268 



NEW ENGLAND FARISIER. 



Sept. 



THE CAUSE OP THE POTATO HOT. 



In 1851, the Legislature of Massachusetts pass- 

 ed a resolve, offering "a reward of ten thousand 

 dollars to any person, -within the Commonwealth, 

 who shall satisfy the Governor and Council that, 

 by a test of at least five successive years, he has 

 discovered a sure and practical remedy for the po- 

 tato rot." 



Communications from the claimants of the pre- 

 miums, and from others, at once poured in upon 

 the executive; and the next year, 1852, Amasa 

 Walker, then Secretary of the Commonwealth, 

 prepared and published under the authority of the 

 legislature, "A synopsis of the several communi- 

 cations on the cause and cure of the Potato Rot, 

 received by the executive of Massachusetts," 

 which was printed in connection with the usual 

 volume of "Agricultural Transactions," and occu- 

 pied fifty pages. 



After the organization of the present Board of 

 Agriculture, the whole subject of the ten-thousand- 

 dollar premium was referred to that body, who 

 proceeded to an experimental test, on the State 

 farm, at Westborough, of the various remedies re- 

 commended by the claimants of the premiums, as 

 their "sure and practical remedy for the potato 

 rot." 



A committee of three members of the Board 

 was appointed to conduct these experiments. In 

 a subsequent report, this committee say that, on 

 entering upon the discharge of their duties, "We 

 had hoped that an examination of the papers in 

 the State department, communicated by the vari- 

 ous claimants of the bounty of the State, would 

 furnish us with such records of facts as would en- 

 able us to form some well digested plan of action 

 in our investigation. But we were doomed in this 

 expectation to be grievously disappointed, and 

 we are constrained to say that we do not believe 

 a more degrading record of ignorance of the first 

 principles of natural science can be found than 

 those papers, as a whole, manifest ; although we 

 should cheerfully except from this condemnation 

 a few which seem to have been written with some- 

 thing of the modesty which always characterizes 

 the cultivated writer." 



These "papers" which so "grievously disap- 

 pointed" our committee, were contributed by over 

 one hundred individuals, about one-half of whom 

 were residents of Massachusetts, and the other 

 half of various other Siates and of the Canadas, 

 and embodied unquestionably pretty much all that 

 was known about the disease by the scientific and 

 by tlie practical men of the land, together with a 

 lai'^'C amount of speculation and theory. 



With this result of the ten-thousand-dollar of- 

 fer, the j)ublic, as well as the committee, were 

 "grievously disuppoii ted." Great things had 

 been anticipated from he lemptinir prize, but only 



a "degrading record of ignorance" was realized. 

 The editors and readers of agricultural journals 

 tired of the subject. We recollect that one of 

 our own correspondents commenced an article on 

 the "Potato Disease" with the declaration that, 

 "For several years past, I have made it an almost 

 invariable rule to omit the reading of any article 

 in your paper, if its heading indicated that it 

 treated of the potato disease, more especially if it 

 professed to expound the cause of the disease, and 

 to prescribe a remedy." 



For several years past, therefore, we have not 

 deemed it advisable to encourage the discussion of 

 the subject in our columns, although we have 

 gladly published every new fact or suggestion that 

 has been communicated, or ■« hich we have noticed 

 in other journals. 



We alluded a week or two since to the endorse- 

 ment by Prof. Johnson of Yale College, of the 

 conclusions to which the German physiologists 

 have arrived after very careful and long continued 

 investigations, as to the cause of the potato dis- 

 ease. On this point the Professor speaks thus 

 confidentially : 



"At last the genuine cause has appeared, and 

 what is it ? Why, the fungus! But we gave that 

 up long ago ! Well, we must take it up again ; it 

 is the true cause ! Beyond all reasonable doubt, 

 it is proved that the potato never rots without the 

 fungus, and that it always rots with it. Planting 

 the fungus on a sound potato develops the disease. 

 Shielding the potato from the fungus prevents the 

 disease. The rot starts where the fungus begins 

 to grow. E:ich microscopic cell of the tuber be- 

 comes discolored and rotten, when, and only when, 

 the fungus issues its branches into it, or into its 

 immediate neighborhood. Constitution, tuber, 

 propagation, aphides, salt, manures and bad weath- 

 er have nothing to do with the disease, except as 

 they favor or destroy the fungus." 



In this connection, it is interesting to look back 

 upon the labors of the committee of our Board of 

 Agriculture, already alluded to, and composed of 

 John C. Bartlett, Jabez Fisuer and Nathan 

 DuRFEE. In their report. Agriculture of Massa- 

 chusetts, 1858, they say, "In every period uf the 

 disease, except the first, various fungi are to be 

 seen beautifully ramified through the diseased por- 

 tion of the tuber ; but although subjected to a 

 Spencer microscope, magnifying from three to sev- 

 en hundred diameters, not the slightest indica- 

 tions of insect life or ravages were visible." In 

 concluding their report, the committee add : 



"It may be suggested by some persons that the 

 fungi whirh exhibited themselves in the diseased 

 matter of the potato might have been after all the 

 exciting cause of diseased action ; but we think 

 the fact t(ut the first stage of the disease, upon a 

 most careful examination, manifested not the 

 slightest tnice of any fungus, is amply sufficient to 

 warrant t'r.e conclusion that the sporules which by 

 tome yet hidden law e.\.ist in every conceivable po- 

 sition, vegetate whenever the decaying matter of 



