The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-27 00:00:00

THE P3TATJ CROP.

The reports from the country this morning are sub-
stantially similar to those received the past few days
from Limerick, Kerry, Clare, and Tipperary. We hear
of blighted stalks and other marks of supposed disease
in the potatoes, while the whole province of Ulster ap-
pears to be perfectly free from suspicious signs. The
great county of Cork has nothing unpleasant to report.
Waterford denies the existeaee of disease; and in short,
with the above exceptions, together with letters of com-
plaint from places in Leitrim and Roscommon, we may
say that about five-and-twenty of the thirty-two Irish
counties are free from even blighted stalks. It is worthy
of remark that up to the present but few blighted tubers
have been produced. Subjoined are selections from th©
journals of yesterday:—
LIMERICK.— (From the Chronicle.)—" We may not
repress the strong apprehensions felt this last week for
the state of the potato crop in Limerick and the sur-
rounding counties, whose luxuriance appears checked
by a sudden blight, atmospherical we believe in its origin.
The leaves and stalks of the plants are discoloured in
many fields, and in others shrivelled up, betokening the
approach of that direful calamity, which for four sea-
sons has stricken down the staple food of the Irish
people, and caused a social revolution, the most terrific
in its effects. Reluctantly do we give expression to the
serious fears entertained by the principal landholders
and farmers in this county of a' general decay' in the
crop. Our own.hope and belief is, that the blight is yet
but partial and temporary.
" The potato is again blighted lin the neighbouring
of Newcastle, and the accounts from the neighbourhood
parishes are of the same nature. At Ratkahill on Sun-
day morning the potato gardens were in a flourishing
state, and on the following they were blighted.
" A subscriber says that he has several fields of pota-
toes in the barony of Kenry, which, from the appearance
of the stalks, were given up as decayed, but on digging
the root was found quite sound.
A gentleman arrived in this city yesterday, from
Waterford, where his intercourse was very extensive,
who assures us, from personal observation and inquiry,
that there is no sign of potato blight in that county."
The Examiner says—" We regret to say that, as will
be perceived from our Kerry, Newcastle, and Kilrush
correspondence, the potato crop is extensively and fatally
d imaged, and the rot set in and extending with disas-
trous virulence." Our Abbeyfeale correspondent writes
—" You will be sorry to hear that the blight has again
made its appearance here, that the stalks and tubers are
quite black, and that it is to be apprehended that the
crop will be almost entirely lost." A Castleisland cor-
respondent writes to a similar effect.

eLONXEL.—(From the Chronicle.)—" We regret to
say that the rumours of failure In the potato crop are
gaining ground here. It is true we have not seen, since
the commencement of the season, a single tainted potato,
nor scarcely one that could be called bad, but the
farmers with whom we have conversed on the matter
say there are great fears, and that diseased tubers have
been seen in many quarters of this county. These re-
ports have rendered us nervous on this most important
subject. The potato fields present a most luxuriant ap-
pearance."
CLARE.—Great alarm exists in Kilrush and round
that town, in consequence of all the potato gardens, with
few exceptions, being completely blasted and withered.
There is no doubt of the failure of that root now. As
a consequence many who were in high spirits before are
now preparing to leave for America.
Cont.—A correspondent of the Cork Examiner writes
—" I have just returned from a tour in the counties of
Cork, Limerick, and Tipperary, and, as conflicting
statements have gone forth regarding the important
potato crop, I have taken great pains by ocular proof
to ascertain the real state of the crop up to the present
day, and though there cannot be a doubt that in several
localitiel the leavei and stalks present a cheerless ap-
pearance, all are. obliged to admit that the tubers are
yet safe, and as the strongest proof that the blight (if
blight of former years it be) has not descended. I send
you a twelmen of stalks and potatoes, and when I as-
sure you that the stalks I send were in their present
state 12 days since, I think you will admit from the
soundness of the tubers, that we have every reason to
trust that God, in his mercy, has subdued the virulence
of the disease, as with leaves such as I send (in former
years) arras gene."