The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1875-07-03 00:00:00

THE NEW POTATO DISEASE.

In connection with this subject, which is occasioning con-
stderable anxiety both in England and America, Mr. Shirley
ilibbert has sent the following letter to The Times :
Sir,—The new disease that has appeared on the
potato plant has given rise to so mueh alarm that I am
anxious, through your aid, to make it known that it is
by no means so dreadful a visitation as it has been re-
presented. It is quite true that it usually becomes
manifest when the plant has grown a few inches, and
that it very soon kills the plant, root and branch, at a
time when the tubers are not larger than marbles. But
it does not always occur in so early a stage of the
growth, for a few days since I saw a quantity of the
early rose, the tops of which were badly affected,
while the tubers averaged three or four ounces each.
These were being lifted at the Hale Farm, the pro-
prietor, Mr. Ware, having resolved to burn every
diseased plant he could find, in the hope of purifying
his ground and his stock of the disease entirely. I
could now point out plants in- my- own field which
are decidedly struck with the new disease, though
they have tubers of six to -eight oiffices each
in -considerable plenty. - It may be considered,
therefore, that the new plague will not make such a
clean sweep of the crop as was in the first instance
feared. Another grain of comfort is to be found in the
fact that hitherto it has attacked only a few of the
very fast-growing and most spongy textured of the
American sorts. The Early Rose, Late Rose, .and
Brownell's beauty are the only sorts on which it has
appeared in my plantations at Stoke Newington' and
the proportion of those affected amounts to less than
five per cent. Another consolation is to be found in
the fact that hitherto the beet English sorts have not
taken the slightest taint, though growing on the same
ground and in close proximity to the diseased
Americans. Nay, even in the rows where the diseased
plants appear it does not spread, for there are no more
plants affected now than there were a month ago.

This disease differs from the old and familiar enemy
of the noble tuber. The old disease begins in the
haulm in a growth of fungus, and proceeds down-
wards. The new disease begins in the seed or set and
progresses upwards. It may be found in the seed or
set, in the shape of small dots and marks of a dirty
brown colour, the seat, no doubt, of the fungus which
is afterwards developed on the haulm. Another grain
of comfort may be derived from grin fact, for as it
is visible in the seed, diseased samples may be thrown
out, and it is not at all unlikely that some simple
treatment of the seed may destroy the embryonic
fungus. To talk of "stamping it out" appears to be
trusting to mere words in the faoe of danger. Culti-
vators will soon discover for themselves that stamping
out is impossible. The probability is that it will
stamp itself out as other diseases do, and for the pre-
sent, instead of looking to the Government for help,
I propose we watch the foe closely and as quickly and
certainly as possible find an answer to this question—
Does it spread above ground from plant to plant?
Stoke Newington.