FARME1?S' REGISTER— ON THfi FAlLL'RE OF POTATO CROPS. 



759 



one common extraction, and, if we reflect on the 

 effect of /ceding, it is not so improbable as it may 

 at first a])|)ear. 



Mr. Parkinson* relates a circumstance very 

 much to tlie point, that fell under his observation. 

 His Hither had a mare that brouglit him no le.ss 

 than Iburteen colts, and all by the same horse, and 

 not one of which at three years old was under 

 seventeen hands. She was in the fifteenth foal by 

 the same horse, when he sold her to a neighbor- 

 ing farmer, reserving the ibal which was to be de- 

 livered in a twelvemonth. At her new master's 

 she was comparatively starved, and she came 

 back at the expiration of the 3ear so altered as 

 scarcely to be recognized. The foal, four months 

 old, \\ia.s very small. The little animal was put 

 on the most luxuriant keep, but it did not reach 

 more than filleen hands at the exjnration of the 

 third jear. 



[Much space has been occupied of late in the Brit- 

 ish agricultural periodicals by articles on the remark- 

 able and extensive failures in the potatocrop. The fol- 

 lowing is the latest that has been received. We are so 

 ignorant of this culture on a large scale, as not to know 

 whether such diseases as are described, and the conse- 

 quent losses, have ever been experienced in the United 

 States. But even if not, and the principal value of 

 the following statements should be therefore useless, 

 there will still be found facts and opinions which will 

 be novel and interesting to many.] 



From the British Farmer's Magazine. 



OIV THE RECENT FAILURES IN THE POTATO 

 CROr, AND THE PROBABILITY THAT A 

 PREVENTIVE HAS BEEN DISCOVERED. 



By Mr. Peter Cowan, farm oversser, Antrim Cas- 

 tle. 



The immense variety of the potato in Ireland 

 is something surprising, seeing that the pains- 

 taking and patience-requiring endeavor to raise 

 new sorts Irom seed, is rarely if ever practised by 

 our farmers. It is probable that there are at least 

 two hundred distinct varieties in cultivation in this 

 kingdom — the kinds grown in one county, being, 

 in many instances, totally unknown in the adjoin- 

 ing one. The distinction in the quality of each 

 variety is also surprising. All the black or dark 

 blue skinned sorts are ibund to contain more farina 

 than the white colored ones, and housewives al- 

 ways choose the former for making potato-starch. 

 The red skinned sorts also contain a great portion 

 of farina at a certain season of the year. Some 

 kinds when raised in November are so watery 

 and strong lasted, as to be unfit for use at that 

 season, and continue so until the following spring, 

 when their quality becomes totally changed; they 

 are then mild, mealy, and excellent, and so contin- 

 ue through the summer months. Other kinds are 

 in high perfection when dug out in October and 

 November, preserve their good qualities through 

 winter, but become unfit for use towards the 

 month of April. Some sorts are excellent in au- 

 tumn, cease to be so through winter, but resume 

 their excellence on the approach of spring. In 

 general, the white skinned sorts are fit for the ta- 



* Parkinson on Breeding, and the Management of 

 Live Stock, vol. ii. p. 139. 



ble from August to Christmas — the black skinned 

 sorts from October to May — the red skinned sorts 

 from May or June to Augwst. Such a variety in 

 the quality of this root enables families in this 

 country to have good potatoes on their tables 

 every day in the year; a great advantage certain- 

 ly, but one, the interruption of which has been 

 seriously threatened by the fiiilure in the seed 

 roots of the last and those of the present year. 

 On uncovering a barren drill last season, some of 

 the sets were (bund quite rotten, while others were 

 perfectly sound, but unnaturally hard. In some 

 of the latter the buds had advanced an inch or 

 two, but, instead of continuing to grow in a regu- 

 lar manner, a stnall tuber had formed at the end, 

 and the growth of the shoot being tlius obstruct- 

 ed, another puny one was seen stealing from the 

 same eye. Some sets, after being in the ground 

 for six weeks, were just making an effort, as it 

 were, to strike. Some had sprung a few inches, 

 but, instead of taking an upright direction, they 

 grew round the set, and were hard and wiry, re- 

 sembling more the root of a young tree, than a 

 young succulent potato stem. These appearances 

 implied a want of vigor in the bud, consequent 

 upon a morbid state of the juices of it, and of the 

 part of the tuber or set from Avhich it sprung, 

 which led to the supposition that the fountain from 

 which the bud first derived its nourishment, name- 

 ly, this tuber or set itselfj must have been a poi- 

 soned one; but how it became so, and over such 

 an extent of country, it was not so easy to say. 

 This year a more general rot took place in the 

 sets, a.nd fewer of them produced weakly plants, 

 and, on this account, the appearance of the grow- 

 ing crop has all along been much better than it 

 was last year. 



The cause or causes of this failure have not 

 been satisfactorily ascertained: nothing, however, 

 has arisen to invalidate, but much to confirm, the 

 opinion which I ventured to express last season, 

 viz., that it was caused by atmospheric influence 

 affecting the set through the cut part of it. 

 Amono- many causes which have been assigned, 

 one or two may be noticed with a view of show- 

 ing their fallacy. 



And first, it appears to me to be perfectly clear, 

 that the failures cannot be attributed to any ma- 

 ■nagement of the potatoes when out of the ground, 

 as in the housing or pitting processes, &c., since, 

 in this country at least, that management has not, 

 during the last two years, diflcred in any respect 

 from what has been customary during the last 

 twenty years. Were any disease contracted by 

 the means used for preserving the roofs through 

 winter, would it not show itself in the whole pota- 

 to, as well as in the cut set? It would unques- 

 tionably. But it does not; it is only when the 

 potatoes are cut into sets* that the evil is to be 

 apprehended. 



The failure is caused, say some, by the potatoes 

 from which seed is taken being unripened. Now, 

 nothing could be more unlikely than this; for, 

 whatever theorists have said, or may say, practi- 

 cal men know, that um'ipened, and, consequently, 

 watery potatoes, make the best seed-roots, inas- 

 much as they always produce the most healthy 



* Has not the practice of cutting also prevailed pre- 

 viously to the last two years? If so, this objection, ia 

 great measure, falls to the ground. — Conductor. 



