THE POTATO, ITS CONDITION IN 1847. 25 



fected were planted, must be acknowledged ; how then is it pos- 

 sible that we should now escape ? 



As debility has followed as an inevitable result, we ought to 

 take a retrospective view of our treatment of tlie potato ! Have 

 not the pits and stores been formed upon the most erroneous 

 systems ? Have not heat and moisture during the entire winter 

 excited the tuber to premature activity ; and as a consequence 

 (so argues Mr. Rogers), lias not the seed-stock in almost every 

 instance been planted in a state of exhaustion ? A few sound 

 ash-leaved and other early varieties, preserved expressly, may 

 have been planted sound, every eye dormant, not one vitalized 

 development pre-excited ; but, as concerns the later winter stores, 

 have not the planted tubers in nine cases out of ten produced 

 strings from several of the eyes, which have matted one into the 

 other for many feet in length ? All these developments having 

 been nourished by the tuber, are broken otf as refuse, and the 

 tuber thus exhausted, and its tissue rendered flaccid, is, forsooth, 

 planted as seed ! Such is and has been for years the mode of 

 practice throughout Britain, perhaps throughout the world. 

 Can we then wonder that an organism so treated should suc- 

 cumb under a peculiar meteorological epidemic, which though 

 veiled in mystery afforded ample proofs of its existence ? 



If we admit a consciousness of ill-treatment on our part, 

 would it not evince a more wise and pious state of mind to con- 

 sider the late alarming dispensation as a blessing in disguise, 

 rather than to ascribe it to the judgment of Heaven ? "VVe have 

 erred — our errors have led to certain consequences — let us learn 

 wisdom, and henceforward treat our comforts and mercies as 

 blessings to be cherished — not as if they were mere offal, wortliy 

 only of the refuse-heap. 



Mr. Eogers and others suggest carbonised matter as the grand 

 chemical remedy: we cannot err by applying it to the utmost attain- 

 able extent ; and I would add, we shall obtain carbon, and do the 

 land much service, by paring and burning in every case where por- 

 tions of orchard or pasture land could be appropriated for potato- 

 culture. " Try all things " — but above all, let a stock of tubers 

 be thoroughly greened by exposure to air and light, and then be 

 stored in a cold dry cellar, cave, or room, where no wet can enter, 

 but from which frost only, as respects cold, should be excluded. 



One symptom of debility — if so it can be considered — I over- 

 looked ; it is the absence of seed ; or, in other words, the 

 inability of those varieties of potato which ai-e usually very 

 fertile, to support any " apples " or seed vessels. I find my plants 

 in full bloom ; every blossom falls off, and yet the lierbage is 

 amazingly strong. My attention was called to the phenomenon 

 by a very acute observer. 



