It is said to have
existed for a long time in the western parts of America, before it
appeared in Europe; but as it was at first confounded with dry rot and
wet rot, the American may have been a different disease from ours. What
seems certain is, that the potato disease, as known to us, made its
first appearance in Germany; and in the year 1842, travelling thence
into Belgium, it manifested itself in a very destructive form in the
neighbourhood of Liege. It visited Canada in 1844, and in 1845 it
appeared in almost every part of the United Kingdom, being observed
first of all in the Isle of Wight, where it was most virulent on wheat
lands which had been manured with guano.
In the first week of September, the potatoes in the London market were,
to a very considerable extent, found to be unfit for human food. To the
eye they did not show any sign of disease, but when boiled and cut its
presence was but too evident, by the black, or rather brownish-black
mass they presented. The potato fields began to be examined, and the
provincial journals soon teemed with accounts of the destructive
visitation, with speculations concerning its cause, and suggestions as
to probable remedies.
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