228 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



sundry applicants for the bounty of the State, beg leave to report to 

 the Board, that they have attended to their duty so far as to take the 

 necessary steps for collecting the facts which must be made the 

 foundation of every sound theory in science. 



We have distributed very freely, in this and in other States, the 

 accompanying circular,--' and we have felt that the importance of the 

 subject forbade us to form any hasty conclusions from the limited 

 number of those which have yet been returned to us. It is very 

 much to be desired that all those who have received a copy of this 

 circular should fill its blanks, not with their theories, but with 

 answers based only upon well-attested facts. 



Your committee, having no particular hobby to ride in connection 

 with this subject, ask leave of the Board to continue their researches 

 after important facts, which, when properly sifted, classified and com- 

 pared, may afford some more just and stable foundation for a theory 

 than any which has yet been built upon. 



* The following is the Circular referred to : — 



What is the character of the soil upon which your potatoes are planted? 



AVhat were the crops and the manure for one or two previous years ? 



Kind and quantity of manure applied to the present crop ? 



Character of the season as to heat and moisture ? 



Variety of potato planted, color and size, whole or cut? 



Time and quantity of inflorescence and amount of balls matured? 



Fungous or other unnatural growths upon stalk or leaf? 



Will you be good enough to. send specimens of any insects that commit ravages upon any part of 

 the plant? 



Upon harvesting the crop do you find the new tubers vegetating? 



Date of the first appearance of rust upon the leaf? 



If disease attacks the tuber, note its date, its form — whether dry or soft rot— and, as far as 

 possible, describe its progress to its termination ? 



What variety shows the greatest liability to disease ? 



Is the disease general throughout the crop, or confined to single tubers, or certain locations, and 

 if the latter, state the differences of soil ? 



Have your potatoes been propagated from the seed, and if so, how many years since? 



Have you been in the habit of getting tubers for planting from other localities ? 



How far back can you remember the first appearance of disease, whether of the dry or soft form ? 



When did it first assume the epidemic form ? 



How much has the yield diminished, per acre, within the last twenty years upon soils of a 

 similar character? 



If there are any facts in your possession bearing upon the subject, cither of a historical nature 

 or otherwise, please note them. 



The undersigned, having been appointed a committee by the Massachusetts Board of Agricul- 

 ture, under the authority of a Resolve of the legislature, to investigate the vai-ious methods of 

 arresting the disease of the potato, proposed in sundry applications, and otherwise, desire to call 

 your attention to the foregoing Circular, and ask your assistance in collecting and furnishing us 

 all the facts iu your possession bearing on the subject. 



If you will bo good enough, after having filled the answers to the above series of questions, to 

 direct this Circular to the Secretary of the Ma.ssachusetts Board of Agriculture, at Boston, with 

 the endorsement " Potato Disease " upon the envelop, you will much oblige. 



Yours, very truly, 



John C. Bartlett, 

 Jabez Fisher, 

 Natuan Durfee, 



Comtnittee. 



