26 BULLETIN 195; U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTUKE. 



In this connection East ^ suggests the possibiHty that Waid's 

 results may have been influenced by the following factors: (1) The 

 size of the seed pieces, and (2) since Waid apparently used a commer- 

 cial stock, he was not absolutely certain that he was dealing with a 

 single variety, or, in other words, with a pure strain. This latter fact 

 East thinks may account for differences in the results secured by 

 Waid in the second and third seasons. He is inchned to believe that 

 the differences were purely physiological phenomena of development, 

 entirely separate from questions of inheritance. 



On page 131 of the report just cited East gives his experience with 

 high and normal yielding hills selected from a select strain of Rural 

 New Yorker No. 2. His statement with respect to this work is as 

 follows : 



In 1906 we had in stock a supply of the well-known variety Rural New Yorker No. 2, 

 which had been grown from a single hill in 1904. A selection of tubers from the five 

 best yielding hills was planted in 1907 and compared with five normal hills producing 

 only one-half as much. The five best yielding hills averaged 1,200 grams (2 pounds 

 10 ounces) of tubers per hill, with an average set of eight tubers. The check hills 

 averaged 600 grams, with a set of four tubers each. Ten hills were planted in each 

 case, two tubers being planted from each hill. In every case pieces of about the same 

 weight were planted. The yield from the high-yielding selections was at the rate of 

 101 bushels per acre, while the yield from the check hills was at the rate of 128 bushels 

 per acre. 



In 1908 the progeny from the high-yielding strain averaged 96 

 bushels per acre and that from the check 90 bushels. Li 1909 the 

 yields were, respectively, 115 and 120 bushels per acre. The average 

 yield for the three seasons was at the rate of 104 bushels per acre 

 from the high-yielding and 113 bushels per acre from the check lot. 

 In view of these facts, East believes that great caution should be 

 exercised in recommending asexual selection as a means of increasing 

 the yield or improving the variety. He further states that of the 

 many investigations reported none have furnished indisputable evi- 

 dence of improvement. 



In a more recent article Berthault ^ has published the results of a 

 rather exhaustive study of the potato. The portions of Berthault's 

 studies with which the present article is concerned are those relating 

 to the hereditary transmission of characters, variations thi-ough 

 asexual and germinal reproduction, and the normal variatioQS within 

 the variety itself. 



On page 49, Berthault summarizes his observations upon asexual 

 reproduction, which, roughly translated, are as follows: 



(1) That the form of the tuber is not a stable character in our cultivated varieties. 



(2) That the color, generally maintained through asexual propagation, sometimes 

 varies. 



1 East, E. M. The traasmission of variations in the potato in asexual reproduction. In Conn. Agr. 

 Exp. Sta. 33d and 34th Rpfc. (1909-1910), p. 119-160, 1910. (See p. 130-131.) 



* Berthault, Pierre. Recherches botaniques sur les varietes cultiviSes du Solanum tuberosum . . . Ann. 

 Sci. Agron., s. 3, ann. 6, t. 2, 1911, no. 1, p. 1-59; no. 2, p. 87-143; no. 3, p. 173-216; no. 4, p. 248-309. 



