328 DISEASES OF FIELD & GARDEN CROPS. [CH. 



with various comments from correspondents, in the 

 volumes of the Gardener^ Chronicle for 1883 and 1884. 

 Personally, we are sorry to say that we esteem many of the 

 statements put forward by Mr. Jensen as contrary to fact. 

 "We say this without disrespect to Messrs. Jensen and 

 Plowright, who have certainly made a vigorous attempt 

 to ward off the attacks of the potato disease ; and for this 

 they deserve the hearty thanks of all practical men. 

 Their communications are, however, too voluminous and 

 involved for any complete reply here. Practical potato 

 growers, if so inclined, must sift, weigh, and compare the 

 numerous statements brought forward for themselves. 



We highly esteem Mr. Baker's suggestion regarding the 

 potato termed "Darwin's Potato," Solanum Maglia, Sch., 

 and 8. Commersoni, Dun. The evidence brought forward 

 by Mr. Baker seems to indicate that S. Maglia, Sch., 

 would well suit our humid climate ; and Commersoni, 

 Dun., appears to naturally resist the Peronospora. 



In 1874 and 1875 a report was widely spread in this 

 country through one of the scientific societies that Pro- 

 fessor De Bary of Strasbourg had discovered an alternation 

 of generations in the life cycle of the Peronospora of the 

 potato murrain, that he had found that the fungus 

 passed one part of its existence on clover, just like the 

 rusts and mildews of corn are assumed by some to live on 

 barberry bushes and borage. The scare had no effect on 

 the men of science in this country ; the statement was 

 received in silence, like the statements regarding the Colo- 

 rado beetle. In America, however, the case was different, 

 for when the report of the assumed discovery reached 

 that country it was believed, and notices appeared in the 

 agricultural reports published at Washington, and in 

 several agricultural journals in different parts of the 

 country, warning farmers according to Professor W. G. 

 Farlow in the Bulletin of the Bussy Institution, part iv. 

 that in consequence of Professor De Bary's discoveries no 

 potatoes should be planted after clover and other fodder 



