The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-22 00:00:00

Atorithur .Sum

LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 22, 1847.

A mysterious disease having rendered the reliance
of man upon one of the most nutritious vegetables
henceforth impossible, it becomes absolutely necessary
for these individuals who have hitherto existed
through its cultivation, to expend their agricultural
labours upon seeds of a more promising character.
However auspicious may be the auguries afforded by
a prolific foliage or an untainted blossoming, it has
been proved by the deplorable experience of the last
harvests, that henceforth the potato-root is liable to
the ravages of a murrain the most subtle and the
most poisonous. Nothing is more completely testi-
fied in reference to this ruinous blight than the cir-
cumstance of its sudden development among crops
of an exuberant growth and of a healthful appearance.
Forty-five gave a terrible example of this : forty-six,
one equally disastrous : we tremble lest forty-seven
may be attended with similarly calamitous conse-
quences. That a profitable and nutritive plant,
which for upwards of a century had become one, the
almost universal source of nourishment among the
peasantry of Western Europe, and especially among
the population of these islands, should be abruptly de-
stroyed through an agency that baffles the scrutiny
of the analytical chemist, and evades the ingenuity of
the practical botanist, is one of those phenomena
which demands a rational submission rather than an
obstinate perseverance. Whether the disease in ques-
tion arises from a fungus, or from an insect, or from
a source of decay inherent in the plant itself, or from
some deleterious influence of an atmospheric nature,
or from the presence of some pernicious quality in
the soil, still remains a moot question, still multiplies
experiment upon experiment, still renders it advisable
to neglect, if not entirely to abandon, the cultivation
of potatoes, for the preference of something of a more
secure description. Among the numerous hy-
potheses which have seen the light in reference
to the potato murrain, decidedly the most reasonable
to our mind is the one propounded in an essay re-
cently published by the agriculturists of Scotland, and
written by Mr. DAVID MILNE. That gentleman is
disposed to attribute the extinction, or rather the con-
tamination root of this esculent, entirely to the baneful
operation of some novel, and as yet indefinable gas.
Believing such to be the immediate cause of disease
in tke potato, he enveighs against those who would
persist in the cultivation of the vegetable as men who
would wilfully and almost irreligiously pursue a path
upon which the ban of DIVINE PROVIDENCE has de-
scended. Now, although we are very far indeed
from coinciding with this really extravagant and
fanatical mode of argument, we certainly agree with
Mr. MILNE, that it is advisable to discard (at least
for a while) a root upon which there can in future be
no dependence whatever, and to cultivate seed less
liable to be affected by such enigmatical agencies.
Flax we have already recommended as affording
abundant produce, for the purchase of provisions, for
the payment of rentals, and for the continued employ-
ment of the local peasantry. This, however, would
constitute merely a medium of barter in the way
of manufacture. It becomes, therefore, a point of
extraordinary interest to select some plant calculated to
afford a marketable crop, and at the same time calcu-
lated to yield a surplus of nutrition for the indus-
trious in the locality. Among the most feasible re-
commendations upon this particular that has yet
appeared is undoubtedly the suggestion of the sowing
and culture of haricot beans. Of all the leguminous
vegetables the haricot Lean is about the most readily
cultivated, about the most profitable in regard to the
number of pods upon each stalk, and the number of
beans in each pod, and about the most wholesome and
palateable as an article of daily consumption. Some
selection of a substitute for the infected potatoes
is more essential in England, and yet more
essential in Ireland, than it is in France,
or Germany ; for the potato is grown upon the
continent almost as much for exportation as for
home use ; and beyond that, the peasantry of France
have an ample source of subsistence, in the event of
the extinction of the potato root, in the shape of the
sweet and plentiful chestnut.
Among the population of the British islands it has I
become an imperative duty on the part of the agri-
culturists—whether those agriculturists be tenant-
farmers, or extensive landholders, or merely petty
crofters—to count no longer upon the crops yielded
by the potato tubers. It would be a manifest hazard
on the part of those who would still continue to
dibble new seeds between the original drills, were
they to place their entire expectations upon the pro-
ducts of this most dubious vegetable. Such conduct
would amount to gambling, with all the chances of
experience against one. It would be tempting
bankruptcy, defying a ♦egetable pestilence, and faci-
litating the repetition of famine. Let science
still persevere in its endeavours to discover
the actual source of this calamitous murrain, let
the decayed tubers be still scrutinised by
analysis, let the agricultural chemist espe-
cially continue his experiments without inter-
ruption, but meanwhile let the soil be turned to
better advantage than by consigning to it a perfidious
seed, which, after beautifying the spring with its ver-
dure and effioresence, will putrify and blacken in the
sunlight of the summer, and transform the fields into
a noisome and pestiferous mass of decomposition
through the desolate days of an unprofitable autumn.
Let it be remembered that there is yet sufficient time
for the removal of the apparently fliurishing but pro-
bably rotting potato plants, and the substitution of
some such culinary vegetable as the haricot bean.
Delay may be disastrous. At the least, however, we
would recommend the cultivators of the potato to be
scrupulously vigilant in observing the progress of its
vegetation. I

We have advocated the propriety and justice of
direct taxation on property, in place of the present
system, by which the weight of the enormous national
. debt by which we are oppressed and burdened is made
to fall chiefly on those who should be wholly exempted
from its operation. We have already shown the in-
jurious effect of the Excise laws in retarding im-
provements, in abridging production, and in extract-
ing from the pockets of the people nearly one-third
more than finds its way into the national Exchequer.
They also act chiefly, if not exclusively, on the comforts
and luxuries of the people. In commenting on the
periodical returns of the revenue, an increase or defi-
ciency in the Excise is generally looked upon as
indicative of the national prosperity, of the state of the
working classes, of the great bulk of the population.
When trade is depressed, when there is a season of adver-
sity and high prices, when the necessaries of life ab-
sorb the greater portion of the poor man's resources,
little remains for superfluities, and consequenly there
is an immediate diminution in the receipts derivable
from that source ; on the contrary, an improved and
healthier state of trade and commerce, or a greater de-
gree of activity, is marked by a corresponding in-
crease.d Persons of fixed income will have the same
description of diet whatever may be the state of
a
histr 'orws in ietxeisrttieehesn man wwhhaoteevaerrnstrande o
his daily
business breed s h
by
may be
engaged, that is obliged to yield to the
passing storm, to dispense with the com-
forts, and perhaps
even
of the very necessaries
were no other reason adverse
scription of taxation, it
\ uthat it falls more heavily on the great body of
th
people, and leads to greater privations than any other
species toe f submit
sllife then,
thlt of. ,
be at h
er
ne u
d, utcht
there
reduction
odiouss e
s de-
scription
of impost that could be devised, save only the
atrocious bread tax, from which we have happily, and
we trust for ever, been freed.
The Customs duties have also the effect of in-
juring the working classes, At first sight it