N^o. 183.J 300 



(as they believe,) saved their potato crops by pulling the tops up. 

 Some have tried the plan of placing their feet on each side of the 

 stalks, and then pulling the stalks up, thus preventing the pota- 

 toes from being hauled up. But this did not save their potatoes. 

 Perhaps they then dug them too soon, not leaving them.as long in 

 the ground as Colonel Houghton does. 



Colonel Houghton. — I have tried salt muck on my potatoes, 

 and no benefit. I have pulled up alternate hill stalks, and twenty 

 persons can testify that the pulled ones always left sound j)ota- 

 toes when the others were deceased. I have tried mowing off the 

 tops, but it did no good. 



Professor Mapes. — I have tried that too, and thought it did 

 good, but others tried it and found no benefit. 



Colonel Houghton was asked what kind of potatoes he had 

 planted, and he said various kinds, and all of them proved sound 



by my plan. 



Professor Mapes. — The premium of ten thousand dollars, offer- 

 ed by the State of Massachusetts for a remedy for the potato rot, 

 is confined t(5 citizens of that State. 



Dr. Antisell was requested to offer his opinion of the planj&c.j 

 of Colonel Houghton. He said, I have nothing new to offer. la 

 looking for the cause of the disease, much has been done in vain. 

 The scientific men of Europe have made profound investigations 

 as to the cause and remedy f^jr this potato malady in vain ; their 

 reputations have suffered from it; We are obliged to Colonel 

 Houghton for his communication, but we must be very careful. 

 He supposes the deposit of a minute egg in the stalk, from whence 

 the pink colored mite issues, which works its way down to the 

 tubers. Ifltisan egg, it must have been deposited by the fly 

 . below, because it will not descend, but must ascend by the means 

 ol the ascending juices of .the stalk. It does not appear certain 

 that the egg or the mite, are the causes of the disease. Find out 

 the fly which makes the deposit of the egg, and then, perhaps, 

 we may find some preventive. Learned comrhissions appointed 

 to«research-, have ascribed the malady to air, earth, the plant it- 

 self. &c. They have r.greed in one thing, that a rupture of the 



