94 



SECTION VI. 

 VARIETIES. 



The importance of growing the best varieties can- 

 not be too strongly urged. This is more patent every 

 year. Potato culture is no longer a haphazard 

 business. Public taste must be considered, and owing 

 to the keen competition in all agricultural matters 

 there is much more necessity to produce marketable 

 samples. Potato growing on a large scale in England 

 was restricted to a few districts until recent years. 

 The restrictions imposed upon tenants rendered it 

 impossible for them to embark in the cultivation of 

 crops outside the few permitted in their leases ; 

 but times have altered, and now such restrictions are 

 obsolete, thus rendering it possible for almost all 

 farmers whose land is adapted for potato growing to 

 engage in it. The monopoly has gone, and with it 

 the high prices associated with it. One very striking 

 feature connected with the extension of the crop has 

 been the very careless manner in which those who have 

 engaged in the work selected their seed. They 

 intended to put in potatoes, and they put them in, 

 utterly regardless of suitability. To them, anything 

 that could be called a potato was sufficient for their 

 purpose. As was natural, they were often supplied 



