202 The Potato Disease. [Oct.» 



THE POTATO DISEASE. 



A Prize Essay, by H. Cox, condensed from the Journal of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society of England. 



We shall attempt to give only a brief abstract of this essay; 

 though we are inclined to give more, inasmuch as there is a gene- 

 ral accordance of the views of this writer with our own, as our 

 friends and readers will observe by comparing it with what we 

 have said and written during the three years in which this journal 

 has been published. We have however, only slight attachments 

 to the theory herein maintained, and are ready to embrace any 

 other when its merits are based on a foundation sufficiently sub- 

 stantial. 



The author commences by saying, that the failure of the potato 

 crop in 1845, has given rise to many theories as to its cause, some 

 imagining that it was a fungus, while others contend that it was 

 caused by atmospheric influences; this latter is the view the au- 

 thor maintains, principally on the ground that many other vegeta- 

 bles were affected by a similar disease at the same time, citing in 

 this connexion, the ash, oak, poplar, hazel, the vine, the apple, 

 pear and plum; but particularly the walnut, the French bean, 

 mangel wurtzel, carrots and turnips. In the case of the walnut, 

 it gave out of two bushels of fruit not a single nut, but that ex- 

 hibited signs of disease. Its leaves exhibited also the symptoms 

 of disease. All the early varieties of turnips decayed at the top; 

 the swedes were affected almost as much as the potatoes, the 

 orange globe mangel wurtzels were affected in the proportion of 

 one in five, carrots at the rate of one in eight. Mr. Cox then 

 proceeds to state other facts in regard to the disease, and shows 

 that certain varieties were less subject to it than others, and es- 

 pecially those which were nearly mature at the time when the 

 supposed cause began to operate, and cites the ash-leaf kidney, 

 which was dug the first week in August, and no symptom of dis- 

 ease appeared in them. On the contrary, those which were a 

 month or six weeks later, and were dug early in September were 

 nearly all lost. 



In the first week in April, our author planted a piece with 

 second early kinds, called prolific, and a few china orange pota- 

 toes. The rows ran north and south; one end running up a steep- 

 ish bank, the other descending into a damp peat. The higher 

 parts of the field were poorer than the lower, the potatoes on the 

 latter grew luxuriant and rank, and covered the ground, so that 

 no air could circulate among them. Now the rate at which the 

 ends were affected was as follows; those upon the upper and 



