No. 216.] 625 



perhaps lead us rather to the eonclusion that the disease is deeper 

 seated, and first appears in the root. 



On examining the growing plants, the principal or tap root, it is 

 believed, will always be seen to be affected, and this, often before 

 any symptoms indicative of it, have appeared in the stems and foliage. 



The taint will be seen extending along the connecting rootlets to 

 the tubers, aftd this while the stems and leaves are growing luxuri- 

 antly, and are free from any perceptible taint, when all at once, the 

 disease reaching the part of the plant above ground, the leaves ex- 

 hibit the symptoms now so well known. If it should turn out that 

 the disease first appears in the root, we can hardly expect that many 

 of the remedies proposed, as sprinkling the growing plants with lime 

 or other substances will be of use, and it will then also be probable 

 that the cutting over of the stems acts only as a palliative by arrest- 

 ing the progress of vegetation. 



ARGYLSHIBE. 



We are an exporting district, and on inquiry I find that about 

 9000 tons of potatoes are annually shipped to Liverpool, Glasgow, 

 and occasionally to Ireland, from five parishes. Those potatoes which 

 have escaped the disease are of excellent quality. 



The seed heads of the potato are now rarely formed. 



The disease is to be ranked with cholera among men, and murrain 

 among cattle. The chief lineament of its character is independence 

 of action; and that action of the most erratic description. If it seiz- 

 ed this neighborhood, it passed over that; only, however, to attack 

 another. For another year's crop we must look for healthy seeds, 

 good manure, and a careful separation of the tubers to be planted. 



Generally, the newest and freshest varieties have been least affect- 

 ed, and the old cultivated varieties the most. 



For ten or twelve years past it has been rare to see a field of po- 

 tatoes exhibiting any quantity of flower. 



I. Stewart Hepburne, of Colynhalzie, Crieff. The potato as ori- 

 ginally brought from Virginia by Sir Walter Raleigh, is stated to 

 have been of a watery or waxy nature, and of a small size, little lar- 

 ,ger than a walnut. In Europe, for a period of two hundred years, it 



[Afj. Inst.] PP 



