554 
On the Treatment of Decayed Potatoes, Sfc. 
to any material extent the daily amount of food. Of course it is 
intended that the operation should be performed just as the pota- 
toes are about to be used for the domestic supply. 
It becomes an important question as to how far it would be safe 
to plant diseased potatoes. In the first place, it is undoubted that 
they will germinate and produce apparently healthy plants ; but 
it is equally certain that there is a risk of their rotting in the ground 
before the formation of the young plant. It would be highly im- 
prudent to plant diseased potatoes when sound ones can be pro- 
cured ; but in the absence of these the farmer may be inclined to 
run the hazard. If the young plants be produced, I have little 
apprehension for the communication of the disease ; for even on 
the fungous view of the malady, it does not follow because germs of 
fungi are present that they should be developed. However, it 
must be recollected that very eminent authorities are of a contrary 
opinion, and believe the experiment to be in the highest degree 
dangerous, and therefore the practice must not be rashly entered 
upon. 
Connected with this subject, it is worthy of consideration how 
far land which has grown potatoes this year is likely to be dange- 
rous for crops in the succeeding seasons. On this point, also, 
there are various opinions ; but, for my own part, believing fungi 
to be the consequence and not the cause of the decay, I do not 
apprehend any serious result. It is quite true that seed imme- 
diately sown upon land abounding in the decaying matter might 
become affected, and afford a soil upon which fungi might vegetate ; 
but exposure to the air by ploughing that land would destroy the 
decaying matter and fit the soil for future crops. Any appre- 
hended danger might also be entirely guarded against by treating 
the land with lime, which not only would aid in destroying the 
decaying matter, but also prevent the germs of fungi from vege- 
tating. We must recollect that this scourge has appeared for 
three successive years in America, and an excess of caution is not 
reprehensible to prevent a similar calamity to this country. 
I trust these considerations will be sufficient to aid you in the 
treatment of sound tubers both for storing and for seed, and I now 
proceed to another part of the subject. 
The manner of treating diseased potatoes described in the last 
lecture applied only to those which were still fit for human food. 
Those which are not fit for domestic use must be treated in a dif- 
ferent manner. 
Much alarm has been created by persons ignorant of the action 
of organic poisons as to the injurious effects Avhich may arise from 
giving diseased potatoes to animals. The disease produces no 
sjiecific poison, and the only possibility of injurious effects from 
