194 STATE HORTICULTURAL tOCIETT. 



Varieties never "ran out" with him. I have followed the plan qnite success- 

 fully myself. 



^Ir. Doiiipsey : Varieties of potatoes arc mnUiplyinor with the years until 

 *' their name is legion." The most conimon tnetliod of producing new sorts 

 is hy planting the seed found in the fruit or " b;klis ;" but this is not always 

 the case. IS'ew varieties may be originated by the selection of tubers or parts 

 of tubers that show some marked distinction. We understand tiiat Mr. Cbarlcs 

 Arnold, of Paris, Canada, has brought out a new and valuable sort fiora 

 selecting a single eye that showed peculiarities, taken from a tuber of some 

 common variety. This will not seem strange when we roineniber that often 

 times the most delicately beautiful varieties of geraniums, fuchsias, and the 

 like, are propagated from sprouts in phmts of common sorts. 



Mr. Stowcll advocated very careful selection of seed from the very best of 

 the crop ; change of seed occasionally from another place ; a rotation of crops 

 so that the soil will not become exhausted of the elements that grow good 

 potatoes. 



Mr. Partridge: I think potatoes are apt to deteriorate through the excessive 

 use of poisons iu fighting the potato beetle. 



Mr. LeValley: We want a healtliy stalk, and in-as-much as the potato is 

 an enlargement of the stalk, I would look very carefully to the potato tops in 

 selecting my seed. One point I would like to make concerning testing the 

 quality of potatoes; you cannot get the highest excellence in a boiled potato. 

 To test quality, you must bake the tuber. 



Mr. Ailis : I would like to inquire if there is any truth in the statemeub 

 sometimes made, that the green part of a potato is poisonous? 



Prof. Satterlee : Dr. Gray says there is a poisonous principle in the potato, 

 as in other members of the order of plants to which it belongs; this poison is 

 rapidly developed when potatoes are cxjioscd to sunlight, and is dissipiitcd by 

 boiling. Tlie water that potatoes are boiled in, is poisonous to some extent. 



Mr. Allis : The Boston Journal of Chemistiy states that the poisonous 

 principle is developed in the inner part of the skin of the potato. 



j\Ir. Leland : In my experience, I have come to the conclusion that the 

 Early Rose variety makes better potatoes, if planted late. 



The hour having arrived for the calling of the next topic, the Secretary 

 read the following paper, prepared and forwarded by Judge Geo. W. Lawton, 

 of Van Bureu county, on 



FORESTRY AND ORNAMENTAL PLANTING. 



It seems to me, those who have given attention to the matter in hand do 

 not fail to see that, the inordinate rage for wealth among men iu civilized 

 countries involves the forests and their destruction. 



It also seems to me that the course of the friends of forestry lies in the 

 ■way of the forest ravager, to point him out as a public enemy; in tiiat he is 

 broadening the road to ruin, if not immediately for himsolf certainly for his 

 fellows; and he should bo brought to surrender iiis immoderate and indis- 

 criminate zeal for "more trees to slaughter," and taught a judicious respeck 

 for the laws and agencies of nature in the vegetable world, and a lively horror 

 for the irretrievable disasters that crowd so haid ujion his work. 



I know the tree slayer will resent these charges, for he prides himself upon 

 his skill to turn forests into tnouoy, and coucoives himself to be a public bene- 



