454 



Notes tipon the Potatoe, 



which Sir George Mackenzie has also come from experiments 

 made by him in Ross-shire.* 



I had hoped to have added to this communication the particu- 

 lars of some further experiments upon the same subject, which 

 have been conducted in the Garden, with reference to other points 

 of this interesting enquiry, but they were so much interfered with 

 by the unusual dryness of the season of 1833, that I do not think 

 it safe to lay them before the public until the experience of another 

 year shall have satisfied me of their correctness. 



Observations upon the preceding Paper by the President. 



I believe that I can, to some extent, account for the discrepancy 

 of the results of our experiments in the culture of the Potatoe ; 

 and I feel anxious to do so, because very ample experience has 

 led me to the conclusion, that some of the measures, which the 

 above results appear to sanction, will, in a very large majority of 

 cases, lead to disappointment and loss. The Board of Agriculture 

 some years ago, recommended the practice of planting very small 

 portions of the tubers of Potatoes, with single eyes, and that 

 parings only should, in some cases, be employed. I, at that time, 

 gave the plans they recommended a long and perfectly fair trial, 

 but I generally obtained very light crops ; and in the gardens of 

 several peasants, which I examined, the produce in all was but small 

 and in some it was scarcely worth collecting, and within a very 

 few years these modes of culture were wholly discontinued. I found 

 that when the ground was rich, and the feeble plant, which sprang 

 from v. small portion of a tuber, could find abundant food imme- 



• " By the experiments I have made I find that the Potatoes of different sets which 

 you sent me, and some of my own, produce decidedly better from sets than from whole 

 Potatoes."— Letter dated Coul, near Dingwell, Ross-shire, Dec. 10, 1833. 



