182 THE 
GARDENERS’ 
CHRONICLE. 
[Mar. 21, 
which it is inserted into a wooden handle. When the 
Scoop is used, the germ to be taken out should 
occupy the middle of the scoop, and the surrounding 
flesh should entirely fill the cavity. With a little use 
this instrument can be employed with ease and 
speed. When used on large Potatoes six or eight 
eyes may be taken out, and the rest of the Potato 
used for other purposes. 
The germs thus procured are placed about two 
inches deep in the earth, with the flesh of the Potato 
below, and the eye or germ above. The distance of 
the plants should be that which is ordinarily adopted. 
The land on which the eyes are planted should be good, 
and the springing up of the plant watched, and the hoe 
be employed, for the riddance of weeds, &e. 
The eyes which have been taken out may be per- 
mitted to dry for some days; but they should not be 
entirely dried before they are planted. When not 
planted immediately they should be thinly spread on 
Something, as when they are laid in a heap together they 
become heated, ferment, and are destroyed. The scoop 
may also be employed, for the purpose of transporting 
seed from one district to another, at a diminished cost 
for carriage, on account of the bulk being much less 
than whole Potatoes, When this is done the scooped 
eyes should be carefully packed in Moss, speedily 
conveyed, and planted in the soil as fresh as possible. 
Where small landowners prefer planting whole Potatoes 
the produce may be much increased by attention to a 
few circumstances. The ground should be well dug 
and worked, and then the Potatoes may be planted 
deep, as deep, in faet, as the ground will permit ; the 
plants should be placed at a distance of 2 to 3 feet from 
each other, and the earth not thrown up in rows around 
them, but in heaps for each plant, Ground is thus 
economised, and the roots have free space to spread in, 
and their produce is always greater. When rich ma- 
nure is employed, great care should be taken to mix it 
well with the soil, but let it never be forgotten that Po- 
tatoes may be d, an e vegetation thus 
stimulated, without the tubers being increased in num- 
ber or size. If there be only a poor soil and weak 
manure, let the manure be placed under each plant- 
heap, and cover it with some earth, so that the plant- 
heap may not rest immediately on the manure. 
No. 2. Authentic Facts on the Renovation of the Po- 
tato by means of Seed, in relation to the disease of that 
plant now prevalent; by W. Albert, With remarks by 
the Justiz-rath Isensee; Magdeburg, 1845. — This 
pamphlet is introduced by some remarks from Mr. 
Isensee, who states that he is not himself a practical 
agriculturist, but one who takes great interest in all 
that relates to agriculture. He is the president of the 
Agricultural Society of Cóthen, in which position he has 
not only great opportunities of observing the different 
branches of agriculture, but also is able to make com- 
parative experiments. Having become acquainted 
with the fact that one of the Saxon agricultur- 
ists had made experiments on obtaining Potatoes 
from seed, and that even in the first year useful 
tubers for food and other purposes had been ob- 
tained, he turned his attention to the subject, 
and thus collected a variety of important details, which 
are recorded in the pages of the pamphlet before us. It 
ought to be added that the season in which the experi- 
ments were tried was not favourable ; the spring was 
cold and wet, and the frosts in the beginning of Septem- 
ber did much injury. 
During the last 10 years it has been observed that 
the Potato has exhibited a marked change in the vital 
powers. For— 
1. Their preservation is more - difficult now than for- 
merly ; 400 or 500 bushels of the tubers might be laid 
together, and no bad results ensued ; but recently 60 or 
70 bushels laid together will speedily decay. 
2. Formerly Potatoes when wounded in digging them 
up healed, but now they either putrify or become 
tainted. 
3. It is well known, moreover, that in many places they 
eut off the ends of the Potatoes, where the buds are 
mostly found, and planted them as sets, Now, however, 
these ends most speedily run to decay. 
4. Damp fields that used to yield sound and beautiful 
Potatoes, give now a crop of far less durability. 
5. Varieties of Potatoes that formerly blossomed and 
bore fruit, perform these functions no longer; the 
blossoms drop off, and no seed can be obtained. All 
these points have been more or less observed in many 
laces. ý 
p In 1839, however, a disease appeared which, within 
a short time, destroyed thousands of bushels of Pota- 
author discovered that this disease was caused by in- 
sects, especially small mites, resembling those in cheese. 
any persons smiled at this discovery, and supposed 
that the insects were produced by the disease in the 
The following things, however, ought to have 
some weight with such opponents :— 
1, Such an explanation would favour the doctrine of 
equivocal generation, which the celebrated naturalist 
Ehrenberg, of Berlin, has contradicted. 
2. The author has found in the midst of sound Pota- 
toes nests of small white mites, and in the centre of an 
apparently sound Gibraltar Potato, a small living fly. 
