The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-09 00:00:00

THE POTATOE DISEASE.

All that we see, hear, or read of the potatoe crop, convinces
us that the extent of injury which has befallen it is in no de-
gree exaggerated, but the contrary, and that there is no pre-
sent help for it. We see no prospect of stopping the murrain
by human agency, and we believe that the best thing to do,
under the circumstances, is to let the crops alone, unless means
can be found of consuming them immediately, and in
that case they should be taken up and dried. Much
will be found not worth the digging. In other cases,
where a part only of the tubers are attacked, it will be
better for the symptoms to become more distinct before
what remain are sorted and pitted. If any means
exist for consuming those which are just beginning to decay
it will be prudent to take advantage of them ; for unless the
rot has eaten deep into the tubers they may certainly be given
to pigs or other animals, with safety, provided they are boiled
or steamed, and mixed with a little salt. This has been done
within our own knowledge; and we have ourselves eaten
roasted potatoes, in which the canker was only skin deep.
Many idle reports are current on this subject, which deserve
no attention.

It is some consolation to know that those tubers which were
sound a week ago remain so, and manifest no signs of being at-
tacked. We have just examined some samples put in a dry
place, and we see that those which were sound at the time of
sorting are sound still ; while, on the contrary, those in which
the disease had shown itself, but a very little are much worse,
and are decaying fast. In the open field, too, the mischief does
notseem to spread, and we are persuaded that if we had hot sunny
weather, the evil weuld have gone no further. Unfortunately,
however, the gloomy state of the air, and the low temperature,
have been imperfectly compensated for by absence of rain.
It will never do to pit the potatoes in heaps, covered with
straw and earth. If this system is pursued, we anticipate the
total decay of such heaps. It is very improbable that, with all
possible care, the potatoes will be so sorted that no infected tu-
bers shall be left in the heaps. One such tuber will communi-
cate the malady to a ton ; for it will soon form mouldiness on its
own surface; the potatoes in contact with it will be infected; they
will give it to their neighbours, and so on. In the process of pit-
ting, every potatoe must be separated from its neigkbour by
solid earth. Then, if one tuber decays, it will not be able to
spread the mischief, because, being embedded in soil, it will
not be in contact with others. Potatoes therefore should be

stored in heaps ; a single layer of them should be covered with
earth, well worked in between them ; then another layer should
be thoroughly imbedded as before, and so on. If straw could
be had, we should even be inclined to thatch the heaps, so as
to keep them dry ; and at all events, if they are in the open air,
we should draw trenches round them so as to carry off all the
water. Wet is favourable to decay, and also to the attacks of
mould plants ; dryness is an enemy to hoth. The drier, there-
fore, the potatoes can be kept in their pits the more chancd
there will be of keeping sound those that are so when laid up.
We cannot too strongly impress upon gardeners the extreme
importance of this precaution.— Gardener's Chronicle.
A correspondent of the same paper says—" As with the
decay of the haulm all further growth is at an end, no good
can accrue by leaving them in the ground ; therefore, the
sooner dug up the better. By exposure for a day or two to
air and solar heat, such of them as are not very extensively
affected may be checked from further decay, sufficiently so for
seed at any rate, and probably by cutting out the diseased por-
tions before cooking, and by mashing, they may be wholesome
as food. If superabundant moisture has in any way contri-
buted to this disease, ridging up the rows very highly, so as to
leave trenches below the level of the roots would not only keep
them dry, but would expose a larger surface for the influence
of solar heat and light to ripen the tubers."
We are sorry to be compelled, from information we have
received from most authentic sources, to class this locality
among the numerous districts in which there is an entire or
partial failure of this important crop. We yesterday heard of
a ease in which twelve bushels had been taken from the
ground, only four bushels of which were fit for use. They
seem to be attacked by one point of the potatoes becoming
damp, which in some cares spreads all round, and in others
strikes at once to the centre, leaving a blackness and rotten-
ness wherever the disease goes. Another singular case we
heard of, in which a large quantity were taken up on
Saturday morning last, all the roots being apparently sound
and good. At evening-time, however, of the same day,
they were all very much specked by this disease, and if not
u.ed immediately will be utterly worthless for any purpose.
We yesterday went into a piece of six acres, and out of a large
number dug up from various parts of the field, not one seemed
to be thoroughly sound. From this land, which has yielded as
much as 160 sacks per acre, scarcely any good potatoes, and
those very small, will be procured at all. This seems to be
universally the case with the middle, or principal crop of this
root, about this locality. We hear that the early crop is, to a
great extent, unaffected ; but the late potatoes, which ought
now to have green and growing tops, seem to be a complete
failure. The disease attacks the lower part of the stalk, and
spreads its way up and down, so that, in fact, the plants are
killed before the potatoes are formed. The pink-eyed, and in
short all other kinds of this root, seems to have shared a similar
fate. It has been reported that potatoes so affected are poison-
ous, and that pigs have died in consequence of eating
them—the result of our inquiries does not tend to confirm this
idea. Next to the wheat crop, the potatoe crop is undoubtedly
the most important, and we cannot regard so great a failure
without serious apprehension lest the prices of other commo-
dities should be so much enhanced as to press severely on the
resources of the humbler classes. The reports fi out the west
counties and from Ireland are tolerably favourable ; but we
have heard it stated " that alter Christmas there won't be a
potatoe to be had." Difficulty seems to be anticipated in getting
suitable seed for next year. Respecting general farming ope-
rations we may just say, that the harvest is proceeding glo-
riously. This present week will see an end of the wheat har-
vest in this district, which will be got up in good order. The
barley and other crops are proceeding favourably.—lpswich
Express, Sept. 9.
A quantity of wheat has been housed and stacked in good
condition in Somerset,t, and thefarmers are everywhere getting
forward with their barley, which is generally an excellent crop,
both as to quantity and quality. Where the disease which has
attacked the potatoes is found to prevail, the best course is to
cut away the whole of the haulm, and remove it to the mixen,
so that the land may have full exposure to the sun. There is
reason in this—the haulm has done its share of nature's pro-
cess. It is only necessary to perfect the root and ripen its
peel, for which purpose the warmth of the sun is all that is re-
quired. It has been found that where the haulm had been
suffered to decay in the ground, the potatoes were invariably
diseased ; but where the stalk was not blackened to the
bottom, the roots were healthy. Potatoes which are unwhole-
some, turn black when boiled, so that no one can fail to dis-
tinguish them. Yet potatoes are not affected alone; acres of
pickling cucumbers have gone off in the same manner, from the
same cause, and with the same symptoms.— Somerset Gazette.
We regret to find that the disease prevalent in the potatoe
crop has affected extensively the fields and gardens in the
neighbourhood of Chippenham. In several cases the owners
have dug up the produce, and, after sorting out the unsound
portion, trusted to a drying in the open air for preserving the
remainder ; but it appears very doubtful how far, in so unripe
a state, they can be preserved (so as to be eatable) during the
winter.— Wilts paper.