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Tlic Country Gcntlcinaiis Magazine 



brairds being irregular, and so far back that 

 it is scarcely possible that they can arrive at 

 maturity before the time that they ought to 

 be stored. They have certainly, so far as 

 natural history can assure us, escaped the 

 ravages of the fly. We thoroughly adopt Mr 

 Sanderson's idea that never was the hay crop 



so luxuriant as this year — we are sorry to say 

 that it has been sadly deteriorated by the 

 rains of a month ago — and the plentifulness 

 of growth on pastures has been such that 

 graziers could not take advantage of it on 

 account of the exceedingly great want of 

 stock. 



THE POTATO BLIGHT. 



By William Dean, Frimley, Surrey. 



IN the Standard Dr Kidd has spoken out 

 boldly relative to the potato disease, 

 which is bidding fair to become a national 

 calamity, not only in the destruction, to an 

 enormous extent, of our sujjplies for next 

 winter, but in its influence on the crop of 

 1873, After pointing out the fallacies of the 

 various remedies Avhich have at times been 

 prescribed, Dr Kidd remarks : — ■ 



It strikes me that there is no virus or disease, 

 or error of thunderstorms, but that the plant 

 has been over-cultivated, and the farmer 

 who will go back to plain seedlings and 

 plant the potato early, will escape much 

 of the blight. The natural rotation of 

 crops, three or five, or what else the 

 farmer knows is best, is done away with 

 in too many places, and wheat lands turned 

 into permanent grass have given up the po- 

 tato to inferior land. Seedlings are got 

 from the berries, of course, of the potato 

 blossom. They are rather waterish at first, 

 but by cultivation, as nature in her won- 

 derful way stores up starch for the germ, 

 they become dry and mealy, with more 

 vitality. This vitality is what the plant 

 wants ; there is too much starch in the 

 " sets " now planted ; the power of assimilat- 

 ing or ripening the sap in its return from the 

 leaf and forming fluid starch or cambium is 

 diminished. The black ' spot ' on the leaf 

 is probably the eftect, not the cause of the 

 disaster. The general upshot of what one can 

 make out among farmers is clearly towards 

 earlier and better planting of the good old 



tuber ; more science or system as to rotation 

 of this and other crops ; less science of the 

 starch-grating or beanstalk kind, which 

 Avould upset crop rotation, and trust to no 

 crops but more catde, and to potatoes got 

 out of any worthless patch at haphazard. The 

 potato rather, in a physiological sense, re- 

 quires as nice soil and management as a 

 tuUp bulb. We know what a half-boiled 

 bulb of a tulip would turn out ; so of our pre- 

 sent scrofulous potato plants or ' sets.' " 



The very early kinds of kidney. potatoes 

 have, to a great extent, escaped the disease ; 

 and, although seed of these will be scarce 

 next spring, still there will be a moderate 

 supply. Of the later kinds, on which we 

 depend for our supplies from September until 

 May next, the stock is so extremely limited 

 that the demand will be in excess of the 

 supply, and seed must be scarce and dear 

 for next year's use. It, therefore, behoves 

 us all to be very careful, and waste nothing 

 which is sound ; saving from the pig tubs 

 even the small sound tubers which generally 

 find their way there, and carefully storing 

 them for seed in case of necessity. 



Careful stormgfor seed is a subject of deep 

 importance, on which I desire to say a few 

 words. In many districts of Yorkshire, Lan- 

 cashire, and other counties, especially where 

 local flower shows exist, cottagers, as a rule, 

 hold back a few seed potatoes, which they 

 place in shallow boxes, with one end of the 

 tuber upwards ; and these are exposed to the 

 air or kept in some cool place, but preserved 



