ON REARING NEW VARIETIES. 135 



in appearance, will cook well and be of good flavour. It 

 is notorious that many of the sorts that are now grown 

 largely, and which are put upon the market, are deficient 

 in flavour. The British public, therefore, want those who 

 take in hand the rearing of new varieties to bear in mind 

 that flavour is a feature of as great an importance as 

 disease-resisting powers and free cropping qualities. There 

 is a fortune yet awaiting the man w r ho can turn out a really 

 good flavoured variety in conjunction with the other attri- 

 butes. The nearest approach, in our opinion, to Ihis 

 much-desired goal of perfection is Sutton's Discovery. If 

 it only retains its disease-resisting powers, and continues 

 to crop freely, as well as retain its present excellent flavour 

 and first-rate cooking qualities, its success will be assured. 



Faults to Avoid The chief fault to avoid in the 

 rearing of new varieties is, first of all, coarseness in size. 

 Big tubers, however tempting they may be to the cottager 

 for quickly filling his pot, are not wanted for ordinary use. 

 They are wanting in flavour and ugly when served on the 

 table. Neither do we, as previously intimated, want 

 handsome-shaped tubers at the expense of flavour. Nor 

 are varieties required with deep eyes ; these mean a lot of 

 waste when they are peeled for cooking. In selecting and 

 growing seedlings year after year to test their cropping 

 and disease-resisting pow T ers, special attention should be 

 paid to their cooking properties and flavour, and, if want- 

 ing in these essential features, they should be promptly 

 discarded. 



How New Varieties are Obtained. Supposing 

 the above points are clearly borne in mind, and the reader 

 is anxious to try his skill in rearing a new variety by cross- 

 fertilisation, he must go to work as follows: His first care 

 must be to have a definite object in his mind as to what he 

 is going to try to achieve by the process whether, for 

 instance, he is going to aim at a heavier yield, a better- 

 shaped tuber, or a better-flavoured variety. We will sup- 

 pose, also, that one, of the varieties possesses the good 



