PATENT-OFFICE REPORT AND THE POTATO ROT. 11 



THE PATENT-OFFICE REPORT AND THE POTATO ROT. 



We are Avell aware that no words could be selected for a caption that would 

 be more likely than these to prompt the reader to overlook all that follows. 



Of the celebrated Report from the Patent-Office of about 1,200 pages, 230 

 were appropriated to this subject alone; so that if the printing thii-eof cost $90,000, 

 the Government paid nearly $20,000 on account of the rotten potato part of it — 

 a sort of omnium gatherum, comprising not only some of the most philosophical 

 and erudite speculations of the day, but a vast mass besides of the most absurd 

 and puerile balderdash which until then had found its way into print in any form 

 or through any channel. In vain may you look there, however, for any results of 

 original and hitherto unknown investigations conclusive or plausible as to cause 

 or cure for this vegetable malady. 



How much better and more creditable would it have been to have offered lib- 

 eral premiums of, say, $500 or $1,000 to practical farmers and vegetable chem- 

 ists and physiologists, at home and abroad, for the best disquisitions and proofs 

 on the subject, to be awarded by such men as Teschemacher, of Boston, and 

 Doctor EsBioNs, of Albany, and Kuffin, of Virginia, to such investigators as 

 might be found, in their judgment to disclose valuable discoveries in Veget- 

 able Physiology, even though they might not prove to be conclusive as to the 

 particular object of inquiry, for that may possibly remain yet for a long time im- 

 penetrable to human ken. 



If that course had been taken, instead of gathering up in one great heap, at 

 immense cost, all the chaff, as well as the grain which had been already scat- 

 tered far and wide over the world, we might possibly have had something new 

 for our money — something which for its novelty and value would have made its 

 own way through the 100,000 impressions of agricultural and other journals, 

 and which, like discoveries in other departments of knowledge, and by other 

 branches of the Government, would have reflected some credit on the country, and 

 have added something fresh and attractive to the stock of agricultural and hor- 

 ticultural literature — something a little more profound if not quite so pathetic as 

 the following sample of much more such trash in the Report, distributed gratui- 

 tously to the friends of Members of Congress, but at a cost of not a great deal 

 short, as it is said, of $100,000 to the people: 



ANOTHER CAUSE FOR THE POTATO ROT 



PROPOSED. 

 To the Editor of the Maine Farmer : 



Dear Sir : Please to inform your readers 

 that, in my opinion, the failure of the potato 

 crop by rot and rust is caused by cutting the 

 seed. I think the whole trouble may be 

 safely attiibuted to the unfortunate use of the 

 hnife among the seed designed for planting. 

 I do earnestly entreat my agiicultural fi-icnds 

 to pause and take into consideration this hint 

 before they complete the destruction of that 

 valuable root. That beautiful skin which 



We take it for granted that " another communication " was never " desired,"" 

 and though the brevity of this earnest entreaty against " cutting " or in " any way 



(59) 



God has put over the potato should not he 

 cut, nor in any way wounded, it a perfect 

 crop is wanted. 



The reasons, if reasons are wanted to es- 

 tablish a self-evident fact, together with the 

 remedy, can be made the subject of another 

 communication, if desired. B. Shaw. 



Oldtown, Sept. 11, 1845. 



Note. — We jmblish friend Shaw's rem nrfcs on the 

 potato rot, althoivgh wo cannot agree with him. If 

 cutting potatdfs caused the rot, why have wc not 

 been troul)led with the disease years ago 1 Tlie cus- 

 tom of cutting potatoes is old, while the rot is new, 

 [Ed. Me. Farm. 



