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

THE POTATO DISEASE

TOTAL FAILURE OF THE Pi/fATO CROP IN
WARWICKSHIRE.

BIR3IINGRAM, FRIDAY.—" I'he potato crop has
totally laded. Three months hence we doubt much if tLere
will be a good potato in Eng;and." Such was the startling
statement made to us yesterday by a gend,,man must 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 st4rtiing announcement has been confirmed
to-day by several of our most extensive potato-growers ;
and • the high and increasinp price of potatoes in our
market affords another proof that it is but too wull
founded.

In almost every case the destruction hai been rapid
and general. We have examined several large fields in
the district arid found the roots in most cases reduced to
a pulpy mess. Previous to the late rains the stems and
brunches were luxuriant and promising—now they are
lying dead on the ground and appear as if t“ey had been
killed, not so much from any taint from a poisonous atmo-
sphere as from the effects o' some cankerous disea-e at
the roots. The smell emitted from the field., in several
instances, is most off-nsiie, and sufficient in low-lying
marshy grounds o produce a pestilence. This wis more
particular.), obs, rvable to day, when there was strong
sunshine and heat, the action of which os the ground,
saturated as is has been witri rain, produced a species of
fernueutaion among the diseased roots, and a kind of
smoke which rose trom the surface like a thick ground
mist.

The only potatoes in this reigbbourhood we have yet
seen that have entirely escaped the disease are growing
in a tt. id in South Staffordshire, from seed which lay in
the ground all winter. The termer in this case did not
lilt his last yea, a' crop at all. A good many of the po-
tatoes were then diseased, and he th, ught that if he
left the whole iu the gtound, those that might withstand
the .frost in winter would be tree from disease, and grog
up. in the spring. The .field in May was covered with
early plants. These he ca efully cleaned and hoed up ;
they now promise an abut-1(11'A et 13, and should the
experiment succeed, it may prove highly us,,ful.
colicUt.r.,nt with the ,progress of the oi,,t-ase in this
quarter has been a growing increase of E:iglish cholera
amongst the population, not In the toe n mi-rely, but in
the country around. The impression now is, that the
bad quality of the potatoes in use occasions English
cholera. This is a ditiii.ult point. and should be care.
sully conslered. One thing is clear, there has not been
so much English cholera in Birmingham for many years
as at the present time.
BERKS, HANTS, &e.
EXTRACT us • LETTER, DATED AUGUST 13.

After leviviug Lia3ingstoke I came to a thickly popu-
laikd village, it.,out two miles and a hull from Newbury,
named

SHERBOURNE, abound:rig with poor, where information
was given me of a very fatal fever raging in end arout,d
there, thirry-tour deaths having taken place %win the
last few e ks, out of a population of less th 500
souls. The disease am ng the potatoes was da,ervabb-
thise much earlier than in other parts of the country,
there scare ly being a a.:un i one now t be found. Tne
poor ate them trout ti.e first, n..t knowatungitlitcplbmt
se.enaious,
na.t.ire of such food. Ftr-t the aged d infirm
alaimingly ill, several d, aths following each other itl
quick sumtesbion, then healthy women slid children sick
cited and died, it•nd lastly the in, u becurn.l so ill that
many had to house toe harvest field, aod are yet softer-
ing, till at o,de of use fatuity unhesitstit.glt d,—
ciart-d it at his opinion that Eh.• min:: of dist ailed po-
tatoes is the pr m try cause of the fatal as there,
they (the pot4t,rs)a,•ittig on the human trance us a slow
poi-on, which eve;.tuady destroys me. Ev, ry family
around there is strictly requested not to use potatoes, it
the least tbs. wed. as tool for themselves or fa s.

At PAMBES and TADLEY every garden and plot of
grouu,t, hi,,n or low, wet, or 'dry, planted with early or
Into pwatoe., has this pestileotiat ~iisea e.
AL WINCHMLLD Usti (Lord the gar-
dener
oud,eidelpalS 16 15 Witll
S LIL
di 1 IL •g
*Crquantities
disease.
supplyprog reeven
s
his I,,eus,
urine the ihtahveasa(ghoinoed duringpo t o
~,axitrtowigitilitnaost
reft.
many acres of potatoes
rapidly
yt fourteen days, they
hi .re are to h• seen the scorched
plant, and A t EeYv-eaco.}W* there are
leaves
r< is
black hams ; the stench is intoleraht, and
is there to be found a single garden without
Lilts fatal malady.
At lIECKFIICLD, in the Right Hon. Shaw Lefevre's
Karel, n, t,ottr the. earl) di.d lute potatoes are all rotting
—in frames and on the "mud ground,
At tirRATHFIELDSAYE, his Grace the Duke of Wel-
lington's gardens base not escaped the disease, and how
to prevent its spreading the gardeners know not ; every
scheme, "scientific and chemical," has bet n resorted to,
and yet the infection spreads, and that so quickly as to
level to the round in the short space of twenty-four
hours the most green and healthy looking tops, like a
nipping frost d.stroying, or lightning borniog hem up.
At SWALLOWFIELD, and other hamlets on to Reading,
the same melancholy faits were on& rvalde. 'IhA pour
have been rt quested by the medical gentlemen not to eat
the diseased potatoes I even it' but sligletry touched
they are poisonous, and their opinion it; the prevailing
English cholera is tottinly uttr:butible to euting them.
At WHITE K:7touTs, near Reading, the principal
gardener sbowetl the various kinds of potatoes planted
there, both early and late ; all appear to be infected,
some to the extent of ose-nalf and others two-tt:irds
are rotten.

At CAVERSHAM (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 slighvst ir.specti,m they are found to be more than
half toutthed with the disease, though assorted daily,
still they cannot keep them free.
Proceeding on to NEWBURY, through Gret-nham and
several other villages, the di,ease, if p amble, is still
more virulent ; acre after acre planted there is one
mass of putrefaction, infecting the air in every direction,