November ii, i 860 . ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
441 
three varieties of Potatoes planted with a view to hybridising. 
Mr. Nicoll does not now remember the names, but thinks they 
were seedlings raised by the late Mr. Paterson of Dundee. No 
particular care was taken to ensure a special cross, fertilisation 
having been left to natural means. Since then, however, Mr. 
Nicoll has taken the act of fertilisation into his own hands, and 
has now under trial a number of promising varieties of which 
the parentage is well known. The seed was sown at Oohterlony 
in 1863, and even the first year the produce was in some cases 
remarkably fine. Next year the collection of over one hun¬ 
dred sorts was planted with a view to selection, and the most 
promising were reserved. For two years longer Mr. Nicoll con¬ 
tinued to grow and select, In November, 18SG, he left Ochterlony 
for his present situation, and from want of accommodation was 
reluctantly obliged to divide his collection among several of his 
farmer friends. One of these, Mr. Robertson of Newmill, Forfar, 
continued to grow and test the produce for a year or two with the 
result that one in particular so distinguished itself that it was 
given to the world under the name of Champion, and became a 
source of wealth to Mr. Robertson and not a few of the farmers 
of Forfarshire. An attempt was made, evidently under misap¬ 
prehension, to deprive Mr. Nicoll of his just credit, but he is now 
admitted to be the raiser of the Champion. Seeing that others 
had reaped the profits of what he had sown, it is not surprising 
that there were found among his friends souls generous enough to 
organise a testimonial in his honour, but it is surprising that the 
amount raised was so small—viz., a gold watch, a diamond ring 
for Mrs. Nicoll, and a purse of fifty sovereigns. This was, how¬ 
ever, presented in January, 1879, before the Champion had earned 
its chief and recognised fame as useful food in times of famine, 
and before it was awarded a first-class certificate by the Royal 
Horticultural Society for its disease-resisting properties and good 
quality when exhibited by Messrs. Carter & Co. Had the testi¬ 
monial been proposed a year later it would doubtless have assumed 
dimensions of a national character. 
But Mr. Nicoll’s work is not done. He has justly earned the 
position of an authority on the Potato question, and as such was 
called on to give evidence in June last before the Committee 
appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the causes of 
the Potato failures in Ireland. His evidence was mainly a narra¬ 
tive of the history of the Champion, but contained many hints 
derived from experience as to the best methods of combating 
disease. His main recommendation was—and he for one con¬ 
sistently follows it—to keep on raising new varieties from disease- 
resisting parents, and with a special view to hardiness. He did 
not claim for the Champion total immunity from disease ; indeed, 
he warned the Committee that in all likelihood it, like Paterson’s 
Victoria and others, would soon begin to fail and cease to be 
profitable after, perhaps, twenty years of public life—the years 
spent in propagation and selection not included. 
As has been already mentioned, Mr. Nicoll has been engaged 
for many years in propagating new varieties, but in accordance 
