72 THE POTATO 



year, and the effect of that on the prices in the 

 home market will be keenly felt by British growers. 

 "Within the last few years also another great 

 change, which promises to increase the total aver- 

 age yield of the potato crops of Great Britain, has 

 been taking place. The change in question was 

 due to what may be called the rediscovery of a fact 

 which was well known to the gardeners and other 

 growers of potatoes more than half a century ago 

 namely, that in getting seed potatoes it was 

 always desirable to get them from a colder and 

 later district and climate than that to which they 

 were taken. In comparatively recent years many 

 English growers frequently obtained potato seed 

 from Scotlanjd, and found that in almost every 

 case the seed tubers grown in Scotland yielded 

 much better crops than those obtained from the 

 use of seed grown in England. The great yield 

 of crop obtained through the use of Scotch-grown 

 seed was, however, generally ascribed to superior- 

 ity of variety, as the tubers taken south to England 

 for seed were generally of a different variety from 

 those previously grown. That, however, was 

 not the correct explanation. Certain it is that, as 

 a general rule, seed tubers grown in the colder and 

 later climate of Scotland give much better results 

 than tubers grown in the warmer and earlier cli- 

 mate of England. Several reasons may be adduced 

 in partial explanation of this fact. For one thing, 

 owing to the climate of Scotland being colder and 

 later than that of England, the potato crop in 

 Scotland is not usually so fully ripened when it is 

 harvested as the potato crop in England is when 

 harvested, and it is an old but recently redis- 

 covered fact that potatoes harvested before being 

 fully matured are much better for seeding purposes 



