1921.] 



Potato Synonyms. 



189 



Botany lias made investigations on the trial grounds of the Potato 

 Testing Station at Ormskirk in Lancashire, limiting its work to 

 the examination of potatoes not previously tested on the Ormskirk 

 ground for immunity. Four visits were paid — in July, August 

 and October of last year — and 242 varieties of potato alleged to be 

 distinct were tested. Of these, 150 varieties were found to be 

 indistinguishable from one or other of 35 well-known trade 

 varieties; the whole of the 242 were classified in 42 groups. 

 The Committee came to the conclusion that the great majority 

 of synonymous varieties are indistinguishable from popular 

 varieties, and that as soon as a new immune variety appears 

 and achieves popularity, " new " sorts which are new only in 

 name and are indistinguishable from the variety that has 

 achieved popularity spring up at once. As a rule these 

 synonymous varieties of potatoes fall readily into two classes, 

 and the method of classification adopted by the late Mr. Snell, 

 whose great work for the potato industry will never be forgotten, 

 cannot be improved upon. One class comprises those few very 

 familiar types, such as Up-to-Date, Abundance, Great Scot, 

 King Edward and others that are at present in commerce, 

 while the rest are related to half-forgotten varieties, such as 

 Cardinal. Early Rose and Nonsuch class. The best that can 

 be said of the latter is that two established varieties, Edzell 

 Blue and Early Market, may be said to have sprung from 

 it. The Committee does not feel called upon to decide whether 

 these synonymous varieties are actually new T growths or whether 

 they are the product of ignorance, carelessness or fraud, but it 

 feels very strongly that the practice of putting synonymous 

 varieties on the market is at once harmful to the good mime of the 

 trade and detrimental to the efforts of the National Institute of 

 Agricultural Botany. The carelessness of certain members of 

 the trade is shown in other ways. For example, it is stated that 

 two potatoes quite distinct from each other were introduced by 

 the same firm and under the same name at an interval of rather 

 more than ten years. One was susceptible to Wart Disease ; the 

 other immune, and both were indistinguishable from known i nd 

 established varieties. 



Tt is to be hoped in the interests of the potato industry, 

 which after all is a large and important one, that this report 

 of the Potato Synonym Committee will be widely read and 

 carefully considered. Published at the National Institute of 

 Agricultural Botany at Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, it costs 

 'Is., but applications for copies should be made to the Secretary 



