422 Transactions of the American Institute. 



As the growth proceeds, the set delivers up to the young plant 

 all its valuable stores, the iron amongst the rest. By the time these 

 stores are transferred, the plant should be in a condition to cater 

 for itself; but if these should be out of their natural balance of 

 proportion, the young plant will be affected and have a negative 

 tendency. That is what is the matter — there is a deficiency of iron. 



It never was the intention of nature to produce such heavy crops 

 of potatoes, in a wild state, as man has been in the habit of obtaining 

 by cultivation. If cultivation had been carried on understandingly 

 from the first, the potato would have retained its health and vigor, 

 and there is the strongest probability that the yield of these latter 

 years would have been greater than ever before, whereas the reverse 

 has been the fact. It should be borne in mind that cultivation 

 is not only exhaustive of soil, but also of the vitality of plants, 

 by disturbance of the natural balance of proportions; hence the 

 necessity of readjustment and modification, from time to time, by 

 the cultivator. If nature is to supply &ctra yields for the use of 

 mankind, man must supply the extra means. 



The uses of iron in the potato plant are multifarious. It is to the 

 plant as moneyed capital is to man; it is the medium through which 

 the most important exchanges and transactions are continually being 

 made and carried on; such as decomposition, combination, involution, 

 evolution, <&c. It aids in the decomposition of the atmosphere, 

 and of light, and gives a character to the sap which facilitates the 

 conduct of heat and electricity through all the ramifications of 

 the plant. 



Every farmer has observed how, after a shower of rain, the 

 plants all stand up erect, as high in air as practicable. Wherefore? 

 To obtain their requisite share of electricity; if the sap is in 

 healthy condition, they obtain it. If there is a deficiency of iron, 

 the electricity finds readier conduct by the humid vapor rising 

 from the moist earth. This is why deteriorated potatoes have an 

 extraordinary tendency to rot in wet seasons, and on low lauds. 

 This is one reason Avhy the ground should not be stirred much, 

 when potatoes are in blossom, as the rising vapor interferes with the 

 decomposition of light on the blossom; and so retards or hinders 

 the production of healthy pollen, for the stigma, and fiustrates the 

 elaboration of perfect seed. 



K fructification is duly consummated, each branch bears its cluster 

 of seed balls, and the whole plant ripens; but if each eflfort to 

 produce seed proves abortive, there will still be persistent efforts to 



