Thomas Beddoes to Davies Giddy, 2 December 1791
I have sent papers to
Millet St Just
Vivian Cooks Kn
Williams St Agnes
Benallac
Mitchell United mines. –
I know not if my promises extended any further I shall send Tallack one however
Wd you believe it? Roscoe’s song has been sung as an hymn in a dissenting meeting house – There is a sermon by Mark Wilks a Norfolk farmer on the French Revolution, in which this new-fashioned hymn was introduced – For my part I believe the sermon to be a jeu d’espirit & an extremely happy one it is – perhaps the best thing that has been written on the subject — I have received a message & the promise of a letter from Roscoe on the subject of some minute criticisms on his song – This Mr Roscoe is an Attorney –
[Enclosure:]
THEORY and PRACTICE
of Curled Potatoes.
AS I was one day sauntering through the streets of Welchpool with a mind open for the reception of any new object, I saw exposed to sale, in the window of an ill-furnished grocer’s shop, a small threepenny book on the subject of curled potatoes. I found it upon examination to contain facts so consonant to the best established principles in the œconomy of living systems, that I think they will probably furnish a method of preventing this very serious evil.
The cause then of the curl lies in the bulbs employed for seed. They have been forced by earthing or by too rich a soil, often so as to produce two sets of blossoms in a year. In other words, their excitability has been exhausted. An effect is produced upon the bulb analogous to the conversion of stamina into petals: and as in those vegetable monsters no seed, properly so called, is produced, so in the forced potatoes there resides none or an insufficient power of germination.
This I apprehend, for you, will be a more than sufficiently distinct statement of the hypothesis. The facts that appear to me most simple and to tend most strongly to establish it, are–1. At Michaelmas you often find potatoes planted for seed in Spring as fresh as at first, but which have never germinated. These therefore have been quite exhausted, for their failure does not depend on decay.–2. If you choose a potatoe with one end very large and one small, the eyes cut from the large end will produce curled, and from the small, healthy plants.–3. It is said that in bleak situations and an impoverished soil the curl has never appeared.–4. Where the land has been peeled and burned, the crop of potatoes is seldom or never liable to this disease.
It follows therefore if all this be true, that the raising of potatoes for seed should be a distinct object. Force those you intend for food as much as you please. The bulbs will grow, and I conceive, but it is a conjecture only, that a new production of bulbs attends the second crop of blossoms. Those designed for seed should never be earthed, and only a little mould drawn towards them before the first blossoms, that is, in June. And they should also, one would conclude upon this principle, be taken out of the ground not long after the blossoms full, or as I should suppose, for I am obliged to conjecture again, by the time the proper seeds would be ripe: then probably the bulbs will have attained a just maturity.
I thought it would have taken more words to convey my ideas on this subject; so indeed it would to many persons, especially if unacquainted with the general principle.
Your sister started one or two strong objections, when I hinted this theory to her. You I dare say will follow upon them; and if you should not, there is no necessity for loading the post with them. Besides we have Quintilian’s authority, added to observation, for believing that Vox illa viva alit plenius.
Address: Davies Giddy Esqr / Tredrea / Mazarion / Cornwall // Shifnal Decr second 1791 // Free / I H Browne
Endorsement: Doctor Beddoes / 1791 / Decr the 2d // Containing a Theory of Curled Potatoes //
MS: Cornish Archives MS DG 41/43