The author tried every means in his power to get 
rid of this disease, but failed ; he at last, however, suc- 
ceeded, by procuring seed Potatoes from a district 
time were constantly found individual Potatoes which 
entered into a stateof decomposition, by which their whole 
organisation was quickly destroyed. ^ Besides, also, the 
scurf (Schorfigwerden), or, so called, pock-mark (Pocken- 
krankheit), made its appearance. This disease, for the 
most part, exerted no influence upon the produce, nor 
upon the firmness or germinating power of the Potato ; 
only in the sale, it prejudieed them on account of their 
unseemly appearance. The scurf, for the most part, 
made its appearance where the land had been strongly 
manured, or mixed with marl, chalk, or soap-ashes, 
This year a disease has attacked the Potato in Bel- 
gium, Holland, the Rhine region, and other places, 
which has destroyed their organisation, and rendered 
them unfit for the food even of brutes, This disease 
has been accurately investigated in the countries where 
it has broken out. The French and English Govern- 
ments have both appointed Commissioners. By some the 
disease has been attributed to the attacks of a fungus, 
which, fastening itself on the under surface of the leaf, 
prevents that organ from performing its proper functions, 
and the whole plant becomes diseased. In this district 
(Lower Saxony) the Potatoes have this year (1845) 
exhibited a greater tendency than usual to run into a 
fluid decomposition. ‘This is especially the case with 
Potatoes in damp soils, and those which were placed 
under the water during the spring. Here and there 
Specimens have been found which in all respects cor- 
respond with the above-mentioned disease. 
What, then, is the origin of this disease? Numerous 
hypotheses are advanced in the various journals. To 
us it appears that it must have arisen out of the follow- 
ing causes :— 
1, Peculiar atmospheric influences, 
2, A continual propagation by tubers. 
As a proof of the last cause acting before all 
others, is the fact, that the later varieties of 
Potatoes will not produce flowers and seeds, Un- 
questionably it is the legitimate function of a plant 
to bear seeds, The seed is the crowning result of 
the life of a plant; to it is committed the propa- 
gation and increase of the species, and when it fails 
to be produced it indicates a want of power both in the 
vegetable and animal kingdom. Further, it is a fact 
that the early varieties of Potatoes which generally 
blossom and bear seed have been affected to a much 
less extent with the prevailing disease than those 
varieties whieh are older, and which bear no flowers 
nor fruit. A brother of the reporter planted a field 
this year with the following varieties of Potatoes :— 
a, Gibraltar Potatoes. 
b. Sugar Potatoes. 
c. Leipsie Potatoes, with red eyes. 
d. Potatoes planted from seed. 
e. Wax Potatoes (Waeks-Kartoffel). 
At the harvesting, which occurred on the 20th of 
October, 1845, the Potatoes a, b, and e were found to 
contain more or less indieations of disease, whilst the 
Wax Potatoes and those grown from seed were not 
touched at all. My brother also received from an agri- 
cultural society four Potatoes of a new sort, which were 
planted in a garden amongst other varieties, At the 
time of gathering all the other Potatoes afforded traces 
of the scurf, and exhibited suspicious looking spots upon 
the skin, whilst the produce of the four new Potatoes 
were entirely clean and free from disease. The produce 
of the four Potatoes was 40 lbs. 
It ought, however, to be observed that it has always 
been found that some sorts of Potatoes are more liable 
than others to be diseased, although placed under thesame 
circumstances ; thus, in the district of the reporter the 
red varieties of Potatoes have been much better pre- 
served than the white. The first possess always more 
consistence, and contain a much less quantity of water 
than the last. 
rom these observations it appears to result that the 
changes which the Potatoes exhibit in disease are pro- 
dueed by the soluble substances which they contain, 
and that the disposition thereto is produced by a weak 
cohesion of the elementary matters of which the Po- |m 
tato is composed. This asthenie state of the Potato 
gives many insects their nourishment in its tissues, 
and by this means the decomposition of the tuber is 
more readily affected. Even in the fluid forms of 
putrefaction, the reporter has discovered such insects, 
and at the moment of writing, a Potato is lying before 
him, which, on being inspected with the microscope, 
exhibits countless insects, the most of which resemble 
in appearance the cheese-mite, 
For four years the Oberamtmann Albert has 
occupied himself with endeavouring to restore the 
vitality of the Potato by propagation from seeds. He 
has also induced others to try the experiment, which 
has indeed afforded some brilliant results. Especially 
have the following points been determined :— 
1. By proper culture, Potatoes grown from seed in 
the first year gave large, perfectly ripe, and eatable 
tubers ; so that from a Magdeburg acre (Morgen) 
above four Berlin wispel (a wispel is 24 bushels) were 
harvested. The seed mixed with dry earth was thinly 
sown in the middle of April, in rows a foot apart, in good 
garden ground. The seedlings were transplanted 
in a field at the end of May or the beginning of June. 
