THE POTATO 53 



"It is also interesting to note that the National 

 Agricultural Society of Scotland was a pioneer of 

 progress in potato culture. In 1827 the society 

 awarded a medal to Mr. Richard Lowthian Ross 

 of Staffold Hall, Cumberland, for bringing out a 

 new variety of potato called Staffold Hall, which 

 that gentleman had grown successively on a deep 

 rich soil, approaching clay, for a long period and 

 had never found it to present the least symptom of 

 curl or disease of any kind, either on its foliage or 

 tubers, and its produce per acre he has found in 

 several instances to exceed thirty tons. 



"In the premium article by Mr. Peter Lawson on 

 'The Comparative Value of Different Varieties of 

 the Potato,' published in Vol. IX. of the society's 

 Transactions, it is recorded that the * Staffold Hall, ' 

 or 'Late Wellington, ' as it is sometimes termed, was 

 found superior in specific gravity and quantity of 

 starch contained in a given weight of tubers to any 

 of the others there enumerated, amounting to 

 seventy-three. It would rather seem that if a 

 potato answering the description of the Staffold 

 Hall were to be brought out nowadays it would be 

 hailed with universal acclamation as the very 

 kind that potato raisers and potato growers had 

 for many long years been looking for and striving 

 to obtain. 



"In the 'Agriculturist's Manual,' published in 

 1836 by Messrs. Peter Lawson & Son, 'Seedsmen 

 and Nurserymen to the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society, ' there is given a list of 146 different vari- 

 eties in ordinary cultivation, and full particulars 

 are given respecting each variety under the differ- 

 ent heads of ' Habit of growth, ' ' Foliage, ' ' Flower, ' 

 'Shape of tubers,' 'Color and other peculiarities 

 of skin, ' ' Fold of increase, ' ' General remarks ' and 



