lo July. 1911-] Exceptional Groivth of Potato Plants. 



445 



The grower was naturally proud of his achievement, and considered 

 that the results did not bear' out some of the prevalent theories. As he 

 said, ''This tends to knock the old theorv of too much tops and no 

 bottoms into pieces." But it may be remarked that the season and the 

 soil were exceptional, and with such reserves of readily available plant 

 food in the ground of a plot only 20 feet square, one is hardly justified 

 in drawing conclusions and applying them to normal conditions. 



POTATO SIAI.K II FEET LONG. WITH OXE OF THE TT'EERS. 



The seed was brought out from England .some few years ago, and it 

 is rather suggestive that a disease was found on the tops which has been 

 recorded for the first time in Australia this season. It is the Black Dot 

 disea.se due to Vcrmicularia varians; and, since a stage of this disea.se 

 occurs on the tubers in the form of little black dots, it is highly probable 

 that it was imported with the seed potatoes. 



It is also worthy of note that the plant which grew to such an e.xtra- 

 ordinary length was affected with Irish Blight, both in the tops and tubers. 

 It must have Iw-en attacked, however, in a late stage of its growth, since 

 the tubers had fullv matured, anrl the disea.se may have been in the seed 

 l)Otaloes when brought out from I''ngland. as well as the Bl \ck Dot disease 

 alrcadv mrntinnrd. 



