As is apparent from these extracts the Pototoe Blight actually began in 1845.
15 Oct. 1845 - the Potatoe disease Derry- We have heard with extreme pain that the decay in the potato crop, of our exemption, from which we lately boasted, has exhibited itself pretty extensively in this locality. In some instances, whole fields have been lost, which a week or two ago appeared to be in a healthy state. The disease has been confined in some places to the late set potatoes, while the early ones have escaped. From every part of the country complaints are now heard of the failure of the potato crop and we fear that the calamity will be attended with the most deplorable consequences, unless means are taken by the government to provide an additional supply of food at a cheap rate for the poorer classes Derry Sentinel 15 Oct. 1845 It is observed by some of our correspondents that the water in which potatoes are boiled has an offensive odour and advice is given how to proceed in such cases. We, too, must offer a word of counsel. All potatoes which render offensive the water in which they are boiled are beginning to decay. The disease is present, although it may not be visible and we doubt whether any precautions can prevent their putrifying after a few weeks. Such potatoes should not be stored, but consumed immediately; and those only put away for the winter in which no such symptoms are discoverable. A few samples can easily be boiled for the purpose of ascertaining the condition of the crop. The practice of storing potatoes in "pits" is one which though very convenient, requires great care in such seasons as the present; it is the custom in many parts of the country and especially with small fields or patches of potatoes, to collect them as soon as dug up, into a heap in the centre of the field, where space has previously been partially dug out to receive them and when the whole is thus collected together, they are covered over with earth pressed smooth with the spade on the sides. We cannot too strongly urge on all who are now taking up potatoes the importance of keeping them out of the earth for a few days previously to storing them, of drying them as much as possible, and sorting out all that appear in any way diseased. Considering the infectious nature of the potato rot and the rapidity with which it sometimes spreads, the extra time and trouble consumed in doing this will be well bestowed. if it enables us to save a portion of the crop The custom of storing the potatoes in the same field in which they have grown is decidedly objectionable; being very likely to develope rot in them, in all cases where the rot has manifested itself, even though but to a slight extent; it is far better to store the sound potatoes in a separate piece of ground. If this cannot be done, the risk of danger may probably be diminished by lining the sides and bottom of the place dug to receive them with newly burnt charcoal to a depth of 3 or 4 inches; it is, however, by far better not to store them in the field where they grew. It seldom happens that any notable epidemic in animal or vegetable organisms is so clearly traceable to its causes as the potato murrain. We see, nevertheless, that there is a diversity of opinion as to the share in the operation to be assigned to the several agencies. It cannot be wet alone, for much wetter summers have occurred within these few years without harm to the potato crop. It cannot be cold only, because the average temperature has certainly not fallen below the rate of districts and counties where the vegetable is always successfully cultivated; nor has there been, as your correspondents observe, any remarkable development of sensible electricity. But of all the incentives to a healthy vegetation, what has been so much wanting for the last two months of July and August as light? not merely of bright sunshine, for of that there was hardly any, but even the ordinary quantity of daylight was wanting; so dense and black was the overcast day after day through this long period, a time when the vegetable world is in expectation and generally in the enjoyment of its fullest share of both of light and heat. The transient warmth of June gave a predisposition to disease, by imparting greater sensitiveness or excitability to the plant. Doubtless another ingredient in the mischief was the absence of the usual ground-warmth that cherishes the vegetation of a more favoured season. There is every reason to believe that the calorific rays penetrate the clouds and impinge on the eoil when the general diffusion of sunlight is not correspondingly powerful. Every practical gardener will observe that at the end of even a very dull day, in the middle of summer, the temperature of the soil on the surface far exceeds the warmth of the air, and even surprises him its excess over the temperature of the same soil in the morning. It will be said that in a dull day there is less radiation from the surface than in a clear one, and thence the accumulated warmth. It may be doubted if the difference in the ratio of light and warmth as transmitted through a cloudy atmosphere can be so accounted for, and the subject requires further investigation. Were it not for this aptitude to receive the warmth of the sun in the absence of the strong light of that luminary, it must be supposed that the soil must have been far below the average warmth during the past summer; so far as to be productive of still more extensive mischief than has yet accrued from it. Gardener's Chronicle 17 Oct. 1845 Potato Blight Londonderry Oct. 15th - We regret to say that, since our last, we have received accounts of this alarming disease prevailing to a greater extent than had been expected, within a circle of 20 miles, or so, around this city. In what may be called the neighbourhood, several fields have suffered from the attacks; and about Dungiven and in various parts of Ennishowen, the loss which it has caused is very great. Banbridge Oct. 14th - Three weeks ago our neighbourhood was happily blessed, in consequence of being free from the dreadful malady, which was reported as having ruined the principal part of the potato crop in foreign countries. However, we lament to find that, within these last eight or ten days, the epidemic has made its appearance over the whole of this part of the country to an alarming extent. You could scarcely meet a farmer, who does not state that his potatoes are diseased, in the proportion of 1 to 4, and, in many instances 1 to 2. We have conversed with several respectable farmers, not only in this immediate neighbourhood, but also the counties of Armagh and Tyrone, all of whom give it as their opinion, that so rapid is the spread of the disease that it infects a field in almost the unprecedented period of 24 hours. I spoke to one farmer, who had 8 dliferent kinds of seed planted in one field, and on the disease making its appearance he immediately tried all the sorts, and found them deficient to at least one-third of the whole and gives it his opinion, that, if the disease go on progressively, in the course of one month, he will not have one sound potato. Our market thronged every day with potatoes, which would have given 3d. per stone about three weeks ago. At present they would not, in many instances, be purchased even at 1d. per stone. Clogher Oct, 16th - In this neighbourhood a great quantity of the potatoes are diseased. We have known them to be sound enough in the evening, and to be rotten the next morning. There is scarcely a field in this part of the country in which some of them are not damaged. That's all for today Teena These articles are transcribed by Teena from the Banner of Ulster, Dublin Evening Mail, Dublin Mercantile Advertiser, Freeman's Journal, Northern Whig, and the Tyrone Constitution. (unless otherwise noted) -- www.cotyrone.com http://lists.cotyrone.com/mailman/listinfo/ulsterancestry https://www.facebook.com/groups/CoTyroneIrelandGenealogy/
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