lviii PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



have been grown on black land the better plan is to use the seed for 

 cattle or pigs and get a fresh stock. My experience is that the worn-out 

 stocks take the disease more quickly than others. I am afraid that we 

 shall find that the newer varieties are very tender. I am still a great 

 believer in the spray when properly applied. I think I was one of the 

 first to take it up, and I well remember the opposition encountered. 

 I was in Bedfordshire, just teaching them the way to employ the spray 

 —I think in 1894 — when an old gentleman came up to me and said, 

 "Mr /Clarke, I think you are trifling with Providence." That was one 

 instance. Now spraying is general, but it is not half done — hence a good 

 deal of disappointment. 



Mr. Fkaser : It has always been considered good practice in this district 

 to change " seed " potatoes after a few years, getting seed from a different 

 class of soil, if not from another locality. Soil seems to have as much to 

 do with degeneration as climate, or more, and round here we have a great 

 variety of soils — clay that in some seasons is almost unworkable, various 

 gradations and combinations of loam, sand, and gravel, besides black, 

 mouldy soils and peaty soils. We have also in this small county (Elgin) 

 wide differences of climate and rainfall. Thus, without going far 

 from home, we can have a decided change of locality. It is considered 

 desirable to get seed from a higher district, which means a moister as 

 well as a colder and later climate. Thus we had ' British Queen ' from 

 an up-country farm, say 600 feet above sea-level, planted last season on 

 light gravelly soil on this farm at between 80 and 90 feet. The variety- 

 did exceptionally well, but it was from a good farm and was a fine sample 

 to begin with. Potatoes from a dry soil are not looked on with favour 

 for "seed," and in the case of such soils it seems to be necessary to 

 change frequently, every two or three years at least, otherwise the leaves 

 grow curly and stunted, and the plant does not properly develop. 



Seed from Eoss-shire has been found to do well in Morayshire, but so 

 also has seed from Forfarshire. Eoss-shire has a considerably moister 

 climate than Morayshire, but not much colder, if at all, at the same 

 elevation. The soil of Eoss-shire is, I should think, the richer in general. 

 Forfarshire is agriculturally one of the finest counties in Scotland. 



Certain varieties of potatoes seem more liable to degenerate than 

 others. A gardener of some experience tells me that he has grown 

 * Snowdrop ' (or ' Snowfiake ' perhaps he meant) for ten years, and that he 

 has them still as good as at first. 



As a matter of common experience, potatoes seem to degenerate by 

 continuous planting in the same class of soil, but there may be con- 

 tributory causes, such as selecting "seed" from the dressings of the 

 marketed potatoes. I heard just lately of a farmer near here who has 

 stuck to the same stock for I do not know how many years — say, fifteen 

 to twenty — with the result that his potatoes are now like "marbles," and 

 this on one of the finest farms in the county. 



The ' Victoria,' which became common in this district in the seventies, 

 when the varieties formerly grown suffered badly from disease, was very 

 successful for a number of years, but degenerated in time both as a 

 cropper and in disease-resisting power, and has long been out of cultiva- 

 tion. The ' Magnum Bonum,' which was introduced somewhat later, so 



