Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1848-04-20

and in many instances attacked with the prevail
ing disease, this experiment was incomplete, and
did not give positive result, but it was yet en-
couraging for me,
In the middle of April l947 an experiment
was made on low-lying field with the round
white potatoes, generally cultivated here,-a
variety which had not suffered much from the
disease which first appeared here in 1916. The
potatoes were planted in the usual way by an ex-
perienced farm servant.
After wedding them in the end of May re-
newed my experiment by pinching off the points
ofthe branches of every second row, and repeat
ed this in the end of June. The result surpassed
all expectations. The stalks of the plants not
treated On my plan were long, struggling, and
sparngly furnished with leaves, the leaves them
selves small and pale green.
In the next field, potatoes of the same variety
were planted on the same day, and left to ma
ture They appeared in the first six weeks
healthy, even strong but gradually acquired a
poor aspect as the time of Towering and fruit
approached, and finally exhibited precisely the
same appearances as the rows not treated by
plnchlng off the extremties in the field, i'll which
my experiments were made.
|. The harvest began in the surrounding fields
in the middle of August and was very middling
The tubers were throughout smaller than usual
very scabby, and within these fields, to small
extent, attacked by the wet rot.
In the end of August, the difference between
the rows treated by me and those not treated
became so striking, that it astonished all the
work people in the neighborhood, who were new
er tired of inquiriug the cause. The stalks Of
the rows left to themselves were all now partly
dried, partly dead. On the contrary, the rows
treated as above were luxurant and in full vigor
the plants bushy, the foliage thick the leaves
large and dark green, so that most people sup
posed they had been later planted.
But the difference in the tubers was also very
decided. The tubers in the plants in the rows
treated on my plan were not, indeed, larger, but
vastly more numerous, g. they were neither scab.
by nor affected with any disease whatever A
few had pushed, (Which was to be ascrbed to q
late rain,) and were, apparently, incompIetely
developed While sca5 and wet rot attac'e more
and more the tubcrs of the other plants, which
also fell off on the slightest handling
Although | am far from believing that an
able to explain the nature of the potato disease
which has visited us of late years, yet ! feel Ger
tain that | have discovered means of strength
ening the potatoe plant to such degree as tC
enable it to resist the influences which determine
such diseases
Should any one be deferred from continuing
the cultivation of potatoes, on account of the
manipulation here recommended, which may be
performed by women and even by Children
would remind him that the same field planted
with potatoes is capable Of supplying food tc
twice as many persons as when employed to grow
wheat.
ANY would he bitterly Disappointed who, the prn
cpe that "thete he too ch Of good thing shout
take off recommended in order fod
der.
tTis communication addressed to the peasanry Of Prus