70 THE POTATO 



ing the ravages of the disease was to systemati- 

 cally follow the plan of spraying. Mr. Wallace also 

 well knew the old fact which had been stated in the 

 'Dictionary of Modem Gardening' sixty years 

 before, but had been practically forgotten by 

 growers in the second half of the nineteenth 

 century — namely, that it was not only most 

 desirable to plant good-sized seed, preferably un- 

 cut, but it was also of the first importance to pre- 

 serve the first bud of the seed tuber in order to 

 provide against loss of stamina in the plant through 

 breaking off the shoots. He therefore proceeded 

 to prove by demonstration on the field what he had 

 previously proved in his own practice at Terregles- 

 town, that it was a most profitable plan to have 

 the seed of even the late or main-crop potatoes 

 sprouted in boxes during the winter, as was done in 

 the case of the early varieties for the early market. 

 ''The first Irish experiments in this direction in 

 1902 were very conclusive, as the crops of good- 

 sized seed tubers which had been sprouted in boxes, 

 and had their sprouts toughened by exposure to 

 light and air before being planted, were not only 

 much larger in yield but were much freer from 

 disease than those which had not been so treated, 

 but had got their first shoots broken off by handling 

 at the time of planting. The department's experi- 

 ments showed that over all the numerous fields 

 on which these tests as between boxed and un- 

 boxed seed had been conducted, the average in- 

 crease in yield obtained from the boxed seed was 

 over 100 bushels per acre. A similar experiment 

 conducted in the following year at the Yorkshire 

 College farm showed precisely similar results, and 

 attracted much attention in England. Year after 

 year similar experiments were conducted in Ireland 



