296 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



sixteen years ago he lived in Indiana, where the potato rot had 

 not appeared, though it was feared and expected; and as our 

 potatoes were all of the Mercer or Neshanneck variety, which 

 it was said were much more liable than any other to the alarming 

 disease, and therefore it was a great object to get a kind that 

 not rot; and as the Carter potatoes, a newly originated variety, 

 were said to be that very kind, lie procured and took some of 

 them for seed to Indiana, and every one of them rotted, and no 

 other near them, and that was the first of the disease in that 

 region. This is a simple fact, but what does it prove'? Simply 

 that no sort, new or old, is free from disease. 



The Chairman — The phenomena of this disease in potatoes and 

 other vegetables are strange. They not only excite an eager 

 inquiry, but that search in vain for cause and remedy, has become 

 wonder 1 All the supposed causes have existed from the begin- 

 ning of the vegetable and animal kingdom, and without any 

 disease fatal to whole classes. Among the large trees, sycamore 

 seems to have been most severely and generally attacked; still, 

 it survives I There is not an approach to a cure for the malady 

 yet. 



Solon Robinson — To prevent any alarm upon this point, about 

 the potato running out and being lost to the world, and the 

 advantage of resorting to original sources for a preventive, I will 

 relate a little of my experience. As to the kind of potato spoken 

 of by Dr. Underbill as possessing so much new vigor as to be 

 proof against the disease, it is one of the oldest sorts in the 

 country. About the necessity of going back to the cow for fresh 

 vaccine matter, I liave to say that I was most thoroughly vacci- 

 nated by milking, direct from the original source, and afterward 

 had the small pox about as hard as any man ever did and live. 

 Still, I approve of new experiments and new trials, but have no 

 faith in getting rid of the potato rot by getting new varieties. I 

 trust, in time, it will pass away. 



SMALL FRUITS. 



This subject was now called up by Mr. Pardee, for the purpose 

 of getting Dr. Underbill to give the Club a few plain practical 



