mi. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
203 
perienced where the change of weather had already be¬ 
gun. Allowing however the utmost benefit to this 
method, it would, in the case of a crop in a rich soil, 
need frequent repetition) since it is found that the disease 
may arise at almost any season during the growth of the 
plant, should sudden changes frequently occur. This 
supposed remedy then proves to be uncertain in its ap- 
plication and also expensive. 
III. A late English Remedy—that of corering the 
stems with earth .—That heat, light and air are essential 
to the growth of vegetation and especially to the perfect 
maturity of seeds and fruits is a position too v’ell sustain- 
ed by the general experience of mankind to require a 
formal proof. Hence the reason of pruning fruit trees, 
and of sowing and planting seeds at suitable distances, 
Stirring the soil frequently, &c. To suppose then that, 
if you cover up the most of the foliage at or before the 
time of the greatest development of the plant, or even 
at a considerable time afterwards, the fruit, L e., in 
this case, the tubers, will mature just as well, or even 
nearly so, as otherwise, is against all theory, analogy 
and experience. Grant, (what I believe to be true) 
that the disease is occasioned by sudden changes 
of weather acting on the elaborating system in the 
foliage j and that, (which I also believe,) our climate 
is too hot and bright for the normal requirements of 
the potato, who would look for a remedy in a mode of 
treatment that entirely deprives it of light and . to a con¬ 
siderable degree, of air and heat. w 
Suppose also that the stems of the plant, when at their 
full size, contain the most of the material needful for the 
growth of the tubers, yet it must be in an immature 
state.. In covering up the most of the foliage with earth 
at this period, you do, of course, destroy the leaves, 
those great elaborators of all vegetable material, and 
with them the elaboration itself. Does any one doubt 
this, let him strip a plum or an apple tree, a tomato or 
cucumber vine, while the fruit is immature, and it will 
never ripen. And yet all these fruit have a local power 
of elaboration accessory to that of the leaves which the 
tubers of the potato have not; so that comparatively 
they are less dependant on the foliage of their respective 
plants than is the potato on its foliage. That, in the old 
■age of the potato, at a season when common ex¬ 
perience Shows that Its morbid liabilities are mainly past , 
that then, when the leaves begin to wither from natural 
ripeness, the stems contain a considerable amount of 
mature matter is evident from the fact that the crop 
of tubers is found to increase in weight until the stems 
are quite dead. But it may be asked, does not some 
degree of elaboration go on in the stem when covered, 
especially in connection with those leaves that remain 
uncovered at the extremity of the plant; and may not 
this state of things be preferable to a larger amount of 
foliage diseased by its exposure to atmospheric changes? 
It may be so. Experience must decide this question. 
But who would expect a full crop, or call this a perfect 
-remedy? Further, when you consider the labor of this 
process and the greater breadth of ground, and the cor¬ 
respondent diminution of crop, needful to carry out this 
plan without disturbing the tubers, it certainly does not 
deserve the dignified appellation of a remedy. 
■One general remark may elose this discussion. When 
once the disease has begun widely to pervade the foliage , 
all hope of saving the crop, except by the excision of 
the vines, is hopeless, except in those cases where, act¬ 
ing with great rapidity, it at once parallizes the circula¬ 
tion, like a sudden frost, and so prevents the transmis¬ 
sion of morbid matter to the tuber. In most cases of 
wide-spread disease all remedies except excision are as 
powerless as the heat of a bonfire in arresting the ap¬ 
proach of the winter. C. E. G. Utica , Jan. 4, 1851. 
Peat and Peat Charcoal. 
Analytical Laboratory, Yale College, 1 
New-Haven, Conn.. May , 1851. J 
Messes. Editors—I have been led to take up the 
above named subject at the present time, by the interest 
which attaches to 11 A report on the economical uses of 
Peat,” by Dr. Thomas Anderson. Dr. Anderson, as 
many of your readers are aware, -is chemist to the High¬ 
land and Agricultural Society of Scotland. This gen¬ 
tleman virtually fills the position once occupied by Prof. 
Johnston, as chemist to the Agricultural Chemistry As¬ 
sociation of Scotland, that body having nowin a manner 
merged into the Highland Society, of which it was in¬ 
deed originally in some measure an offshoot. 
Dr. Anderson seems a worthy successor to the dis¬ 
tinguished gentleman who preceded him in the same field, 
and in the time that he has been chemist to the society, 
has produced some very able, valuable, and interesting 
papers. To one of these I have referred above. 
The results given in this report, are deduced from in¬ 
vestigations that were suggested by the extravagant ex¬ 
pectations entertained, and promises put forth, by va¬ 
rious societies and individuals, on the practicability of 
converting peat into a great variety of useful and costly 
substances with comparatively little outlay. Sulphate 
of ammonia, acetate of lime, naptha, paraffine, &c., are 
all produced by the distillation of peat, and as it is as¬ 
serted, at a profit of about 100 per cent. Dr. Ander¬ 
son’s paper throws, as I think, a very great degree of 
doubt upon the estimate of profits, and renders it pro¬ 
bable that this new process, like many others which have 
preceded it, having the same object in view, will be found 
too expensive when tried on a large scale. 
This part of the “ Report” is of least interest to us 
in the United States, as w T e have comparatively little 
real peat. Our extremes of temperature seem not to 
he favorable to its growth, and so far as my experience 
extends, it is only to be found on certain parts of the 
New-England sea-board, w r here the climate somewhat 
resembles that of those parts of Europe where peat 
formations abound. 
Our natural boggy or sw r ampy accumulations, are for 
the most part included under the term muck, and are a 
species of vegetable deposit in low grounds, rather than 
a regular vegetable growth, such as may be seen in 
Scotland, uplifting the surface of a peat moss even above 
that of the surrounding and drier land. This muck has 
not by any means the indestructible nature of true peat; 
on exposure to the air., in place of becoming a hard in¬ 
soluble mass a3 is the case with peat, it soon crumbles 
away and decomposes into a rich vegetable mould. This 
process is especially rapid if it is mixed in a compost, 
or laid in the bottom of a barn-yard. Here then in the 
