10 Plant Physiology 



conditions in the far West. In Scotland, with its more or 

 less continued cool climate, affording a long growth and 

 slow maturity of the potato, we find an average of nearly 

 250 bushels per acre; while a maximum of 1000 to 

 1200 bushels is commonly attained. At the well-known 

 seed farm of Lord Rosebery a yield at the rate of over 1700 

 bushels per acre was reported for a particular plot during 

 the past season. Such facts as these cannot fail to be sug- 

 gestive from the ecological standpoint. 



If the more fundamental lines of general physiology 

 seem less a part of plant production or of practical agricul- 

 ture than the broader relations above referred to, it must be 

 that it is so partly because of the name which has been ap- 

 plied to this subject, and partly to the fact that the meth- 

 ods of instruction necessarily take the student or reader 

 to a far greater degree away from the cultivated field. 

 To a considerable extent this is necessary, for physiology 

 must remain one of the fundamental sciences, and the fun- 

 damental attitude should be kept prominent. It has been 

 considered, too often, a subject with merely laboratory 

 applicability. This erroneous view is vanishing as plant 

 producers become more and more interested in the causes 

 which produce results and not merely in the results them- 

 selves. Both horticultural and agronomic work have in 

 recent years extended more and more into the realm of 

 pure plant physiology, which should mean that they have 

 extended into that of accurate experimental study, with 

 the plant response as the central feature. 



7. The literature of plant physiology.- The litera- 

 ture of this subject is extensive and scattered, as is that 

 of any other science. The student will do well to bear in 



