Potato Development by Fartners and Gardeners. 546 



POTATO DEVELOPMENT BY FARMERS AND 

 GARDENERS. 



By W. J. Maiden. 



The rapid development of potatoes from a small stock is of special 

 interest now, because during the past two years farmers have 

 discovered that, provided they can get a small stock of a new variety 

 possessing sufficient merit, they have at their command the means of 

 making a larger return on a given capital than has hitherto been 

 regarded as possible. The large sums of money made by developing 

 the Northern Star potatoes are certainly unprecedented in the anuals 

 of farming. Moreover, those who have participated in this profitable 

 work of development have rendered a service to the potato-growing 

 community, as it has hastened the period when a great disease-resist- 

 ing variety can be obtainable by the general grower. It will be three 

 or four more years before the price of this variety will fall low enough 

 to be sold for culinary purposes, but it would have been much longer 

 had a special system of development not been adopted. There are 

 1,200,000 acres of potatoes grown in the United Kingdom — mostly 

 with varieties which readily succumb to disease, and therefore giving 

 far less profit than if they were sound. Anything, therefore, which 

 conduces to the m ire rapid development of disease-resisting varieties 

 must be for the good of the grower, and also for the consumer. The 

 strong disease-resisting powers of the Northern Star have been 

 clearly demonstrated in all parts of the country during the past two 

 years, and the best proof of fehe regard in which this variety is held 

 is obtained from the fact that all the largest growers have recognised 

 the necessity of growing it. The large amount of disease in the 

 country has, of course, greatly emphasised the necessity for getting 

 up a stock of new varieties which possess disease-resisting properties 

 in a marked degree. There is little doubt that in the future, when a 

 new variety possessing very special merit is brought forward, every 

 effort will be made to develop it rapidly ; and in this article an 

 account is given of methods which can be adopted to hasten its 

 development. 



The experiments which have been carried out for nearly a century 

 on cat versus uncut sets have generally shown that there is a stronger 

 crop from uncut sets ; and the popular mind has accepted this view, 

 which within certain limits is correct. A whole potato is encased in 

 a skin which retains moisture ; moreover, many insects, such as 

 wireworms, eelworms, and other scavenging insects do not so readily 

 attack an unwounded set as one which has been cut, or is in any way 

 decaying. A cut set is at once acted upon by surrounding conditions, 

 and decay immediately sets up about the cut portion. Where, there- 

 fore, it is planted under conditions where it has to make a struggle 



