lo Sept., 1909.] 



Tlie Yictor'ian Potato Industry 



597 



obtained from an English acre of land ; this would supply a man with lo Ibb. 

 of food a day for nearly eleven years, if he could keep it ; and hence has arisen 

 the universal desire to cultivate the plant in all countries into which it has been 

 introduced. It now, however, seems as if Providence has determined to arrest its 

 further increase, for it has lately been attacked bv a new disease, the nature of 

 \vhich is unknown, which speedily destroys the hopes of the farmer, and some- 



BLOTCHES ON A POTATO LEAF (From ///. Loti. N ews). 



A. tapper side ; B. Under side. 

 times even converts whole fields of potatoes into a mass of corruption within a 

 few hours. What is very remarkable is, that the most healthy and vigorous- 

 potato-fields are those which are destroyed most rapidly. Not a sign of the disease 

 may be visible to-day ; to-morrow the leaves may be seen withered, black, and 

 half putrid; and the day after they are followed by the destruction of the stem. 

 Generally, however, the evil is less rapid in its strides. 



''It first appeared in Europe in the east of Germany, about mid-summer, 1845; 

 in a few weeks it spread over all the western parts of the Continent, extending even 

 to the coast of Portugal, missing, however, the north-west of Spain, and not 

 advancing so far as the Mediterranean. England was visited in the middle of 



THE BOTRVTLS (phytophthora) iNFESTANS (Highly magnified). 



(From ///. Lon. News). 



August, and for some time it was hoped that our cold northern climate would 

 resist it ; bv degrees, however, it made progress, and was finally stopped onlv 

 by the Highlands. In the meanwhile it reached Ireland, where, in the month 

 of October, it had already done so much mischief that the British Government 

 thought it necessary to send Commissioners to inquire into the facts, and to consider 

 what could be done to arrest the progress of this murrain; for it is believed that 

 4,000,000 of Irish peasants feed almost exclusively upon potatoes, and the destruction 

 of any considerable quantity of their only food could not be regarded otherwise 

 than as a formidable national calamity. By the beginning of November, half the 

 crop was estimated to have been destroyed, or rendered unfit for human food. On 

 the Continent, the loss had been even more severe ; so that, in many places, the 



