Oil the Potato Disease. 
487 
another variety called the Early Somerset kidney; only in this 
case the beds were in two different situations. 
In the first week of April I planted a piece with second early 
kinds, called Prolific, and a few China Orange potatoes : the 
situation of this piece was well adapted for observation, the rows 
running in direct lines north and south, one end being elevated 
on a steep bank, and the other running into a damp flat; now the 
upper parts of the rows being exposed and the soil likewise being 
rather poor, the plants came up sturdy and grew slowl}', so that 
there was plenty of room for the wind (what little there was) to 
circulate about them ; consequently the tubers were in a more 
forward state than at the lower end of the rows. The plants in 
the flat, from the ground being damp and richer than the top, 
grew rapidly, running together in a mass, consequently had no 
chance either of exposing their foliage to the light or of getting 
dry at intervals, but were exposed to the effects of a continual 
damp. I marked a piece 3 yards wide across the rows at each 
end, and after digging and carefully collecting them, I found that 
those grown on the top part were slightly affected at the rate of 
1 in 27 ; while those dug from the lower part were affected at the 
rate of 1 in 4. As we went further into the later varieties, the 
difference was not quite so perceptible ; the table standing thus : 
Top. Bottom. 
Reds . . . 1 in 7 1 in 3 
Purple . . 1 in 5 2 in 3 
Late Kidneys . 1 in 4 4 in 5 
I do not mean to say that so many potatoes were quite rotten at 
the time of digging ; in fact, one half of them appeared sound on 
the outside, but finding that the disease always made its first 
attack on the tuber just at the end of the string which connects 
it with the haulm, and by which it receives its food, I cut a 
small piece off each tuber just under the rind at the junction, 
when I could readily discover, by the appearance of a light brown 
spot of a ragged appearance, whether putrefaction had begun ; by 
this means I was enabled to find out which were affected, and to 
have them used first, so that out of twenty-six sacks of 2i cwt. 
each, I was not obliged to throw away more than 1 cwt. as abso- 
lutely useless; while many of my neighbours burned or otherwise 
destroyed two-thirds of their crop, and in some instances more. 
It has been asserted that cutting seed potatoes for planting 
accelerated the disease; this 1 could prove in numerous instances 
not to be the case ; one instance in particular, I think, is worth 
notice: having to plant a piece of ground with larches, &c., that 
had been previously let out for growing potatoes, I had occasion 
several times during the season to examine it ; there were in it 
two lots of potatoes grown side by side under two different modes 
