110 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
LESSONS FOR PRACTICAL MEN FROM THE INTERNATIONAL 
POTATO CONFERENCE. 
By W. Cuthbertson, J.P., V.M.H. 
[Read February 28, 1922 ; the Rt. Hon. Lord Lambourne, P.C., V.M.H. , 
in the Chair.] 
I thought it would be a good thing to extract from the papers 
read at the International Potato Conference in November some lessons 
helpful to practical men. Few working farmers or gardeners have 
the time and opportunity to read carefully the thirteen elaborate 
contributions on the problems and difficulties surrounding modern 
potato cultivation. These contributions were by the best men of 
the present day, and I group them as follows : — 
(1) Mr. Wm. Stuart's Paper on " Breeding, Selection, and 
Development in the U.S.A." ; Mr. Chittenden's on " Breed- 
ing, Selection, and Development in the British Isles ; and 
Mr. William Robb's on Dr. Wilson's work. 
(2) Mr. J. M. Hannah's on " The Early Potato Industry " stands 
by itself, as does— 
(3) Mr. H. V. Taylor's on " The Industrial and Commercial Uses 
of the Potato," and 
(4) Mr. McKelvie's contribution on " Bud Variation." 
(5) Dr. Salaman and Mr. J. W. Lesley, Professor Blackman 
and Dr. A. B. Brierley, on " Wart Disease." 
(6) Dr. G. H. Pethybridge, on " Recent Work on the Potato 
Blight." 
(7) Mr. Paul A. Murphy, Dr. H. M. Quanjer, and Mr. A. D. 
Cotton, on " Leaf Roll (Curl), Mosaic, and Allied Diseases." 
Mr. William Stuart, the famous United States Government 
expert, starts by defining Breeding and Selection — always a very wise 
thing to do at the outset of any investigation. Breeding refers strictly 
to sexual reproduction, i.e. raising plants from the true seed which 
is produced in the plums or fruits which follow the flower. Selection 
"refers to the isolation of any desirable variation in a variety, from 
that of the normal and its perpetuation by asexual propagation," 
i.e. its perpetuation from the tuber or divisions of the tuber. Mr. 
Stuart says little if any progress was made in potato-breeding prior 
to 1850 either in America or Europe, but from that date onward 
rapid strides were made in the development and improvement of 
commercial varieties of Potatos. Goodrich, a clergyman of Utica, 
N.Y., conceived the idea that long-continued asexual reproduction 
had weakened the constitution of the cultivated potato, and hence 
it succumbed to the severe epidemic of late blight which swept over 
