PATENT-OFFICE REPORT AND THE POTATO ROT. 15 



amiable repugnance to cutting into the body of such a beautiful creature as it is 

 — to that same tenderness of feeling which prompted Mr. Shaw to protest against 

 cutting with a " knife " the beautiful skin which God had given to the potato ; 

 and should none of our correspondents and essayists be quoted hereafter, we would 

 persuade them to take comfort in the recollection that the absence of Brutus's 

 statue from the procession was observed with particular sensation, and consider- 

 ed a higher compliment to the Roman patriot than if it had been paraded in its 

 place with all the others. 



Returning to the Disease in the Potato. In 1844, Mr. Teschemacher of Boston, 

 announced, and was we believe the first to announce the opinion founded on ob- 

 servation, that the cause of the rot was a fungus ; the spores or seeds of which 

 exist in vast quantities in the atmosphere. In 1845, the French Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences, acting on the enlightened and exemplary principle that in the 

 prosecution of scientific researches, and the distribution of honorary rewards for 

 great discoveries, there should be no geographical limits, deputed Professor 

 Charles Morren of Liege to examine mto the cause of the potato rot, and he came 

 to the same conclusion which had been reached and proclaimed in the New-Eng- 

 land Farmer the year before by Mr. T. It has been acted upon successfully, as we 

 have understood, in the neighborhood of Boston. But after all, we apprehend that 

 no theory has been so well established as to be pronounced " self-evident." On 

 the contrary, as Doctor Doubty would say, " much may be said on both sides ;" 

 but we incline to the opinion that in Mr. Colt's case, the conservative virtue was 

 in the salt — while the other ingredients may have acted as fertilizers, to increase 

 the crop, restoring to the land some of constituents necessary to the production 

 of that plant, and which had been carried off from it by previous crops. 



My Dear Sir : You have asked me for my opinion about the potato rot. I must confess that 

 I am as much at a loss to say the why and the wherefore of this disease, as those who have 

 sought for its causes in Europe. This I can say, however — potatoes manured with ham-yard, 

 manure are infinitely more subject to the rot than those raised without it. I have found 

 the best yield, where I spread broadcast eight or ten bushels of Turks Island salt per acre, 

 that cost me twenty-three cents the bushel, and then treated with a compost — three parts marsh 

 mud — one part anthracite ashes — one part slaked lime, and one part plaster of Paris. In 

 that case I had no rot, the crop was not large — about 100 busliels to the acre, but they were 

 of excellent quality. These potatoes, say " Mercers " and " pink-eyes,'' when du", were 

 put in ban-els, filled with cinders or charcoal-dust fi-om the railroad, and these potatoes 

 which I am now using, are as dry and mealy as those dug in November or December— ^no 

 rot, or a sign of rot among them. 



I am convinced that if one will manure his potato lands not with horse manure, but with 

 salt, ashes, and lime, he will escape this murrain in his potato crop. I am no chemist, but 

 this I know, that salt, lime and ashes gave me as fine potatoes as any one need to wish for. 



It is a curious f<ict as to potatoes, that in 1845 we had no potato balls or seeds. I inquired 

 for them and sought for them in various parts of the State — fomid none and had none my- 

 self, and could procure none elsewhere. In 1846 we had some balls. I have collected a 

 parcel, which this spring I have sowed, and will see what the result will be, and test the 

 value of raising new varieties from seeds, in which I place confidence. At all events, I deem 

 it a duty in every one who has the means, to test all such experiments as may be beneficial 

 to the community ; teU me, therefore, what I shall try, and I will try it for the good of my 

 neighbors. Yours truly, R. L. C. 



Welt, Said. — A wealthy farmer in Kentucky says, " I would rather be taxed for the edu- 

 cation of the boy, than the ignorance of the man — for one or the other I am compelled to be." 



[_ Border Watch. 

 (63) 



