IMPROVEMENT AMONGST PEAS. 



41 



Mr. R. Dean deprecated the inordinate size of modern 

 catalogues as calculated merely to bewilder the unpractised 

 buyer, and referred to a catalogue of the year 1817, in his 

 possession, in which 30 varieties of Peas were mentioned ; and 

 one of Jas. Carter, 1832, measuring 7 by 5 inches, in which 42 

 varieties were named. He said that in 1852 these had increased 

 to 111, and that at the present day the number was considerably 

 more. 



POTATO IMPROVEMENTS DURING THE PAST 

 TWENTY-FIVE YEARS. 



By Mr. A. Dean, F.R.H.S. 



In dealing with this subject it is worth starting with the proposi- 

 tion that the Potato, so far from becoming in any way deposed from 

 its pride of place amongst vegetables, remains still the premier, 

 for its popularity has rather increased in the community, and 

 high appreciation for it as an esculent is greater than ever. Em- 

 phatically the Potato is the most important of all our vegetables, 

 using the term as employed generally at this Conference. We 

 never tire of it — we eat it all the year round, not because we have 

 no other option, but because we love it. It is a very remarkable 

 feature of the Potato as an edible product that it never satiates. 

 We may tire of Beans, Peas, Cauliflowers, and all other of the 

 rank and file of the vegetable army for a time at least ; but our 

 fancy for good Potatoes, like Tennyson's brooklet. " goes on for 

 ever," and if I may venture to prognosticate, I would aver that 

 Potatoes will still be food for man when the crack of doom shall 

 come. 



Perhaps, in one respect, we are a little inconsistently fas- 

 tidious, as, whilst we prefer greatly to have Potatoes starchy, we 

 object to have them soapy— in other words, they may be floury, but 

 must not be watery. We are not tied to one method of cooking 

 Potatoes either, to have them presentable, and therein again lies one 

 element of the eternal popularity of the Potato. We can vary its 

 method of dressing or serving up infinitesimally. It will bake, 

 it will boil, it will fry, it will mash, it will fricassee, it will make 

 cakes or pies, it will bear cooking in a score of fashions, and we 

 never tire of the methods. Least of all, however, none tire of 



