107. Lieutenant-Commander CRAIGasked the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture whether, until the year 1918, the potato crops in the county of Kent had been free from wart disease; whether, in the year 1918, no less than eight centres in Kent were found to be affected with this disease; whether the soil in certain districts in the Midlands, in the North of England, and in Scotland has become so infected that the cultivation of heavy cropping varieties of potatoes is being abandoned; whether the curative or protective measures of the Board have hitherto consisted in the planting of immune varieties of potatoes or some other arable crop; whether varieties of potatoes, themselves immune, may convey, and whether the soil in which they are grown may convey, wart disease; whether infection in the county of Kent has been traced to a consignment of 4 tons of Scottish Arran Chief seed potatoes found to be affected badly with wart disease; whether other, and how many other, consignments of Scottish seed have been found in 1918 on inspection to be diseased; 752 and whether he will take necessary and effective measures to prevent seed potatoes from northern districts being sent into the South of England?
§ Sir A. GRIFFITH-BOSCAWENWart disease was first reported among the potato crops in Kent in 1914. Eight cases were reported in 1918—including one case in the administrative county of London. In certain districts in the North of England the planting of susceptible varieties has been prohibited, but the approved immune varieties that are allowed to be planted in these areas include some of the heaviest cropping varieties under cultivation.
The chief protective measure adopted by the Board consists in encouraging, and in scheduled areas enforcing, the growth of immune varieties, and this has proved eminently successful. The disease may be conveyed from one area to another either through the "seed" or through the soil, but the Board have no information which would lead them to believe that the appearance of disease in any district may be attributed either to the importation of diseased soil or to the planting of "immune" varieties.
As regards movement from the infected areas of the North of England, under the Wart Disease of Potatoes Order of 1918 the planting of potatoes grown in an infected area is prohibited except in that or in another infected area. In several cases infection has been traced to "seed" imported from Scotland, especially of the "Arran Chief" variety, and the Board have under consideration the issue of an Order prohibiting the movement into England and Wales of "seed" of the susceptible varieties from Scotland without due safeguards.