390 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ November S , 1891. 
POTATO DISEASE EXPERIMENTS. 
Your reporter, after recapitulating on page 340 part of what occurred 
on Friday, 16th, at Reading, winds up by stating, “ Here is the signifi¬ 
cant summary, and there cannot be a doubt of its absolute correctness.” 
That it stated the facts is quite right, but had he examined the 
figures he would have seen that 601 rows were planted with varieties 
that were injured by the mixture and only 209 rows with those that 
benefited. Had the rows been equal the result would have been 
G cwt. 0 qr. 14 lbs., and not 11 cwt. 1 qr. 4 lbs., a result quite serious 
enough, but rather altering the proportion. I must also ask your 
reporter where he ascertained that the Board of Agriculture recommends 
the dressings and areas to be dressed that he states he wishes to recall to 
your readers. I do not hesitate to inform him they never existed 
outside his brilliant imagination, and I have that assurance from Major 
Craigie himself, who stated that the pamphlet issued in May containing 
an account of what had been done in various places was all that had 
been sent out, and he expressed a wish to see a copy of your paper con¬ 
taining the mythical instructions. The gentleman who reported on the 
trial evidently never saw that pamphlet, also as evidently did what 
nearly all the gentlemen of the Press have done, and that is, hashed irp 
Messrs. Suttons’ printed report and flavoured it according to taste. I 
am extremely anxious to learn where he discovered that there is any 
particular term for the fungoid attack to be most dangerous, as I should 
be glad to forward particulars to U.S. Agricultural Department, who 
have been most generous in supplying me with information. 
Having made these remarks I wish to state that in no way am I 
animated by a desire to question that the trial was not made by Messrs. 
Sutton with an honest desire to benefit the Potato grower. Some of the 
figures given in the report prove this, as it shows varieties not of their 
raising in a most favourable light as regards cropping. I was most 
kindly invited down, and only regretted that some mistake had been 
made in the preparation or application of the mixture preventing it 
being a success. I was the last to be prepared to find the mixture 
positively injurious, and I fancy your readers after perusing what 
follows will not be surprised I was so. At Sittingbourne, Kent; 
Cardington, Bedfordshire ; Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire, in South Wales, 
Devonshire, and Lancashire, the R.A.S.E. have applied three dressings 
of 2 per cent, mixture to a 2-acre plot of Potatoes. The first dressing 
was applied to all the plots between June 29th and July 13th; the 
second from July 15th to July 27th. I have no information as to the third. 
75 gallons of mixture per acre was used at the first, and 100 gallons at 
the second ; no knowledge of quantity at the third. Regents were the 
variety planted at Sittingbourne, Daniels at Cardington. At Sitting- 
bourne the owner of the Potatoes, Mr. Cobb, had 9 acres of Regents 
dressed twice with a 2 per cent, mixture in the same field as the plot ex¬ 
perimented upon by the R.A.S.E. It was put on by his own labourer with 
an Eclair, under the superintendence of his intelligent bailiff, who had 
helped Mr. Riley, who made all the experiments for the R.A.S.E. None 
of the bine upon these several 2-acre plots or upon the 9 acres of 
Regents was damaged by the mixture. I saw the 11 acres of Regents in 
Kent on 21st of September. They were then green and growing. Regent 
bine untreated alongside or treated with 1 ^ per cent, of the mixture only, 
all long killed down by blight. The plots in South Wales and Bedford¬ 
shire have now been weighed and show handsome increase per acre over 
Potatoes untreated. The firm upon whose farm in Bedfordshire trial 
was made wrote me they are well satisfied with the utility of the 
mixture. At Sittingbourne and Cardington the R.A.S.E. are trying 
various strengths of mixture, and at the latter place an experiment with 
sulphate of iron instead of copper is added. At Bewdley, Worcester¬ 
shire, Mr. Thomas Harley dressed at the end of August Maincrop, 
Bruce, and Early Puritan once with 30 per cent solution. Result, no 
damage to bine, and as far as could be seen improvement over other 
varieties in fields adjoining. 
