694 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



The fact that a scabby potato may produce, under certain 

 circumstances, a smooth and otherwise excellent potato, was 

 confirmed. Good potatoes have been raised before from 

 seed potatoes suffering from scab, without any previous 

 treatment similar to ours. Without any intention of antici- 

 pating the results of future observations, or to point out 

 with certainty the exact cause of our results, we expressed 

 the opinion that a difference in the condition of the soil in 

 our old and ne^v expeinmental potato plats might have proved 

 to be the principal cause of our trouble : for the former 

 yielded, from healthy potatoes, most inferior scabby pota- 

 toes ; whilst the latter produced, from scabby potatoes, a 

 most superior, smooth potato, under otherwise almost identi- 

 cal conditions, as far as soil, mode of cultivation and kind 

 of fertilizer were concerned, upon land in close proximity, 

 during the same season. 



1887. — The experiment has been repeated during the 

 past season upon the same lands, with but a slight modifica- 

 tion. The soil was ploughed and fertilized as jn the preced- 

 ing year. Ten plats, each fifty feet long, were planted with 

 four rows of potatoes, three feet three inches apart, and with 

 nineteen hills in the row. Medium-sized, whole scabby 

 potatoes (Beauty of Hebron), selected from the crop raised 

 upon our own fields during the previous year, and which is 

 described in some preceding pages, under the heading 

 " Potato Experiment," "A," served as seed potatoes. One- 

 half the plats were planted with scabby potatoes, all from 

 the same lot, after being immersed for eighteen hours in 

 some solution prepared for that purpose ; and the other half 

 were planted without any previous treatment of the seed, — 

 Plats 2, 6 and 10 with our scabby potatoes, Beauty of 

 Hebron, and Plats 4 and 8 with healthy, smooth tubers, of 

 the same variety. 



p, . ^ Scabby potatoes, soaked in a solution of 



( potassium sulphide 

 p, „ < Scabby potatoes, without any particular 



c treatment, 

 p, „ J Scabby potatoes, treated with a solution of 



' \ hypochlorite of lime (bleaching lime), 

 p, , J Smooth, healthy potatoes, without previous 



' treatment. 



