for the Growth of Undiseased Potatoes. 
393 
equally suitable to the different conditions of soil and cultivation 
met with in Britain. This is further confirmed by the fact 
already noticed that the competing potatoes in almost every case 
yielded a smaller produce than the varieties cultivated for the 
general crop in each locality. 
In examining the conditions under which the best crops have 
been produced in the various localities, it is extremely difficult to 
discover any conditions that are common to several of them. 
There are in these experiments an amount of certain data which 
might be expected to supply materials for trustworthy deduc- 
tions ; but we discover, as is so often the case in agricultural 
experiments, many unaccountable anomalies. The agreements 
and differences should be most obvious when the localities pro- 
ducing the heaviest crops are contrasted with those producing 
the lightest. I have accordingly placed in Tables IX. and 
X. (page 394) the five localities with the heaviest, and the five 
with the lightest crops. 
The five localities yielding the heaviest return of seed produced 
also the heaviest estimated crop per acre, with the exception of 
Bedford, where the size of the plot was unusually large. But 
though the plot was large, the average space for each sett was 
not more than 2"8 square feet, so that the division of the seed- 
tubers to form a large number of setts, while it produced a con- 
sidei'able return in weight for the weight of seed, yielded the 
comparatively small return of A\ tons per acre. The seed- 
potatoes were cut under Mr. Cocking's instructions into as many 
pieces as could be obtained, so that each piece should have 
two eyes. The weight of the crop at Bedford was considerablv 
affected by the very dry summer, which stopped the growth of 
the tubers before they attained their full size. When the rain 
came the foliage of the early potatoes was dead ; but that of the 
late varieties was still green and active, and in all of these a new 
formation of tubers began, either by the addition of a new portion 
to the apex of the already formed tuber, or more frequently by 
the throwing out from its buds or eyes of several new tubers. 
Half the weight of the crop at Bedford was due to these later- 
formed tubers. In several other localities in England the crops 
were similarly but not so extensively affected as at Bedford. 
The aerial portion of the early potatoes at Bedford being, as has 
been said, completely dead, the rains caused many of the tubers 
to sprout. It appears, then, from the results of the experiment 
at Bedford, that a large number of small setts do not produce so 
heavy a crop per acre as the same weight of seed planted in 
large setts. This is strikingly confirmed in Mr. Brawn's crop 
at Stafford, where, from cutting few of the seed-tubers, the 
hundredweight of seed occupied, on an average, only 5f poles. 
The yield of 51^ cwt. for the 4 cwt. of seed is a large return ; 
VOL. XI.— S. S. 2d 
