106 The Potatoe Plague. 
likely to sneer at my simple theory and remedies as was 
Naaman, the Syrian, when told by the prophet to wash seven 
times in Jordan, and he should be healed. The proud offi- 
cial turned away in anger and scorn, but a serving girl fol- 
lowed after him, and asked, in the language of simple 
common sense, and according to the strict rules of analogy: 
“My lord! if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, 
wouldst thou not have done it?” The multitude miscon- 
ceive the operations of nature: they are continually looking 
for great things, and let opportunities slip that would induct 
them into a more intimate knowledge of the ways of Provi- 
dence. Putting water upon fire is a simple remedy, but it 
is efficacious. “Cease to do evil; learn to do well,” is a 
simple remedy to amend a bad life and bad habits, but it is 
abundantly able to transform a spirit of darkness to assimila- 
tion with the purity of angels. It is by looking for simple 
causes that the greatest results are obtained. 
DETERIORATION oF Szep. AIl the causes we have 
named would naturally tend to the deterioration of potatoe 
sets, and it is not at all surprising that most of the seeds of 
varieties now in use, have become so weak and disorganized 
as to produce diseased tubers, and so furnish food for fungi, 
and an excuse for ascribing the general decay to all the 
other causes that have been assigned. Mr. Knight, the first 
President of the London Horticultural Society, and one of 
the greatest men of his time, limited the duration of varieties 
in a state of perfection to from fourteen to twenty years, and 
remarked that the experience of most farmers would witness 
for him that no variety, then in cultivation, and esteemed a 
good sort, could be traced back more than twelve years. On 
the other hand, it has been stated, and individual experience 
has proved, that with care, varieties have preserved their 
original vigor for nearly half a century. This last is no doubt 
the truth with regard to varieties, if proper care has been 
