A study of the terrible disease which so often attacks the potato crop in
this country will serve, I think, to bring forcibly before you certain
untoward conditions which may be called climatic, and which are
attributable to fungoid spores in the air.
With the potato disease you are all, probably, more or less practically
acquainted. When summer is at its height, and when the gardeners and
farmers are all looking anxiously to the progress of their crops, how
often have we heard the congratulatory remark of "How well and strong
those potatoes look!" Such a remark is most common at the end of July or
the beginning of August, when the green part, or haulm, of the plant is
looking its best, and when the rows of potatoes, with their elegant rich
foliage and bunches of blossom, have an appearance which would almost
merit their admission to the flower border. The same evening, it may be,
there comes a prolonged thunder storm, followed by a period of hot,
close, moist, muggy weather. Four-and-twenty hours later, the hapless
gardener notices that certain of his potato plants have dark spots upon
some of their leaves. This, he knows too well, is the "plague spot," and
if he examine his plants carefully, he will perhaps find that there is
scarcely a plant which is not spotted. If the thunder shower which we
have imagined be followed by a long period of drought, the plague may be
stayed and the potatoes saved; but if the damp weather continue, the
number of spotted leaves among the potatoes increases day by day, until
the spotted leaves are the majority; and then the haulm dies, gets slimy,
and emits a characteristic odor; and it will be found that the tubers
beneath the soil are but half developed, and impregnated with the disease
to an extent which destroys their value.
Now, the essential cause of the potato disease is perfectly well
understood. It is parasitical, the parasite being a fungus, the
_Peronospora infestans_, which grows at the expense of the leaves, stems,
and tubers of the plant until it destroys their vitality. If a diseased
potato leaf be examined with the naked eye, it will be seen that, on the
upper surface, there is an irregular brownish black spot, and if the
under surface of the leaf be looked at carefully, the brown spot is also
visible, but it will be seen to be covered with a very faint white bloom,
due to the growth of the fungus from the microscopic openings or
"stomata," which exist in large numbers on the under surface of most
green leaves. The microscope shows this "bloom" to be due to the
protrusion of the fungus in the manner stated, and on the free ends of
the minute branches are developed tiny egg shaped vessels, called
"conidia," in which are developed countless "spores," each one of which
is theoretically capable of infecting neighboring plants.
Now, it is right to say that, with respect to the mode of spread of the
disease, scientific men are not quite agreed. All admit that it may be
conveyed by contact, that one leaf may infect its neighbors, and that
birds, flies, rabbits, and other ground game may carry the disease from
one plant to another and from one crop to another. This is insufficient
to account for the sudden onset and the wide extent of potato
"epidemics," which usually attack whole districts at "one fell swoop."
Some of those best qualified to judge believe that the spores are carried
through the air, and I am myself inclined to trust in the opinion
expressed by Mr. William Carruthers, F.R.S., before the select committee
on the potato crop, in 1880. Mr. Carruthers' great scientific
attainments, and his position as the head of the botanical department of
the British Museum, and as the consulting naturalist of the Royal
Agricultural Society, at least demand that his opinion should be received
with the greatest respect and consideration. Mr. Carruthers said (report
on the potato crop, presented to the House of Commons, July 9, 1880,
question 143 _et seq._): "The disease, I believe, did not exist at all in
Europe before 1844.... Many diseases had been observed; many injuries to
potatoes had been observed and carefully described before 1844; but this
particular disease had not. It is due to a species of plant, and although
that species is small, it is as easily separated from allied plants as
species of flowering plants can be separated from each other. This plant
was known in South America before it made its appearance in this country.
It has been traced from South America to North America, and to Australia,
and it made its first appearance in Europe in Belgium, in 1844, and
within a very few days after it appeared in Belgium, it was noticed in
the Isle of Wight, and then within almost a few hours after that it
spread over the whole of the south of England and over Scotland.... When
the disease begins to make its appearance, the fungus produces these
large oblong bodies (_conidia_), and the question is how these bodies are
spread, and the disease scattered.... I believe that these bodies, which
are produced in immense quantities, and very speedily, within a few hours
after the disease attacks the potato, are floating in the atmosphere, and
are easily transplanted by the wind all over the country. I believe this
is the explanation of the spread of the disease in 1844, when it made its
appearance in Belgium. The spores produced in myriads were brought over
in the wind, and first attacked the potato crops in the Isle of Wight,
and then spread over the south of England. The course of the disease is
clearly traced from the south of England toward the midland counties, and
all over the island, and into Scotland and Ireland. It was a progress
northward.... This plant, the _Peronospora infestans_, will only grow on
the _Solanum tuberosum_, that is, the cultivated potato.... Just as
plants of higher organization choose their soils, some growing in the
water and some on land, so the _Peronospora infestans_ chooses its host
plant; and its soil is this species, the _Solatium tuberosum_. It will
not grow if it falls on the leaves of the oak or the beech, or on grass,
because that is not its soil, so to speak. Now, the process of growth is
simply this: When the conidia fall on the leaf, they remain there
perfectly innocent and harmless unless they get a supply of water to
enable them to germinate.... The disease makes its appearance in the end
of July or the beginning of August, when we have, generally, very hot
weather. The temperature of the atmosphere is very high, and we have
heavy showers of rain."
