NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 169 



havoc in the potato-fields of Great Britain and Ireland 1 ? — I 

 mean the disease caused by Peronospora infestans. A. It has 

 not been affected. We have not had that importation. There 

 are no cases in which an epidemic disease has been observed. 

 6th Q. Is the potato a common article of food, and is it generally 

 used by the poor in the south'? A. In the provinces of Yaldivia 

 and Chiloe it forms great part of the food of the working classes. 

 In the rest of Chile it is used generally by all classes. 7th Q. 

 After taking up the potatoes, is any system adopted for pre- 

 serving them during the winter 1 ? A. After the potatoes have 

 been dug they are exposed for a few days to the sun in order to 

 free them from moisture and from the earth adhering to them when 

 taken out of the ground. They are then deposited in dry places, 

 where they are protected from rain and frost, but exposed to the air. 

 I answer your letter with the greatest pleasure, and remain, your 

 most obedient servant, Jose Bruno Gonzalez Julio.' 



"I got some valuable information from intelligent workmen born 

 and bred in the South, some of whom had wrought in the potato 

 fields when young, and are now employed on the railway. One of 

 them, Jose Maria Lorca, is from the island of Chiloe (S. lat. 43). 

 He thinks there are no good potatoes out of his own country, and I 

 believe there is some reason for this opinion. For, unlike the rest 

 of Chile, the potato is there the staple article of food, consequently 

 more attention is paid to the selecting of good varieties, and to the 

 best modes of cooking. He said to me, 'Mr. John, here in the 

 north people don't know what potatoes are. They neither know 

 how to cook them nor how to eat them, and the potatoes are not so 

 good as in my country. There you have something worth eating — 

 potatoes so mealy you can't boil them for breaking them to pieces.' 

 Potatoes are roasted in the ash-pits in wood ashes. They are always 

 ready there, and if a friend comes in he is offered a hot potato out 

 of the ash-pit, with salt, or a piece of- dried fish. They are white 

 and floury and fall to pieces when the roasted crust is taken off. 

 In fact Chiloe is the Ireland of Chile as regards potatoes. Jose did 

 not know much about their cultivation, but he had never heard of 

 any disease attacking them. Chiloe is very rainy. Indeed it rains 

 almost continuously there while the greater part of the rest of Chile 

 is dry. In the report for 1873 issued by the Santiago meteorological 

 office the annual rain-fall of Valparaiso is given as 12 inches, that 



