins to 

 o]-ganize the elements that surround it, and fully 

 develope a new living being. Nature provides it 

 with a peculiar nitrogenous substance called di- 

 ostase. This substance is not unlike the fluid 

 found in the stomachs of young animals, called 

 gastric juice, or rennet, which aids in dissolving 

 their food. It has the remarkable power of con- 

 verting 2,000 times its weight oiinsoluhle starch 

 in potatoes, or the seeds of grain, into a soluble 

 gum, to nourish, and build up the embryo germ 

 into a perfect plant. After the first leaves are 

 formed, nature having no farther use for diastase, 

 it ceases to exist. To sprout a potato in a warm 

 cellar or pit, and break olFthe sprout, is to waste 

 this vital agent, so indispensable to the healthy 

 nutrition of a new living being. Mr. Rogers 

 has found by experience that potatoes are exempt 

 from rot, if planted late in autumn, and never 

 disturbed in the spring, but cultivated as if plant- 

 ed at the latter season. 



It has long been a source of deep regret to us 

 that the study of vegetable physiology, and of the 

 diseases incident to cultivated plants, is generally 

 so little relished, and so unpopular, in the farm- 

 ing comniunity. Hence, we write every sentence 

 that relates to this science, in the fear of not be- 

 ing understood ; and of exciting the disapproba- 

 tion of many of our readers. But we must still 

 crave their indulgence, while we pursue the dis- 

 cussion of this subject a little farther. 



The premature development of the germs of 

 potatoes is only one, and that perhaps the least 

 injury, which thoughtless cultivators inflict on 

 this invaluable plant. Tliey omit to place with- 

 in reach of its roots those alkalies and alkaline 

 earths, without which no healthy and perfect tu> 



