196 SELECTIONS FROM ADDRESSES. 



and produces more to the acre than any other grain. An error 

 is frequently committed in its cultivation, by removing, at the 

 last hoeing, the suckers which spring from the root. The male 

 blossoms on the main stock, under ordinary circumstances, do 

 not remain in vigor more than four or five days, and frequently 

 not so long. And this length of time is only sufficient to ferti- 

 lize the earliest ears, in which the female blossoms come out 

 first from the lowest grains, and present themselves at the ends 

 of the corolla or husk, and, as they come out, are fertilized. 

 Thus, they are daily presenting themselves, until the whole are 

 fertilized. But if the heat of the weather, or other causes, de- 

 stroy the male blossoms, before the whole of the female blossoms 

 appear, then if there be no suckers to supply the fertilizing pow- 

 der, a portion of the upper end of the ear will be without grain. 

 To supply this deficiency, suckers successively spring up from 

 the root, and afford a supply of the fertilizing material, for the 

 ears that may be produced for two or three weeks after the main 

 stock is dead. On the male blossoms from the suckers, there- 

 fore, the greatness of the crop very much depends. 



In relation to the origin of the disease, which has so disas- 

 trously affected the potato plant, no satisfactory cause has yet 

 been discovered. Some facts having connection with the sub- 

 ject, have come under my observation. One is, that the disease 

 is not continued from one year to another, by diseased tubers ; 

 for plants which have been grown from potatoes almost entirely 

 decayed, have produced healthy and sound crops. Another is, 

 that new varieties produced from the seed, were even more 

 affected by the rot, than old varieties. This, I think, goes to 

 show that the malady must arise from some other cause, than 

 the long-continued cultivation of varieties, without being re- 

 newed from seed. 



The best means of insuring a healthy crop, is to plant early 

 sorts early in the season. When we see whole fields struck 

 down, in the short space of a day or two, whatever may be the 

 pre-disposing cause, we cannot but think the disease to be of 

 atmospheric infiuence. We may reasonably hope the malady 

 will ere long pass away, and the potato again flourish with its 

 former vigor. 



