RAISING SEEDLING POTATOES. 



BEGONIA ZANTHINA. 



Yellow-Flowered Begonia. 



For fi long time, we had only Begonias with white or red flowers, althoufrh 

 many diQerent species of this valuable genus were discovered. B. cinnabarina 

 was an approach to the zanlhina, but even this is shaded with the red which 

 prevails, in' a greater or less degree, in the flowers or leaves, and stalks, of all the 

 genus. 



Few plants have a greater claim on our cultivators than the Begonias, and we 

 hope to see the zanthina generally introduced. 



RAISING SEEDLING POTATOES. 



BY C. E. GOODRICH, UTICA, N. Y. 



Nearly every species of vegetable is changed, and usually improved, when 

 transplanted from its native wilds into cultivated grounds. 



1st. The Pei-ennial gains in size of fruit or seed, but usually not in quality. 

 This improvement is often at the expense of hardiness, its more rapid growth 

 exposing it to atmospheric changes at midsummer, as well as protracting its 

 growth often into the cold damps of autumn. 



2d. The Aimual and Biennial, on being reproduced in cultivated grounds, is 

 altered in quality, as is seen in most of our cultivated grains, roots, and flowers, 

 the most of which may be traced to wild varieties of inferior value. 



3r/. The Perennial Wildling, on being reproduced in favorable circumstances, 

 changes and often improves, as in the case of the most of our fruits, roots, and 

 flowers, which are likewise traceable to wild originals. 



Atli. The ordinary Annual and Biennial, on being frequently reproduced and 

 wisely cultivated, acquires a stereotyped character. (1). In quality, as iu the 

 case of our common grains, melons, tomatoes, &c., which, under similar circum- 

 stances, show little change in quality from year to year. (2). In trueness to sort. 

 The most of our grains, roots, and flowers, have been so long cultivated in cir- 

 cumstances of the highest culture, that they do not, when cultivated alone, sprout 

 into new varieties. 



hth. The cultivated Perennial, on being reproduced, does not exhibit this stereo- 

 typed adberence to sort, but sprouts into still new varieties, often in a retrograde 

 course. Thus, the Svvaar Apple, Early York Peach, Yirgalieu Pear, and the finest 

 varieties of tulips, &c., rarely, if ever, reproduce themselves. 



%th. The Potato, however, differs from all other perennials with which I am 

 experimentally acquainted; first, in the fact that quite frequently it reproduces 

 itself almost exactly ; and secondly, that it proportionately produces a larger 

 number of good, new varieties. This last result, however, is not true of every 

 source from which new varieties are sought, a family of new seedlings, consisting 

 of four or five hundred varieties, sometimes failing to give a single valuable sort. 



These things being premised, I propose to make some observations on the 

 difliculties encountered in endeavors to improve the potato by reproduction. 



In the reproduction of new varieties of potatoes, we take the seed balls of some 

 existing variety, which we call the base. 



e important traits included in a valuable variety of potatoes, are especially 

 following : — 



