270 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



Britain and Chile respectively. Speaking generally, in Chile the 

 potatoes are planted whole and a considerable distance apart. They 

 are not heavily manured, and are carefully dried in the sun before 

 being stored for the winter. Under this treatment they have con- 

 tinued quite healthy up to the present time. As regards their 

 treatment in Britain, I was of opinion that our modes of cultivation 

 and storing, continued through many years, had so enfeebled the 

 constitution of the potato plant as to render it an easy prey to the 

 potato-disease fungus. I therefore thought that if we were to get 

 some perfectly sound tubers from Chile, they would produce a 

 disease-resisting crop here; and, accordingly, I wrote to my brother 

 a year ago, asking him to send me some potatoes — not wild ones, 

 but a good cultivated variety. Now, as Chile extends a great dis- 

 tance north and south, it has many different climates. I therefore 

 obtained the seed-potatoes from Llanquehue, in the south, where 

 the climate somewhat resembles our own. In the southern hemis- 

 phere, however, the seasons do not occur at the same time as with 

 us; and at Llanquehue potatoes are dug in the month of May, 

 while here they are only planted in March or April. The seed- 

 potatoes were not therefore obtained in the best condition, as they 

 had to be taken up when half grown, and after all they arrived 

 here too late. They were small red potatoes — some round, others 

 long, many rather unshapely, but all quite free from disease, and 

 very clean as if grown in a loose soil. No name was sent with 

 them; but 1 believe they were of the variety called "Borajilla," or 

 borage-leaved. 



Some of my acquaintances, living in the country, kindly planted 

 small quantities, and reported on them at the end of the season. 

 Some were put into the ground during the second half of May, and 

 others not till the beginning of June, so that they cannot be 

 regarded as having had a good chance. They grew luxuriantly, 

 however, producing great tall stems with broad flat leaves. One 

 terminal leaflet I measured was eight inches long by six broad. 



I will now give some details regarding the different lots. I had 

 received about twenty-four stones altogether; and of these Mr. 

 Kobert Howie, farmer, Netherauldhouse, Pollokshaws, planted ten 

 stones. The ground — the common clay soil of the district — had 

 been intended for cabbages, and was already drilled up in twenty- 

 eight inch drills. The potatoes were planted whole, and at a dis- 

 tance of fourteen inches apart. They grew vigorously both above 



