The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-08-25 00:00:00

THE POTATO CROPS.

TLe evil which last year was proclaimed through our
streets without any just reason, is this year really come
upon us. Almost universally through the country the
late potato crops have been attacked by the disease, and in
many places the second early kinds, and even the early
ones, have not escaped. A month at least earlier than its
ravages commenced in 1845, it is now really alarming, as
the main crops, upon which so many of the working po-
pulation of Britain chiefly depend for their winter food,
are irretrievably damaged.
Last year, at least to this country, and this generation,
the disease was, with slight local exceptions, entirely new.
We knew nothing of its nature, or its cause, beyond what
chemical investiga►ion or theory could supply. The pota-
to being afflicted with a superabundance of moisture, and
the season having been very unusually wet, it was natural
to suppose that the drenching rains, the superabundant
moisture with which the earth had been visited, was the
cause of the disease. The only other theory which exten-
sively prevailed was, that the root was worn out ; though
we must acknowledge that some few individuals, in differ-
ent quarters, made much nearer " guesses at the truth"
than either of these.
This year, if it has done nothing else, has shown us that
these two theories must be exploded as idle dreams. The
spring was unusually dry—yet the disease has visited us
earlier, and is more virulent than before; and that the
disorder does not proceed from the plant being worn out
is evidenced by the fact, that potatoes raised newly from
seed, and from tubers imported from abroad, have suffered
in common with the rest. Nor will the Buckland' theory
of the impregnation of the earth with the spawn of fungi
from the last year's ctops account for this, as our own ex-
periments will sbew.
And now, having thus far dealt in generals, we will
come to particulars ; and as all the experiments we detail
have been made by ourselves, or those with whom we are
intimately acquainted, we will vouch for their accuracy.
Our readers are aware that we all along combatted the
idea, pretty generally prevalent, that the potatoe root was
worn out. In order, however, to try every plan, we last
year procured tubers imported from Russia, others im-
ported from America, others, of a very sound description,
from Oxfordshire, others equally sound from another part
of Warwickshire, and, in addition to these, saved some of
our own growth, drying the second earlies and "pieing"
the late ones. The dried tubers of the second early varie-
ties which we had saved for seed being all touched with
the disease we planted in autumn, the rest we planted in
spring; and an acquaintance of ours planted at the same
time potatoes raised from the seed produced by the balls
of 1844, Till Thursday week all these appeared to flourish
luxuriantly, save that here and there among the late crops
from our own seed a rather suspicious-looking top ap-
peared. Being called on business into Westmoreland, we
left them on that day without the slightest idea that any-
thing was materially wrong; but seeing, as we passed
through Lancashire, the unmistakeable evidences of the
last year's disease in the decayed tops, we enquired how
long they had been in that state, and were answered—
" Very lately, and in many instances it came all in one
night." This, of course, made us fear for our own, and
at our return we found the same evidences in the tops
there, which we immediately ordered to be cut down.
The results, then, of our experience and observation
are as follow :—None of the potatoes we planted have en-
tirely escaped, save those which were got up before the Ist
of this month ; of the rest the late sorts appeared by the
tops to have suffered most, the American and Russian
ones equally with the rest. The only patch in which we
have found no tuber touched with the disease is that
grown from our own diseased sets, well dried and planted
in autumn ; and the new variety planted by our neighbour
from seed of 1844 is the worst diseased of any a e have
seen—utterly worthless. One more fact we may mention.
Some ,of the Russian and American tubers, as well as

some of our ow r. , planted in land certainly not im-
pregnated with the spawn of fungi from former crops, is
no potatoes had ever been grown in it, since it was, some
years since, dug in from the turf.
The plain result of these facts is, that the cause of the
disease must be looked for in a t'ifferent quarter to those
where we have looked for it hitherto. It is doubtless

