THE POTATO 67 



in the pits, though they looked quite sound when 

 hfted. The result is that at the present time po- 

 tato growers are greatly at a loss as to what variety 

 they should plant, and they are cautious, even to 

 the verge of suspicion, as to the purchase of any 

 new variety whose merits as a cropper and disease- 

 resister have not been fully proved on a large scale, 

 and for at least a couple of years. 



*'But while the potato boom was being shot up 

 by scientific and other devices on its rocket-like 

 course, there were scientists in Ireland engaged in 

 experimental work which was destined to be of 

 great and permanent interest to potato growers. 

 The Department of Agriculture and Technical 

 Instruction for Ireland — a Board backed with 

 ample funds and staflFed with able and energetic 

 men — had been most successfully carrying on a 

 great work for the advancement of the agricultural 

 and other industries of Ireland. That experimen- 

 tal and demonstration work carried on by the Irish 

 department was destined to be of paramount im- 

 portance to potato growers in Great Britain as well 

 as in Ireland. The potato crop covers such a vast 

 area in Ireland, and is so staple a food of the Irish 

 peasantry, that the department wisely devoted a 

 great part of its resources toward the development 

 of the potato-growing industry. The chief scien- 

 tific adviser of the Irish department is Professor 

 J. R. Campbell, a young and very able Scotsman, 

 who was formerly assistant lecturer on agriculture 

 at the Glasgow Agricultural College before being 

 appointed Professor of Agriculture, first at the 

 Lancashire Agricultural College, and afterward at 

 the Yorkshire College. Professor Campbell, while 

 engaged as lecturer on agriculture for the Glasgow 

 Agricultural College, was well acquainted with the 



