DISCOVERY 



349 



the country spend a good deal of time in its improve- 

 ment. 



[There are many books on the Potato, but nearly all are 

 small handbooks on its cultivation. Up-to-date information 

 should be sought in the Journals of the Royal -Agricultural 

 Society, the Royal Horticultural Society, and of the different 

 Boards of Agriculture.] 



Correspondence 



POTATOES FROM SEEDS 

 To the Editor of Discovery 



Sir, 



Miss Graham's article on Potatoes from Seeds is 

 most interesting, but I should not like your readers to 

 think — as so many people, led by seedsmen's advertise- 

 ments, are thinking — that they can grow most varieties 

 of potatoes from seed. It is the easiest thing in the world, 

 if one is even an average gardener, to grow potatoes from 

 seed ; the point is that it is normally a waste of time and 

 money. 



Seed as usually supplied is from naturally-found seed 

 balls and, except for a very few varieties which seed very 

 freely, are rare. Hence it is from such free-seeding 

 varieties that nurserj-men obtain their stock of seed. The 

 net result is that to a great extent " like produces hke," 

 and after several years' growing, a crop is obtained which 

 is exactly like the original parent, and which could have 

 been got in the first year from one " set " or seed tuber. 

 Certainly a mLxture of tubers often appears, but these 

 are usually a " hark-back " to some ancestor which has 

 gone out of existence owing to its having been ousted by 

 more valuable varieties. 



It is by no means a new idea to raise potatoes from seed. 

 This has been done by speciahsts for years now, and it is 

 only rarely that they get a new variety, and but a minor 

 percentage of these are an improvement on existing 

 varieties ; this, too, when they have had the advantage 

 of specially fertilising the fower with the pollen from 

 another variety. 



Another point to be remembered is that, if an attempt 

 is made to raise a new variety in the southern half of 

 England, if not elsewhere in the country, the seedlings 

 will leick stamina and will not give good results, as I have 

 explained in my paper. 



The potato world just now is sufiering from a plethora 

 of names. Seedlings are raised and put on the market 

 as new, and yet they have all the characteristics of an 

 old variety. Thus the well-known potato " Up-to-date " 

 is at present masquerading under some 150 names. 



To sum up — raising potatoes from seed is a pleasant 

 hobby, but if it is to be of any value, long study and 

 experience will be necessary. 



Geo. C. Gough. 



44 Hazlewell Road, 

 Putney, S.W.15. 



October 7, 1920. 



{Continued on p, 350 



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