The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-06-22 00:00:00

HAS THE POTATO BLIGHT RE-APPEARED ?

An able correspondent of the Manchester Examiner
states the result of sedulous enquiries recently made by
him into the correctness of the reports so confidently put
forth by some parties, with respect to the re-appearance of
the potato blight. The result is most important and satis-
factcry as regards Ireland. The information from that
country is furnished by Mr. Bianconi, who owns a large
property near Cashel, and conducts a large coaching con-
cern, employing sixteen hundred horses on the roads in
the south, the west, and the midland counties of Ireland.
Mr. Bianconi, the writer says, " Has establishments and
servants in more than a hundred and twenty towns and
villages ; the men employed by him, many of them tra-
velling every day, and reporting what they see to him,
number about seven hundred ; while he himself is travel-
ling very frequently. Moreover, as a practical and intelli-
gent man of business, he has a reputation known to
Europe. He writes to me on the 15th June thus :
" Longford, Cashel.
" Dear Sir,—ln answer to your letter of the 13th instant, I
have to say there is nothing wrong with the potatoes known to
me or to the tenants on my estate. Over several miles which
some of them have travelled, or where I have of late travelled,
1 have not, and they have not, seen any potatoes injured by the
disease of last year; and everything agricultural is, most pro-
mising.—Yours respectfully, C. BIANCONI.”
" From Banagher, in the King's County, bordering
upon Galway, where I saw the potatoes planted in the
spring, and formed an acquaintance with the growers, I
have letters containing the cheering intelligence that no
disease has appeared there. And so from other districts
of Ireland."
The writer gives next a description of the state of the
crops in the neighbourhood of Chorlton, and thence to
" Jackson's Boat," where he crossed into Cheshire. In
his route he found nothing in the shape of disease ; the
only symptom which parties unacquainted with farming
might think unfavourable, being an occasional slight speck
on the under leaves, which are the oldest leaves of the
plant, and which speck always appears so soon as the tubers
are completely formed. The insects had made some
ravages in the orchards ; but the cold and the rain of the
I last week destroyed them by myriads. From Jackson's
Boat he proceeded along the Mersey embankment, cross-
ing the meadows to Hale, finding no blight; and thence
through the country occupied by market gardeners, tow-
ards Northen. Everything here was luxuriant ; and the
tenants laughed to scorn the idea of any disease being
to be found.
As an example of the way in which rumours are blown
abroad from the most untrustworthy origin he says, " At
Northen Boat House, I met a gentleman who had' no
doubt that he had seen it on his father's potatoes last
Sunday ; ' and this very day,' said he, ' not an hour ago,
I saw the blight spots on your potatoes,' addressing Mr.
Hough, 'in your garden.' Will you let me see them ?'
I enquired, and as he was willing to do so, and Mr. Hough
was willing to let us go to his garden, we went. We
searched for the spots which had been seen an hour ago,
but there were no spots now—not one."
From Northen our tourist re-entered Lancashire, by
Didsbury, an important potato district, the appearance of
the whole of which he describes as most promising.