No. 216.] 609 



Jij>Til 20, 1847. 



Robert Lawrence, Esq, in the chair. 



Mi. Meigs read the following translation made by him from the 

 Revue Horticole: 



Revue Horticole, Paris, 1847. 



Growth of Potatoes in the eaith without stalks or leaves, 



Lefevre remarks that the winter culture of potatoes ought to at- 

 tract the attention of the learned and the practical agriculturists to 

 this curious problem. 



Question. — Can the potatoes continue to grow in the earth when 

 the vegetation of their stalks and leaves is suspended by cold? To 

 this question practical men say there is no difficulty in this, for they 

 find that the potatoes often develope in cellars and in the banks where 

 they are deposited, young potatoes; besides, what are potatoes but 

 swelled roots or stems? 



Last year Mr. Francoeur gave a statement to the Royal and Cen- 

 tral Society of Agriculture, of an experiment he had made after the 

 method of Mr. Chaugarnier. 



Potatoes planted about the end of August, gave him a crop at the 

 end of the ensuing winter. 



A discussion arose in the society on this subject, and it seems to 

 have been agreed that these potatoes had in the spring, attained 

 their full size. 



Mons. Masson, in the experimental garden of the society, planted 

 in August, 1846, the Marjolin potatoes; the growth of the stalks 

 was very slow; at the time of hilling them there were no young po- 

 tatoes. The cold weather having come, he covered the potato bed 

 with dry leaves, and at that time the young potatoes were not larger 

 than the finger's end Frost came on shortly after; the stalks were 

 completely disorganized, but the vegetation of the potatoes in the 

 earth, nevertheless continued. We recollect that Mr. Vilmorin proved 

 the same facts twenty years ago, when he introduced the marjolin po- 

 tato by the name of the kidney. 



[Am. Inst.] 00 



