DEPAKTMENT EEPOETS. 117 



It will be seen that of the above, twelve are among the twenty-seven giving 

 greatest yield at this place. 



We expect a continuation of these experiments next year. 



RAISING NEW YAEIETIES OF POTATOES. 



Year before last, one of our students sowed seeds of the potato in a rich 

 spot, as soon as the ground could be worked. Several plants produced tubers 

 three or four inches long and of good shape. 



Last year I saved a nice lot of seeds from the balls of about fifty different 

 varieties of potatoes. These were sowii in boxes, in hot beds, or in the green- 

 house, about the time we sowed seeds for early tomatoes. They were pricked 

 out once and set about two inches apart each way. After all danger from frost 

 was over, they were transplanted into rows in the garden. In the rows they 

 were set only about a foot and a half apart. This in many cases proved too 

 close, as the tubers of different hills were often more or less mixed. About six 

 hundred plants grew and produced tubers. Frost held off well, till October 

 the sixth. In most cases the yield and size of the potatoes were quite surprising 

 to me. Instead of a few little tubers, the size of bullets, they were frequently 

 four or five inches in length, and of good size. In one instance, one plant 

 produced eight pounds of tubers, many of them good size. The yield in 

 many cases was better than for hills where we had planted old tubers for seed. 



I intend to test them all next year, and will then likely throw most of them 

 away, keeping only those of greatest promise. Enough has been done to show 

 that farmers must have new varieties of potatoes every few years, as the old 

 ones degenerate in size and quality in most cases if not in all. It is so dasy, 

 and so interesting too, to raise a few that, I believe, many intelligent farmers will 

 soon make it a common practice. 



It is interesting and somewhat amusing to read of the yield and size of the 

 potatoes the first year from the seed in some recent experiments in England, as 

 reported in a late number of The Garden, Oct. 28. I make a few extracts : 



In April, the seeds were sown in pots or pans, under glass, in a cool house or 

 frame. " Seedlings Avere raised in large pots under glass, producing tubers 

 varying in size from that of a pea to a filbert. During the past summer these 

 have undergone a second season's growth in the old Woodstock rectory garden. 

 * * * That some of the large cropping qualities of the late rose were 

 secured, was evident from the fact that three minute sets of one kind produced 

 over seven pounds of fine tubers." Any one who has raised new sorts can fully 

 understand what is said of "the tending and harvesting of the berries, the 

 sowing of the seed in the following spring, and patient waiting through the 

 summer for the tardy development, the lifting of the produce, and marking 

 of the chief features of each plant, and its produce, the winter-storing, the 

 replanting the next year for the most important trial, the eventual Aveeding out 

 in the autumn, and the final saving of those for further trial that appear to 

 come nearest to the desired form. Any good collection of potatoes exhibits 

 wondrous variety in color, form and general character, a fact which sufiices to 

 show that seedling roots may now and then produce varieties which shall more 

 than repay the raiser for his industry." 



In the above extracts I have purposely omitted any mention of cross-breeding 

 or hybridizing potatoes, as a future article, a lecture in this volume on Horti- 

 cultural Experiments, will treat this most interesting topic somewhat in detail. 



