RETARDED ROTATOS. 



481 



RETABDED POTAT08. 

 J >y T. J. Powell. 



In dealing with this subject it will be well just to consider briefly what is 

 meant by the "retarding process," for it is astonishing to find that many 

 practical men do not understand or value as they should the advantages 

 gained by using this means of obtaining more appreciated returns of some 

 things which we as gardeners have to control. The idea is general that 

 retarding means freezing, or placing in properly constructed chambers 

 where the temperature is reduced considerably below freezing point. 

 Although this may be correct in the case of some plants and roots, it does 

 not follow that all want treating alike, as indeed I have proved in tho 

 matter now before us, a regular even temperature of 45° being quite 

 sufficient for Potatos. In searching for the correct meaning of the word 

 " retard," I find it is " to hinder, obstruct, or delay ; to diminish or render 

 more slow the progress of anything." To "retard," then, is not to stop 

 the action of plants or roots entirely, or even to arrest it indefinitely, but 

 only so to modify the rate of development that its fully matured state is 

 rendered later than would otherwise be the case under natural conditions. 



By keeping old Potatos beyond their usual season and rubbing off all 

 signs of growth, we can hinder or prevent tho normal working of nature 

 up to a certain limit. But when the extreme point of endurance has 

 been reached, nature resents our treatment, and takes the only possible 

 way left to reproduce itself under existing conditions, and forms small 

 new Potatos close up on the old ones. Many people cannot understand 

 why there is no leaf growth, but this is easily understood when we con- 

 sider how Potatos grow naturally. In my first experiments one old tuber 

 was allowed to make a shoot, and it was most curious to find that where 

 leaves should have been under natural conditions a Potato formed at 

 every joint. A stick was put in the old tuber and tho shoot secured. 

 This was taken to several meetings of gardeners, causing a great deal of 

 interest. I sincerely regret no photographs of these curious developments 

 were taken, as they would now have been most interesting. Sometimes 

 the old tubers will split, the small ones coming from the inside. 



What has impressed me most in the different experiments is the 

 enormous amount of vitality stored in some tubers compared with others ; 

 for instance, with ' Windsor Castle,' as the little ones form the old tuber 

 dries up, whereas with late Maincrops the tubers seem to get firmer. 

 Some 1 Lincolnshire Maincrop ' which were harvested in 1903, and 

 exhibited before the Society with tubers on them in November 1904, are 

 now as firm as when freshly dug up — over seventeen months from the 

 date of storing. This alone should set us thinking ; to my mind future 

 possibilities are great. Several years ago I exhibited a tray of 1 Windsor 

 Castle,' with the small ones, at the Wargrave Gardeners' Chrysanthemum 

 Show. The hall-keeper was so interested that I gave him two tubers : 

 these he put carefully in a drawer, forgetting all about them till the 



