EXPERIMENTS WITH CHILIAN SEED-POTATOES. 141 



XVII. 



EXPERIMENTS^ WITH CHILIAN SEED- 

 POTATOES— Report for 1884. 



BY THOMAS KING. 



[Bead 30th Deoemher, 1884.] 



This is now the third annual report on the 

 ChiHan Seed-Potatoes ; and in order to connect tlie 

 three reports, I will very briefly summarise the 

 previous two. 



The object I had in view was to find a disease- 

 resisting i3otato ; and I was of oi)inion that the 

 disease had been induced by a long course of 

 injudicious treatment, which had at length sa 

 weakened the constitution of the potato that it wa& 

 unable to resist the attacks of the fungus, and so 

 fell an easy victim. 



Holding these views, 1 naturally thought that if a 

 sound stock were introduced into this country it 

 would produce healthy offspring ; and accordingly, in 

 1882, I had a good cultivated variety sent to me from 

 Chile, a country that has never been visited by the 

 potato-disease. The^^ arrived in good condition, and 

 were planted in May ; but in July I observed that 

 the leaves were spotted with Peronospora infestans. 

 The sliaws grew strong and tali ; but the crop was 

 poor, the tubers being few and small, and some of 

 them diseased. 



The sound part of this first crop was kept over 

 till the next spring (1883), and planted early. 

 Speaking generally, this second crop was better 

 than the first. The shaws were not so rank, and 

 the tubers were very numerous, and few diseased. 



