On the Prevention of Curl and Dry-Rot in Potatoes. 1G5 
vegetating, or only showed puny curled tops, and died without 
forming tubers larger than peas. The unripe reds were planted 
in a particularly unfavourable place, viz , an old lane which had 
been just added to an adjoining field, and was so hard and dry 
that parts of it had to be broken up with pickaxes. In conse- 
quence of the long drought the planting was delayed for several 
weeks in hopes of rain, but as none came they were put into the 
ground as dry as dust, and planted without manure : no rain, with 
the exception of a slight shower, fell till the potatoes were up. 
Still in the whole of the piece, rather more than an acre, I could 
not discover that a single plant had failed, and the braird was 
uniformly strong and healthy. It will be well to present these 
results in a tabular form. I shall assume that the red potatoes 
bought in 1840, and the black kidneys in 1841, had been taken 
up ripe; and their mealiness will justify such an assumption, as 
unripe potatoes are always watery, and unfit for the table. 
Round Reds. 
Year. 
Seed taken up. 
Quality of Crop. 
Quantity of Crop. - 
1840 
1841 
1842 
1843 
1844 
Ripe (supposed). 
Unripe. 
Unripe. 
Ripe. 
Unripe. 
Curled. 
No curl. 
No curl. 
Curled. 
No curl. 
Failing crop. 
Good crop. 
Good crop. 
Indifferent crop. 
Good crop. 
Black Kidneys. 
Year. 
Seed taken up. 
. Quality of Crop. 
Quantity of Crop. 
1841 
1842 
1843 
1844 
Ripe (supposed). 
Ripe. 
Unripe. 
Ripe. 
Curled. 
Curled. 
No curl. 
Much curled. 
Failing crop. 
Light crop. 
Capital crop. 
Very bad crop. 
Had the above results been obtained by experiments contrived 
for the purpose, they could not have borne more directly on the 
point in question, as we find that in the wet summer of 1843, and 
the extraordinary drought of 1844, as well as in the average 
seasons of 1841 and 1842, it accidentally happened that part of 
my potato crop was grown from ripe and another part from unripe 
sets, and in every case with success from the (me and failure from 
the other : thus showing that the seasons could not be blamed as 
the cause of curl. To make these instances still more conclusive, 
it also happened that each of the two very different kinds of pota- 
toes named were alternately affected by or free from curl : thus 
