The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-09-06 00:00:00

THE POTATO CROP.

The Times has publithed the following letters on the
subject of the Disease in Potatoes
Sir,—ln the letter from "The Wife of a Wiltshire
Landowner," in The Times of the 23rd inst., the writer
suggests that science be called in and do for potatoes
what has been already so successfully dote for pedigree
wheat." This has been actually accomplished. A
letter which you did me the honour to publish seven
years ago (August 26,1872) contained the following :
"Disease is as much hereditary in plants as it is in
man. So long as unhealthy seed shall be planted so
long will our potato crops be specially liable to the
disease, just as in like manner a person of weak con-
stitution at once succumbs to surrounding conditions
which do not affect the strong, healthy man at all,
"Acting upon this view, 1 hAve for years car-fully
selected my potatoes for seed, and upon the assump-
tien ti at the disease reaches the potato through the
haulm, have always rejected the whole of the produce
of any plant which represented any appearance of
disease; and although this may have been manifested
on only one of its 40 or 50 potatoes, and even on this
but slightly, I have rejected them all as of 'tainted
blood." The practical result has been an almost com-
plete immunity from the disease.
The method of selection carried on annually to the
present time has been similar to that which I have so
long pursued in the case of the pedigree cereals; in
fact, I have for many years called them " pedigree "
potatoes. It may be thus described :—At starting,
the tubers, say 20, of a perfectly healthy plant are
planted whole. The beet of the resultant 20 plants at
digging-up time becomes plant "A" of its year, say
1870. The potatoes of the remaining 19 plants are
called "B, 1870." Only the tubers of plant "A " are
planted each year for further selection, producing
annually, plant " A; " and "B," which is used to
produce seed for the general planting the year follow-
ing; thus, in fact, re-starting every year with a single
potato proved at the following harvest to be the beet
by the fact of its having produced the best plant.
I have this month dug of each of two varieties
(kidneys for first use, regents for keeping) a plant "A,
1879," descended for twelve years from a line of plants
not one of which has shown the slightest taint of
disease.

In The Times of February 2, 1877, Dr. B. W.
Richardson is reported as having said, "It took
three or four generations to wipe out the heieditary
tendency to disease." If this can be effected in the
case of man, where we do not possess the advantages
o ithe "stamping out" system, then twelve genera-
tions may have gone a long way towards wiping out
in my potatoes such hereditary tendency to disease
and by continuing the annual selections I hope and
believe that not only will this be fully "wiped out,"
but that the very opposite, hereditary tendency to
health, will be firmly established.
The value of each successive selection, even the
latest, was most strikingly exemplified this year of
almost universal blight when digging no the crop. Of
the kidneys, every one of the potatoes descended from
plant "A, 1878," was absolutely free from disease,
while only two feet off, in the very first row of the
descendants of "B. 1878," there were found four
diseased tubers, and in the other rows six more; but
this was only ten in a quantity sufficient to plant one-
sixth of an acre, our consumption of each variety,
Well might my man exclaim, "There can't be much
doubt about selection after this."
So, too, with the regents in another part of the
garden: the whole of the produce from "A, 1878"
perfectly healthy; of that from "B, 1878," only one
plant affected in one of its tubers only, and that but
slightly.
My general (garden) crops of each variety (grown
from "B, 1877" were very lightly attacked; other
ordinary varieties alongside severely so, In a neigh-
bour's garden one•eighth of those dug up were diseased.
—I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
FREDERICK F, HALLETT, Major,
The Manor-house, Brighton, Aug. 25.

Sir,—Many people in the country, having gardens
of half an acre or so, plant about half the ground
with potatoes and the other half with peas, beans,
carrots, onions, &c. These are interchanged alter-
nate years. Of course, cabbages, broccoli, and cauli-
flowers get their 'due place and proportion. But
practically the potato has at least half the kitchen
pre, en.
Now it would be a great boon if you could open
your columns and allow sound practical gardeners to
suggest what crop would best take the place of the
regular potato, a crop that could be grown without
much trouble or expense, and be easily and profitably
sold at places four or five miles from a railway sta-
tion, For until a mere valuable crop can be substi-
tuted, the fact of the garden being convenient will in-
duce paterfamilias and his gardener to keep on planting
potatoes almost year after year in the same plot, and
under such circumstances we shall never get rid of the
potato disease.—Yours faithfully,
A COUNTRY PARSON,
August 26.

(From the Gardener's Magazine)

The potato disease will probably affect a more com-
plete destruction of the crop this year than in any year
since 1845. The plant was everywhere doing fairly well
considering the prevalence of cold wet weather, until
the beginning of Angust, and then the temperature
rose and a flood came, and the plant was smitten beyond
recovery. Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Cumberland are
probably in the best plight as regards the aggregate
of the crop, more especially of the Ashleaf section, of
which, in those countries, good samples have been lifted
from the end of June onwards. At the other end of the
country, Sussex is not less fortunate, more especially
on the downs and the lands that approximate to
them in character. On heavy and retentive land
the 0196 is quite deplorable, for not only are the
tubers diseased even to disfigurement when newly
lifted, but the best looking are tainted, and will in
large measure develop disease in the store, and there-
fore if trusted for keeping will probably soon become
worthless and offensive. The loss on the year's crop-
ping will be enormous, and f..r the most part it dates
from the storm that made such havoc in the gardens
of Richmond, Kew, and Ealing—a storm exceeding in
violence and depth of rainfall the many storms that
preceded it, and accompanied with a rise of tempera-
ture that rendered it peculiarly injurious to the
potato.