At Chessington Hall, Surbiton, Mr. H. Chancellor dressed a plot of 
Hebrons in the wettest part of a large field with 2 per cent, mixture 
twice, and a plot of Jeannie Deans in the middle of a field once with 4 per 
cent, on 5th August. On 29th August when I saw them the Hebron 
bine not dressed was all dead with disease ; treated plot untouched and 
ripening off. The Jeannie Deans were a grand green colour ; the same 
variety alongside untreated all killed down. Both these plots sustained 
no damage from Bouillie Bordelaise, and upon being weighed gave an 
•increase of some tons to the acre over those not treated. 
Deeping St. Nicholas, Spalding. On 3rd July I here applied 2 per cent, 
mixture to 12 square rods of Maincrop in the middle of an 8 acre field, 
also to Puritans, Internationals, Myatt’s, White Beauty of Hebron, 
altogether about twenty odd sorts, upon my trial ground of 3 acres, many 
of the varieties being those that Messrs. Sutton state were damaged by the 
mixture ; so many yards of a row of each variety were treated. I also 
dressed a plot of Puritans in another part of the farm. On 1st August 
I repeated the application to all with 3 per cent, mixture, and later on 
put 3 per cent, again on the Puritans. On 2nd October Maincrop bine 
treated was still green, the rest of the field all killed down with disease, 
and only half the crop of treated part. I dug some yards of all the 
various sorts on the trial ground, f®und that the mixture bad failed to 
protect all the tubers of some varieties, more especially Internationals, but 
in every case the crop was double on treated Potatoes. The plot of Puritans 
when dug had not a diseased tuber, and was double the crop of those 
alongside not treated, which were half bad. Not a leaf at Deeping St. 
Nicholas was damaged of any variety. On 18th July I put 3 per cent, 
mixture on ten varieties on two plots at the end of an oblong piece of 
Potatoes on my trial grounds at Cliffe, Rochester. On 24th August, on 
my return from Lincolnshire, I found all the rows between the plots 
killed by disease; the bine of both plots were green, though one was 
slightly more spotted with blight than others. I applied 3 per cent, 
mixture to both ; it saved bine, on that least affected entirely, and it 
ripened off grandly; other went with disease in places most spotted. 
In this instance also not a leaf was damaged and the crop increased. 
On September 5th I had 2 acres dressed of Reading Giant especially 
planted late (June 18th) to try the effect of one dressing of 3 per cent. 
Bouillie Bordelaise put on late in stopping disease. Having a desire to 
ascertain the cost of application I had mixture applied by ordinary farm 
labourer. He went the longest way about the work, and took two days 
and a quarter, quantity applied 260 gallons on 2 acres. I had half a 
day with the Eclair and reckon I could do an acre in three-quarters of 
a day. The solution stayed the disease on the bine for some time, and in 
this case no damage to bine except where the stuff was prepared by 
labourers from my written directions, and I burnt off the bine of nearly 
half an acre. I had intended this two acres to be treated before the 5th, 
but the foreman was short of labour, and it was ten days after I sent 
copper down that the mixture was put on ; by that time all the leaves 
were spotted. On 11th September I dressed at Branstane, Edinburgh, 
some Maincrops, Regents, and Abundance, and some Abundance at Easter 
Duddingston, and Portobello ; in the latter case with the energetic co¬ 
operation of the Editor of the N.B. Agriculturist, who selected the 
farms mo3t likely to suit my purpose in the North. On the 15th I put 
the solution on to some Shaws, Reading Giants, and other varieties on 
my trial grounds at Pancathy Mill, Carnoustie, and on the 16th on to 
some Imperators on the farm of Balhousie, Carnoustie, near Arbroath ; 
mixture used in the North, 1 lb. copper, 1 lb. lime, to 26 pints of water ; 
object to ascertain if one dressing in Scotland would check disease once 
it had taken hold. No damage to a single leaf took place, but as far as 
the top was concerned it did no good. 
