sums. 



QS ON RAISING WF.TT VARIETIES OF THE POTATO. 



tance; and thence 1 am induced to hope, that the following 

 communication may not be unacceptable to the Horticultu-s 

 ral Society. 



tarty notators Every Person, who has cultivated early varieties of this 

 about bios- p] an ^ must have observed, that they never afford seeds, nor 

 rven blossoms; and that the only method of propagating 

 them is by dividing their tuberous roots: and experience 



Degenerate .has sufficiently proved, that every variety, when it lias been 



from continued j propagated, loses gradually some of those good quali* 

 propagation by . ° r . r ■ ? *' . P . l 



roots/ ties, winch it possessed m the earlier stages ot its existence. 



Dr. Hunter, in his Georgical Essays, I think has limited 

 Varieties con- the duration of a variety, in a state of perfection, to about 

 fLaio^ahout fourteen years i and probably, taking varieties in the aggre- 

 14 years. gate, and as the plant is generally cultivated, he is nearly 



accurate. A good new variety of an early potato is there- 

 fore considered a valuable acquisition by the person, who 

 has the good fortune to have raised it; and as an early va- 

 riety, according to any mode of culture at present practised, 

 can only be obtained by accident from seeds of late kinds, 

 one is pot very frequently produced: but by the method I 

 have to communicate, seeds are readily obtained from the 

 earliest and best varieties ; and the seeds of these, in sucn 

 cessive generations, may, not improbably, ultimately afford 

 mueh earlier and better varieties, than have yet existed. 

 Early potatoes I suspected the cause of the constant failure of the early 



tail to seed, p tato to produce seeds, to be the preternatu rally earlv for-? 

 irom soon r r r . * 



forming tubers mation of the tuberous root ; which draws off, for its sup- 

 port, that portion of the sap, which, in other plants of the 

 same species, affords nutriment to the blossoms and seeds: 

 and experiment soon satisfied me, that my conjectures were 

 perfectly well founded. 



I took several methods of placing the plants to grow, iq 

 such a situation, as enabled me readily to prevent the for- 

 mation of tuberous roots; but the following appearing the 

 best, it is unnecessary to trouble the Society with an account 

 of any other. 

 Method of pie- Having fixed strong stakes in the ground, I raised the 

 venting this, mouhj i n a heap round the bases of them; aiid in contact 

 with the stakes, on their south sides, I planted the potatoes 

 from which I wished to obtain seeds. When the young 



plants 



