The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-22 00:00:00

an experiment with reference to the in the potato
crop which, under existing circumstances, and especially
at this period of the year, appears well deserving of the
most serious consideration, and to which, with year
permission, I will again seek to draw public attention.
A copy of this letter appeared in your paper of the 16th
ult., but as a very diAtuct and close reference to the de-
tails of the experitnt-ut as then given is necessary to a
thorough appr,hension of what is to follow, I would beg
the favour of jour re-;.tinting the following extract from
it. After a short introductory observation, Doctor Swan
proceeds-

" flaring read an cc. cunt of the application of elec-
tricity as a stimulant to the growth of plants, by Dr.
Forster, and others, I, c..rly in April last, marked off in
my garden (a rich l.,amy soil) oblong plot of ground,
due north and south, containii.g twelve ridges of the
usual width. Into ,:he four corners of the plot I drove
1):,,eog:: di
re
sap:prsgre(g,asam,nddanbtdhu
the
x inch, s tett:
gnwdhi wire stretched
fteheet hsuigrlzefwer,oesmr:
then placed_ in a line due north and south, seven yards
apart, down the centre of the plot, and a wire carried
from the centre of the buried wire, on the north, over
the top of the poles, and attached to the centre of the
buried wire on the south side, and left to collect the
electricity of the atmosphere, and convey it to the plot
beneath.

" The ground was planted about the 20th of April
with tail), Scow red potatoes, without manure; and
twelve ridges t tht east, planted with the usual quen.
tity of mixed manure. Both teemed equally healthy
and luZuriant in the month of July, from which I quite
lost thought of them, owing td the total destruction of
the rest of my potato crop, until the end of November,
wiwn, to my utter astonishment, a better or wore pro-
ductive crop of sound, mealy, large potatoes, without
the least appearance of rot, I have never seen dug,
though nine of the twelve manured ridges outside the
comlosure were totally destroyed; the three next it
having a few small sound potatoes.
• " fh:s fact I kok on as worthy of consideration; not

that electricity is likely to become a substitute for
manure, but as it tends to show that disease the
potato crop of the nest year was owing to atmospheric
influen, t c‘ierally believed, to the de.
predations, in the first instance, of animalculse, which are
the consequence, not the cause, of decay."
The letter cowhides by an expression of the writer's
conviction of the efficacy of conductors, properly ad-
justed, in preserving the potato from blight, and his In-
tention to. plant more largely under their protection
during the present season.
Early tastes and pursuits had led me a good deal into
the wide and interesting field of chemical reading and
research, and nowhere in the course of my application
to it had my attention been so much interested as by the
well ascertained proofs of the extraordinary influence of
electricity, in reference to the economy both of
animal and vegetable life ; and in turning my thoughts
—and who has not done so ?—to the probable cause
of the blight in the potato crop of the two last years,
I was irresistibly led to the conclusion which the re-
sult of Dr. Swan's experiment has gone, in my opinion,
a considerable way to verify. Under these circum-
stances it will not seem strange that upon the appear-
ance of his letter I was strongly impressed with the im-
portance of the result of his experiment, and which was
rendered the more interesting from its peculiar cir-
cumstance that the result aimed at, the application of
electricity as a substitute for manure, was not that which
was fortunately realised—namely, the preservation of
the root or tuber. I had in consequence a few hundred

copies of the letter printed, and chastributed pretty freely
among the landed proprietors and agriculturists of the
Adjacent counties, and I had the gratification to find my
communication try promptly responded to by several
highly respeciab', and nitluential persons. I was,
amongst others, favoured with a letter from Sir
Gerald Ayherr, a ho, as many of your readers
cannot fail to be a -tire, is a very intensive landed
propri-tor in the :adjacent county of lii,i,lare, and a scien-
tific practical agri,aliturist. In the le ter Sir Gerald
states, and I have his iierinission to menhon the circum-
stance upon his autherity, that he had lung previously
arrived at the conclu,ain that the potato blight of the
last and preceding )ear was attributable to the effect
of electricity ; that under this impression he had,
in the spring 01 last year, had a ridge of the
usual description plant,d close along side of a wooden
paling, the upright slabs or pieces of which were
bound to.::!tloir at the top by an iron hoop for its
entire length, and which he reasonably assumed would
' act as a cons-uctor. In this ridge, when dug out, there
was not a sin. le unsound potato. although his crops in
ail other places suffered in the same way as those of
his neighbours. From the Wears. Baits, of Rath-
mo3 le, in the same county, who are admittedly the most
extensive growers of the potato in this country, their
crop on last year having, been, as I am aware, little
short of 150 acres, I had a similar communication,
staling that their i xperience and observation had quite
led them to agree in the opinion that electrical agency
was the immediate cause I•ht the late blight of the
potato, and that they had determined to try. the aLect
of conductors placed over their crop of this year ; and
in several other communications from highly respect-
able persons, I found a general concurrence in similar
opinions.