In 1890 Mr. E. S. Goff of Madison carried out some experiments for 
Mr. B. T. Galloway, Chief of the Division of Vegetable Pathology, upon 
the farm of Mr. A. L. Hatch, Ithaca, Richland County, Wisconsin, U.S.A. 
The farm is light clay loam, is in good cultivation, on the top of a hill, 
and not far short of 1000 feet above sea level. May, June, and up to 
July 13th, it was wet; in August, in twelve days, 3 46 inches of rain 
fell, and in September 2 5 inches in six days. Variety planted Snow r - 
flake ; mixture 6 lbs. lime, 4 lbs. copper, to 22 gallons water. First 
application July 3rd, last September 2nd ; no damage done to the bine 
by the mixture. Middle of August treated bine still green, untreated 
beginning to spot; result of treatment an average gain of 400 odd lbs. 
upon each of the four 16 rods treated against 16 rods left to Nature. 
To give an idea of the rain, some of the sets were washed out of the 
ground. The foregoing experiments were carried out under different 
climatic influences ; the crops were cultivated in various ways, and give 
a better criterion of the value of the mixture than Messrs. Suttons’, 
which was of practically one strength three times applied to the 
Potatoes—exposed to the same climate, on the same soil, and cultivated 
one way. It is true there were 278 sorts, but a mistake in the pre¬ 
paration or application affected the result on the whole plot, and only 
those varieties that were strong or got less of the mixture would escape 
being injured. 
As to the value of disease resisters, there are none ; all take it more 
or less. Had the Abundance at Reading been cultivated highly enough 
to enable a man to live by growing them for market they would have 
been half bad ; and the robust varieties, even when not taking it in the 
tubers, have the bine killed down by blight, causing want of quality in 
the crop and lowering its value in the market by 30s. ton or less, accord¬ 
ing as it is grown on good quality soil or the reverse. Magnums are 
being sold here now that cook like soap, simply because the bine was 
blighted before they were ripe. A mixture that will allow the Potato to 
complete its growth, even if it does not save all the tubers, is well worth 
applying at a cost of 25s. an acre. I have faith enough to use it next 
year on 100 acres to Potatoes grown to supply the London market (the 
cheapest in the world), and not cultivated to sell at fancy prices. 
—Wm. Whitehead Cousins, Covent Garden Market. 
[Our reporter appends, by our request, his observations on the fore¬ 
going communication as follows:—Mr. Whitehead Cousins’ compli¬ 
ment to the brilliancy of my imagination is exceeded by his own. I 
had no occasion to “ imagine ” anything, for all I had to do in reference 
to the dressings (not “areas”) recommended, was to copy the mixtures 
and applications from a document (not Messrs. Sutton’s printed report 
of the trials) now in my possession. 
As your correspondent is so sure I had not seen the May pamphlet 
of the Board of Agriculture, may I suggest it would have been kind of 
him if he had sent me a copy ? Also may I further suggest if this 
pamphlet was intended to reach the greatest number of cultivators of 
Potatoes, that a copy ought to have been sent to the Journal of 
Horticulture ? No doubt, so far as a very large number of Potato 
growers are concerned the pamphlet itself is “ mythical,” for they know 
nothing about it. 
Mr. Whitehead Cousins is good enough to suggest that “ nearly all ” 
the gentlemen of the Press are in the habit of “ hashing up ” reports. 
If voluminous contributions to various newspapers entitle writers to be 
regarded as “ gentlemen of the Press” he must of necessity be included 
in the army of bashers. 
The report which appears to have offended your correspondent was a 
record of facts, which he cannot impugn except on the ground that 
Messrs. Suttons have blundered. They know best about that; their 
custom is to conduct experiments with the utmost care and to state the 
