32 



Insurance of Live Stock. 



[APRIL, 



lighted shed." Under the influence of light the dormant surface 

 of the tuber becomes active and green. This means that 

 chemical action takes place ; diastase will be set free, starch 

 will be made available for growth, and sprouting follows. It 

 was found in Yorkshire in 1903 that with Up-to-Date, " an 

 advantage of 2 tons per acre followed the use of boxed seed." 



As far as any general conclusions can be drawn from the 

 facts as stated it can hardly be said that the potato is in any 

 intelligible sense degenerate, but it appears to have become 

 sluggish in starting into growth and to require the stimulus 

 of a higher temperature than formerly. It must be remem- 

 bered that the modern potato is a highly artificial product. 

 It has been induced by continual selection to load itself with 

 starch to a point far in excess of any natural requirements 

 of the plant. It may be that, as already suggested, too much 

 is demanded of it and that the machinery for the process's 

 of growth has reached its breaking point. The tuber 

 desirable for food may not be one which is prompt to start 

 into growth without increased stimulus from heat and light. 

 We can control nature in altering the constitution of a plant ; 

 but eventually a barrier is reached beyond which it is impossible 

 to go. The case of the sugar-beet is instructive. Beginning 

 with 8 to 10 per cent, of its weight of sugar, it has been brought 

 up by selection to 16 to 18 per cent. But H. L. de Vilmorin 

 informed me this was the limit. " Beet-roots containing 

 more than 18 per cent, sugar cease to vegetate properly and 

 die." (Kew Bulletin, 1897, p. 317.) If a similar limit has 

 been reached in the potato, growers must be content with 

 sturdier but perhaps from a culinary point of view less desir- 

 able kinds. 



INSURANCE OF LIVE STOCK. 

 The mutual insurance of live stock is a form of co-operation 

 which has been successfully adopted among cottagers and 

 allotment holders in different parts of this country. In 

 Lincolnshire, in particular, cow and pig clubs are numerous, 

 and they are not uncommon elsewhere. No complete 

 returns are available as to their number, but in 1905 the 

 Board ascertained the existence of 1,021 pig-clubs in England. 

 From particulars published by the Board of Trade (Labour 



