The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-17 00:00:00

TOTAL FAILURE OF THE POTATO CROP IN

WARWICKSHIRE.
BIRMINGHAM, FRIDAY.—" The potato crop has failed,
totally failed. Three months hence we doubt much if there
will be a good potato in England." Such was the startling
statement made to us yesterday by a gentleman most ex-
tensively engaged in the corn trade, and intimately ac-
quainted with the state of the crops in every part of
England. In as far as regarded the condition of his own
crop he said, " I have tried them, and found that two
out of every three were gone."
Such a startling announcement has been confirmed
to-day by several of our most extensive potato -growers ;
and the high and increasing price of potatoes in our
market affords another proof that it is but too well
founded.

In almost every case the destruction has been rapid
and general. We have examined several large fields in
the district and found the roots in most cases reduced to
a pulpy mass. Previous to the late rains the stems and
branches were luxuriant and promising—now they are
lying dead on the ground and appear as if they had been
killed, not so much from any taint from a poisonous atmo-
sphere as from the effects of some cankerous disease at
the roots. The smell emitted from the fields, in several
instances, is most offensive, and sufficient in low-lying
marshy grounds to produce a pestilence. This was more
particularly observable to-day, when there was strong
sunshine and heat, the action of which on the ground,
saturated as it has' been with rain, produced a species of
fermentation among the diseased roots, and a kind of
smoke which rose from the surface like a thick ground
mist.

The only potatoes in this neighbourhood we have yet
seen that have entirely escaped the disease are growing
in a field in South Staffordshire, from seed which lay in
the ground all winter. The farmer in this case did not
lift his last years' crop at all. A good many of the po-
tatoes were then diseased, and he thought that if he
left the whole in the ground, those that might withstand
the frost in winter would be free from disease, and grow
up in the spring. The field in May was covered with
early plants. These he carefully cleaned and hoed up ;
they now promise an abundant crop, and should the
experiment succeed, it may prove highly useful.
Concurrent with the progress of the disease in this
quarter has been a growing increase of English cholera
amongst the population, not in the town merely, but in
the country around. The impression now is, that the
bad quality of the potatoes in use occasions English
cholera. This is a difficult point, and should be care-
fully considered. One thing is clear, there has not been
so much English cholera in Birmingham for many years
as at the present time,
BEItKS, HANTS, &c.

EXTRACT OF ♦ LETTER, DATED AUGUST 13.
Alter leaving Basingstoke I came to a thickly-popu-
lated village, about two miles and a half from Newbury,
named

SIIERBOURNE, abounding with poor, where information
was given me of a very fatal fever raging in and around
there, thirty-four deaths having taken place within the
last few weeks, out of a population of less than 500
souls. The disease among the potatoes was observable
there much earlier than in other parts of the country,
there scarcely being a sound one now to be found. The
poor ate them from the first, not knowing the poisonous
nature of such food. First the aged and infirm became
alarmingly ill, several deaths following each other in
quick succession, then healthy women and children sick-
ened and died, and lastly the men became so ill that
many had to leave the harvest field, and are yet suffer-
ing, till at length one of the faculty unhesitatingly de-
clared it as his opinion that the eating of diseased po-
tatoes is the primary cause of the fatal illness there,
they (the potatoes) acting on the human frame as a slow
poison, which eventually destroys life. Every family
around there is strictly requested not to use potatoes, if
the least diseased, as food for themselves or families.
At PAMBER and TADLEY every garden and plot of
ground, high or low, wet or dry, planted with early or
late potatoes, has this pestilential disease.
At WINCEIFIELD HOUSE (Lord Beauclerk's) the gar-
dener declares it is with the greatest difficulty he could
dig sound potatoes in sufficient quantities to supply even
his lordship's table ; and should the disease progress as
rapidly during the next fortnight as it has done during
the last fourteen days, they will not have a good potato
left.

At HARTLEY-ROW there are many acres of potatoes
planted, and everywhere are to be seen the scorched
leaves and black haums ; the stench is intolerable, and
nowhere is there to be found a single garden without
this fatal malady.
At HECKFIELD, in the Right Hon. Shaw Lefevre's
garden, both the early and late potatoes are all rotting
—in frames and on the natural ground.
At STRATHFIELDSAYE, his Grace the Duke of Wel-
lington's gardens have not escaped the disease, and how
to prevent its spreading the gardeners know not ; every
scheme, " scientific and chemical," has been resorted to,
and yet the infection spreads, and that so quickly as to
level to the ground in the short space of twenty-four
hours the most green and healthy-looking tops, like a
nipping frost destroying, or lightning burning them up.
At SWALLOWFIELD, and other hamlets on to Reading,
the same melancholy facts were observable. The poor
have been requested by the medical gentlemen not to eat
the diseased potatoes ; even if but slightly touched
they are poisonous, and their opinion is, the prevailing
English cholera is mainly attributable to eating them.
At WHITE KNIGHTS, near Reading, the principal
gardener showed the various hinds of potatoes planted
there, both early and late ; all appear to be infected,
some to the extent of one-half and others two-thirds
are rotten.

At CAVERSEIAM (one mile from Reading), the disease
is increased, not one garden has escaped.
In READING every greengrocer or retailer of vege-
tables has potatoes standing at his door for sale, but on
the slightest inspection they are found to be more than
half touched with the disease, though assorted daily,
still they cannot keep them free.
Proceeding on to NEWBURY, through Greenham and
several other villages, the disease, if possible, is still
more virulent ; acre after acre planted there is one
mass of putrefaction, infecting the air in every direction
causing sickness, fever, and death to those breathing
the pestilential atmosphere. This being market day at
Newbury, the country people had some potatoes for
sale, all more or less diseased ; they were willing to
sell them at any price—one person offering them at
Is. 6d. per sack, rather than have to take them home
again.

Lady Brougham arrived at Brougham-hall on Tues-
day last. Her Ladyship had not been in the north for some
years.
A MONEY -LOVING PIG.—A most curious and laugh-
able, but at the same time a pitiable circumstance, took place
in this city, Armagh, on Saturday last—a poor man had
purchased a pig, and while in the act of paying for it, pulled
two pound notes and ten shillings, silver, out of the pocket
of his inexpressibles; when, le, and behold ! the notes, which
were rolled in a lump, fell by accident to the ground; when
the pig, who stood at the feet of his buyer, a dent spectator,
rushed at the notes, gobbled them up, and swallowed them
in an instant, to the horror and consternation of the poor
owner, who, of course, looked woe-begone and unutterable
things. He lost no time in hieing him to the branch of the
Provincial Bank of Ireland, to ask advice how he should act
under the distressing circumstances; but here there might he
much sympathy but no help for his misfortune, as he neither
knew the number of the notes, nor the bank from whence
they had been issued. The poor fellow is greatly to be pitied,
as we believe the above sum was the greater portion of his
little all. Some advised the killing of poor grunty, and to
have a post-mortem search after the notes; while a wag
standing by, remarked," faith I don't blame the poor animal
for looking for the dearest food he can get, to mortify him-
self against the loss of his usual supply of good murphys."—
L Ulster Gazette.