210 Potato Disease. 
cause his plot of ground lay on a hill-top, restrict him to a minia- 
ture baronial castle, such as the robber knights built for them- 
selves on the rocky steeps of the Rhine and the Danube, nor pre- 
scribe for him a little palladian box, because he chose to build in 
the centre of a meadow. 
" Many of the examples which we have furnished in the preced- 
ing numbers of the Architect have been copied and built in all 
parts of the United States; some of them upon Staten Island, 
upon the most beautiful sites, we may say without fear of contra- 
diction, to be found in the world; it is so varied, so abounding in 
fine views; so broken up into hills, valleys, and meadows; so di- 
versified in scenery, that it might serve as an index to the rest of 
the earth. This most charming island appears to have been cre- 
ated expressly as a regenerator for the population of a great city. 
It rises in picturesque beauty from the blue waters of the bay, 
and seems to invite the toiling denizens of the great metropolis 
of the new world to seek its breezy hills, its pebbly shores, and 
green meadows, and there regain the strength of heart and vigor 
of limb which have been wasted in the too eager pursuit of wealth 
or pleasure." 
POTATO DISEASE. 
BY J. E. TECHEMACHER. 
I had intended to remain altogether silent in future on the 
subject of the potato disease, tor it is impossible to reply to as- 
sertions and arguments used by editors of agricultural periodicals, 
themselves posessing not the least practical or personal knowledge 
on the subject, such as " every body has given up the fungus 
theory now," and " there is nothing new on the subject of the 
potato disease, except that all the nostrums proposed have failed." 
Equal loss of time would it be to discuss experiments tried on a 
row or two of potatoes in a garden with salt or with fifty incon- 
gruous mixtures, one ingredient of which might destroy the action 
of the other — or if any one had succeeded, it would be impossible 
to say to which this success was owing. I have tried salt in my 
own garden on potatoes, and have never had a single diseased 
tuber, but I never thought to bring this forward as a decisive ex- 
periment. 
A mutual friend whom I highly esteem has urged me strongly 
to write a few lines to you on the subject; I therefore beg to 
state: 
