30 



Supposed Degeneracy of the Potato, [april, 



the main, may be left untouched, bat may be stopped if they 

 become elongated. 



Damsons may be treated similarly to plums, but require 

 very little pruning when once shaped and established. 



Gooseberries and Currants.— Gooseberries may be pruned 

 in the main on the spur system, and thrive under the same 

 management as apples. Trees with from eight to ten branches 

 quite clear of each other, the breast-wood of which is summer 

 pruned, and winter (or preferably spring) spurred, give heavy 

 crops of fruit, which may be gathered rapidly and painlessly. 

 Where there is room for a few sturdy, well matured young 

 shoots they may be allowed to remain. The best way of 

 pruning an old crowded bush is to cut out some of the central 

 branches from below T , thus opening up the middle of the bush. 

 The side branches can then be thinned. 



Red currants are spur-bearers pure and simple, and may be 

 pruned like pears. Black currants are young-wood bearers 

 and must not be summer pruned or spurred. The pruning must 

 be restricted to cutting out old fruited wood. 



' THE SUPPOSED DEGENERACY OF THE POTATO.* 

 Sir W. T. Trtseltox-Dyer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. 



The undoubted difficulties which now occur in the cultiva- 

 tion of at any rate some kinds of potatoes present a problem 

 which is obviously of great practical importance as well as of 

 scientific interest. It is not, however, satisfactorily disposed 

 of when attributed to degeneracy. The potato plant has not 

 been run out, but too much has been demanded of it, and it 

 has broken down in the attempt to respond. I think a little 

 further light may be thrown on the subject by examining 

 rather more closely what happens in a potato under natural 

 and healthy conditions. 



A potato tuber is an underground branch which, towards 

 the end of the growing season, becomes swollen out laterally 

 and rilled with accumulated nutriment for the purpose of giving 

 its buds a vigorous start in the following year. This nutriment 

 is stored up for the most part in the form of starch. Now this 

 is insoluble and is not available to support growth till it has 



* See " Degeneration in Potatoes/' Journal, Vol. XIV, p. 385, Oct., 1907. 



