316 , THE GARDENER. [July 



than on the cellular sorts ; and when this disease so far emaciated the crop, the 

 kind was abandoned ; but the early or cellular kinds and second earlies, with 

 their broad succulent foliage and almost as succulent stems, merited and ob- 

 tained the attention of the gentlemen's gardeners. 



The Ashleaved Kidney took the first place for a long time. 



Amongst a great number of new kinds of Potatoes which " came out" for 

 the approbation of the public, the Lapstone with its varieties appeared, and, in 

 my humble opinion, the climax (in beauty of plant, in smooth perfection of 

 tuber, in produce of crop, in flavour) was reached. It also affords a '' dish" of 

 good Potatoes from July to July; in fact, no other kind is required when it is 

 free of disease. But it was deficient in that racy flavour which the Ashleaf 

 possesses, for a short period of its season, and that is from the time the haulm 

 takes a yellowish colour until they appear dark brown. To supply the table 

 with this racy-flavoured Ashleaved Potato (though it is now doubtful if we 

 have not lost it), I used to plant successional crops from January to June ; and 

 it is from that practice that I think I am able to prove j\Ir Knight's theory 

 correct — that the potato never had any " disease " save that which arises from 

 old age. A part of this garden falls sharpish to the north-east ; and when the 

 late-planted Ashleaf Potato was located there, and a cold rainy autumn set in 

 a few days earlier than usual, the haulm turned " blotchy," a part of the tubers 

 rotted, and the other part was used for seed, as they were not good for the 

 table. As we thought we knew the cause, no more was said about it at the 

 time. However, the late-planted crops of this kind (we did not try any other 

 sort) became so unsatisfactory that we discontinued late-planting long before 

 the so-called disease showed itself so extensively as it did in 1846. As the 

 *' disease" aj^peared in so many different kinds of Potatoes, I quite agreed with 

 the generally-accepted opinion that atmospheric influence was the mysterious 

 cause of the lamentable failure of the Potato crop. Observation, hearing, and 

 reading, keeping pace with time, I was obliged to " hark back " to Mr Knight's 

 theory — i. e. , that the days allotted to each kind from seed are numbered, and 

 all the pains which have been taken by so many first-class practical men, 

 as well as by a phalanx of lynx-eyed philosophers, to prove to the contrary, is 

 visionary, in fact mere dreams. The experience of the last year is proof sufficient 

 of my own visionary ideas, when I lost from 50 to 80 per cent of the best 

 Potato ever known to me — the Lapstone, or Haigh's Seedling. 



It is hardly necessary to say any more in proof of this theory of the late Pre- 

 sident of the London Horticultural Society being the true one, of the cause of 

 the failure of the Potato of late years, when the atmospheric conditions were 

 such as to neutralise the efforts of those old cellular kinds to ripen their tubers, 

 as well as other short-lived kinds. I cannot recount, however, the number of 

 kinds which have appeared and become extinct since the disastrous year of 

 1816, when we had a fine spring till the 2Sth May, when a severe frost 

 occurred and destroyed the products of the garden ; Potatoes nearly ready for 

 market were killed. This was followed by a wet summer and autumn, and 

 though the Barley rotted on the ground in the north of England, yet the Ash- 

 leaf and all the other kinds of Potatoes were sound. 



Thousands of people became victims to the disease brought about by empty 

 stomachs ; and had not the Potato been sound, tens of thousands would haA^e 

 perished by the same means. 



Hence we may surmise, from what has happened, that the Potatoes have 

 gradually declined in strength since those days, till they have fallen inactive 

 under an atmosphere which overpowers their functions, already debilitated by age. 



