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Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1304, 6 November 1880, Page 3

Potato Disease. A select committee of the house of Commons was recently appointed to inquire into the causes and remedies of the disease among potatoes, from which so many farmers had suffered last year. This report commences by stating that the evidence of the scientific witnesses had clearly established the nature of the potato disease, which, according to them, consists in the growth of a fungus (Peronospora infevstans) on or in the plant. The disease spreads during the summer by means of spores in seeds", a single fungus producing millions of spores. The almost inconceivable fecandity of the spores accounts for the rapid spread of the disease during summer. The scientific witnesses concurred in believing that burning' the stalks and getting rid of the diseased potatoes would be useful. The necessity for the production of new varieties was concurred in by all the witnesses. The growers agreed that within their experience many varieties of potatoes had disappeared, having become utterly worn out. One gentleman, in giving evidence, described the results of his experiments with burnt earth and charred refuse, which he found were directly antagonistic to fungoid grov^th. He also advocated the establishment of Government farms for potato cultivation. He had found that the atmosphere was a means of propogating the disease, and that the wind and variations in temperature carried the fungi from place to place. A Dublin potato merchant stated that in his opinion the best potatoes for feeding purposes were the Kemps and Champions. The White Rock was next. He had not found American potatoes very good. Mr Maine, potato grower, of Farningham, was next examined. He said that his chief crop was champions, which were practically without disease- The Victorias and Regents were nearly all bad. Once in live years was the proper time to grow a crop on the same ground. There was as much starch in the diseased as in the sound potato, and, in his opinion, the former, if anything, were preferable for feeding cattle. Mr Coleman, potato grower and dealer in the county of Londonderry, said that the varieties he principally cultivated were Champions, (Skerries, and Rocks, which had not much disease among them of late years. In his opinion good potatoes were preferable for cattle-feeding purposes to diseased potatoes. He did not find that sound potatoes, if stored with those diseased, caught the disease from them.

The Disadvantages of Farming in America. The Royal Commission on Agriculture have examined numerous witnesses concerning the cause of fanning depression in the United Kingdom. We learn that the evidence of Mr (Jlare Sewell Read and Mr A Pell, M.P., extends over sixteen close. y- printed pages. The opinion formed fby these well-known agriculturists is that America is, after all, no paradise, and that in the contest for agricultural supremacy, while fresh, unexhausted soil, a level surface, and the absence of stones, are highly favourable for the profitable use of modern machinery, and the manufacture of grain by a scourging course of cropping, still drawbacks exist which tell in favour of the old country. The&c drawbacks are : — Severe winters, dangerous droughts, injurious insects, and on the prairie land, in the absence of lakes, a short supply ot good water.

The English Shorthorn Society. The Shorthorn Society appears to be in a flourishing state, and at the annual meeting it was reported that the society now consists of 479 Hie members and G4S annual members, making a total of 1127. The balance in the hands of the society's bankers, after payment of the cost of preparing and printing volume 2~>, and a special payment, Avas, on the Ist hist., £240 19s 7d. The society's reserve fund remains the same as at the last annual meeting, £2105 7s Sd.