474 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE 



despondency as to their being able to preserve their 

 usual stock, or indeed any at all, through the winter. 

 In many instances, consignments that we resent off from 

 the growers, to all appearance in a perfectly sound and 

 healthy condition, have, on their arrival, exhibited 

 symptoms of the disease, and in a few days after be- 

 come wholly unfit for food. In the fens of Lincoln- 

 shire and Cambridgeshire the disease is very general 

 and destructive. Many of the growers there have their 

 •whole crops aiFected, so far as to be unmarketable, and 

 are consuming them by their cattle and pigs as fast as 

 they can ; being convinced that to keep them would 

 ensure a total loss. All are desirous of getting even 

 those least affected to market as speedily as possible ; 

 but the dealers are exceedingly cautious, and will not 

 purchase any that exhibit indications of the disease, 

 except at a very low price. One of them offered to 

 purchase us one hundred tons at 12s. or 15s. per ton. 

 Under these circumstances we would strongly recom- 

 mend those who hold large quantities of diseased tubers 

 to manufacture from them the starch, the process of 

 •which is exceedingly simple and easy. It is a remark- 

 able feature of this disease that it does not affect the 

 starch, which from some inherent property possesses 

 the power of resisting its attacks. This probably arises 

 from the quantity of carbon it contains, and the entire 

 absence of glutinous or fibrous matter in its constitu- 

 ents, which consist chemically of 12 carbon, 10 hydro- 

 gen, and 10 oxygen, the two latter being the elements 

 of water. By extracting the starch therefore, from the 

 diseased potatoes, the growers may recover the full 

 value of their crojts, the proportion obtainable being 

 from 15 to 18 per cent, of the gross weight of the 

 potatoes, and the price of the starch when dried, from 

 £18 to £24 per ton. This would yield a much better 

 return than selling the crop in its raw and diseased 

 Btate. The washed pulp also, if dried, is excellent food 

 for cattle and pigs, and constitutes about 5 per cent, of 

 the weight of the potatoes. 



Notwithstanding the attention that has been paid to 

 this disease since its first appearance in this country in 

 1845, both by scientific and practical men, nothing at 

 all decisive or satisfactory has been elicited respect- 

 ing its origin. Many causes have been suggested, 

 but subsequent experience has shown them all to be 

 secondary and exciting rather than primary and origi- 

 nating. That its origin is to be ascribed to external in- 

 fluences, and not to any inherent defect, whether con- 

 stitutional or superinduced in the plant itself, is proved 

 by the fact that diseased tubers have produced sound 

 ones when planted ; and also that the tops of the plants 

 have first shown symptoms of the disease. These, how- 

 ever, are only negative proofs; and we must still look 

 upon the disease as analogous to cholera, influenza, 

 and other epidemics with which the human frame is 

 attacked, and which are equally inscrutable in their 

 origin and progress. 



Nor does there appear to have been any cure or pre- 

 vention of the potato disease discovered, although 

 many have been suggested. All have failed in subse- 

 quent experiments, and it is now as much beyond I 



human control as when it fir.^t broke out. A singular 

 instance of exemption, however, occurred this season 

 in Lincolnshire, which was related to us by a dealer in 

 Covent Garden market. A farmer, we believe near 

 Long Sutton, planted fifteen acres last spring on a pure 

 sandy soil, worth about 10s. per acre. The adjoining 

 field was a rich loam, and let at 50s. per acre. Both 

 these were planted with the same stock, and tilled and 

 manured in precisely the same manner. The difference 

 in the two crops was about two tons per acre ; but 

 whilst that on the best land was almost wholly diseased, 

 the tubers on the sand were almost as entirely free from 

 it. 



These results are wholly unaccountable, on any 

 known principle of the laws of nature. If the cause of 

 the disease is atmospheric, what reason can be given 

 for the exemption of the sand, so contiguously situated 

 with regard to the loam ? If it was inherent in the 

 constitution of the tubers, both must have been affected, 

 unless there is some property in a sandy soil that coun- 

 teracts its development. It could not have been in the 

 manure used, for both were treated in every respect 

 alike. Nor could it have been caused by excess of cold 

 or moisture in the season, for we have never had one 

 more apparently favourable to a rapid or healthy vege- 

 tation. All speculation therefore is completely at fault 

 in respect to the origin of this insidious and mysterious 

 disease, which is peculiar to no country or climate — is 

 influenced by no peculiarities of soil or mode of treat- 

 ment; for in other instances potatoes grown upon a 

 sandy soil have been equally attacked, although in 

 some instances with less violence, by the disease. 



The extent to which this visitation has this season 

 prevailed will seriously affect the general stock of food, 

 and must cause an extra pressure upon the supply of 

 cereal food, when the diseased crop is disposed of, and 

 this must be speedily done, if the growers desire to make 

 anything at all of it. There is not a hope of being able 

 to save the usual supply for spring and summer use, or 

 any adequate proportion of it. Its place therefore must 

 be supplied by bread, the consumption of which will be 

 proportionately increased. What effect this will have 

 upon prices remains to be seen ; but it will materially 

 depend upon the supplies we obtain from abroad, which 

 cannot now be ascertained until next spring. The 

 American crisis will prevent any large importations 

 from that quarter before the frost sets in ; but we shall 

 probably have considerable supplies from thence when 

 the canals again open. These cannot arrive here 

 before May and June, and we have a six months' 

 interval to provide for. Fortunately, we have had 

 an abundant wheat crop, that will help us through 

 without any serious pressure. 



MR. FISHER HOBBS.— The " Hollaudsche Landbouw," 

 the principal agricultural society of Hollaud, elected Mr. Fiaher 

 Hobba an honorary member at their last meeting. The com- 

 pliment was conveyed to Mr. Hobba in a very courfeous note 

 from Mynheer D. R. Gevers Deijnoot, the " Secretary- 

 General " of the Society. 