This should be done when they are 4 or 5 inches high. 
It is also necessary that each plant should have at least 
3 square feet to grow in, as they develop a much larger 
root-system than those which are grown from tubers. } 
It has generally been supposed that it required three 
where the disease had not been known. At the same | years to obtain a crop of Potatoes from seed, ,but the 
reason of this has been that the young plants when 
transplanted have not been separated far enough from 
each other. 
2. The Potato generated in this way exhibits con- 
stantly a great vitality, The vegetation is much more 
luxuriant, and the produce of the tubers more abun- 
dant. In September, 1845, the reporter counted on a 
single stem of a Potato plant 102 tubers all adapted for 
future seed, whilston the stem of one of the mother- 
plants near by, there were only 13 tubers, although 
larger on an average. 
3. Potatoes grown from seed are more durable. On 
the 10th of October 9 bushels of Potatoes from seed 
were placed upon a floor in a heap, and at the same 
time three-quarters of a bushel of the parent Potatoes. 
Fourteen days afterwards, 16 faulty individuals were 
picked out amongst the last, whilst in the first not a 
single unsound tuber was discovered. In fact the 
disease (and this more particularly applies to he dr 
gangrene before mentioned), has not developed itself in 
the Potatoes produced from seed. 
4. In one case reported in the appendix, the produce 
of tubers obtained from seed was 24 greater than that 
obtained from the mother Potatoes on the same piece 
of ground, and this is in accordance with the previous 
results. 
5. Notwithstanding that the half ounce (Loth) of 
Potato seed cost from 3 to 4 thalers in previous years, 
and from the frost in the beginning of September spoil- 
ing the Potato-apples this year, raising the price to 4 
or 5 thalers the half ounce, yet the expence of growing 
the Potato from seed is less than from the tuber, 
The planting of two Magdeburg acres with tubers 
ost :— 
Ci 
th. gr. 
F bushels of tubers, at 19 groschen a bushel ». 10 0 
our women to plant the same after the plough. . .. 0 12 
10 12 
T For plantingzfrom seed the following was the cost :— 
th. 
. gr. 
For a half ounce of seed for sowing two acres .. 2418 
For 12 women, employed in transplanting, &e... — .. 1 12 
6 6 
6. The plants produced from seed generally resem- 
bled the parents, but sometimes entirely new varieties 
are produced, 
At the end of this Report is a note by Mr. Isensee, 
in which he says, “I hold the renovation of the Potato 
from seed as a highly important matter. I can con- 
firm the statement that the Potatoes yielded by plants 
grown from seed have an especially beautiful and sound 
pr a kably powerful d of the 
root, and generally a luxuriant vegetation. I have 
also seen that the small and very smallest Potatoes of 
the crop grown from seed in 1844, and which were 
planted in the spring of 1845, yield extraordinarily fine 
and sound tubers, combined with an incredible pro- 
ductiveness, so that I believe large Potato cultivators 
would find it greatly increase the produce of their har- 
vests if they from time to time renovated their crops by 
raising Potatoes from seed, I believe also that some of 
the plants after the transplanting of the others, and 
ihinning, might be left in the place where they were 
sown, and would there yield tubers whose produce 
would be good both in quantity and quality, and which 
would serve for planting a subsequent year. 
The appendices alluded to in the report consist of 
various reports and papers bearing on the question of 
the value of the crops of Potatoes procured from Potato 
seed. The first five papers consist of reports given by 
committees of agricultural and other societies on this 
subject, They are drawn up in the form of question 
and answer, and the principal results have been given 
in the preceding remarks. - 
One of the papersin Appendix A is upon the chemical 
composition of tubers produced from seed and from 
otatoes, This paper is by Dr. Dobereiner. He sub- 
mitted the several sorts of Potatoes obtained from seed 
Potatoes | Potatoes 
fro: TO: 
Krause. | Greger, 
Water 810.9 
Starch .. 107.0 
Fibrine, sta 50.0. 
Substances 32.1 
biaia a cs 
1000.0 | 1000.0 1000.0 
The quantitative analysis of substances soluble in 
water was not made; from the researches of other 
chemists they are as follows :— 
Albumen Tartaric acid) 
Gum lisse 
(Sugar — Asparagin 
Phosphoric acid Solanin 
Citric acid 
The published analyses of Einhof, Henry, and Lam- 
padius, are then given, which were made on Potatoes 
produced by tubers, The following analysis by Do- 
bereiner is given of a large sort grown in the year 
1845 
45 :— 
Water .. v E .. "= 740.9 
Starch .. — m m «.::120.0 
Fibr CAR DES CREE 
"ATggtqegue PUT WRITE, Po MEE 
Guter Pest uj, Per td ida 
1000.0 
