Ko. 133.] 3C3 



THE POTATO ROT. 

 Gen. Tallmadge called for the reading of the followicg: 



O^densburgb, 6th Xorcmber, 1S52. 



To the President of the Fariuci's Club, New Yort. 



Sir: — I know of no raore suitable medium through wbich to 

 communicate the following information, which I look upon as an 

 effectual remedy against the blighting influence of the potato rot, 

 if acted upon, than the Farmer's Club of New York citj, whose 

 operations I have always watched with a good deal of anxious 

 interest. I, therefore, come at- once to my subject. 



« In the early part of last spring, a .gentleman of my acquaintance, 

 Mr. Woolley, who keeps a well-stocked farm in the immediate 

 vicinity of this rising town, by way of experiment, sowed a few 

 acres of different descriptions of potatoes, many of which had 

 been long discontinued altogether, from the repeated failures in 

 the crops, year after year, through the desolating influence of the 

 rot. Among these were the lady finger, minion, kidney, and a 

 great variety of the more delicate descriptions of this valuable 

 esculent. I went through his farm lately, and paid particular 

 attention to the potato crop. Not a single failure occurred in any 

 instance. And now as to the remedy. In sowing the seeds, Mr. 

 Woolley raised a small hillock, and then constructed a drill, as 

 in the ordinary mode of planting the seed, and after laying down 

 the seed on the top of this small hill of earth, he used as a ma- 

 nure about half a shovel full of common tan bark, shaking it 

 loosely over the seed, and then covering all with a heap of loose 

 earth, in the same manner as is usual in planting or sowing the 

 crops. Medical men and men of science will be well able to 

 account for the great protective qualities of tan bark against the 

 ravages of the small worm or any kind of insect. They will not 

 approach tanj it kills tliem. The absorbent qualities of tan bark, 

 which sells at only Is. per load en the average, also protects the 

 delicate seedling from rot, produced sometimes by heavj' rain?, 

 and a variety of other causes j and in tlie excessive heat of the 

 summer's ~un, .00, inn is considered by men of science to wliom 

 I have spoken on the subject as a non-ccnductor. It if, too, of a 



