ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO. 123 



The potato is only destined to serve its day and generation the 

 same as animal life, and a successive and regular renewal of the 

 esculent from the small seed found in the plum of the potato, thus 

 producing an infusion of new blood, is no doubt the only effectual 

 remedy for disease, restoring vigour and saving the plant from 

 annihilation. It was only about the year 1826 that disease in the 

 potato seems first to have attracted the attention of agriculturists. 

 As to the cause many conjectures were put forth, and all experi- 

 ments tried that human skill could devise to ward off the epidemic 

 and regenerate the old plant to its original strength, but in vain. 

 Previous to the visitation of the fatal blight of 1846, which in one 

 night nearly destroyed the whole crop of the nation, the potato 

 had become so weakened in constitution from repeated planting, 

 that the plant had almost ceased to flower, and the potato plum 

 so entirely disappeared that I question much if the rising gene- 

 ration were aware that ever the plum existed, or that new 

 varieties could be grown from them. Each plum has its small 

 seeds innumerable, every one of which produces potatoes of 

 varied form, colour, habit, and constitution, and wonderful to 

 relate, perhaps none of them the same as the mother plant, and 

 great difficulty is experienced in getting one good seedling out of 

 the many varieties. 



In the year 1853 the potato in this country had ceased to 

 flower or bear plums, which necessitated an amalgamation of 

 varieties blended together by atmospheric action and insect 

 labour, in order to produce plums. 



Potatoes {Solanum tuherosiim) from Central America, Chili, 

 East and West Indies, Australia, and Cape of Good Hope, were 

 imported into Scotland and planted 2^'>'omiscuousIy with the 

 " Eock" potato (brought into Scotland from Ireland in 1848), in 

 a field of newly taken in land where the atmosphere was damp, 

 and the field previously manured in the autumn with farm-yard 

 dung. Most of tliese plants produced flowers, but only a few 

 bore plums, and still fcAver plums ripened. However, the ex- 

 periment was successful ; nevj seed was obtained, and from these 

 insignificant looking things have been produced the countless new 

 varieties that have restored the potato to the comparatively healthy 

 state it is now in from the dead rot of 1845, which threatened to 

 exterminate it from off the face of the earth. 



I shall now explain how new kinds may be raised from the 

 small seed of tlie plum or apple of the potato, to replace the old 

 and worn-out varieties. 



Gather potato aj^ples when ripe ; those that fall off the shaws 

 of their own accord are the ripest and make the best seed. Store 

 them in a water-tight vessel, and aDow them to remain there till 

 the glutinous matter becomes decjmposed, then In-uise them 

 down amongst water, filter through a sieve so as to pass the seed 



