76 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
March 
the longest in one place, the time being not less than 
10 years—3 sovereigns. 
“To the female servant who has served not less than 
10 years-—2 sovereigns.” 
On first reading the above one would be led to sup¬ 
pose, that premiums might as well be given to the ser¬ 
vile laborers on our southern plantations, who have 
faithfully served their masters. 
There are some premiums given that result in much 
good— 
“ To the overseers of the high roads in each of the 
hundreds of the county of Anglesea, who shall have 
repaired the roads within their parish in the most judi¬ 
cious manner—2 sovereigns.” 
u To the cottager, being an agricultural laborer, by 
whom the greatest number of legitimate children, ex¬ 
ceeding 14 years of age, shall have been brought up 
in habits of industry, without parochial assistance— 
3 sovereigns.” 
Some of the premiums awarded were—“ To Robert 
Davies, a laborer in husbandry at Rhosbeirio and at 
Lodge Manachdy, having faithfully served 43 years—• 
3 sovereigns. To Ellen Williams, having faithfully 
served at Pentraeth, for 20years—2 sovereigns.” H. 
“KUirad OUT OF yiKIETIES-CHMGE OF §EE !>.’ 9 
Messrs. Editors —Under the above caption, in the 
last December number of the Cultivator, you express 
the belief, that plants and vegetables do not degene¬ 
rate, and that to propagate and continue them in per¬ 
fection, a change of seed is not necessary. On the 
contrary, I had supposed that the science of botany and 
vegetable physiology had established the fact beyond 
controversy, that “ any plant continually reproduced 
from the same seed on the same soil, will continually 
degenerate till it becomes extinct.” And this impor¬ 
tant truth, in its application particularly to the potato, 
has been supported, if I mistake not, by the decided 
opinion of naturalists who have at all investigated the 
subject, and by the concurrent testimony of history for 
the last 150 years. If you will permit a little discus¬ 
sion of the subject, I trust, in case we do not come to 
the same conclusion, we shall amicably agree to differ; 
and as it is one that has an important practical bear¬ 
ing, an exhibition of some of the facts within our reach 
may do some good. It is to be deeply regretted, that 
in our agricultural literature, we have no full history of 
the potato. There are many'facts regarding it recor¬ 
ded in the treatises of Humboldt and Sir Joseph Banks; 
in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, and in many English 
works of the last century; but such a history as thef 
importance of the subject demands, tracing its propa¬ 
gation, changes, diseases, failures, and reproduction in 
different countries, is yet a desideratum; and he^would 
be a public benefactor who should prepare it. 
I would premise, that an occasional instance of suc¬ 
cess or failure proves nothing; it may be only an ex¬ 
ception to the general rule. So if Mr. Cooper’s case, 
upon which you comment, varies from the general law 
of nature, it affords but one fact against thousand^ on 
the other side. But Mr. Cooper fully admits that po¬ 
tatoes do degenerate, and attributes it to the use of 
poor seed, and describes one way in which farmers may 
obtain good seed. That farmers, as he asserts, gene¬ 
rally plant their poorest potatoes, I do not believe to 
be true; in an intercourse among them of more than 
forty years, accompanied with much observation, I 
have found such cases to be the rare exception to their 
general practice. And yet a number of varieties have 
ran out within the last fifty years, and several others, 
recently in high repute, are fast failing, and have nearly 
ceased to produce balls. The present disease in the 
potato was generally first noticed in this country in 
1843. Soon after that the agricultural census of this 
State was taken, which showed that the average pro¬ 
duct of the potato was only 90 bushels per acre—not 
half what it was 25 years ago; and that there had been 
a falling off of the potato crop in the State of upwards 
erf six millions of bushels since 1840. See Cultivator, 
1846, page 179. A similar decrease was shown in 
Massachusetts and in Maine, where the average crop 
had formerly been 200 bushels per acre. How is this 
to be accounted for, but by supposing a general degen- 
racy of the varieties now in use? A corresponding 
decrease in the crop is exhibited in the history of the 
plant in other countries and at other times. In a re¬ 
port made to the Royal Society of Agriculture in Franc© 
in 1819, by M. Le Comte de Neufchateau, Minister of 
the Interior, respecting the labors of Oberlin in the 
Ban de la Roche, a district of highlands in the east of 
France, it is stated that “ the potato had been intro¬ 
duced after the terrible scarcity of 1709.” But in 
1757, “ the original plant of the potato had degene¬ 
rated to such a point as to yield scarcely any increase.” 
To remedy this defect, recourse was had not only to the 
seed balls, but M. Oberlin “ imported from different 
countries a store of potatoes which replaced those de¬ 
generated; and these new productions continue in great 
demand at Strasburg market on account of their excel¬ 
lent quality.” 
The potato appears to have been introduced from 
America into England first by Sir John Hawkins in 
1545. Others were carried there in 1573 by Sir Fran¬ 
cis Drake; and others again by Sir Walter Raleigh in 
1586, who, in 1610, sent some to be planted on his es¬ 
tates in Ireland. They were first cultivated as a field 
crop in Lancashire in 1684, before which time they 
were confined to gardens, and only used occasionally 
by the most wealthy. To Lancashire the field culture 
was confined many years before it was extended much 
to other counties; but in the early part of the last cen¬ 
tury, the cultivation of it became general in Ireland 
and Scotland. In Lancashire the discovery seems to 
have been first made, that the potato, by continued cul¬ 
tivation, became deteriorated both in quantity and 
quality, and the practice was adopted there, and simul¬ 
taneously in Ireland, of renewing the root or tuber by 
planting the seed balls. This continued to be the prac¬ 
tice among farmers through the whole of the last cen¬ 
tury, and during that time hundreds of varieties, that 
were good for a time, and are named in English trea¬ 
tises on the potato, entirely run out. “Farmers,” 
says a standard writer in 1797, “ hold it to be neces¬ 
sary to renew the potatoes from the seed once in 14 or 
15 years; because, after that period, potatoes degen¬ 
erate, and produce less and less, till they almost com# 
to nothing.” Judge Buel, in an essay, remarks;— 
u The duration of a variety in perfection, is generally 
computed at from fourteen to twenty years, though thfft 
period is sometimes prolonged by a change of soil or 
climate.” The tendency to degenerate was not a mere 
opinion, but a fixed fact, attested by the general obser¬ 
vation and experience, of farmers. It was the same in 
various parts of Germany, and particularly in Nova, 
Scotia, where the finest potatoes were formerly grown. 
In that Province little reliance is placed on the intro¬ 
duction of tubers from abroad; their experience tell# 
them, that a reproduction from the seed balls is tho 
