196 



The Country Gentleman' s Magazine 



THE POTATO DISEASE AND ITS CAUSE. 



THE potato disease has appeared to an 

 alarming extent in the Vale of Severn, 

 and to a greater or less extent in most other 

 parts of the country. Year after year, during 

 the last quarter of a century, we hear of the 

 ravages of this disease, yet no effectual 

 means have been proposed by which to 

 check its progress or its annual visitations 

 to our shores. Cholera, in former years, was 

 a scourge which carried off numbers of people; 

 but in modern times, thanks to the progress 

 of the age and the attention that has been 

 given to sanitary and dietary matters, its 

 •deadly effects have been greatly modified. 

 A few years ago the silkworm was threatened 

 with extinction in Europe by a disease which 

 .at first baffled the skill of sericulturists, but 

 by the aid of science, this disease has been 

 mitigated and promises to be totally got rid 

 of under judicious treatment. As with animal 

 •diseases, of which numerous other instances 

 could be given, so with vegetable. Proper 

 treatment, if it does not eradicate the disease, 

 may at least reduce its destructive nature 

 within the smallest compass. 



During the years when the potato disease 

 became first known, various suggestions were 

 put forth in order to the protection of the 

 potatoes ; but some of them were absurd, and 

 others, when actedupon, Avereattended with no 

 effect. Before we can properly deal with the 

 potato disease, several things have to be taken 

 into account, such as variety of potatoes, aspect 

 of fields in which they are planted, soil, drain- 

 age, and the time of sowing the seed. On 

 farms in which these things are neglected, and 

 on which the crop is left to chance, the disease 

 has been found to make its appearance in its 

 severest form. 



Before we allude to these matters in detail, 

 it is essential that we should inquire into the 

 nature of this disease, and by doing so, arrive at 

 the origin of it. 



The potato disease is always reported to 

 have made its appearance in the vicinity of 



the sea coast, in fields with a southern or 

 south-western aspect, or in fields consisting 

 of rich loamy soils and sheltered on the north 

 and east by woods or clumps of trees. It 

 smites the haulms of potatoes (and simul- 

 taneously with them the tubers) of varieties 

 with rough, large, and pointed leaves, before 

 it becomes perceptible on the haulms of 

 varieties having smooth, small, and some- 

 what rounded leaves. Potatoes grown on a 

 sandy soil, in an open situation, and in fields 

 not inclining to the south or west, frequently 

 escape the disease, provided they are of the 

 variety of the latter kind which we have here 

 instanced, and sown early in the spring 

 time. The foregoing, we believe, is a correct 

 summary of the places^ &c., in which the 

 disease first makes its appearance so far as 

 soil, aspect, and variety of tubers are con- 

 cerned. 



The first evidence of the malady is in 

 small burnt-like spots on the leaves, but 

 on close inspection it will be found that a 

 portion of the haulm, from the point at 

 which the foot-stalk of the leaf which pre- 

 sent these spots join downwards, is more 

 or less damaged, while from the point 

 which the footstalk of the leaf join the 

 haulm upward is uninjured. By lifting the 

 tubers out of the soil, it will be at once 

 observed that the lower or further portion 

 of it from the root is destroyed, while the 

 more mature part of the tuber is scarcely 

 affected. These features of the disea^ are 

 well known to every agriculturist who grows 

 potatoes, and are within the province of 

 science to admit of explanation. To elec- 

 tricity, and to nothing else, we owe the 

 potato disease. At this statement some 

 persons will exclaim, " Nonsense ! " " Rub- 

 bish ! " " The man who says so must be 

 dreaming ! " However, expressions of this 

 kind cannot withstand truth and facts — facts 

 which, on demonstration, are simple, and 

 because simple, are not, therefore, less true. 



