254 



The Potatoe Disease. 



Vol. XI 



dry claims, (wherewith it was wholly absorb- 

 ed,) that between law, farm, and private 

 affairs, I have hardly had the time to kiss the 

 little girl, box the boys, and say a gentle 

 word to the " belter half'' of my humble 

 self Christmas is coming and so too I trust 

 is a little leisure for me. Therefore, here 

 the fourth day from that best of days in the 

 year, I find a moment to answer your letter. 

 I wish that my ability and experience allow- 

 ed me to answer it as becomes the subject 

 matter of yours to me. " The Potatoe Dis- 

 ease," is a prolific source to exercise the 

 mind upon — it has engaged the ablest pens 

 irr the world — it has fired the imagination of 

 the poets, and called out the deepest philoso- 

 phers in the most learned and abstruse de- 

 tences of favorite theories. And it has at 

 the same time called out the honest thoughts 

 of the truly practical and intelligent among 

 our honest and intellectual Farmers. Hence, 

 I have never written a line or a word on the 

 subject, and should not now, but that cour- 

 tesy required me to answer your letter, if 

 for no other reason, to thank you for the 

 excellent treatise you sent to the " Farmer," 

 for December. Your views and suggestions 

 are excellent, as every reader will admit, 

 who reads and reflects upon your treatise I 

 now refer to. 



Not one of the many writers have found 

 out the cause or even the probable cause of 

 the disease, therefore no specific remedy has 

 been discovered, and cannot be discovered 

 till the cause is positively known. 



I am too unlearned in the sciences to at- 

 tempt an explanation of the large portion of 

 natural phenomena coming under my daily 

 observation ; or to explain the connection 

 that exists in many cases between cause and 

 effect. To those more learned, I leave the 

 truth after I have stated my views, based 

 upon experiments and ascertained data, I 

 give you my opinion, upon what it is found- 

 ed, but the why and wherefore it is so, you 

 must get some one far greater than I, to ex- 

 pound to you. The cause of the potatoe 

 disease is from using too much manure and 

 planting too long a time the same sort or 

 kinds, without often enough resorting to the 

 seed for newer and different kinds. 



The kind of potatoe I have raised, by 

 sowing the seed eight years ago, which I 

 call '•'■Bowie-Seedling," have now arrived at 

 hardy perfection, and become nearly akin to 

 the Mercer, from tlie seed of which it was 

 raised. But it is becoming now for the first 

 time, subject to the disease. For the first 

 few years it was very imperfect, being of 

 various forms, and of difl^erent color, and 

 small, but free of disease, until this year. 

 This year, slightly affected, but not near so 



much so as other kinds on my own farm and 

 on my neighbors. Like every other object 

 in the vegetable, and indeed I might say 

 also animal kingdom, it having reached a 

 certain stage of perfection, can be carried 

 no farther in improvement, and must dete- 

 riorate. It must be crossed, or aided by some 

 change, or it will in a ?qw years deteriorate 

 into utter worthlessness. Breed animals in 

 and in, and they will become good for noth- 

 ing. It is true, that by skill, care and proper 

 means, flowers and fruits, and vegetables, 

 become, from useless, trifling eye-sores and 

 unwholesome non-descripts, large, luscious, 

 and beautiful ; but there is a stopping point ! 

 the peach will never become as large as an 

 eighty pound pumkin, and I venture to say, 

 there never will be seen a grass-green horse. 

 It has been said " thus far shalt thou go and 

 no farther." While the Supreme Being has 

 placed a limit to human means, I cannot 

 believe that he has prepared an article of 

 human subsistence, which is so necessary for 

 the support of millions, and will permit it to 

 become totally useless, and as some seem to 

 fear, will in a short time eradicate it from 

 the earth. 



The potatoes I raised from the seed, are 

 free from disease, in comparison with other 

 kinds, but will become diseased I have no 

 doubt in a few years. Quere — would not 

 seed now from them, be productive of a po- 

 tatoe free from rotl 



Too free use of manure is hurtful. Ani- 

 mal and vegetable manures are particularly 

 productive of weeds, worms, flies, and stim- 

 ulate tlie vines to great and rapid growth, 

 whereby, from all these causes combined, 

 smut, mildew, and other diseases are gene- 

 rated. The first year the crop may be 

 slightly affected — the nest year it becomes 

 more so — and thus members of the same 

 diseased family are again planted to become 

 still more impregnated with the distemper, 

 by the same appliances which first caused it, 

 and thus, fuel is added to the fire year after 

 year, until they become so diseased, that the 

 farmer is compelled to "change his seed." 



It is a well known fact, that until a few 

 years before the appearance of this potatoe 

 rot, but little attention was paid to the rais- 

 ing and using of great quantities of manure. 

 And those who first used manure extensive- 

 ly, used it upon their root crops; from seeing 

 a great increase in these by its lavish use, 

 they were led to use it in quantity upon other 

 crops. Again, the potatoe disease commenc- 

 ed in Europe first, where heavy manuring of 

 them with unrotted manure, had been long 

 practised, and so in this country. It began 

 first in the north, with those farmers who 

 had first caught the flame of improvement 



