APPENDIX. 47 



on my plan, were long, straggling, and sparingly furnished with leaves, the leaves 

 themselves, small and pale green. 



" In the next field, potatoes of the same variety were planted on the same day 

 and left to nature. They appeared in the first six weeks healthy, even strong, but 

 gradually acquired a poor aspect as the time of flowering and fruit approached, and 

 finally, exhibited precisely the same appearance as the rows not treated by pinching 

 off the extremities in the field in which my experiments were made. 



" The harvest began in the surrounding fields in the middle of August, and was 

 very middling. The tubers were throughout smaller than usual, very scabby, and 

 within these fields, to a small extent, attacked by the wet rot. 



" In the end of August, the difference between the rows treated by me and those 

 not treated, became so striking that it astonished all the work people in the neigh- 

 borhood, who were never tired of inquiring the cause. The stocks of the rows 

 left to themselves were all now partly dried, partly dead. On the contrary, the 

 rows treated as above were luxuriant and in full vigour, the plants bushy, the foliage 

 thick, the leaves large and green, so that most people suppposed they had been later 

 planted. 



"But the difference in the tubers was also very decided. The tubers of the 

 plants in the rows treated on my plan were not, indeed larger, but vastly more 

 numerous, and they were neither scabby nor affected with any disease whatever. 

 A few had pushed (which was to be ascribed to a late rain,) and were apparently 

 incompletely developed, while scab and wet rot attacked more and more the tubers 

 of the other plants, which also fell off on the slightest handling. 



" Although I am far from believing that I am able to explain the nature of the 

 potato disease which has visited us of late years, yet I feel certain that I have dis- 

 covered a means of strengthening the potato plant to such a degreea s to enable it 

 to resist the influences which determine such diseases. 



Should any one be deterred from continuing the cultivation of potatoes, on 

 account of the manipulation here recommended, which may be performed by 

 women and even by children, I would remind him that the same field planted with 

 potatoes is capable of supplying food to twice as many persons as when employed 

 to growing wheat." From the Annals of Agriculture in Prussia, edited by the 

 College of Rural. Economy. 



DR. KLOTZSCH presented to the King of Prussia a memorial offering to give to 

 the world his method of preventing disease in potatoes, provided he were assured 

 of a remuneration of 2,000 dollars, (about ^300,) if, after three years experience it 

 should be found efficacious. 



The King handed the memorial to the Minister of the Interior, who requested 

 .he College of Rural Economy to discuss the matter with Dr. Klotzsch. 



The president of the college undertook the arrangement, and, after Dr. Klotzsch 

 had explained to him privately his method, reported most favorably of it to the 

 College, which unanimously recommended that the very moderate remuneration 

 asked for by Dr. Klotzsch should be secured to him on the following conditions, 

 which were accepted by him. 



1. That the College of Rural Economy should be the judges of the efficacy 

 of the proposed method. 



2. That their decision should be given, at latest, within three years, provided 

 the potato disease against which the plants are to be protected, should 

 appear during that period. 



The Minister of the Interior approved of the recommendation*, and authorized 

 the College to conclude an agreement with Dr. Klotzsch. 



The agreement has been concluded, and now the method is published that it 

 may be tried and tested as widely as possible by comparative experiments, similar 

 to those made by Dr. Klotzsch himself. The cost of it is stated not to exceed 1*. 

 6d. per acre in Germany. 



It is very desirable that this method should be tried in the British Islands, and 

 as the season for trying it now approaches, I have here given Dr. Klotzch's 

 account entire. WILLIAM GREGORY. 



THE END. 



