THE POTATO 59 



that, before he got on to the Hne of experiment 

 which led up to the production of the Victoria, 

 * potatoes in this country had almost ceased to 

 flower,' let alone bearing 'apples' or * plums.' 

 Whether that was due to the loss of constitutional 

 vigor, or to the fact that through the process of 

 selection, the varieties which expend all their 

 energies on the production of tubers and not on the 

 production of 'apples' had come to be the only 

 kind generally grown, cannot now be determined. 

 And here we may note a somewhat remarkable fact 

 in this connection. Many years ago Mr. John 

 Wilson, Chapelhill, grew a variety of potatoes 

 which regularly produced a full crop of 'apples.' 

 Mr. Wilson came to the conclusion that the plants 

 could not possibly produce such a heavy crop as 

 they could otherwise do if a great part of their 

 energy was expended in the production of ' apples, ' 

 and by way of experiment he set his 'hands' to 

 snip the blooms off the plants in a few acres situ- 

 ated in the centre of the field. The result was that 

 the part of the field so treated yielded a crop which 

 was quite two tons per acre heavier than that 

 yielded by the same variety in the other parts of 

 the field which were not so treated. But in the 

 evolution of heavy-cropping varieties ' apple '- 

 bearing varieties are now very few and far between. 

 "In the scientific process of hybridizing, the 

 anthers have first of all to be removed at an early 

 stage of the flowering process in order to prevent 

 the pollen produced on them from lighting on the 

 pistil. Care must also be taken to prevent the pol- 

 len of any neighboring plants from lighting on the 

 pistil of the plant to be impregnated. Then the 

 pollen collected from the anthers of the plant to be 

 used as the 'male' in the crossing process has to 



