Transactions of the London Horticultural Society. 3 1 7 



the tubers, which are planted in autumn, should have ripened early in the 

 foregoing summer ,• for otherwise they will not be found sufficiently excit- 

 able in autumn. It is also necessary that they should be of large size, 

 otherwise the young potatoes which they afford will be small ; and it will 

 be advantageous, if the tubers to be planted have been detached from their 

 parent plants, upon their having just attained their full growth. 



" I believe, but I am not prepared to speak upon the evidence of experi- 

 ment, that the best and the most economical mode of treating the old tubers, 

 after their progress of vegetation has been arrested by cold, will be to put 

 them into such heaps as are usually seen in the gardens of cottagers, and 

 to cover them with mould ; as a very large quantity would occupy only a 

 small space, and their produce would there probably acquire a more early 

 maturity, and might be collected at any time with little trouble. 



" A writer in Mr. Loudon's Gardener's Magazine [Vol. II. p. 171.] has 

 recommended the exposure of such potatoes as are intended for planting 

 to the sun, as soon as they acquire their full growth, till they attain a green 

 colour ; and I am inclined to think the process may prove in some degree 

 advantageous, for the action of the sun and air certainly causes chemical 

 changes to take place in their component parts ; and chemical changes are 

 the precursors and concomitants of excitability, if not the cause and source 

 of it. I am also inclined to think that similar treatment would.be bene- 

 ficial in the culture of all those varieties of potato which do not naturally 

 vegetate till late in the spring. 



" I am not prepared to say what weight of new potatoes may be ob- 

 tained from any given weight of old ; but I have reason to think that the 

 young will be equal to the weight of one third at least of the old; and 

 (as I have shown in a communication two years ago) [given verbatim, 

 Gard. Mag., Vol. V. p. 721.] that more than 35,000 lbs. of our best and 

 earliest variety of potato, now cultivated, may be obtained from an acre 

 of ground, the mode of culture recommended will not be found expensive 

 (where artificial heat is not employed), comparatively with the usual price 

 of new potatoes early in the season. Hogs, if hungry, will eat the old 

 tubers when the young have been taken away ; but those probably con- 

 tain but little nutriment, and their value, therefore, may not be worth 

 calculating. 



" Two early varieties only of potato have been the subjects of the above 

 stated experiments ; but there does not appear any reason to doubt that 

 similar success may be obtained with all other early kinds." 



3. On raising Apple Trees from Pips. By the Rev. James Ve- 

 nables, C.M.H.S. Read Dec. 1. 1829. 

 Mr. Venables says, he has never found any satisfactory rea- 

 son " why the pips of our best apples should produce most 

 frequently trees little better than a crab." We will answer him 

 by stating that this is not a matter of fact; the pips of our 

 best apples will most frequently not only produce good apples, 

 but apples more nearly resembling the parent variety than any 

 other variety, and never to be mistaken for the seminal produce 

 of the crab. Let any one take the pips of a golden pippin, a 

 Ribstone pippin, a nonpareil, and a Hawthornden, mix them 

 as he will, and sow them together ; and, when they have come 

 up, rear them till they shall all have borne fruit ; and we will 

 engage that any person, who knows the apples named, will be 

 able to refer every seedling to its parent. Any one who has 



