244 APPENDIX. [No. XV.B. 



" Perhaps it might be advisable to allow the stalk to grow from the 

 tuber two or three inches high, and then to detach it and use it as a set. 

 By this plan we should throw the potato-plant for its resources upon the 

 leaves, and not upon the original set ; and doubtless, by attending to other 

 circumstances influencing the result, we should thus place the plant in a 

 good condition for regenerating its fibre. 



" One potato-tuber upon this plan would send forth, numerous shoots, 

 and thus a great saving would be effected in the amount of potatoes used 

 for seed. We may expect, from the experiments of Marshall, that this 

 course would lessen the produce, and therefore this method would only 

 appertain to the regeneration of the potato plant, with the view of 

 obtaining again healthy seed, from which to propagate our plants." 

 Potato Plant, 487, 491, 492. 



In London we are supplied with the very best potatoes which exist, 

 and therefore we are literally eating, as a luxury, that which should serve 

 as food for the poor man next year. If thoughtless persons will eat the 

 seed potatoes, and others cannot be bought, surely the good of the 

 community, or even their own good, requires that public measures should 

 be taken to prevent the mischief. 



Heretofore, when the crop failed, its culture was not abandoned ; and, 

 indeed, as every vegetable used by man for food occasionally fails, we 

 might have been left utterly without food had such a foolish course been 

 adopted. The absurd dogma of the wearing out of the plant, and its 

 being no longer capable of being trusted, has produced all the mischief 

 which will continue the scarcity next year. 



BEPORT ON APHIDES FOB APRIL 1847. 



During the last month the weather has been still cold, and the spring 

 has been so extremely backward that but little vegetable matter is to 

 be found suitable for animal life. The backward spring has kept back 

 the aphides, and comparatively few species are yet to be found. At present 

 I have seen no vastator abroad, except in greenhouses. The vastator feeds 

 eagerly upon the orange-tree, tuberous nasturtium, and many other green- 

 house plants, showing its omnivorous character. I have it now feeding 

 upon endogenous and exogenous plants. The aphis of the rose has 

 appeared sparingly, in warm situations; so has also the aphis of the 

 apple-tree, cherry, plum, blackberry, fir, and perhaps of other plants. 

 The aphis of the currant has appeared in many situations in great abun- 

 dance; on both black and red currants it may be readily found by 

 looking on the underside of the leaf, and the discoloration of the leaf will 

 indicate its position. From an examination of several strawberry grounds, 

 I have been greatly astonished at the extent of mischief which has been 

 effected in some places by the aphis last year. The presence of the eggs 

 indicates that the aphis lived upon the plant ; and where eggs are found 

 on the leaves, there may be observed great patches of dead, withered 

 stalks. In these cases, doubtless, the damage inflicted upon the plant by 

 the aphis last year caused it to be so debilitated, that it ill resisted the 



