EXTRACTS 



From the Correspondence of the American In. titute. 



Mr. Townsend of Long Island, speaking of the potato disease so 

 prevalent the past year, says: 



" I have cultivated potatoes for sale in the market for thirteen years 

 past, generally the Mercer, on the same ground. There is no black 

 speck in them, nor do they degenerate. I attribute the disease to the 

 peculiar season. My early planted potatoes are all good; some of 

 my late ones have been bad. The long wet spell of weather last 

 spring followed by long continued heat, injured the crop. Those 

 which I saved from my early planting for seed, are as good as any 

 I ever had. Some of my neighbor's potatoes always have black spots 

 in them. I raise a thousand bushels a year, and they are always 

 in demand. My method is to plant where corn was the year before, 

 but I have planted the same ground for three years in succession. 

 At the time when complaint was loudest of the destructiveness of 

 the disease, my crop was as good as usual. The ground has all 

 had poudrette upon it for four years past. I use also long horse ma- 

 nure in the drills, putting the potatoes on the top of it. As soon as 

 the potato plants appear, I use a heavy bush dra wn by two horses, 

 and thus level the face of the field. I afterwards plow twice, once 

 from the potatoes, next towards them; I hoe them well, but hill up 

 very little. I always have changed my seed as much as, possible, 

 getting them from Maine, Vermont, &c. ; I plant of these some bush- 

 els for seed of the succeeding year. My Mercer is as good as the 

 Kidney, generally, and a greater crop." 



DISEASE OF THE POTATOE. 



In a communication made to. the Institute, by Mr. J. Lodge, of 

 Morrisania, he says : I have paid some attention to the many 

 complaints that have gone the rounds of the papers, relating to the 



