When the decomposition produced by the blight was in a somewhat
advanced stage, the odour from the potato field, which was very
offensive, was perceptible at a considerable distance. There may have
been cases in this country in which the disease was first observed in
the tubers, but they must have been rare. It appeared in Scotland with
the same symptoms as in Ireland. A contemporary account says: "In
various parts of Scotland the potatoes have suffered fearfully from the
blight. The leaves of the plant have, generally speaking, first been
affected, and then the root." From this mode of manifesting itself, the
potato disease was commonly called in Ireland, as in Scotland, the
Potato Blight. It had other names given to it; potato murrain, cholera
in the potato, and so on; but Potato Blight in Ireland, at least, was
and is its all but universal name. The whole stem soon became affected
after the blight had appeared on the leaves, more especially if the
weather was damp; and for some time before the period for digging out
the crop had arrived, the potato fields showed nothing but rank weeds,
with here and there the remains of withered-up stems--bleached skeletons
of the green healthy plants of some weeks before.
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