POT 



479 



POT 



though longer in coming to perfection, the ichor to the tubers. These sliould 

 No foliaiie is proiliiced, the potatoes be taken up forthwith and clamped as 

 soon are surrounded liy numerous joung recommended by Dr. Lindlev, witii a 

 ones of moderate size. No water must layer of earth or sand alternating with 

 ever be admitted on any account. No- each layer of potatoes, 

 tice is to be taken that between three The disease seems to be the natural 

 and four months elapse between the resultof an excessive degree of wet and 

 ti(ne of forming the layers and the tit- cold at that period of closing growth 

 ness of the produce for use. Thus if when all bulbs and tubers require an 

 made early in September, the crop will increased degree of dryness and warmth, 

 be ready in the course of December. If the hyacinth, or tulip, or dahlia are 

 When they are examined, those that submitted to similar unpropitious con- 

 are lit may be taken oft', and the old tingencies, their bulbs or tubers simi- 

 potaloes replaced until the remainder larly decay. 



are ready. I it is not a new disease, for to a less 



Potato Murrain. — By the above ' extent it has been frequently noticed 



name was distinguished a moist gan- , before. The best preservative of the 



grene which attacked very generally tubers in such ungenial seasons is to 



the potato crop of England late in the take them up, to dry them perfectly, 



summer of the year 1845. July and and then store them in a dry shed in 



August were unusually wet and cold 

 and early in August there were sharp 

 morning frosts. Immediately after, the 

 stems began to decay; but the weather 

 continuing wet, instead of their decay 

 being dry, and attended with the usual 

 phenomena of their reduction to mere 

 woody fibre, the putrefaction was moist, 

 and the smell attendant upon it precise- 

 ly that evolved during the decay of dead 

 potato haulm partly under water. The 

 stem decayed whilst the fibres connect- 

 ing the tubers with them were fresh 

 and juicy — the putrefaction spread 

 along these, the ichor being absorbed 

 by their still energetic vessels, and 

 passing into the still immature and un- 

 usually juicy tubers, imparted to them 

 the gangrene; the infection first being ap- 

 parent at the end nearest the connecting 

 iibre, spreading gradually throughout 

 the liber of the tuber, rendering it brown 

 like a decayed apple, and lastly causing 

 the decay of its interior portion. Pre- 

 viously to the final decay, the increased 

 specific gravity of the potato was re- 

 markable, amounting to one-third more 



dry coal ashes. 



Much has been written on this sub- 

 iect, and the newspapers here and in 

 Europe have been tilled with specula- 

 tions as to its duration, &c. The failure 

 to a considerable extent of the crop of 

 the present year, (1S46,) would indicate 

 that the disease is not of such temporary 

 character as had been hoped and pre- 

 dicted. If it continue all the old varie- 

 ties must necessarily be abandoned, and 

 reliance placed on new ones, raised 

 from the seed proper; therefore, as a 

 matter of |)recaution, we would recom- 

 mend attention to that object. They 

 are readily produced by carefully sow- 

 ing the seed, and replanting the young 

 tubers in successive seasons, until they 

 attain full size. There is reason to hope 

 such would be free from disease, or at 

 any rate less liable to it, than the older 

 varieties. 



POTATO or UNDER-GROUND 

 ONION. Allium aggregatum. This 

 s[)ecies of Allium has received the 

 above appellations, on account of its 



than that ofa healthy tuber— an increase : producing a cluster ot bulbs or offsets, 

 caused by its greater amount of water. "' number from two to twelve, and even 

 When boiled it became black; but when i "lOf^, uniformly beneath the surface of 



submitted to a dry heat of about SOO^, 

 it rapidly lost moisture, and the pro- 

 gress of the ulceration was retarded, if 

 not entirely stopped. 



There can be no preventive for such 

 a disease as this — and the only chance 



the soil. From being first introduced 

 to public notice in Scotland by Captain 

 Burns of Edinburgh, it is there also 

 known as the Burn Onion. 



Varieties. — There evidently appear to 

 be two varieties of this vegetable, one 



of saving the tubers is to mow off all i of which bears bulbs on the s^^mmit of 

 the haulms close to the ground the i its stems, like the tree onion, and the 

 moment infection is apparent in them. | other never throwing up flower stems 

 This might prevent the circulation ofiatall. One variety is much larger than 



