LESSONS FROM POTATO CONFERENCE. 
Ill 
America and Europe from 1843 to 1847. In 1851 he received from 
the American Consul at Panama a small quantity of South American 
potatos for breeding. One of these was named by him ' Rough Purple 
Chili.' From some naturally fertilized seed of this he raised a batch 
of seedlings, one of which he selected and introduced in 1857 under 
the name of ' Garnet Chili.' I refer to this because " blood " of 
' Garnet Chili ' was in ' Early Rose ' — in fact, ' Early Rose ' is said 
to have come from a naturally fertilized seed-ball of ' Garnet Chili ' ; 
and Mr. Stuart says : " ' Early Rose ' may be regarded as the first 
real promising commercial variety produced in America. It may also 
be regarded as the foundation stock from which emanated many of 
our present-day varieties." Before leaving this point let me allude 
to Luther Burbank's variety — well known in America but no good 
here — 'Burbank's Seedling.' It, Mr. Stuart says, is "simply a 
story of the discovery of a naturally fertilized seed-ball in an ' Early 
Rose ' plant in his mother's garden at Lancaster, Mass., from which 
Burbank grew twenty-three seedling plants and selected the best and 
introduced it." ' Early Ohio ' also came from ' Early Rose.' ' Beauty 
of Hebron ' came from a naturally fertilized seed-ball of ' Garnet Chili,' 
to which I have already referred. Mr. Stuart states that although 
a number of new varieties have been introduced by American seeds- 
men since 1900, it can hardly be claimed that much real progress 
has been made in a commercial way- — the only acquisitions that are 
really promising are the russet types of the Burbank and Rural groups. 
Most of us have grown the better-known American varieties, such as 
' Beauty of Hebron,' ' Puritan,' ' White Elephant.' I have grown 
many others — ' Burbank,' ' Bovee,' ' Vermont Gold Coin,' ' Noroton 
Beauty ' — and at present am growing and observing a number of the 
most recent of America's creations, some of which are most promising ; 
but if I only discover one which will be a decided acquisition to 
Britain I shall be amply repaid. 
Mr. Stuart deals with the technique of breeding very fully, but 
those interested must go to his published paper. He says that the 
communicability of mosaic and leaf -roll is established, and that, of 
course, has a most important bearing on breeding. 
Much has been written in the United States about Selection and 
Development, especially what is termed " Hill Selection," i.e. selecting 
the best plants in a crop and going on with their progeny and continuing 
the selecting process. Many years ago I came to the conclusion, after 
several years' careful work in conjunction with my friend Mr. C. E. 
Gregor, of Innerwick, East Lothian, that such methods were useless, 
as far better results could be obtained by a change of the venue of a 
good stock of the potato in question to the far north for one or two 
seasons, and I am delighted to hear from Mr. Stuart that America's 
workers are now coming to exactly the same conclusion. Before 
leaving Mr. Stuart's paper I would like to refer to two things he sets 
down : first, the necessity for all plant-breeders carefully and con- 
scientiously to reject all inferior plants and firmly resolve not to offer 
