No. 5. 



The Potatoe Rot. 



159 



ard?, were producing' very large specinions. 

 In the fruit room, wore bushels of the F,ouise 

 Bonne de Jersey, laid on slielves to ripen off; 

 this variety succeeds well in this way, and 

 it mav be kept in eating- from September to 

 1 )ocember. It is, without exception, one of 

 the hnest fall pears which has yet been in- 

 troduced. 



Mr. Wilmot still continues to brincf for- 

 ward his pines by dung- heat, and the men 

 were now lining tlie succession fruiting pits. 

 Where manure is not expensive, it is proba- 

 b'lV a more economical way than fire heat. 



[t was a source of surprise to see the im- 

 mense quantities of fruit which are daily 

 sent to market by the proprietor. With 

 the exception of rhubarb, he does not culti- 

 vate any thing but fruit: of the former ve- 

 getable,' he grows a great quantity every 

 year. — Hoveifs Magazine of Horticul- 

 ture. 



The Potatoe Rot. 



Upon this subject, so interesting to our 

 agricultural readers, we publish the follow- 

 ing extracts from late English papers. We 

 can but remark in introduction, how much 

 more terrible is the calamity to to the over- 

 done population of Europe than to us, as is 

 evidenced in the efforts recommended by the 

 correspondent of the Bristol paper to make 

 a portion of the vegetable still available as 

 tbod. — Saturday Post. 



From the Gardeners' Chronicle. 



A fatal malady has broken out among the 

 potatoe crop. On all sides we hear of the 

 destruction that has overtaken this valuable 

 product, excepting in the North of England. 

 In Belgium the fields are said to have been 

 entirely desolated. There is hardly a sound 

 sample in Covent-garden market. This dis- 

 ease consists in a gradual decay of,the leaves 

 and the stem, which become a putrid mass, 

 and the tubers are affected by degrees in a 

 similar way. The first obvious sign is the 

 appearance on the edge of the leaf of a black 

 spot, which gradually spreads; then gan- 

 grene attacks the haulm, and in a few days 

 the latter is decayed, emitting a peculiar and 

 rather offensive odor. When it is severe, 

 the tubers also decay; in other cases they 

 are comparatively uninjured. 



The cause of this calamity is, we tiiink, 

 traceable to the season. During all the first 

 weeks of August the temperature has been 

 cold — from two to three degrees below the 

 average; we have had incessant rain and no 

 sunshine. It is hardly possible to conceive 

 that such a continuation of circumstances 

 should have produced any other result, all 

 things considered. The potatoe absorbs a 



very large quantity of water. Its whole 

 construction is framed with a view to doing" 

 so; and its broad succulent leaves are pro- 

 vided to enable it to part with this water. 

 But a low temperature is unfavourable to the 

 motion of the tluids, or the action of the 

 cells of the plant; and moreover, sunlight 

 is required to enable the water sent into the 

 leaves to be persj)ired. In feeble light the 

 amount of perspiration from a plant is com- 

 paratively small; in bright sunshine it is 

 copious; in fact the amount of perspiration 

 is in exact proportion to the quantity of light 

 that falls upon a leaf At night, or in dark- 

 ness, there is no appreciable action of this 

 kind. During the present season all this 

 important class of functions has been de- 

 ranged. The potatoes have been compelled 

 to absorb an unusual quantity of water; the 

 lowness of temperature has prevented their 

 digesting it, and the absence of sunlight has 

 rendered it impossible for them to get rid of 

 it by perspiration. Under these circum- 

 stances it is neces.?arily stagnated in the 

 interior; and the inevitable result of that 

 was rot, for a reason to be presently e.x- 

 plained. 



Although we first see the symptoms of 

 the disease in the leaves and then in the 

 haulm, we believe that it commences under 

 ground, in the haulm which is just below 

 the old set. There water collects the most, 

 there the temperature is lowest, and there 

 the old set itself, acting like a sponge, and 

 itself decaying, feeds the live stem with 

 semi-putrid matter. 



The miscliief, although very general, is 

 not universal. It is, however, appearing in 

 some of the gardens round London ; and it 

 has begun to attack a field near ourselves, 

 on the London clay, which, as it offers what 

 we think a good illustration of the way in 

 which the potatoe crop is affected by such a 

 season as this, we shall proceed to describe. 

 The field is bounded on two sides by a deep 

 ditch, newly cut, and on the others by a hard 

 roadway. It was last year a pasture. Du- 

 ring the autumn it was trenched three spit 

 deep; but in such a way that the turf was 

 turned down about a spit below the surface. 

 It was planted partly in December, and 

 partly in April. Here, on this cold soil, 

 lying on a dead level, with scarcely any 

 means of effectual drainage, the potatoe 

 murrain might have been expected, and 

 here it has made its appearance, but not to 

 any great extent. Symptoms are discover- 

 able here and there; but only in one place 

 has the haulm actually decayed. That 

 place was a low part of the field, and had 

 been made of road sand and similar rubbish, 

 very retentive of water. Elsewhere the 



