



years been known by the name of the short top, whilst the 

 apples have disappeared altogether. Contemporaneously 

 with these changes, there has been a constantly-increasing 

 difficulty in growing the pink eyes, winch are rapidly be- 

 coming extinct. It is evident from this circumstance that 

 the effect of cultivating the Potato for the purpose of increas- 

 ing the size of the tuber, is to diminish the vital energy of 

 the plant, to render its growth more precarious, and in the 

 end to destroy the variety altogether. Many varieties of 

 Potatoes formerly cultivated in England have thus been 

 worn out, and I believe there are few kinds grown in this 

 county at least, which are not giving unequivocal proofs of 

 weakness, by ceasing to produce the apples or balls in the 

 abundance in which they produced them formerly. 



I mention these facts for two purposes — first, for that 

 of showing that the Potato, as now cultivated, is not in a 

 natural state, and therefore that like all highly-fed plants 

 or animals, it is subject to a variety of diseases to which it 

 is not subject in its natural state ; and second, for the 

 purpose of showing the necessity of continually raising new- 

 varieties from seed at home, and of introducing others from 

 abroad. I see that at the meeting of the York Agricultural 

 Society, held last week, Mr. Paxton strongly urged the 

 necessity of raising new varieties, on the ground that the 

 older varieties were suffering more from tbe disease than 

 the new ones, and it will be seen that Baron Humboldt 

 not only recommends that, but also the importation of 

 new varieties from South America, the native country of 

 the potato. 



On this subject, he says : — 



" It would be of still greater importance to procure the seed of the 

 Potatoes cultivated at Quito and on the plain of Santa Fe. I have 

 seen them of a spherical form of more than three decimetres (from 12 

 to 13 inches) in diameter, and of a much better taste than any on our 

 continent. We know that certain herbaceous plants which have been 

 long multiplied from the roots degenerate in the end, especially when 

 the bad custom is followed of cutting the roots into several pieces. It 

 has been proved by experience, in several parts of Germany, that, of 

 all the Potatoes, those which grow from the seed are the most savoury. 

 We may ameliorate the species by collecting the seed in its native 

 country", and by choosing, on the Cordillera of the Andes, the varieties 

 which are most recommendable from their volume and the savour of 

 their roots. "We have long possessed in Europe a Potato which is 

 known by agricultural writers under the name of Red Potato of 

 Bedfordshire, and of which the tubercles weigh more than a kilogramme ; 

 but this variety (conglomerated potato) is of an insipid taste, and can 

 only be applied to feed cattle, while the papa chogota, which contains 

 less water, is very farinaceous, contains very little sugar, and is of an 

 extremely agreeable taste." 



At the time when the whole of the west coast of South 



