267 
became general throughout Europe. It is now largely cultivated in Great 
Britain, France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany; and has been success¬ 
fully introduced into India, Bengal, the Madras Provinces, Java, the 
Phillipine Islands, and China; forming a very considerable portion of tho 
food of some of those countries. It even matures its crops in Siberia 
and Iceland; but does not appear to flourish in the tropical parts of Asia 
and America, unless raised at an elevation of 3,000 or 4,000 feet above 
the level of the sea. 
How long and to what extent it had been previously cultivated by the 
nations of this continent, is a question upon which it were idle for us to 
speculate. Its history is comprised within the last three centuries, in 
which it has had, as it will continue to have, if successfully cultivated, & 
most powerful influence on the condition and welfare of mankind ; having 
already furnished, in some parts of the world, nearly three-fourths of 
the entire food of the people. An article of such universal cultivation 
and invaluable properties as an esculent, cannot be too highly prized. 
And the question as to the origin and tendency of the disease which ha* 
lately threatened it with destruction, is one of great and paramount in¬ 
terest to the whole civilized world. We do not propose to discuss this 
question so much with a view to establishing any new theory of disease, 
as for the purpose of confronting some of the theories supposed to be al¬ 
ready successfully established, and one or two, in particular, which have 
found the greatest number of advocates within the last eight or ten 
years. 
In 1851, the Legislature of Massachusetts offered a reward of ten 
thousand dollars to any person, within the commonwealth, who should 
discover a sure and practical remedy for the potato rot. This reward 
called forth something over an hundred communications from persons in 
different parts of the State, and different portions of the United State* 
and the British Provinces, and the similarity of the views presented on 
the subject by the most intelligent and experienced writers, was thought 
by some to be an auspicious circumstance. This circumstance deemed 
so auspieious, however, was not so much attributable to the individual 
observation and experience of the writers, in the field where the plant 
had been successfully cultivated by them, as in that where its cultivation 
had been scientifically treated by others. The most important paper* 
