58 The Potatoe Plague. 
Board Room, Royal Dublin Society, 
24th October, 1845. 
My Lorp,— We, the undersigned Commissioners, ap- 
pointed by Her Majesty’s Government to report to your 
Excellency on the state of disease in the potatoe crop, and on 
the means of its prevention, have the honor to inform your 
Excellency that we are pursuing our inquiries with unremit- 
ting attention. 
We are fully sensible of the important and difficult nature 
of the inquiry, and therefore are unwilling to offer, at the 
present moment, any final recommendations, as we are still 
recciving evidence, and awaiting the results of various ex- 
periments now in progress. But at the same tine we ought 
to staie to your Excellency that we have reason to hope that 
the progress of the disease may be retarded by the applica- 
tion of simple means, which we trust may appear worthy 
of adoption, until we are enabled to offer further recom- 
mendations. . 
In the present communication we avoid entering into any 
account of the origin or nature of the disease; but we would 
particularly direct attention to the ascertained facts, that 
moisture hastens its progress, and that it is capable of being 
communicated to healthy potatoes when they are in contact 
with such as are already tainted. A knowledge of these 
facts, determined, as they have been, by experiment, and 
agreeing with the scientific inforinution obtained as to the 
causes and nature of the disease, lead us to propose the adop- 
tion of the following plan for diminishing the evils arising 
from the destructive malady : 
In the event of a continuance of dry weather, and in soils 
tolerably dry, we recommend that the potatoes should he al- 
lowed, for the present, to remain jn the land; but if wet 
weather intervene, or if the soil be naturally wet, we consider 
that they should be removed from the ground without delay. 
