Abstract
Diseases in Potatoes In the early part of 1834, the Highland Society of Scotland (now the Highland and Agricultural Society) offered a premium of ten sovereigns “for the best essay on the nature and causes of the injury or disease of the Potato and on the best means of preventing or palliating it in future. … The attention of the writer is especially directed to the probable existence of insects in the sets or tubers, and if such have been detected, he is required to give a description of them and if possible, to transmit with his Essay, specimens of the insects”. The essays had to be submitted before October 20, 1834, and some twenty competitors took part. The premium was offered because of the failure of the potato crop in Great Britain in the previous year. Various organisations interested themselves in the problem? notably the Highland Society and the Royal Dublin Society. The general conclusion arrived at was that the failure was due to the drought of the summer of 1833, as a consequence of which the crop was harvested very early, and in an immature condition. It is interesting to note that it was agreed that “the plant itself does not appear to have become materially deteriorated by having been so long in cultivation”.
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Science News a Century Ago. Nature 134, 637–638 (1934). https://doi.org/10.1038/134637b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/134637b0