No. 4. 



Address of Dr. William Darlington, SfC. 



115 



this during' the past season. A potatoe 

 grower in this neighbourhood, placed a 

 small quantity of old lime — or carbonate of 

 lime — on his potatoes at the time of plant- 

 ing; this carbonate of lime was just suffi- 

 cient to enable the plant to develope the 

 tops finely. The large tops absorbed large 

 quantities of carbonic acid, and death and 

 decay followed in both top and root. An- 

 O'her potatoe grower put nothing on his 

 pitch — as a consequence the tops were 

 small, and not taking in much carbonic 

 acid, they stood until quite late, when they 

 too were killed, but the roots were saved. 



It is difficult to apply lime to the potatoe 

 with the certainty of its proving effectual 

 in preventing the rot; because, in the first 

 place, the tops use much, if not all of it, for 

 increasing the size of the tops, thus exposing 

 the plant the more to the disease, instead of 

 protecting it from that evil; and in the se- 

 cond place, if there be more lime used than 

 the plant can appropriate to the tops, the 

 remainder becomes highly charged with 

 carbonic acid early in the season, and holds 

 it with such tenacity that the plant cannot 

 get the alkaline principle without getting 

 the acid too; thus preventing the alkaline 

 principle from neutralizing the carbonic 

 acid, which is destroying it. 



The best way I know of to apply lime to 

 potatoes, is to take old lime whic!i has been 

 air slacked, and apply about a gill to each 

 hill of potatoes at the time of planting. In 

 the fall, when the potatoes are dying with 

 the disease, put on, every few mornings, 

 when the dew is on, fresh loater slacked 

 lime. It should be slacked on the very 

 morning it is used, because the longer it 

 is exposed to the air the more carbonic acid 

 is absorbed by it, and its useful qualities de- 

 creased. Fresh slacked lime is excellent to 

 put on potatoes after they are dug up, when 

 they are diseased. 



But the best alkali for potatoes is potash, 

 as contained in wood ashes. The tubers 

 seem to prefer this alkali to lime, while the 

 tops in a great measure prefer lime to pot- 

 ash. These ashes may be scattered over 

 the potatoe field about the time the young 

 tubers are beginning to form, and every 

 few mornings, when tlie tops show signs of 

 the disease. I have seen, with unbounded 

 pleasure, the highly useful effects of this 

 valuable fertilizer. Mucii reliance should 

 be placed on the fall application, because 

 much of the alkaline principle is apt to be 

 washed away, either down deep in the 

 ground, below the reach of the roots, or to 

 another part of the field, while it should re- 

 main near the plant. 



Ashes will abundantly repay considerable 



cost in procuring and applying them, and 

 no potatoe grower should think of dispensing 

 with their use. Dr. Lee, of New York, 

 who was employed a year or two since by 

 the New York State Agricultural Society, 

 to go to each county in the State and de- 

 liver lectures on Agriculture and its kindred 

 sciences, wrote several letters during his 

 tour to the editor of the Cultivator. In one 

 of these letters, written from Smithville, 

 Chenango county, N. Y., under date of July 

 15th, 1845, he says: "A sugar maple, a 

 grape vine, an apple tree, and a potatoe 

 plant, need a soil that abounds in potash. 

 Take from your field 200 bushels of pota- 

 toes this fall, and you will remove from it 

 sixty-three pounds of this mineral. One 

 bushel of ashes — by those that have used 

 them — are said to make ten extra bushels of 

 potatoes." 



You may now count the cost of the ashes 

 and the value of the potatoes, and be en- 

 abled to judge of their importance. They 

 would always produce well when the dis- 

 ease is prevalent, and if the ashes be good 

 and applied in the fall, and the disease 

 great, 1 have but little doubt that they 

 would produce even more than is mentioned 

 above. I cannot too strongly recommend 

 their use. Let every potatoe grower build 

 himself a nice ash-house, of such material 

 as to resist fire, and let him preserve and 

 use all the wood ashes he can procure, until 

 he has sufficient for his purpose. 



Chemico. 



VVilkesbarre, Oct. 30ih, J846. 



Address of Dr. William Darlington, «S:c. 



Mr. President: Ladies and Gentlemen 

 of the Chester County Horticultural So- 

 ciety : — The committee appointed to pro- 

 cure a competent person to address you, on 

 this occasion, have, as you perceive, been 

 rather unsuccessful in their efforts. It was 

 their wish and intention to provide a dis- 

 course worthy of the subject in which you 

 take so lively an interest; but failing in 

 that, they have to solicit your indulgence 

 for the hasty substitute now about to be 

 off'ered. The duty of preparing that sub- 

 stitute, having been unexpectedly, and at a 

 late hour, assigned to me, — I should cer- 

 tainly have shrunk from the task, had I not 

 telt that it would seem most ungracious in a 

 professed admirer of plants, to refuse a co- 

 operation, in any capacity, with those who 

 have associated expressly to promote the 

 culture of favourite Fruits and Flowers. 

 The theme, moreover, is a rich and prolific 

 one ; and he who cannot be in some deoree 



