THE POTATO 71 



by the department, and in every year the results 

 have been practically the same. 



"Further experiments conducted by the depart- 

 ment proved that not only was there a great 

 increase in yield obtained from boxed as against 

 unboxed seed, but that the system of spraying 

 with the sulphate of copper solution, if efficiently 

 and timeously carried out, had not only a most 

 marked effect in preventing or checking disease, 

 but that it had also a most marked further effect 

 in prolonging the growing period of the crop, and 

 in that way increasing the yield. Mr. Wallace 

 unhesitatingly and emphatically declared his set- 

 tled conviction that, when once the Irish growers 

 had learned to box and spray, the Green Isle, with 

 its potato area of 600,000 acres and its relatively 

 small population of 4,250,000 souls, would be able 

 not only to supply the wants of its own people, 

 but would also be able to regularly export enor- 

 mous quantities to the British markets instead of 

 requiring to import large quantities, as had often 

 been the case in former years. The Irish depart- 

 ment has therefore concentrated its efforts on 

 stimulating and encouraging the Irish culti- 

 vators to box and spray, and the Irish growers have 

 been quick to learn a lesson which promises to be 

 so very profitable to them. 



*'Last year the Irish growers who had learned 

 to box and spray had very heavy and sound crops 

 and the total output of potatoes in the Green Isle 

 was so heavy and plentiful that it is having a most 

 decided effect, and keeping prices at a very low 

 level in this country. There seems no reason to 

 doubt that as more and more Irish growers are led 

 to box and spray, the crops grown on the vast area 

 under potatoes in Ireland will be heavier year by 



