ON POTATOES 



%07 



of November: but in Enaland the potato is never safe frcra 

 frost till near the end of Maj'; indeed I have seen the leaves 

 and stems of a crop, in a very low situation, completely de- 

 stroyed, as late as the 13th of June, and they are generally 

 injured before the nijddle, and sometimes in the firft week 

 of September. 



The Irish varieties, bein}^ excessively late, are almost al- 

 ways killed by the frost while in full blossom; when,.omit- 

 ting all consideration of the useless expenditure of manure, 

 ijt may justly be questioned whether the tubers of sucU 

 plants, being immature, can afford as nutritive, or as whole- 

 gome food, as others which, have acquired a state of perfect ■ • 

 maturity. , ^ 



The preceding statement will I trust point out to the Importance «f 

 Horticultural Society the importance of obtaining 'f"P''oved **.^^^'°^jj^* 

 varieties of the potato, and-I believe no plant existing to be to this coontrT, 

 more extensively capable of improven>ent, relatively to the 

 climate of England; and if practical evidence were wanted 

 to prove the ejiten't, .to which the culture of the potato is, 

 calculated to increase and sypport the population of a coun- 

 try, Ireland most amply affords it; v?here population has 

 increased among the catholic poor, with almost unprece- 

 dented raphdity, within the last twenty years, .urj,der.^the 

 pressure of jnore distress and misery, than has ptjrn^^s been 

 felt in any other spot in Europe. 



.1 shall conclude my present communication with sonue re- Remarks on 

 marks upon the origin and cure ofa disease, the curl, which ' ^*^"' • 

 a few years ago destroyed many of our best varieties of the 

 potato ; and to the attacks of which every good variety of the 

 potato will probably be subject. 



I observed that the leaves of severi^l kinds of potatoes, Ofig>n of the 

 which were dry and farinaceous, that I cultivated, produced 

 curled leaves; while those of other kinds, which were soft 

 and aqueous, were perfectly well formed ; whence I was led 

 'to suspect, that the disease originated in the preternaturally 

 inspissated state of ihe sap in the dry and farinaceous varie- 

 ties. I conceived, that the sap, if not sufficiently fluid, 

 might stagnate in, and close, the fine vessels of the leaf 

 during its growth and extension, and thus occasion the irre- 

 gular contractions, which constitute this disease : and this 



conclusion 



