214 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



raising new varieties from wild stock sliould be commenced at 

 once, and be undertaken by the younger horticulturists, as it will 

 be the labor of some 3'ears to effect a full fruition. Wild American 

 potatoes vary in size from that of a pea to that of a marble, and 

 first crop seedlings are as large as buckshot. The former will 

 generally require seven seasons to bring them to full size, and 

 the latter four seasons. The soil should be fed with the proper 

 materials to make the tubers enlai'ge, and for this purpose a 

 dressing of wood ashes will be found available. 



Wild potatoes are early, late, and too late for our climate. 

 They are white-fleshed, yellow-fleshed, round, oval, and oblong. 

 The plants are erect, semi-pronate, and recumbent, spreading over 

 a wide surface ; bearing white or purple flowers, but chiefly white. 

 Some will bear seed-balls when cultivated ; others will not. Seeds 

 may produce varieties by accident, or as the result of hybridization 

 effected by hand or insect fertilization. " Sports " from under- 

 ground change will also produce changes upon the original tuber 

 planted. Such are liable to a repetition, and gardeners have less 

 faith in them. Potato plants that blossom but do not bear fruit 

 can be made productive by hand-fertilizing, or by planting another 

 variety in alternate hills ; the Early Rose has been made to bear 

 seed-balls in this latter way. 



By a wise provision of the Creator wild potatoes always remain 

 very small in their native soil unless cultivated ; but for which 

 they would exhaust the land and die out. In South America 

 they grow on lofty plateaus like that of Quito (9,500 feet), or 

 Bogota (8,500 feet), on the sides of the Andes at suitable eleva- 

 tions, and often have a season of eight months' activity, after 

 which the newly formed tubers remain dormant for four months, 

 when they in turn sprout. The soil is largeh' replenished by the 

 dying of the old tubers and plants, just as that of a forest is by 

 the formation of leaf -mould. 



The pecuniary value of a new seedling potato may be ver}^ great, 

 as is shown by the historj- of the Early Rose, which brought as 

 high as $2 for a single five-ounce tuber. As there would be one 

 hundred and ninety -two such potatoes — or sixty pounds — in a 

 bushel, the price would be equivalent to §384 for a bushel. From 

 S2 to $3 for a pound was often obtained, and 820 for a peck was 

 considered reasonable. These prices do not appear so extravagant 

 when we bear in mind that the five-ounce potato was made to pro- 



