On (he Cultivated Potato. 
293 
r€ady to pounce : where the carcass is, there are the eagles 
gathered together. 
Concerning the conflict of evidence referred to in the Report 
of the Committee as to whether the mould peculiar to the potato 
and kindred plants did or did not exist in these islands pre- 
vious to the year 1845, I myself entertain no manner of doubt ; 
my instincts, the analogies, the probabilities, the evidence now 
in question, and all my reading of authorities of this century 
and the last, lead me to believe with that portion of the expert 
evidence which says, in effect, that the mould in question is 
in connection with it as old as the potato ; only until com- 
paratively recent times men had not for common things such 
microscopic eyes. 
The evidence further tends to show that our knowledge, whilst 
tolerably complete as to the mould, is altogether insufficient in 
regard to varieties of the potato-plant, and to their disease- 
resisting capabilities. We are also said to be much in want of 
cultural results. 
We are told how important it is to keep up the physical 
condition of the plant by proper food and manure, and proper 
and sufficient space. Potatoes are overcrowded, they are treated 
alike on all soils, high and low, dry and marshy. The mould 
in question, it is observed, also attacks various wild plants, as 
the Solanum dulcamara, the bitter-sweet of our hedges ; but these 
being healthy, hardy, and to the manner born, consequently 
natural to the soil and climate, throw off the attack with ease, 
and rarelv succumb; hardy native and uncared-for subjects 
escape, whilst imported and cultivated plants degenerate and 
perish. 
I wish to direct the attention of practical growers to the 
following suggestions which arise on the Parliamentary evidence, 
and are supported by independent evidence received by me from 
home and foreign correspondents. The suggestions relate to 
the conduct of the potato-plant in its social relations with other 
plants ; on this point I think it is Liebig who observes, in effect, 
that the struggle for existence of kindred plants is far more 
severe than that between individuals of different species. It has 
been observed that in alternate rows with beans, potatoes have 
been remarkably free from disease : again, volunteer crops, 
that is, potatoes in the second year growing spontaneously with 
other crops, as corn or turnips, are said to be absolutely free 
from disease. 
In taking leave of the Report and Evidence of the Commons 
Committee, we may, in conclusion, gather that, as regards the 
cultivated potato, there is no natural selection ; ^Nature is not 
Iree to act in her own way, so judgment in selection is abso- 
