[Enclosure]

Grangewood, Upper Norwood, S.E.

13th October, 1876.

Sir,

You were good enough to send me, on the 10th April last, a packet of potato seed. … They produced every variety; and all were found free from disease, except some “late whites”, which were all bad. … Had the season been favourable, the crops would have been as good as those raised from sets. … The experiment appears to me perfectly satisfactory, so far as it goes. … The tubers have been preserved for re-planting. …

Chas. Hood, F.R.S.

Palace, Holywood, | Beleast,

7th December, 1876.

Dear Sir,

The packet of seed you sent me last year produced a great variety of potatoes; and I selected for cultivation three sorts: first, a round red one, which yielded thus far, a very fine, large, and most productive potato. The second sort—an oblong white kidney, with a rough skin—not so productive, but a remarkably fine flavoured one;—and the other, a long black kidney; but as this black colour extends into the tuber, I do not think it would be a good eating one. But there is one remarkable feature I wish to mention, namely, that all the potatoes raised from your seed were free from disease; and if they continue to resist it, as I have every reason to think they will, you will have conferred, by introducing the cultivation from the seed, an incalculable benefit on the country, by largely increasing its food produce, as I consider the loss of that crop by disease may be calculated on an average over Ireland at one-third at least of the whole produce.

Yours very truly, | Robert Down and Connor.⁴

J. Torbitt, Esq., Belfast.

(His Lordship seems not to have subjected his seedlings to the infection of the disease; and the three varieties he proposes to cultivate may or may not turn out to be disease-proof.—J. T.)

The Waterfoot, Pettigo, | Fermanagh,

26th February, 1877.

Dear Sir,

I now send you some more particulars as to the potato seed you kindly sent me, which I sowed as an amusement, and out of curiosity, more than as a scientific experiment, and find the results more interesting than I can describe. 12th April, 1876, I sowed some seed in a greenhouse in an old hot-bed that had lost the heat. April 30th sowed more seed, this seed was sown in a box in the greenhouse. I put a little guano with both sets of seed, but used no artificial heat. Both sowings did well. May 22nd I transplanted some 56 of the largest plants into drills like turnip drills made inside a walled garden on S.W. side of the wall. May 25th I transplanted out into the same place 50 more plants. May 30th renewed with more plants the drills, many plants transplanted on the 22nd and 25th having been eaten by slugs and worms. June 3, a hailstorm broke most of the plants, few remained uninjured. June 24th transplanted more plants from the greenhouse, the next day was very hot, and nearly all those were dried up or eaten by slugs. August 8th some buds of blossoms began to show. On 14th September, ’76, I had about 135 plants, 97 in flower, 27 going to flower, 11 not in flower. The stalks varied in size, colour, leaf, and flower, and were very green. Some were spotted with some sort of disease, the spots being all over the leaf, and not as large as a pin’s head, others had blotches of common potato disease. Of the 135 plants about twenty had spots or disease, but very slightly. October 20th, ’76, I dug the potatoes, they were not done growing, and looked like potatoes that required a month more to grow. I put put each plants potatoes in a paper bag by themselves. Of the 135 plants there were not any two sorts the same. They differ in shape or colour or both. 56 plants were of a white description, and had 899 tubers, while 89 plants were coloured and had 1,626 tubers. Thus I have from 135 plants 2,525 potatoes. These I intend (D.V.), to sow this year, keeping each sort by itself, and when ripe keeping only those which resist disease.

Yours, faithfully, | C. K. Barton, J.P., D.L.⁵

J. Torbitt, Esq., Belfast.

(If the plants had been grown in the open field, the slugs and worms, and the pin head spots (aphides, I suspect,) would not have touched them.—J. T.)

The pin-head spots I now believe to have been the fungus. 15 Mar ’78 J. T.⁶