t 49 ] 



or northerly climates, or fituations, will not curl the 

 fii-fl: year after planting. This feems not difficult to 

 account for. All animals have a choice in their 

 food. Cattle will not eat grafs which has imbibed 

 flagnant juices, oj: that which farmers generally call 

 four. The palate of infe£ts, it may be inferred, is 

 flill more nice; thefe we fee feed on the mod deli- 

 cious fruit, which is expbfed to the fun, whilfl that 

 in the fliade remains untouched. 



The potatoe, it is faid, was introduced into this 

 Ifland near two hundred years before the curl made 

 its appearance. That this vegetable fhould, after 

 fuch a period, fuddenly degenerate, and that the 

 founded feed fliould now degenerate in two or three 

 years, feems not very confident with found philo- 

 fophy.* 



• The writer of this paper finds equal difficulty in aflenting to the 

 theory of Mr. Hollins, altho' rf/^'aW/y honoured with the appro* 

 bation and rewards of a great and refpecflable Society. Mr. Hollins 

 tells us, that the curl is owing either to the potatoe fets being expofed 

 too long before they are planted, from their vegetable power being 

 dried up in an ebb foil, or firom being too much forced by manure or 

 cultivation; on which laft reafon the greateft ftrefs feems to be laid. 

 But all the cultivators of potatoes which I have eonverfed with, who 

 remember when the curl firfl appeared, concur in teftimony that their 

 management in thefe refpe(5ls before the curl was known, at the time 

 when it was moft injurious, and fince it has abated, has been precifely 

 the fame. Indeed, we can fcarcely fuppofe that the curl was produced 

 by any pernicious alteration in the mode of culture, which fuddenly 

 took place throughout the kingdom: — Nor is it reafonable to'conclude 

 that the quantity of manure, generally allowed to potatoe crops, is 

 fuificient to produce fuch uncommon efic<5b. If manured crops are 



VOL. VIII. E noM' 