The warmth and moisture are, in fact, the conditions necessary for the
germination of the conidia. Their contents (zoospores) are liberated, and
quickly grow in the leaf, and soon permeate every tissue of the plant.
It was clearly established before the committee that not all potatoes
were equally liable to the disease. The liability depends upon strength
of constitution. It is well known that potatoes are usually, almost
invariably, propagated by "sets," that is, by planting tubers, or
portions of tubers, and this method of propagation is analogous to the
propagation of other forms of plants by means of "cuttings." When
potatoes are raised from seed, it is found that some of the "seedlings"
present a strength of constitution which enables them to resist the
disease for some years, even though the subsequent propagation of the
seedling is entirely from "sets." The raising of seedling potatoes is a
tedious process, but the patience of the grower is often rewarded by
success, and I may allude to the fact that the so-called "Champion
potato," raised from seed in the first instance by Mr. Nicoll, in
Forfarshire, and since propagated all over the country, has enjoyed,
deservedly as it would appear, a great reputation as a disease-resisting
potato; but all who have a practical knowledge of potato growing seem
agreed that we cannot expect its disease-resisting quality to last at
most more than twenty years from its first introduction (in 1877), and
that in time the constitution of the "Champion" will deteriorate, and it
will become a prey to disease.
There is some evidence to show, also, that the constitution of the potato
may be materially influenced by good or bad culture. Damp soils,
insufficient or badly selected manures, the selection of ill developed
potatoes for seed, and the overcrowding of the "sets" in the soil, all
seem to act as causes which predispose the potatoes to the attacks of the
parasite. Strong potatoes resist disease, just as strong children will;
while weak potatoes, equally with weak children, are liable to succumb to
epidemic influences.
The following account of some exact experiments carried out by Mr. George
Murray, of the Botanical Department of the British Museum, seems to show
that Mr. Carruthers' theory as to the diffusion of conidia through the
air is something more than a speculation:
"In the middle of August, 1876," says Mr. Murray, "I instituted the
following experiments, with the object of determining the mode of
diffusion of the conidia of _Peronospora infestans_.
"The method of procedure was to expose on the lee side of a field of
potatoes, of which only about two per cent, were diseased, ordinary
microscopic slides, measuring two inches long by one inch broad, coated
on the exposed surface with a thin layer of glycerine, to which objects
alighting would adhere, and in which, if of the nature of conidia, they
would be preserved. These slides were placed on the projecting stones of
a dry stone wall which surrounded the field, and was at least five yards
from the nearest potato plant. During the five days and nights of the
experiment, a gentle wind blew, and the weather was, on the whole, dry
and clear. Every morning, about nine o'clock, I placed fourteen slides on
the lee side of the field, and every evening, about seven o'clock, I
removed them, and placed others till the following morning at nine
o'clock. The fourteen slides exposed during the day, when examined in the
evening, showed (among other objects):
On the first day. 15 conidia.
" second day. 17 "
" third day. 27 "
" fourth day. 4 "
" fifth day. 9 "
"On none of the five nights did a single conidium alight on the slides.
This seemed to me to prove that during the day the conidia, through the
dryness of the atmosphere and the shaking of the leaves, became detatched
and wafted by the air; while during the night the moisture (in the form
of dew, and on one occasion of a slight and gently falling shower)
prevented the drying of the conidia, and thus rendered them less easy of
detachment.
"I determined the nature of the conidia (1) by comparing them with
authentic conidia directly removed from diseased plants; (2) by there
being attached to some of them portions of the characteristic
conidiaphores; and (3) by cultivating them in a moist chamber, the result
of which was, that five conidia, not having been immersed in the
glycerine, retained their vitality, which they showed by bursting and
producing zoospores in the manner characteristic of _Peronospora
infestans_."