NATURE 



389 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1872 



THE POTATO DISEASE 



THERE seems little doubt that the present season will 

 prove one of the most unfavourable within this 

 generation as regards the yield of the fruits of the earth. 

 The steady rise in the price of corn indicates a widely- 

 spread fear that the harvest will turn out to \>t considerably 

 below the average, both in quantity and quality. The crop 

 of fruits of nearly every kind may be described as all but 

 a complete failure. The potatoes are estimated as irre- 

 deemably bad, to the extent of three-fourths of tlie yield. 

 Hops are in many parts scarcely worth the pulling. The 

 grass and root-crops have alone benefited by the wet and 

 ungenial summer. The cattle are, moreover, suffering from 

 the foot-and-mouth disease on almost every farm in some 

 counties, and we hear of the outbreak of rinderpest in 

 Yorkshire. 



In this dismal list the palm of failure must be given to 

 the potato, with the exception, perhaps, of the apple crop, 

 which has been destroyed by causes not affecting the 

 health of the tree. It ii, generally admitted that the 

 potato crop is, taken as a whole, the worst since 1S45 or 

 1846. The cause of failure is the same— one, in fact, that 

 has been more or less in existence ever since — the attack 01 

 a parasitic fungus, Botrytis or Peronospora uifestans, 

 peculiar to plants belonging to the same natural order as 

 the potato, and unknown before 1S45, or some say 1842. 

 The mycelium of this fungus eats into and completely 

 destroys the tissue of the leaf and stem, and when once 

 its ravages have commenced it is almost impossible to 

 arrest them. When the disease made its first great on- 

 slaught in 1845, innumerable remedies were suggested, 

 some of which have again cropped up during the 

 present season. Unfortunately, no sooner does one 

 experimenter announce in the Times a mode which he 

 has found effective of preventing or arresting the disease, 

 than another grower replies that he has tried the same 

 plan, and with him it has utterly failed. The exact 

 mode of action of the parasite, and the operation of 

 the proposed remedies, we intend glancing at on another 

 occasion. It is satisfactory, at all events, that Dr. 

 Hooker has given in public the weight of his authority in 

 favour of the statement that the starch of the potato is 

 not affected by the complaint, if only some economical 

 mode can be found of separating it from the diseased in- 

 gredients. This is some alleviation of a calamity which, 

 according to a statement in the Tiiius, threatens the 

 country with a bss of between twenty and thirty millions 

 sterling. 



The point to which we specially desire to call attention 

 at the present time, is the enormous material loss which 

 the country is now suffering, and has suffered year after 

 year, from causes which are unquestionably within the 

 range of scientific means to prevent, or at all events 

 materially to alleviate. We are satisfied that we are 

 within the mark when we say that the increased expendi- 

 ture in most middle-class families within the past eight 

 years, caused by the enhanced price of butchers' meat, 

 milk, and potatoes, represents an income-tax of from a 



VOL. VI. 



shilling to eighteen-pence in the pound. A portion of 

 this rise is no doubt due to increased consumption, caused ' 



by the general prosperity of the country ; but the greater ' 



part is owing to the prevalence of epidemic diseases in ' 



our crops and our herds. Surely Science can find no , 



worthier object than in an earnest attempt to find a re- 

 medy for this. And yet what is English Science doing ? 

 It was cogently asked a k\v days since in the Tiincs : — ^ 



" What are we doing, or what have we done, to obviate 

 the recurrence of a disease which is always impending ? j 



Probably all we can remember is that there is always a ! 



talk of the potato rot, and that some years it has been ^ 



worse than others. We can only say that this is a dis- 

 graceful confession. There is no matter in which Science ' 

 could interfere with more advantage ; and we seem to 

 have all the conditions of the subject under control." We ; 

 fear that the rebuke here given to English Science is not ■ 

 wholly undeserved. 



This brings us to the question which has so often been ' 



debated in these columns : — Where are we to find the \ 



proper individual or body to start and to carry on scien- 

 tific investigations of this nature— in private individuals, 

 in societies like the Agricultural or the Horticultural 

 Society, or in the Government ? Few will probably con- 

 tend in favour of the first alternative. Individuals, no 

 doubt, have been found, and will be found, to spend their 

 lives and lavish their fortunes in investigations in which 

 they have no or only a remote pecuniary interest. But it is 

 surely unwise in the extreme to subject our national pros- 

 perity to the hazard of private generosity. The societies 

 we have named, and others of a more local character, 

 such as the Highland Society, have done eminent service : 



in promoting sounder views and practices in agriculture 

 and horticulture ; but it is questionable whether inquiries ! 



of this nature are not beyond their scope, or whether any 

 conclusions at which they might arrive wjuld obtain the '■_ 



universal acceptance which would be desirable. We are, 

 therefore, driven once more to the third alternative ; and 

 compelled to inquire whether we have not a right to look 

 to the Government of the country to " interfere " in the 

 matter, as Mr. Gladstone would term it, that is to institute j 



and to promote an investigation into the Origin, Cause, j 



and Remedies for the Potato Disease. 1 



Little objection can be anticipated to the course we ' 



advocate on the ground of the money value at stake in .1 



the question. We are at the present time spending a ■: 



large sum of money and employing the highest talent in , 



the country in the settlement of a claim for a few .: 



millions ; to save the country several times as much ' 



per annum cannot be objected to as a matter un- ^ 



worthy the attention of our rulers. And yet, because the : 



one infliction will fall upon us in the form of an addi- 

 tional twopence to our Income-tax for a single year, the 

 other in the form of a much heavier addition to our ' 



butchers' and greengrocers' bills for many years in sue- j 



cession, we are content in the latter case to grumble and "i 



bear it, without making any serious efforts to relieve our- . 



selves from it. Science is often charged with being " un- \ 



practical ; " indeed, in the minds of perhaps the majority ] 



of people there is a kind of hazy feeling of a necessary ; 



antagonism between what is scientific and what is prac- ; 



tical. It is time for Science to redeem herself from this ' 



imputation, and no better opportunity could be found \ 



