The Potatoe Plague. 93 
and the grasses, and the mossy growth on the bark of fruit 
and other trees. This is demonstrated by the fact, that if 
we apply strong alkalies in sufficient quantities to any of these 
plants, before they are attacked by the fungi, they will not be 
attacked ; and if we supply them after they are attacked, 
they will soon be freed from them. It is to this purpose that 
our most successful farmers and fruit raisers apply salt and 
lime to protect wheat from rust, mildew or blight, and smut, 
and put ashes and lime upon corn to protect it from the 
“ snuff-box,” and sow ashes on potatoes to save them from 
the rot, and wash fruit trees with whale oil, soap or other 
alkaline substances, to restore them to health. These alka- 
line substances, too, by uniting with the carbonic acid, pre- 
vent the commencement of decay. This commencement in 
all carboniferous substances, is called, in chemistry, the sac- 
charine fermentation, the product of which is a sweet sub- 
stance, which gives food to flies, bugs, &c., and which flies 
and bugs are also charged by other scientific gentlemen, with 
being the cause of the potatoe rot, and other diseases of 
plants. The Hessian fly, in my opinion, finds nothing suited 
to its palate in a healthy stalk of wheat, or one that has 
enough alkali, and therefore does not attack it; but in a sickly 
plant, or one with a deficiency of alkali, she finds the sweet sub- 
stance upon which she feeds, and there lays her eggs; which 
eggs, in the course of time, hatch and produce worms, and if 
the plant is in such a condition as to furnish food for these 
worms, they will still remain there; but a healthy plant will 
not furnish that food,—the same in regard to the wheat 
worm, muck worm, and all other worms that attack plants. 
Iam led to this conclusion by numerous observations and 
some experiments. I have found that where there was a 
proper quantity of alkaline substances, plants were not injur- 
ed by worms, bugs, or flies, in any other way than by being 
eaten up by them. And, indeed, they are not so apt to be 
