404 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



their usual length, but are wanting in thickness. The first 

 leaves are also defective, but the tubers do not appear to be 

 diseased nor affected in quality. A fungus is assigned as the 

 cause, but further investigation is needed on this point. 8 C, 

 September 25,1873,321. 



INFECTION OF SOUND POTATOES BY DISEASED ONES. 



Mr. Worthington Smith has lately presented the results of 

 sundry experiments, made with a view to ascertain how far 

 perfectly sound potatoes are likely to be contaminated by in- 

 fected ones. For this object he secured, in the autumn of 

 1872, samples of different kinds of potatoes regarded as pos- 

 sessing certain disease-resisting qualities. From these he se- 

 lected samples in different stages of disease previous to plant- 

 ing, and tested two supposed cures namely, first, dusting the 

 cut surfaces with sulphur; and, second, dipping the potatoes 

 in a solution in water of pure carbolic acid and glycerine. 

 Neither application, however, w T as found to be of any avail 

 in preventing the disease. 



In another series of experiments, diseased potatoes of one 

 selected kind were planted with healthy ones of another. 

 The result was that, although the selected kind resisted the 

 disease better than the ordinary kind, yet in time they also 

 yielded to it. In one case, however, a potato called the 

 "'Patterson's Victoria," claimed to be free from disease, was 

 sliced and planted with diseased tubers, and, on digging, it 

 was found that the latter were a putrid mass, while there 

 was a good crop of perfectly healthy potatoes of Patterson's 

 Victoria. Cut potatoes were found to take disease much 

 more readily than those planted whole, and the fact was well 

 established that certain varieties of potatoes, especially "Sut- 

 ton's red-skin flour-ball, 1 * resisted the disease much better 

 than others. But there is no evidence to prove that, for any 

 one variety, absolute immunity from the danger of attack can 

 be claimed. 2 A, March 7, 1874, 186. 



IMPROVED MODE OF GROWING POTATOES. 



Mr. Shirley Hibberd lately read a paper before the Society 

 of Arts upon a new system of cultivating the potato, with a 

 view to augment the production and prevent the disease. 

 He takes the ground that the disease is rather an accompani- 



