But these hopeful accounts had, almost in every instance, to
be contradicted later on. The blight did not appear in all places at
once; it travelled mysteriously but steadily, and from districts where
the crop was safe a few days before, the gloomiest accounts were
unexpectedly received. The special correspondent of a Dublin newspaper,
writing from the West, explains this when he says: "The disease appeared
suddenly, and the tubers are sometimes rotten in twenty-four hours
afterwards."[60]
On the 18th of October, "_The Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of
Ireland_" held a special meeting relative to the disease in the
potatoes. They had, some short time before, appointed a sub-committee on
the subject, Professor (now Sir Robert) Kane being its Chairman. He
stated to the meeting that the sub-committee had sat the two previous
days, but were not as yet prepared with anything definite on the
subject. They, however, communicated some advice to farmers, under eight
heads, founded on experiments. This advice, whether useful or not, was,
for the most part, not within the power of small farmers to put in
practice; but the sub-committee made one observation that should have
aroused all the energies of those who had the lives of the people in
their hands.
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