ABYEETISEMENT. 



€ommonti3caltl) of Mas3ac[]ii3tii3, 



Secretary's Office; 

 March, 1852. 



The object of the following compilation is to present 

 the views of a great number of persons in a form so con- 

 densed as to render them available and useful. To pub- 

 lish them at full length would make a volume too for- 

 midable in size. Few would have the courage to under- 

 take, and fewer still to accomplish the reading; while 

 the expense of publication would render it inexpedient. 



Much time, labor, and patient research, have been ex- 

 pended by many of the writers, and by some of them 

 from purely unselfish and praiseworthy motives ; while 

 the task of reducing the whole to a small compass, and 

 yet retaining the views, principles, and chain of reason- 

 ing of each, in such manner as not to give reasonable 

 offence to the writers, has been attended with no trifling 

 amount of labor. 



Although these communications, an abstract of which 

 is here given, may not furnish any perfect cure or pre- 

 ventive of the potato disease, yet they agree in so many 

 important points, and offer so many valuable hints, re- 

 lating to the nature, cultivation, preservation and im- 

 provement of the potato, that they cannot fail to be of 

 great public utility. 



The similarity of views expressed by the most intelli- 



