98 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Early varieties : 



Duke of York Ninetyfold 



May Queen Sharpe's Express 



' Midlothian Early ' to be tried as a promising novelty. 



Later varieties : 



British Queen Royal Kidney 



Nobleman Sir John Llewelyn 



Late varieties : 



Dalmeny Beauty Highlander Sensation 



Duchess of Cornwall Scottish Triumph Warrior 



Factor 



All of these are heavy croppers of the ' Up-to-Date ' type. 



Good heavy-land varieties : 



Evergood Factor Northern Star 



Good light-land varieties : 



Factor Royal Kidney 



King Edward VII. Sir John Llewelyn 



There is a fact which is in -danger of being overlooked from its very 

 simplicity : namely, that culture has far-reaching influences alike on 

 cropping, flavour, and immunity from disease. We have got into a way 

 of discussing the peculiarities of varieties as though they were fixed 

 quantities, incapable of modification by external influences. We can so 

 maltreat our seed that the heaviest cropper becomes a weakling. We can 

 so over-manure that the best flavoured sort becomes coarse. 



Let us glance at a few salient points in potato cultivation. Is there 

 any parallel amongst cultivated crops for the scandalous mismanagement 

 to which potato seed is subjected ? Too frequently, when the crop is 

 lifted, all the tubers alike go into the pit, there to remain in warmth and 

 darkness for several months. They make long, blanched, attenuated 

 shoots, which are broken off by the bushel when the tubers are dressed 

 for planting. Is a thought ever given to the fact that this means so 

 much vitality lost to the seed ? In recent years boxing has been re- 

 discovered. The practice is so old that no man of the present generation 

 can claim to be its inventor. But even at the present day it is the 

 exception for growers to box potato seed. One small inexpensive trial 

 reveals its merits. The seed that is selected in autumn, greened through 

 exposure to light, and boxed in late winter, has all its inherent vigour 

 unimpaired. 



Knowledge of the varying vitality of mature and immature seed is 

 still in its infancy. About seven years ago, when the dread scourge 

 "curl" made its reappearance (for it is an old enemy that has long lain 

 practically dormant), southern stocks suddenly lost all their vitality, &c. 

 In the main they have never regained it. Suffering cultivators declared 

 that it was the series of hot, dry summers, prematurely ripening the crops, 

 w r hich caused the trouble ; but it did not occur to them all at once to try 

 the experiment of lifting some of the plants while still green, and seeing 



