[113] _Letter to the Duke of Leinster quoted in Irish Census for 1851_.
M. Zander, of Boitzenberg, in Prussia, published, about this time, a
method by which full sized potatoes could be produced in one year from
the seed, and he further stated that the seedlings so produced had
resisted the blight. The old idea was, that it took three years to
produce full-sized potatoes from the seed. M. Zander's method was tried
in various parts of Ireland and England, its chief peculiarity being
that the seed was sown on a light hot bed, and the plants so produced
were transferred to the ground in which they were to produce the crop.
Full-sized potatoes were the result, each plant producing, on an
average, 1-1/2 lbs. of potatoes, or rather more than 29 tons to the
Irish acre. This method appeared satisfactory to those who interested
themselves about it, but it does not seem to have been followed up.
[114] Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society.
This opinion as to fogs preceding or accompanying the potato blight was
corroborated from various parts of the United Kingdom. A correspondent
of the _Gardener's Chronicle_, under date 14th Nov., 1846, writes: "In
the early part of August, 1846, there was not a diseased potato in the
North Riding of Yorkshire.
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