22 THE POTATO, ITS CONDITION IN 1847. 



IV. — Tlt£ Potato, its Condition in 1847. By George John 

 Towers, C.M.H.8. 



(Commuuicated Aug. 16, 1847.) 



Having stated in the last volume of the Journal the results of 

 my own experience and observations during the year 1846, I feel 

 called upon to offer a few remarks in continuation. The dis- 

 ease, which beyond all doubt ravaged the crop to a very alarm- 

 ing extent during two entire seasons, is evidently on the decline ; 

 at all events the period is now passed at which it was in active 

 operation ; and as moreover the crops everywhere, which I have 

 been able to inspect, are healthy, and gradually assuming the 

 yellow tint that precedes maturity, without the appearance of 

 one single black spot, I think we may, without presumption, 

 indulge a hopeful expectation. Of proximate causes it should 

 seem that, in reality, we know nothing ; yet, perhaps, while col- 

 lating the evidence of facts, some light may be obtained Avhich 

 will guide us in our future operations, and obviate those errors 

 in practice, which assuredly have concurred to aggravate, if not 

 originate, the malady. 



During the whole of the spring of 1 846, every fact seemed to 

 prove that the presence of disease in the tuber of 1845 did not 

 interfere with the sprouting of the plant : by disease I mean that 

 discoloration or marbling of the tissue which, without affecting 

 the vitality of the eyes, so changed the condition of the tuber as 

 to destroy its culinary qualities. Numbers of such potatoes were 

 committed to the ground uncut, and many — proved by the knife 

 to be so diseased — were planted as sets, expressly with a view 

 to ascertain whether or not a sound progeny could be obtained 

 from a tainted stock. I stated the results of such experiments ; 

 I even found that from a mass shot down in a heap from a barrow 

 — a great portion of which was in a state of putrescent decay — 

 numbers of apparently healthy shoots were produced, the whole 

 of which 'continued strong and verdant several days after the 

 general attack had taken effect — that is from about the 25th 

 July to the end of the first week of August, 1846. It will, how- 

 ever, be perfectly useless to dwell upon the symptoms or pro- 

 gress of the malady of that year ; but not so the allusion to the 

 two undeniable facts. 1st. That a disease had for many years 

 prevailed in the northern counties which was termed the rot of 

 the potato. Many articles appeared in the newspapers and in 

 the agricultural periodicals of the period, dating its commence- 

 ment about the year 1833 ; and some of these I replied to, as I 

 had failed to discover any sign of decay among the plots of the 

 midland or southern districts. It was stated that blanks and 



