760 



FARMERS' REGISTER— FAILURE OF THE POTATO CROP. 



and the most vigorous plants, this watery matter 

 being the gerniinative principle; and, therefore it 

 is that farmers resort to mopsiy ground, or to the 

 hills, for their seed; and, it is by acting on this 

 principle, that market gardeners and nurserymen 

 are enabled to preserve iheir select kinds of pota- 

 toes free from degeneracy. When intended for 

 seed, for themselves or others, they plant them 

 late in the season, or they dig them early in the 

 season; in either case the tubers are not matured, 

 they are watery, the farina has not been devel- 

 oped, and in this way they continue to raise great 

 crops of the same kinds of potatoes on the same 

 ground, year after year. On the other hand, we 

 know that if we choose and use for seed, those po- 

 tatoes which have grown in good land, have fully 

 ripened there, and which, consequently, contain 

 the greatest proportion of larina, and the least of 

 water, many of the plants will be curled, a general 

 want of vigor will be evident, and the produce 

 will be far inferior to that from watery unripened 

 roots. Indeed, so long ago as 1811, that acute 

 observer and eminent practical agriculturist, the 

 late Mr. Brown, of Markle, N. B., speaking of 

 the curl in potatoes, observes, (see his "Rural "Af- 

 fairs," 2 vols.,) that: — "it appears to be occasion- 

 ed by an over-ripeness of the plant, whereby its 

 strength or procreative power is so much debilitated 

 as to render it unable to brnig forward a tiealthy 

 plant afterwards." This is fi;irther illustrated and 

 confirmed by the fact, known to all persons en- 

 gaged in rural affairs, that the rose-end — particu- 

 larly in the long, fiat, kidney-shaped varieties — the 

 rose-end, comprising a fourth or fifth part of the 

 potato, makes better seed than any other part of 

 the root. Boil these potatoes, however, and it will 

 be found that this rose-end, which would make 

 such good seed, is so soft and watery as to be 

 sometimes nneatable, while the rest of the potato 

 is firm, dry, and floury. 



As little likely to gain credence among practical 

 men, is the assertion, that the failures have been 

 caused by the attacks of worms, slugs, maggots, 

 or animalculae. Some people on examining their 

 "missed" ground, found the potato sets had be- 

 come a rotten, pulpy mass, and the abode of mag- 

 gots, and thus ima^jined that they had discovered 

 the cause of the failure, but, as with all putrid 

 substances, this was the effect, not the cause. A 

 potato set may be "riddled," in country phrase, 

 or eaten through and through by slugs, without, 

 in the least degree, affecting the growth of the 

 bud, and this we have frequently an opportunity 

 of witnessing in those sorts of potatoes which are 

 dug early in the season; the tops shall be strong 

 and vigorous, and a good crop of tubers, while at- 

 tached to the root is often seen the old set which 

 has scarcely begun to decay, though eaten full of 

 holes by slugs, worms, and maggots. If, afler 

 depositing the set in the ground, the bud starts 

 from it vigorously, it soon forms its own roots, and 

 as soon becomes altogether independent of the 

 set, which then gradually decays; but never until 

 the plant is established, unless it be affected by 

 other influences. 



Another doctrine, lately advanced by Professor 

 Rennie, of King's College. London, is the follow- 

 ing: — "it appears to me," says this gentlemnn, 

 "that paring and burning would be the most im- 

 portant rneasure which c^uld be adopted in Ireland 

 for purifjnng the soil, now so overloaded with pota- 



to excretions, that extensive failures in the crop 

 are not uncommon."* This theory, however, is 

 at once upset by the fact, that in the gardens of 

 the poor, where potatoes have been grown every 

 year for scores of years, there has scarcely been a 

 failure, certainly not one for ten vvhicii have oc- 

 curred in fields where several crops intervene be- 

 tween two of potatoes. Were the excrementi- 

 tious exudations from the roots of previous crops 

 of potatoes the cause of the late failures, it would 

 first show itself, and to a greater proportionate ex- 

 tent, in such places as the gardens just referred to, 

 whereas the very reverse of this is the fiict. If I 

 am asked how I account for the failures being less 

 in gardens than in fields, I answer — the cottager 

 generally plants his seed as he cuts them, or if he 

 cuts them on one evening, after his day's work ia 

 over for his employer, he plants them the next: 

 the ground of his garden, moreover, is generally 

 well dug and pulverized, and this leads me to 

 state a tew fiicls which appear to be confirmatory 

 of the opinion that the ladure has been caused by 

 atmospheric influence. 



First. When sets have been cut and planted 

 immediately, or "hot from the knife," they have 

 seldom failed, particularly if the cut surface has 

 been turned downwards, and if the second and 

 third precautions have been rigidly observed; but 

 when the sets have lain unplanted and exposed 

 to the air for a Aveek or ten days after beinsr cut, 

 the failures have been greater. Second. When 

 the ground has been properly prepared, that is, 

 pulverized and rendered fine, as it ought to be, 

 and the drills rolled, the failures have been less 

 than in badly prepared, coarse, lumpy, open, rough 

 ground; in the latter case, the air was freely ad- 

 mitted, in the former it was excluded; hence the 

 great extent of the failure in heavy clay lands. 

 Thirdr When the dung was properly decomposed 

 when applied to the ground, so that the covering 

 earth lay close to the set and excluded the air, the 

 failures have been fewer than where the dung, by 

 being green and littery, kept the ground open 

 and admitted the air. Fourth. When the sur- 

 face of the cut of the set has been covered with 

 some material which excluded the atmospheric air, 

 the sets have grown, although they remained un- 

 planted for a considerable time after being so ope- 

 rated on, but those sets which w^ere not treated in 

 this manner, entirely failed. 



I was led to make a number of experiments thia 

 season with a view of discovering a preventive, 

 but that just stated is the only one which hns been 

 attended with complete success. Recollecting 

 that whole potatoes do not fail, I bethought me of 

 making the sets equal to whole ones, by putting a 

 skin of some sort on that part of the set which 

 was bare; this I effected completely and quicklj'- 

 by a litde floured lime. I collected a quantity of 

 middle sized ])otatocs, and set a careful man to 

 work, who cut each potato into two, cutting 

 through the rose end; he had a little floured lime 

 bclbre him, (it was quite cold, having been some 

 days slacked,) into which he |)ressed the cut sur- 

 tiice of the sets before he laid them (the sets) out 

 of his hand; when limed in this way they were 

 put to one side. I found that a sulllciency of lime 

 adhered to the moist surfiice of the cut, to form, 

 when dry, a cake over it, about the sixteenth part 



* Quarterly Journal of Agriculture No. xxv., p. 23. 



