THE POTATO BLIGHT.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 12902, 13 February 1906, Page 7

THE POTATO BLIGHT.

Per Press Association. HASTINGS, 'February 1?The - Irish blight is playing ha-voc with the .potato creeps. The potato blight has now made itself conspicuous by the mischief it is doing, in •all directions', .around Timaru. Some leaves from <i ioyvh. garden, were brought to this office 'yesterday, and their appearance, and the descriptions given of the plants in that and other-flsSes, indicates the same destructive blight as last years./ There is a dif. ference, but this is .not sufficient to give any •encouragement.' Mr Kirk's pamphlet on the potato diseased says of the Irish blight: —" li .the under-surface of the leaves be examined with' a pocket-lens, .will generally foe seen around the margin of each spot aSmnre or less distinct border of whittish mtoid,'. .looking 'somewhat as if fine flour had .been sprinkled on the leases. This white mould is the fruiting portion of theafungus causing the disease, and as myriads of spores -are quickly formed on -each leaf, it is easy to understand how it can spread so rapidly."- The leaves brought in yesterday were carefully scrutinised with a pocket lens, and no spores <-could* be seen, though' the same glass made them easily visible on the blighted leaves last year. Mr Kirk, however, does not say that this development of visible spores always takes pl^e; it is " generally" seen. Another character of the Irish blight is the pronounced and' disagreeable smell of diseased crops*'; and we are informecL that this is observed on a damp day about some of the blighted crops in this district. Some people who shove sprayed their potatoes • -report that- fey have saved them from the blight, crops near them have caught the disease. ; Others state that though they have sprayed two or even three't: mes, the plants are aS-eSled by the blight".