On a Disease in Potatoes. 435 
A potato has lately been Inouglit to mc having a young one, 
apparently formed in the interior of the old j)otato, and now partly 
protruding through its skin. The old jK)tato is only now begin- 
ning to grow at the eyes, in the ordinary way, but quite out of 
the ordinary season. 
In this case the decomposition and reformation of substance 
seems to have taken place within the body of the potato, llxternal 
circumstances of soil or air could not have caused the effect, 
because the potato had no roots or shoots capable of being acted 
upon by the atmosphere. So far the case seems to favour the 
opinion, that the growth of Bobbin- Joans depends upon the 
internal, probably chemical, condition of the parent sot, and on 
no other cause. 
I find that this disease is well known in Ireland, and I have 
heard it attributed to the cast wind. 
Carclew, October 23rd. 
XXXIII. — Crown Estate at King Willianis Town, in the 
Counties of Cork and Kerry. By J. Frkncii Burke. 
Three years ago, some Parliamentary Reports respecting ex- 
perimental improvements on the crown estate of King William's 
Town, in the counties of Cork and Kerr}', were forwarded to this 
Society by the Commissioners of Her Majesty's Woods and 
Forests; and a summary of. their contents was drawn up, which 
is published in the first volume of this Journal. 
In December, 1841, two further Reports were made on the 
subject, and transmitted on the part of the Commissioners to the 
Duke of Richmond — as being then President of the Society — 
accompanied by a letter, of which the following is an extract : — 
" In the course of the experimental improvements now in progress 
on the crown's estate at King William's Town, in the counties of Cork 
and Kerry, in Ireland, a suggestion was made, in the year 1840, by 
your Grace to the then First Commissioner of this Board, as to the im- 
portance of a trial being made of the comparative value of Scotch and 
Irish cows, in respect to their relative produce in milk and butter ; and 
the Commissioners accordingly directed the purchase of six Scotch 
heifers of the Galloway breed, in order to such an experiment being 
instituted at King William's Town, in regard to their produce as com- 
pared with a like number of Ayrshire and Kerry cows then on the 
estate. 
" The result of this trial, so far as circumstances would permit its 
being instituted, has been submitted in detail to the Board by Mr. 
Griffith, under whose superintendence tlie several operations on the 
