492 
On the Potato Disease. 
say but little in addition to what I have advanced in the second 
part of the sixth volume of this Journal. Many plans have been 
recommended, such as dusting with lime, wrapping in clay and 
cow-dung, steeping in sulphuric acid and water, to all of which 
I have given a fair and impartial trial, but have found that those 
planted in the ordinary way have come up quite as well, and in 
some instances better than those to which chemical compounds 
have been applied. 
Autumn planting has been strongly urged as a remedy, but aa 
such will end I believe in disappointment. Neither is autumn 
planting in itself advisable as a general rule. It may succeed in 
some favoured spots, but the majority of situations are unfavour- 
able to this mode of planting. In the first instance, land that is 
apt to run together and harden will be beaten so tight with the 
rains of winter, that it will be impossible for the tubers to swell 
freely ; the soil likewise, being firm, will retain a large portion 
of water; consequently those tubers that are produced will be 
watery and unwholesome ; and as to early ripeness, the chance 
is against them, as the air cannot circulate properly in the soil 
in that state. This opinion is not founded upon mere idle spe- 
culation or prejudice, but is the result of many years' experience, 
as I always make the trial of autumn planting, and on the warmest 
and most favourable corner I can find, but in ten years' experi- 
ments I have found the balance of crop and quality 30 per cent, 
on an average in favour of spring-planted potatoes. 
In the year 1837-8 all my autumn-planted potatoes were 
entirely destroyed, although planted 7 inches deep and protected 
with 3 inches of litter ; and in the winter of 1844-5 they were 
partially destroyed when unprotected by artificial covering; 
besides the disadvantages above referred to, there are others 
almost as impossible to guard against on either a large or small 
scale : I allude to the depredations of rooks, jackdaws, magpies, 
rats, mice, moles, &,c., together with slugs, weevils, and wireworm. 
I have seldom seen a piece of autumn-planted potatoes that has 
not suffered materially from those causes, and in many instances 
even to the amount of two-thirds of the whole crop. 
I planted 8 rods of ground with second early potatoes the last 
week in October, 1844; about two-thirds of the plants made 
their appearance the last week in April, and were cut down with 
frost. They had recovered by the third week in May, and 
began to grow rapidly, but the haulm was weak and unable to 
support itself. They continued to grow and elongate until the 
second week in August, when the black spots made their appear- 
ance on the leaves, and the disease spread rapidly amongst them, 
so much so that out of IB pecks (for that was the produce) there 
were only 3 pecks free from disease in the first week of Septem- 
