THE POTATO 57 



one of the most treasured possessions of his family 

 to this day. By way of doing honor to the man 

 whom the Queen had thus dehghted to honor, the 

 landowners and farmers of Forfarshire presented 

 him with a soHd silver epergne and a claret jug, 

 which are also carefully treasured in the family. 



*'In his 'Report on Experiments in Propagating 

 New and Superior Varieties of the Potato Plant,' 

 for which he was awarded the gold medal of the 

 Highland and Agricultural Society in 1869, Mr. 

 Paterson tells the story of his long-continued and 

 costly struggle to produce a variety which should 

 be distinguished by its heavy-cropping, good- 

 cooking, and disease-resisting qualities. From 

 this report, which is published in the society's 

 'Transactions' of 1870, we quote the following 

 extract: 



" 'My own conviction regarding the potato blight 

 is that there is no direct cure for it, but that it is 

 entirely owing to atmospheric action in the plant, 

 and that it will be always more or less subject to it. 

 From this time (viz., 1853) I determined on carry- 

 ing out my original idea of raising and improving 

 seedling varieties from the plum or apple of vigor- 

 ous and healthy tubers. The initial difficulty was 

 very great. Potatoes in this country had* almost 

 ceased to flower, and at considerable expense I 

 imported them from England, the Cape of Good 

 Hope, Australia, America, and Calcutta, from 

 which, as well as from our own standard kinds, I 

 selected the healthiest tubers and planted them in 

 a field of newly taken in land, with reed manure, 

 by the side of a stream where the atmosphere was 

 damp. All produced flowers, and most of them 

 "apples." The experiment was successful, and 

 from the seed or "apple" I produced those new 



