No. 9. 



The Potatoe Disease, 



267 



not a better, I may claim to be an older sol- 

 •dier than he; and as Brutus slew his best 

 friend for the good of Rome, I may be per- 

 mitted a tilt with my noble friend for the 

 Cfood of the tillers of the soil, without being 

 considered at all Brutish. Indeed there are 

 certain reasons wby I should feel pugna- 

 cious when any one presnmes to teach the 

 way of growing the " Murphies," except he 

 comes from the sod. The late gifted and 

 ■lamented Nicholas Biddle, the aWe and dis- 

 ■tingaisbed President of the Philadelphia 

 vAgricnltural Society, used to say, that it 

 was presumptuoas in any man in our So- 

 ciety to compete with me in raising pota- 

 toes. Alas, this badinage awakens now, 

 other thoughts and associations — my poor 

 country — her wit, her humour, her irrepres- 

 fiible fortitude and constancy are being at 

 this moment severely tried, under a calami- 

 tous dispensation of Providence! She has 

 through ages borne much from other hands: 

 may she struggle through this dispensation 

 as becomes her, and rise from the chasten- 

 ing, wiser, purer and better! But I must 

 not indulge thus, else I shall forget the task 

 I have nndertaken. 



In the article referred to, much considera- 

 tion is given to a change and renewal of 

 seeds. Well, to the efforts of producing 

 otheT sorts, and seeding with them, instead 

 of those long in use, there can be no objec- 

 tion ; new varieties will be produced, and 

 much good may result from such experi- 

 ments in the main : but I apprehend that 

 seedhngs will be found as liable to the rot 

 as the oldest sorts: experience strengthens 

 ■me in this opinion, for last season I had 

 seedlings diseased, while the " Lady Fin- 

 gers," a white kidney variety, which have 

 been grown as an early potatoe some forty 

 years on the farm I now hold, escaped en- 

 tirely; nor has it been diseased any season 

 of the prevailing rot. 



Potatoes that are starved by not allowing 

 them sufficient manure to grow to full size, 

 may in some degree escape the disease, as 

 there would be little of them to kill; same 

 as poor wheat, with small heads and skele- 

 ton straw, may escape blight or rust, while 

 a well grown, succulent crop, promising 40 

 to 50 bushels to the acre, may be badly 

 blighted — but it would be bad husbandry to 

 work for only 10 bushels of wheat to the 

 acre, or some 40 to 50 bushels of potatoes 

 to the acre, through the fear of blight and 

 rot. It is impossible to have a good crop of 

 potatoes without an abundant supply of ma- 

 nure. I have seen them planted in rich 

 ground and well manured, but never knew 

 them rotted in consequence ; the only inju- 

 rious result was, that they were not quite 



so mealy or so fine in flavor as they other- 

 wise would have been, had soil and manure 

 been better proportioned to the wants and 

 quality of the potatoe. I recollect a tre- 

 mendows yield raised on an old sheep walk — 

 they were sound, but rather ill-tasted, some- 

 what bitter, and weje fed to the cattle, but 

 they were as sound, so far as rot or disease 

 was concerned, as any potatoes I ever saw. 

 Heavy manuring on rich land, is an ill- 

 judged practice, but light manuring or no 

 manuring at all, on poor lands, is still worse. 



The mixture prescribed by my esteemed 

 friend could not do much harm, provided 

 there be first ^'^ quanlum siijficit,^' of good 

 manure, but if he will permit me to to re- 

 vise the prescription, I think I can render it 

 somewhat more admissible; — first, I would 

 reject the lime, or if used, let it be sprinkled 

 on the surface after the planting is finished 

 — the gypsum or plaster to be used in the 

 furrow instead of the lime. If the salt ia 

 to be used, leave out the saltpetre — leave 

 out soot and increase the quantity of char- 

 ooal. Thus, one bushel of ground gypsum, 

 one of salt, one of ashes, two of fine char- 

 coal — the soot and linse may be strewn any 

 time on the surface previous to the first har- 

 rov/ing of the potatoes, after they are up. 

 The mixture, as above, may be used to every 

 acre, strewed by hand, evenly, after the ma- 

 nure has been raked in or shook over the 

 potatoe sets; — the drill, to be covered — but 

 I protest against the dose unless there be a 

 sufficiency of manure to support the potatoe 

 in growing. 



My potatoes were not affected by the dis- 

 ease, except in 1843, and that I think was 

 owing to their not having been covered 

 sufficiently deep at planting. The last sea- 

 son 1 had a fine crop of sound Mercer pota- 

 toes, over one thousand bushels, while my 

 neighbours around me had hardly on an ave- 

 rage more than the seed, — they still, despite 

 all entreaty and example, plant shallow and 

 use the plough instead of the cultivator or 

 hoe harrow, ridging them up on either side 

 in a bank, exposing them the more to the 

 action of the sun and atmosphere. 



Since 1843 I have been particular in my 

 observations as to the condition of the pota- 

 toe fields and patches around me, and have 

 uniformly found, that on hills with a south- 

 ern exposure, and where the covering was 

 light and shallow, the disease prevailed 

 most. Why was this? — because the tubers 

 from their exposure and superficial covering 

 were instantly affected by the extreme heat 

 — sultry or humid heat, which in general 

 provoked them to an incipient state of vege- 

 tating, hence the derangement of their tis- 

 sues and partial decomposition. 



