360 
On the Potato Disease. 
the same result has taken place this year with some diseased sets 
which I planted for trial, although some others produced tolerable 
plants.) In the autumn of the same year, while taking up some 
Shaws, I also had several bushels discoloured in a similar manner 
to those of last year; some partially, others all over. It did not, 
however, occur to me to examine the haulm at that time; but I 
have referred to the persons who took up the crop, and find they 
also remember tlie circumstances above related; I have also 
been informed that this disease has been known for some years on 
the warp lands in Yorkshire in cold wet seasons. It has also 
been stated in the " Gardener's Chronicle" to have been preva- 
lent in a part of Ireland for the last three or four years, and in 
one place in the Isle of Thanet in 1844 ; and I have little doubt, 
from the tons of diseased potatoes which I have seen thrown away 
by one grower in such seasons, that it has often visited us before ; 
but never having been so universal, nor the press so available to 
make known the disasters to which the agriculturist is liable, it 
has passed among other injuries which, from their frequency, he 
is accustomed to slight. 
It has also been supposed that certain sorts were less obnoxious 
to the disease than others, especially those recently raised from 
seed, from a notion that the old sorts were superannuated, for 
which there is not the least foundation ; for very few really old 
sorts are retained in general cultivation, having been superseded 
by the Jersey Blue, Prince Regent's, and many other compara- 
tively recent sorts, which were as much affected as any of the 
older kinds in some places, if less so in others. And as to last 
year's seedlings, I can state, from my own experience of a few I 
grew, that thei/ were equally affected. 
The only sorts which escaped entirely if allowed to ripen were 
the ashleaf kidney and early frame, where planted forward. And 
by a letter received from the Rev. J. Robertson, Secretary to an 
Agricultural Society at Bridgtown, Nova Scotia, whose duty it 
was to lay the returns of that province before the House of As- 
sembly, I learn that the only sort which escaped there was a veri/ 
early kind called "blue noses," and this was not touched, while 
of their later kinds 7-8ths were destroyed. I have no means of 
satisfying myself as to the collective loss in this country, but pro- 
bably it would amount to about one-half of the crop. These were, 
however, by no means wasted ; some having been converted into 
starch, which unless proper apparatus was employed was a trou- 
blesome process, and the drying difficult. I did not obtain more 
than 8 lbs. of fine starch to the bushel, as tliere was some waste, 
and the potatoes could not be grated entirely by hand. But the 
greater part were given to cattle, which throve very well upon 
them if boiled, or even given raw in moderation. 
