356 [Senate 



It is due to Mr. Findlay to mention, that when the potatoes were 

 after all attacked by disease, he most promptly took the whole back, 

 though the people had taken them at their own risk after the exami- 

 nation. 



I have seen an instance near Edinburgh where one farmer sold 

 about 1500, or more than ^£2000, in value, of potatoes. They were 

 considered sound, were lifted and pitted; but at the present time not 

 the fifth part of those potatoes are untainted. 



Mr. Cumming, Wigtonshire, says, " I know a seven acre field, 

 a splendid crop, sixteen tons to the Scotch acre, where, ten days 

 ago, the crop on being taken up was sound, and half the field was 

 taken up and stored as such. Within these few days symptoms of 

 disease became more and more apparent, and now the jobbers raising 

 each two tons per day, have suspended work, considering them lost.'' 



These facts naturally lead us to the next question. 



Query 5. — What peculiar appearance has the disease presented — 

 does it differ in character from the disease of former years 1 Does it 

 generally show itself in the leaf and stem, before it appears in the 

 bulb? 



Before mentioning any answers to this query, I may premise, that 

 the rot in the tuber of the potato is of two different kinds, known 

 as the wet and the dry rot. The latter has most prevailed here as yet. 

 It first appears in the form of brownish masses under the skin. These 

 spread more or less rapidly in different instances and finally extend 

 inward to the very core. 



The wet rot forms a distinctly decayed and rotten part of the po- 

 tato, in some cases it appears to be a continuation and worse stage 

 of the dry rot. I have seen the one passing into the other in the 

 same heap. The formation of a vegetable acid, from the decompo- 

 sition of the nitrogenous compounds, converts the starch into sugar 

 and gum ; the water contained in the potato itself then dissolves 

 these substances, and the whole tuber becomes a semi-fluid mass, of 

 a consistence like honey. It is much disputed whether this be the 

 same disease that has appeared in previous years, or an entirely new 

 one. 



Out of thirty-nine answers to this query, twenty-three say that the 

 disease has been unknown to them before. Many of the sixteen 



