No. 12. 



Disease of the Potatoe. 



373 



where it will get boiling hot by the time I 

 have come in with the milk. I then strain 

 the milk into another vessel, and wash the 

 pail, — which should always be of tin — then 

 pour the milk back into the pail, and set 

 into the kettle of boiling water till the milk 

 becomes scalding hot, taking care not to let 

 it boil, then pour it into crocks or pans, and 

 set it in the cellar for the cream to rise 

 in the usual way. As little time should 

 be occupied in this heating process as possi- 

 ble : hence the advantage of having the 

 water ready hot when the milk is brought 

 in. 



Cream procured in this way, will seldom 

 require more than twenty minutes churning, 

 while by the common practice, the poor dai- 

 ry-maid may have to churn for hours, and 

 then, perhags, have to throw it away, as I 

 did myself on two occasions, before I hap- 

 pened to gain this valuable piece of informa- 

 tion. — Ohio Cultivator. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Disease of the Potaloe. 



Mr. Editor. — In your last number I no- 

 ticed a communication on the above subject 

 from this place, and signed " Farmer." 



The author of said communication seems 

 to differ with me in toto, in regard to the 

 cause of the disease in question. He ob- 

 jects to my reasoning* in the matter and 

 substitutes the opinion of some learned men. 



Before proceeding to answer the objec- 

 tions of my courteous opponent, I would beg 

 leave to correct one mistake that occurred 

 in my first communication. The word nitro- 

 genous should have been carboniferous. 

 The mistake was mine, not yours. I wrote 

 the communication containing it in a hurry; 

 and like other things done in a hurry, it was 

 done imperfectly. My mind was filled at 

 the time with the subject, and I find I was 

 not sufficiently careful about my words. 

 Your readers will please excuse the error. 

 As bad as the error was, however, it had but 

 little to do with the import of the communi- 

 cation, as its object was to show that alkalies 

 would prevent and cure the disease of the 

 potatoe. 



After stating that the disease of the pota- 

 toe was of recent origin — by the way Mr. 

 Editor, your hint that this was doubtful, was 

 timely and proper, as we hear of the disease 

 as far back at least as 1815, some thirty 

 years ago — your correspondent, " Farmer," 

 says " it is also well known that the soil in 

 which potatoes grow, contains tiie same 

 quantity of alkali and no less nitrogen than 

 formerly. If a want of the alkalies, or a 

 redundant supply of nitrogenous matter can 



* See page 316, current vol. of Cabinet. 



be the only cause,t then the disease might 

 be confined to one district alone." I may be 

 shortsighted, Mr. Editor, but I must confess 

 I cannot see the rationale of this. I cannot 

 for the life of me, understand why "the dis- 

 ease might be confined to one district alone," 

 unless that district should comprise nearly 

 the whole earth, when the want of alkaline 

 matter is so general. 



" Farmer" lays it down as a " well 

 known" fact, that "the soil in which potatoes 

 grow, contains the same quantity of alkali, 

 and no less nitrogen than formerly." Now, 

 however much I might be disposed to difl^er 

 with " Farmer" in this matter, and say that 

 when a soil has been deprived of a portion 

 of its alkaline matter, by taking off" it large 

 crops of hay, fodder, tfec, and none, or but 

 little has been returned to it, that it has less 

 than it had before, I will, for the sake of 

 making the subject clearer, omit doing so for 

 the present. It is a " well known" fact, that 

 all salts have a relative proportion of acids 

 and alkalies. Therefore, notwithstanding 

 the soil may have as much alkali now as it 

 had formerly, still it does not follow as a 

 matter of course, that it has now a suffici- 

 ency. The soil formerly may have had 

 enough alkali for the acid it contained at 

 that time, but in consequence of the farmer 

 supplying large quantities of manure, which 

 produce an abundant supply of carbonic acid, 

 the soil needs a greater supply of alkaline 

 matter than it before contained to form a salt 

 by union with the extra quantum of carbonic 

 acid. This is the main reason, in my opinion, 

 tliat the rot in the potatoe is more general 

 now than it was a few years ago. It has 

 been the practice until recently, to skin the 

 soil as closely as possible, and supply but lit- 

 tle manure; but since 183(3, "a great change 

 has come over" agriculture, and farmers 

 have been brought to think that they must 

 GIVE the soil something, while they are con- 

 stantly TAKING AWAY from it. They have 

 since tliat time been throwing on large 

 quantities of manure; and not supplying 

 proper proportions of alkaline matters, they 

 find that diseases infest their plants, such 

 as the rust in wheat, and the rot in the 

 potatoe. 



I must plead guilty to the charge, that I \ 



f I (lid not say, Mr. Editor, that " a redundant supply 

 of nitrogenous matter" was the cause of the disease 

 of the potatoe; I said that "the substance forming 

 the cells of all plants is a compound of nitrogenous (I 

 should have said carboniferous) matter, with one or 

 more of the alkalies, together with silex, &,c.; this has 

 nothing to do with the cause of the disease of the po- 

 tatoe, which as I said before, was owing to a want of 

 the alkalies. 



