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FOT ATO DISEASE.
To the Editor of "The Mercury."
Sir, Brown rust, or, as the experts
ahern! now call Irish blight, is nothing
new to most of our potato growers. The
writer can go back fifty years, and his
experience has been that in dry seasons,
and especially when manure has been
plentifully used, he has always had a
percentage of brown rust, but this did
not cause any deterioration in the quality
of the potatoes thus affected in fact, they
were often found to be even better than
those with clean skins. A native of the
Emerald Isle would laugh at the idea
of our harmless brown rust being called
Irish blight. It must be apparent to
Tasmanians that pests of every description
swarm in proportion to the number
of experts and inspectors appointed.
Irish blight ! Well, after that go on the
land, young man. The "experts," as we
may hope, will soon strangle the fungus
with the unpronounceable name, and will
then doubtless, turn their attention to
some of our other products. Thanks to
these public benefactors, we shall soon
have plenty of cheap land, and our Closer
Settlement Act will become a dead letter.
It only now remains for our medical
faculty to knock up a good small-pox
scare, as was done in Launceston a few
years since, and then, to a considerable
extent, we should be left alone in our
glory.
-Yours, etc., I
OLD FARMER, j
August li.
$