202 
THE CULTIVATOR, 
universal. Two ropes, two horses, and two boys, can 
deliver the hay at the rick faster than the most power* 
ful pitcher is able to dispose of it. And here permit 
me to remark that the person selected as the stacker, 
should be one of the most energetic and industrious of 
men. A man whose thoughts are wholly engrossed in 
contemplating the dollar, seventy-five cents, or whatever 
may be his day’s wages, and moreover feels religiously 
conscientious that the price of harvest wages is too low j 
or, if he is one who is only willing to move as circum¬ 
stances make locomotion imperative—should never be 
placed on your stack. Better borrow money at one 
hundred per cent interest, and pay double wages to one 
who will do justice to the business on hand, than to have 
the services of the other for nothing. 
But let it always be borne in mind, that the duties in¬ 
cumbent on the employer and laborer, are reciprocal. 
If the employer boards his hands, he should give good, 
sound provision, at proper times, and plenty of it. He 
should promise full and fair wages to his laborers, and 
should perform that promise with the same scrupulous 
regard, as if it were his oath. In short, he should re¬ 
quire nothing of his laborers but that which is clearly 
right, and as far as it is in his power, should guard 
against a spirit of jealousy between him and them. It 
is most truly a sad state of affairs when the employer is 
found using every stratagem to invite or extort to great¬ 
er effort, at the same time the laborers are counteract¬ 
ing his grand object in this particular. Such a state of 
affairs proves either the entire incompetency of the em¬ 
ployer for his position, or that he has been so unfor¬ 
tunate as to have employed an Arnold or a Judas, and 
if the latter, the sooner he informs him that his services 
are no longer required the better. One man whose 
feelings are adverse to the interest of the employer, is 
sometimes capable of spreading the leaven of disaffec* 
tion, and either causing a general explosion, or marring 
the pleasure, comfort, happiness and harmony of all 
concerned. G. Moore’s, Salt Works , Jefferson county * 
0., Feb. 1851. 
The Potato Disease* 
I. The GarJenePs Chronicle , on Potato Disease ,—-I 
noticed in the September number of the Horticulturist, 
an extract from the Gardener’s Chronicle, a periodical 
edited, I think, by Prof. Bindley. This article, while 
it notices the effect of the damp, hot weather of the last 
summer upon the potato crop, seems to charge the disease 
to a fungus formed upon the plant- It is said to- exhibit 
two forms, and is supposed to give origin to two differ¬ 
ent diseases. My means of nice inspection, and my 
habits of research, do not qualify me to investigate the 
disease in this mode. I would not deny the utility of 
such investigations, nor doubt that, in some cases of 
vegetable disease, health may be restored by modes of 
treatment directed to the repulsion of such fungus, as 
in the case of sulphuring grapes, and the application of 
salt and strong wood ashes to gooseberries.. Yet it seems 
to me that every one, whose essays in the closet are the 
fruit of his own daily observations in: the field, must be- 
convinced that both the fungus and the insect in diseased 
potatoes are- usually not the cause but the consequence 
of disease. He will equally be convinced that the disease 
June. 
is usually traceable to the general unpropitiousness of 
of theelimate, or the unpropitiousness of a single season* 
aided often by the too stimulating course of culture 
adopted, and the neglect to renew the seed occasionally 
from the pootato ball. The fungus then becomes the 
mere eruption of disease, previously existing in the 
elaborating system of the plant. 
Have not inquiries on this subject usually begun at 
the wrong point, i. e., at the mode of morbid develop¬ 
ment, rather than at the probable causes '? Had the in¬ 
quiry been, what are the constitutional requirements of 
the potato in its normal condition as a mountain tropical 
plant ; what would be the probable influence of cultiva¬ 
ting it in a climate presenting the wide extremes which 
ours does; and what the influence of a course of culture 
so stimulating as that which is usually adopted, joined 
with the negligence usually seen in the modes of obtain¬ 
ing seed,—I say had inquiries taken these directions, at 
the first development of this disease, we should not now 
be involved in so utter uncertainty about its cause, but 
might, I think, have been far advanced on the highway 
of improvement. 
My usual experience has been that the first visible in¬ 
dications of disease are a peculiar paleness of the whole 
plant, that is, a loss of its usually deep verdure, and the 
exhibition of alight, almost yellowish green,, followed: 
quickly by a falling of the flowers whether open or not,, 
a tinging of the extremities of its upper leaves with steel 
blue, and of its lower leaves with, spots like stains of 
iron rust. Both these marks on. the leaves are speedily 
followed by the death of the leaf. At the same time,, 
and often preceding these-appearances on the leaves, the 
top. crest of the plant wilts.. 
At other times warm rains are intermitted with hot 
sunshine, which seems to occasion a white mildew over 
the whole plant. This mildew however does not ordi¬ 
narily either attend or succeed the preceding symptoms.. 
Indeed, I have never observed it until during the last 
summer and autumn. At intervals,.longer or shorter,, 
after the preceding indications, disease is seen upon the 
tubers. The thing to be particularly noticed however 
is, that the preceding indications are always and only 
preceded by sudden and severe changes of weather, es¬ 
pecially by that which is wet, cold and windy, coming in. 
subsequent to that which had been hot and dry; nor is. 
the disease of the- tubers ever known to occur except 
when preceded either by these sudden changes, or by 
the hot and wet weather.. 
II. The Remedy of Dr. Klotch .-—This proposed re¬ 
medy consists in cutting off the extremities of the plant 
occasionally during its period of growth. The value,, 
if any, of this proposed remedy lies in the fact that it 
checks the development of vegetable tissue, and so gives 
firmness to what remains, while it leaves no very suc¬ 
culent portion in which disease may locate itself. This 
remedy, as far as it is such, is obviously founded on, 
, physiological principles.. But I utterly question its 
power in severe cases. If the theory of disease hinted 
at in No-.. 1, above-,, he- at all correct, then a field where 
: top: shoots should be shortened just before a severe 
change of weather would not be saved, since the general 
succulence of the whole plant would expose it to the 
severity of the weather. Less benefit still would be ex- 
