248 
The Potato Disease. 
mode of construction, but gives additional space. It will be 
observed that the gables are corbelled out 16 inches ; and the 
timber walls, brick-nogged and plastered externally, are only six 
inches thick, against nine-inch brick walls ; thus adding con- 
siderably to the size of the bedrooms, care being taken that this 
addition is given to the parents' bedrooms. 
In conclusion, the Judges would add that the two designs are 
merely submitted as suggestions for carrying out a plan which 
they preferred, for reasons already given, to others submitted in 
competition at Cardiff ; and they hope that the publication of this 
Plan may contribute, in some degree, to remove a difficulty felt 
on all estates, viz., the providing good cottages for agricultural 
labourers at a moderate cost. 
(Signed) Geo. Hunt, 
C. Randell, 
February, 1873. Thos. Sample. 
VII. — The Potato Disease. By William Caeruthees, F.R.S., 
Consulting Botanist to the Society. 
Theee is reason to believe that the potato disease has been known 
for ages in the western countries of South America ; but its first 
ascertained appearance was just thirty years ago, when it seriously 
injured the crops of the United States and Canada. It reappeared 
in the same regions the following year (1844). In the latter half 
of the month of July, 1845, it was first detected in the Old 
World, in Belgium, and within two months thereafter its occur- 
rence was recorded in England, Ireland, and Scotland, in France 
and Germany, Denmark and Russia. Since that time it has 
never been entirely absent from the potato crops, although in 
some years it has been much more destructive than in others. 
Its extensive prevalence last season, and the serious havoc it com- 
mitted, threatening now a famine in some districts of Ireland, have 
drawn special attention to it recently, and have induced the Presi- 
dent of this Society (Earl Cathcart) to encourage the investigation 
of the nature of the disease by the offer of a Prize of 100/., in the 
hope that such investigation will lead to practical suggestions as 
to a method of palliating, if not of curing, the malady. 
With the approval of the Botanical Committee, I have drawn 
up the following short statement of the present state of knowledge 
regarding this disease : — - 
There is no longer any dispute as to its real cause. All the 
notions which supposed it to be produced by physical agencies, 
or to be the indication of a defective method of cultivation, or of 
