316 ON THE MATURATION OF GRAIN 



From the fact, that the virus of the blight is 

 not absorbed by the haulm or stem of potatoe 

 plants, and, therefore, not transmitted thence to 

 the tubers within the soil ; the murrain which 

 attacks the tubers, cannot be occasioned or in 

 anywise induced by the blight. The murrain of 

 1845, in this neighbourhood, began after the 

 frosts of the 23rd and 24th of September of that 

 year, without any previous blight on the leaves 

 of the plants. As this frost cut down the haulms 

 before the entire growth and full maturation of 

 the tubers, the juices within, next to the cuticle 

 and epidermis where most azotised, were left in 

 an immature and thence unhealthy state, and 

 therein originated the predisposition to the dis- 

 ease. This was the reason, that at the time of 

 gathering the crops, little was seen of the 

 murrain. It was only after having been a short 

 time in the stores, that this disease showed itself, 

 so as to become alarming. And as it spread 

 most rapidly throughout the stores, commencing 

 frequently at the unsloughed pendulum ends of 

 the tubers, the notion arose, that as first appear- 

 ing there, the disease had been communicated 

 from the stems. Such potatoes, however, as had 

 eschars formed by the natural sloughings of the 

 pendulums or strings, withstood the infection, and 



