655 



should have quietly and unostentatiously devoted themselves to expe- 

 rimenting on the plant itself; tried diflferent modes of earthing up; diffe- 

 rent degrees of drought and moisture; varied exposure to light and shade ; 

 variety of soil and manure; different periods of planting; different 

 periods of digging ; different distances in planting, both as regards 

 the individuals and the rows ; different modes of preparing the cut- 

 tings, and indeed a thousand departures from the usual routine mode 

 of cultivation. It is hardly possible that many trials of this kind 

 could be made without some result; and the pubh cation of the results 

 would be infinitely more acceptable than a host of recommendations 

 in which experience has had no part. 



There is another matter which should have its weight, and conse- 

 quently its consolation, with all reflecting minds, and that is the ex- 

 treme improbability of the disease continuing to exist: whether result- 

 ing from atmospheric agency, the coldness of the summer of 1845, the 

 dryness and heat of the summer of 1846, the presence of fungi, the de- 

 predations of insects, the Maynooth grant orthei'epeal of the corn-laws, 

 which seven causes have been urged with serious and unhesitating faith 

 in their validity, we must not anticipate a continuance of what is so great 

 a departure from the usual course of nature. The atmospheric conditions 

 may be changed, thefungi may disappear, the insects may die, a no-po- 

 pery government may refuse Maynooth grants, and Lord George Ben- 

 tinck may be Prime Minister, and give us new corn-laws : in fine if we 

 refer to precedent we shall find it abundantly in the history of the past. 

 Blights, murrains, diseases of man, of beasts, of plants, have repeatedly 

 occun-ed, have passed away, and would be forgotton were it not for 

 the records that have been preserved : on one occasion the hedges 

 were stripped of their leaves by the devastation of a caterpillar {Arctia 

 chrysorrhoea), and on the same occasion a multiplicity of natural and 

 political causes was found ; some very pious persons firmly believed 

 the devastation attributable to the general establishment of Lancas- 

 terian schools : then we have had plague, cholera, failure of wheat, tur- 

 nips and hops, but a time of health and plenty has always returned, and 

 will again. Whatever be the amount of the disease — and far be it from 

 us to doubt its existence — let us meet it like men : let us coolly ascer- 

 tain the worst, and having possessed ourselves of this knowledge, let 

 those who are really practical men make the experiments we have 

 suggested and report the result, and let all the rest, the fine writers, 

 the essayists, the religionists, the politicians, turn their attention from 

 causes to effects, ascertain the distress which an increased price of 

 potatoes may cause among their poorer neighbours, and then, putting 



