148 American Hortieultural Society. 



"have a clear conception of what he desires to produce, and an eye quick to 

 perceive any tendency to that end, and by careful circumspection he will 

 soon be able to pick the plants that are desirable to retain almost as soon as 

 they pass from the seed leaf, and so save a vast amount of unnecessary 

 labor. * * * 



" I had two plants of the new potatoes this year that surprised me very 

 pleasantly. Every tuber was formed within less than twelve inches from 

 the stem, most of them lying as compactly in the hills as our best cultivated 

 ■sorts. I consider this a great advantage gained and I keep these tubers for 

 first-class seed stock. Also I saved their seed for planting, and hope to have 

 this feature fixed as a confirmed character. So far I have planted in what 

 may be called good garden soil, avoiding stimulating manures. * * * In 

 conclusion I desire to place on record again the prediction that in less than 

 ten years we will be using the product of these northern wildings on our 

 tables, and that from their seedlings we will, within that time, obtain some 

 of the earliest and best potatoes in cultivation." 



In conclusion let me present a few suggestions derived from observations 

 of the plants in their homes and the treatment they receive at the hands of, 

 the aborigines. 



Whatever may have been the size or the behavior of these wildings origi- 

 naUy it is not strange to me that they are now practically worthless. Indeed 

 the Indian treatment of them would tend to produce precisely such tubers 

 as we find. 



The Navahoe squaw never plants a potato or sows a seed, much less 

 cultivates them with the hoe, or frees them from the encroachments of 

 weeds. She simply digs them Armed with a basket and a sharpened stick, 

 or lately with a railroad spike, she seeks the nearest potato patch, selects the 

 largest plants, squats on the ground beside them and digs up all the ground 

 about them. This process bringc a few of the tubers to the surface, from 

 which she picks the biggest for her basket. The small potatoes, and those 

 that have run off" and- hidden under stones or roots, are the ones that are left 

 from year to year and age to age to perpetuate the species, so that small 

 potatoes on long stems are legitimate products of squaw treatment. In this 

 connection compare the two species exhibited. The purple potato trying to 

 give us a large tuber is compelled to run away off" to deposit it where their 

 centuries old, ungrateful beneficiaries can not find and destroy this, one of 

 the most promising of late discoveries. Native Arizona Potatoes. 



DISCUSSION ON PROFESSOR LEMMON's PAPER. 



Prof. Popenoe, of Kansas — I found Soianwn Jamesii at Trinidad, 

 Colorado, in 1881, growing as a weed among beans in a Mexican's 

 garden. Cultivating them in a green-house, I have succeeded in 

 raising new tubers, but not of increased size, though I have not yet 



