The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-11-02 00:00:00

THE CAUSE OF THE POTATO DISEASE.

,As every tri;er on the potato murrain has a pet
lueory, we may as well have ours (remarks the Gar-
dener's Magazine.) We hold to the doctrine enunciated in
Lite Garden Oracle fifteen years ago—that the disease is
in its origin emanical—ori in nthervtords, is due ta in-
fb?encrs exerted by the gun on the earth we Inhabit.
We will not quarrel with those who regard this as a
fanciful method, but shall proceed to show that it is in
the most proper sense of the word a practical
explanaSen. Pamniaing that it can Dials tie ptw.-
tie., value unless it be founded in truth, our hest
business will be to attempt to prove that the
sun in the primary cause of the malady. On every
occasion that the diaetase luta prevailed estenalvely
It hati been In connection with long-continued wet
and cold weather, and the prevalence of spots of un-
usual magnitude on the sun's disc. In the dreadful
years of Irish famine the grain crops were scanty,
owing to the unpronitioua weather af the summer im-
mediatalv fellowing the prevalence of want. The sum-
bier of 1866 was characterised by a general failure of
the potato crop, and only in a few specially-favoured
districts were the cereals harvested in A vMdition lobe
useful. The summer of 13, will be reinetubered fot
ite alternations at excessive heat and excessive cold, or,
in other words, for the inconstancy of the solar beams,
which were sometimes poured upon UP in golden
floods, and were then suddenly' withheld or wars
obsouted by thunder-clouds, which everywhere burst
upon the land with exceptional grandeur and
destructivene-s. It is idle to talk of electricity, fungi,
aphis, evhaustion of the soil, and the wearing out of
sorts with the. hamol facts before toe. We may, tad
bated do, nod on the haulm of the potato certain
vegetable and insect parasites, and it is true the soils
are exhausted and sorts wear out. But in a summer
characterised by long-continued sunshine as that of
1868 or that of 1810 eo ona bee c word to say about
these ',hinge, because given sunshine enough, and the
potato is wonderfully productive, and the quality all
that can be desired. Why in 1868 such coarse cattle-
feeding sorts as the gigantic chardon were good enough
for any table, if nicely served by gaslight, for it is only
by daylight we, can 'discover the true colour of the
potato. Whether the fungus is a cause or an effect is
really of quite second-rate importance, because if the
season be favourable the fungus Is unknown, or at least
innocuous, And we really do go on from year to year
planting, and eating., and enjoying potatoes, and have
not a word to say about the potato disease. In the
presence of the proposal that the disease comes from
the sun, Dr. Carpenter's learned talk about the fungus
shrivels up like a moth in e
i candle, and Mr. Alfrad
Smee's Aphis tantator flies away as f ashamed of the
false importance it has acquired. The disease breaks
out when the ripening tubers are suddenly checked by
excessive moisture, and the lower the temperature at
the time of the outbreak the more destructive does it
prove in the end. If the beginning of these things is
not in the nun, where is it? The origin of the disease
is comical; we consider that matter settled.