26 BULLETIN 195, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
In this connection East x suggests the possibility that Waid's 
results may have been influenced by the following factors: (1) The 
size of the seed pieces, and (2) since Waid apparently used a commer- 
cial stock, he was not absolutely certain that he was dealing with a 
single variety, or, in other words, with a pure strain. This latter fact 
East thinks may account for differences in the results secured by 
TV aid in the second and thud seasons. He is inclined to believe that 
the differences were purely physiological phenomena of development, 
entirely separate from questions of inheritance. 
On page 131 of the report just cited East gives his experience with 
high and normal yielding hills selected from a select strain of Rural 
New Yorker No. 2. His statement with respect to this work is as 
follows : 
In 1906 we had in stock a supply of the well-known variety Rural New Yorker No. 2, 
which had been grown from a single hill in 1904. A selection of tubers from the five 
best yielding hills was planted in 1907 and compared with five normal hills producing 
only one-half as much. The five best yielding hills averaged 1,200 grams (2 pounds 
10 ounces) of tubers per hill, with an average set of eight tubers. The check hills 
averaged 600 grams, with a set of four tubers each. Ten hills were planted in each 
case, two tubers being planted from each hill. In every case pieces of about the same 
weight were planted. The yield from the high-yielding selections was at the rate of 
101 bushels per acre, while the yield from the check hills was at the rate of 128 bushels 
per acre. 
In 1908 the progeny from the high-yielding strain averaged 9G 
bushels per acre and that from the check 90 bushels. In 1909 the 
yields were, respectively, 115 and 120 bushels per acre. The average 
yield for the three seasons was at the rate of 104 bushels per acre 
from the high-yielding and 113 bushels per acre from the check lot. 
In view of these facts, East believes that great caution should be 
exercised in recommending asexual selection as a means of increasing 
the yield or improving the variety. He further states that of the 
many investigations reported none have furnished indisputable evi- 
dence of improvement. 
In a more recent article Berthault 2 has published the results of a 
rather exhaustive study of the potato. The portions of Berthault 's 
studies with which the present article is concerned are those relating 
to the hereditary transmission of characters, variations through 
asexual and germinal reproduction, and the normal variations within 
the variety itself. 
On page 49, Berthault summarizes his observations upon asexual 
reproduction, which, roughly translated, are as follows: 
(1) That the form of the tuber is not a stable character in our cultivated varieties. 
(2) That the color, generally maintained through asexual propagation, sometimes 
varies. 
1 East, E. M. The transmission of variations in the potato in asexual reproduction. In Conn. Agr. 
Exp. Sta. 33d and 34th Kpt. (1909-1910), p. 119-160, 1910. (See p. 130-131.) 
2 Berthault, Pierre. Recherches botaniques sur les varietes cultivees du Solanum tuberosum . . . Ann. 
Sci. Agron., s. 3, arm. 6, t. 2, 1911, no. 1, p. 1-59; no. 2, p. 87-143; no. 3, p. 173-216; no. 4, p. 248-309. 