Under these circumstances I deemed it only rigbt to
apply to Dr. Swan, and to request that he would enable
me to afford to parties who, in their replies to my previous
communication, had made inquiry as to various matters
of detail, such information or advice as his previous ex-
perience might enable him to oiler. His reply appears
to me to contain a number of suggestions, the manifest
importance of which will, I trust, appear to you a suffi-
cient excuse for my request that it may also be given to
the public through the medium of your columns. It is
as follows:

"College, Donegal, bth March, 1847.
" Dear Sir,—Accept my thanks for your letters, as
well as for the trouble you have taken with mine of the
6th ult., to the Council of the Royal Dublin Society.
" The privations and sufferings I have witnessed in the
discharge of my duties as a dispensary physician for the
last three months, have made me most anxious, if pos-
sible, to fix the attention of scientific gentlemen on
this momentous subject, as nothing can be more cer-
tain than that an electric state of the atmosphere,
whatever may be the peculiar phase of that electricity,
is the cause of the potato blight. Indeed, its pro-
tection by metallic tractors, as in my experiment, though
badly adjusted to accomplish that end, places this
beyond a doubt. On this principle the various forms of
decay in the potato can be satisfactorily explained. The
total destruction in the ground, its decay after being
taken up and stored away apparently sound, as well as
the rotting of the seed in the ground, are attributable to
the injury sustained from this active agent by the vital
principle of the tuber prior to its detachment from the
parent stem.
" In my letter to the Royal Dublin Society, I merely
aerxepae
wr i
amreen, tio
rcoanvcelruy-
directions f,r the protection of the growing crop, dsgiiavffveeeraeasnt6totuptthtert"penbnsute.toifiltshltietdureteeesdluini as
(a)ho however, giving any
un
think-
ing the matter would be taken up by persons more com-
petent than I am, but acquiescing in the wish conveyed
to me by your letter that I should do so, I beg with great
deference to > eggeat—
" First—That uncut potatoes, when the bud first ap-
peared, should alone ne u.ed for seed ; for when'the
vital energy of the po.ato is aff,cted, which it may be,
wi, bout evidencing by any external mark the existence
of disease, is will be unable to recover the shock of so
large a sound as i, to b, cutting the seed, or to re.
pi ...vice a bud when b.. •.
‘• S,.(l,,i,tll)—Tice Ft, i be brought covered to
the ,Trotit d. and earth. duu th in-ment it is dropped,
that it ni•ly "be a I !th expos, d to atmospheric agencies
as posit'', ; ito•t

‘-‘ Thir6;:,-.—iiefo-e 01,, stem rises to the surface, poles,
twdve h 1,411, itud ten and ai.art, should be erected,
wit':
the prouL";;, ,Tet:tti'l -ili' onzed wire (copper it you wish),
s
eighteen inches trom the top, bent
, "
outwards tor it.at lougth, and the principal wire con-
veyed tr-rn them down the pole into the ground. It is
no, material that they shoul,l be placed in line with the
trwznetir• meriian, as Mr. Cooper, who has hon. nr,,rl
!..::t. r wish los notice, seerna to thick the hori.z• ntal
r..n• c, s,-:ar;,, but he app,v,s of, and recomrnea ts,
his opinion is ot the utiaost import/.rice,
as no ;..I.9H•tit •r. st.mds higher in the sci:mt fib world.
This tu, sufficient to divert the eFetrie matter from
th, plant in any state ot the atmosphere, be wever highly
charred.
"The whole subj..ct opens a wide field for investiga-
tion, as there is every re ason to believe that electricity
performs a more iturrtant part in 'he vegetable eco-
nomy than is generally suppr,sed. I have little doubt,
ilowe‘er, from the noi2e take t of the trifling foots I
given, by g. n:lemen of ale first scientific attain-
men; que-tron, as far at le“st as relatei to the
potato blight, will, ere January next, be thoroughly
itivestigwed.

Believe me, dear Sir, &c.,
" JAMES SWAN.

" John M'Afullen, Esq "
t least, the
should
appearance
The universally admitted importance of the subject is
the only excuse I can offer for so large a trespass upon
your space ;
but I cannot conclude without urging
upon public attention the vast value of Dr. Swan's sug-
gestion, that no potato should be used for seed until it
should have been first ascertained that it still contains
the principle of vegetable life, and should, for the pur-
pose,of a bud. Had proper attention been paid in this respect,
it seems scarcely possible that so large an exent of the
seed planted
as
heeuttoucmanusoef, a
last y s
r now be
rotten in the ground and totally lost.
I am, Sir, your faithful servant,
JOHN 11FAIIILLEN.
Grand Canal House, William-street, March 12,1847.
s

SERIOUS ACCIDENT AT THE DEVONPORT TOWN
lIALL.—On Friday morning between nine and ten o'clock,
some n etltiiilmaien
as some men were employed on the repairs which for
s
gp, Aast, have been in progress on the exterior of
the
portion of the scaffolding gave way, and
four of those upon it were precipitated from a height of
nearly thirty feet to the ground. Three of the poor fellows,
hcalledd GS ii
ffmomr do,h sa
are h
thuenclunfortunateand
nephews),
onewtt with
of tlibleanm
haying a fractured arm, another a fracture of both legs, a
I third having broken his leg and his thigh, and a fourth his
thigh only. They were at once conveyed to the workhouse,
where every care has been taken of them.—Plymouth Journal
of Thurs•: :y.
WAKEL lELD COI:N MARKET, FRIDAY.—We have
a good arrival el' wheat. for which the trade is slow at a re-
duction of Is. to 2s. per (ratter. Barley is in retail demand
1 at rather less money. Beans are in trn.derate request at last
. week's prices. Oats are the turn dear.