....-.- ------.
ATMOSPHERIC, whether or not connected with the light-
ning which has been so prevalent during the last two
years we cannot say, but of this we are certain, IT IS AT-
MOSPHERIC-a direct infliction of an inscrutible Provi-
dence.
Respecting the preservation of this year's crops much
bas been said, but most of it has been founded on the idea
that the disease arose in the potato, and not in the top,—
was generic not atmospheric. Experiment however has
proved, that if it cannot be cured it can at least he allevi-
ated. Mr. Jasper Rogers, of Dublin, has proved that
either strewn among the crops when stored, or planted
with the seed, carbon, either in the shape of woodashes,
soot, or peat charcoal, has a beneficial tendency. We
planted our first crop of. kidneys this year in soot, to
keep out wire worms, and never bad a finer crop. The
carbon absorbs the moisture of the potatoe, and tends to
top the progress of decay. A simpler mode however has

proved efficacious. It is to mow down the tops and leave
the potatoes in the ground till they are wanted for con-
sumption. They spoil less there than when exposed to
the atmosphere. Of course if they last till frost comes,
as many of them are near the surface, it will be safer to
cover them over with rubbish or litter.

And now for the future. This useful plant must not
be lost or given up in despair as worthless, because for
two years successively heaven has visited us with a miasma
or some other infliction that has partially destroyed it.
The duty of man is to use the means, and, even against
hope, still hope for a blessing. It is not the first time
this root has been afflicted ; some thirty years ago a
somewhat similar visitation came upon it, and, though
not so general in its operations, lasted two or three years.
We would enjoin the horticulturists still to persevere in
attempts to preserve and raise it, notwithstanding their
two years' losses. Let some of the soundest small pota-
toes be selected from those usually given to the pigs, and
laid in the sun to green and harden for next year's seed ;
and let them be supplied with carbon of some kind when
planted, and with heaven's blessing we may not only save
the early varieties, which are this year little affected, but
also the later and more productive sorts, which keep so
much longer. Above all, let all who have opportunity
continue to raise new varieties from seed, and persevere,
in spite of repeated failures, in their endeavours thus to
secure a national as well as an individual good.
Since writing the above we have seen a letter from Mr.
Balkw• 1, chemist, of Kingsbridge, to the Secretary of the
Roy ricultural Society, in which he attributes the
disea o a green bug, about the size of a common house
fly. He says he observed these insects in many cases
when the tops were deceased, but never when they were
perfectly healthy •, and seeing one of them void a greenish
fluid, he smeared it on a healthy leaf, which soon after
showed signs of the disease. This idea we saw some
weeks ago in an American paper, where it was stated that
the " poison fly," which had so injured the potatoes last
year, had again commenced its ravages. We fancy, how-
ever, that though this fly may, in some cases, accompany
the disease, it is not the cause of it. Through the state-
ment alluded to, we watched ours minutely, but saw no
such flies or any other kind of blight. Besides, what a
quantity of such bugs would it have required to infect a
whole field in a night, and a whole kingdom in a few days.
They must, like the locusts of Egypt, have been so plen-
tiful, as to be observed everywhere.
[We copy the preceding article from the Birmingham
Advertiser. Mr. J. Prideaux, in a letter to the editor of
the Exeter Flying Post, recommends the cutting off of
the stem of the growing crop on the first symptoms of dis-
ease being apparent, as noticed by us last week—a plan
which we observe has been adopted in several gardens in
this locality. A correspondent of the Times, writing from
the neighbourhood of London, affirms that the disease be-
gins in the leaf of the plant, next attacks the:stem, and gra-
dually goes down into the tubers, which seem to receive
the infection from the small fibres which attach them to
the stem. He suggests, therefore, that if the plants were
pulled up, and the roots allowed to remain on the ground,
a separation would be made between the diseased and
sound parts, and thus a certain amount of food preserved.
Every field, he says, should he carefully watched, and, on
the very first symptom of disease in the potato the plant
should be pulled up, which can be best done by the per-
son placing a foot on each side of the drill and lifting it
out. In the earlier crops this may be done immediately,
as the potatoes are full sized, and if not ripe, nearly so.
The object of delay in regard to the others is, that the
growth may not be checked sooner than necessary, and
the risk of springing in the ground at the end of the year
diminished ; as he thinks they ought to remain there till
he usual time of diggin-_:.

Oi,T THE SANITARY STATE OF SOME PARTS

OF LIVERPOOL.

"The nuisance, whether public or private. which is in defiance
of sanitary principles, has a threefold character. For such
must be suicidal on the part of the author, immoral towards the
neighbourhood, and impious against the Creator."