112 __ _ __ THE CULTIVATOR. __ Afrit. 
THE POTATO DISEASE. 
We have lately received a crowd of cqpnmunications 
in relation to the malady which has so generally attacked 
the potato throughout a large portion of the world. As 
we cannot see that the public good would be in any 
way subserved by the publication of matter which throws 
no new light on the subject, we have concluded to dis¬ 
pose of these communications by giving a brief sum¬ 
mary of them in a single chapter. We are satisfied 
that all speculations as to the cause of the trouble have 
amounted to nothing, so far as regards the point aimed 
at; and this is the conclusion to which those who have 
.^devoted the most time and attention to the subject have 
^generally come. And as to remedies, we agree with 
Prof. Frombebg,* that “ until the cause of this disease 
is known, no efficacious remedy can reasonably be ex¬ 
pected to be found. It is,” he adds, “ the department 
of science to proceed from fixed points, from causes 
into effects, and every other way is hardly deserving of 
any other name than empiricism.” 
As to the extent of the disease in this country, we 
hear of it from New Brunswick and the Canadas, to the 
Carolinas and the country bordering on the Mississippi, 
though within this area there are some neighborhoods 
where it has not yet shown itself. It is generally said 
to be less prevalent on dry than on wet land. 
Levi J. Hopkins, Throopsville, Cayuga Co., N. Y., 
writes—“ the potato disease seems to be universally pre¬ 
valent through this region,though differing in destructive¬ 
ness on different soils. It prevails least on sandy and 
most on clay soils. * * * Here, as everywhere else, no 
one can give any reason as to the cause. Early plant¬ 
ing is generally considered best. When dug they should 
be put in a dry place—putting them into pits, in the 
usual way, seems to be sure destruction to them.” 
A. W. Howlett, of Castile, Wyoming County, N. 
Y., writes—“ My potatoes were all sound this year and 
remain so. There were not many rotten ones in this 
section the past season.” 
Samuel Waring, of Morrisdale, Pa., states— 
“ Potatoes have rotted very generally, particularly when 
they were planted deep, or manured with much fresh 
dung.” 
Ralph R. Phelps, of Manchester, Ct., states that 
the disease has prevailed in that section, and that it 
appears to have extended itself to turneps, beets and 
cabbages. 
John F. Allen, of Newport, Herkimer Co., N. Y., 
states that a friend of his accidentally had some pota¬ 
toes planted on buckwheat-stubble, which produced a 
crop free from rot, while others, in similar circumstances 
in other respects, were lost. He mentioned the fact to 
his neighbors, several of whom stated that the same 
thing had occurred in their experience. He therefore 
advises that buckwheat straw be spread on the ground 
planted to potatoes. He says the blight has not been 
confined to potatoes, but in his neighborhood has been 
noticed on Indian corn. 
We should have about as much confidence in the effi¬ 
cacy of buckwheat stubble or straw, as in the following; 
both, if sufficiently tried, will probably prove to be no 
preventive. 
Alexander Leeds, of St.’Josephs, Michigan, states 
that a neighbor of his planted, (in 1845,) a pumpkin- 
seed in every third or fourth hill of potatoes, and that 
* “ Remarks on the Potato Disease, by P. F. H. Frombcrg, first 
Assistant in the Laboratory of the Agricultural Chemistry Asso 
ciation of Scotland.”—[Scotish Quarterly Journal of Agriculture 
for January, 1847.] 
the hills thus treated produced sound potatoes—“ the 
others poor and defective.” In 1846 he repeated the 
experiment by putting a pumpkin seed in every hill of 
potatoes. The potatoes were “ fine, large and sound.” 
He asks — ft Did the shade of the pumpkin-vines preserve 
the potatoes, or did they draw from the soil such ingre¬ 
dients as were injurious to the potato ?” 
S. Ruckman, of Bath County, Va., states that pota¬ 
toes did not do w T ell in that section the past year.—- 
“ They started fair, but soon began to decay.” He says 
he followed the plan of Wm. McCoy, as given in the 
last volume of the Cultivator, which was to use forty 
bushels of wood ashes and four bushels of salt to the 
acre; but he got only an hundred bushels of sound po¬ 
tatoes, where he had expected twelve hundred. 
N. H. Waterbury. of Saratoga, N. Y., gives the 
result of his experience in potato-culture for three 
years. In 1844 he planted the last of May, in rich 
ground. The potatoes looked well till the 20th of Au¬ 
gust, wfien the disease attacked them. Full one-half 
of the whole crop was lost, and some varieties were 
not worth digging. 
In 1845 he planted on the first of May, on ordinary 
soil, without manure. The season was very dry, and 
the crop was light, but there was no rot. 
In 1846 he planted on,the 20th of April. He had a 
fair crop, and the potatoes were sound and good. He 
planted a small piece with the “ Mountain Junes.” ma¬ 
nuring them in the hill. Two-thirds of these rotted. 
In accordance with these results, he advises to 11 plant 
warm, quick land as early as the season will admit.” 
He states that he has tried cutting the tops, but “could 
never see any good effect from it.” 
J. Petit, of Fredonia, N. Y., states that he has 
made various experiments in growing potatoes from the 
ball, from 1842 to 1846. The seedlings rotted as bad 
as others. He therefore comes to this conclusion—“ that 
the seedling potato insures any special immunity from 
the rot, is out of the question. Experiments made with 
greater accuracy than mine, have settled this fact. The 
cause and the cure lie hidden still in nature's arcana,” 
We agree to the conclusion in regard to the non-ex¬ 
emption of seedlings. Nearly all the testimony we re¬ 
ceive on this point tends to this result. Mr. Norton, 
in his essay on the potato disease, published in the 
Transactions of the N. Y. State Ag. Society for 1845, 
observes—“ great stress has been laid upon the neces¬ 
sity of procuring new varieties from seed;” and adds—“ it 
is most unfortunate for those who believe this, that in 
the whole of the answers to the above question” [in re¬ 
ference to varieties raised from seed,] u there is not one 
favorable to their theory.” Mr. N. gives extracts from 
the answers. One man states that he had above sixty 
varieties which had been raised on his farm within three 
years previous, and they had “ all been attacked with 
the disease, and in some cases with more virulence than 
the older varieties—not one of the seedlings being free 
from disease.” Another man states that he had ten 
kinds raised from seed two years before, and they were 
all affected. Several others state that they have used 
new varieties, and that they were as much if not more 
liable to disease than older ones. 
Elisha Hammond, of Scoharie County, N. Y.. states 
that in 1846 he planted some potatoes in April, some 
“ about the middle of May,” aiff 1 some “ about the middle 
of June”—all on the same kind of soil. He says— 
“ Those that I planted in June did not rot; but they did 
not yield one-third of a crop. Those planted in May, 
