ENEMIES OF THE POTATO. 57 



will be new to many who will read this book, though the principles 

 involved, and, perhaps, the practice followed, have been long known 

 to many farmers and gardeners of experience. 



Although this system of propagating the potato may be of very 

 little use to the farmer in a general way, when there is plenty of seed, 

 yet whenever he invests at the rate of one or two dollars per pound 

 for new varieties it will be worth his while to try it, and he may be 

 assured that if properly done it will give good results. 



POTATO DISEASES AND INSECTS. 



(Mr. H.) The potato disease which has frequently been so dis- 

 astrous in Ireland and parts of Scotland has never been devastating 

 here. There is but little doubt that it is a parasitical fungus of some 

 kind, for which all remedies are useless when the crop is attacked. 

 Like all diseases of this kind, the only help we have is prevention. 

 As far as experiments have gone, they have shown that potatoes are 

 always less liable to attacks of disease or rot if planted in new land 

 broken up from the sod, or at least that which has not been long in 

 cultivation. Another enemy to this crop is the well known striped 

 potato beetle. .Fortunately, for this pest we have a certain remedy 

 in the use of Paris green, which may be put on either by dusting 

 while the dew is on the leaves in the morning, or after a rain, or else 

 in a liquid form of one ounce of Paris green to ten gallons of water. 

 But whichever way it is applied, it should be begun at the very first 

 appearance of the beetles. If they once get a foothold, they increase 

 so rapidly that often the crop is destroyed before the remedy can be 

 of any avail. Paris green being a deadly poison, it is absolutely 

 necessary that fields on which potatoes are growing should be pro- 

 tected from cattle. It is sometimes supposed that danger might 

 arise from the use of the Paris green affecting the potato tubers. 

 There need be no fear of this, as the tubers do not in any way 

 absorb it. 



The disease known as the potato rot is a vegetable parasite which 

 grows within the substance of the plant, and affects the leaves, stems 

 and tubers, as is well known. Some part of its life history is known; 

 and while all is not known, yet enough has been learned to give us 

 some indications of how it may be prevented, for as to cure when 

 once the plants have been attacked, there is and can be none, because 

 of the impossibility of applying any remedy. The parasitic plant, a 

 species of fungus, propagates itself by means of spores, which are the 

 seed. The spores mature in the leaves and stems, as well as the 



