Aril 2. 1904. 
J 
Fhe Gardening World 
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ie 257. 
Potato Culture. 
The National Potato' Society has already 
be'gtin to' display some activity in the pro¬ 
vinces, but that is what might have been ex¬ 
pected in such a Potato-growing county as 
Lincolnshire, where the Potato has been 
boomed in a manner quite unknown in its 
previous history. It is natural also for the 
Potato-growers in such a district not. only to. 
be alarmed, but to take steps to protect their 
own interest as far as possible after a season 
when the welfare of the industry has been 
threatened by the Potato disease. A meet¬ 
ing of the local-branch of t he National Potato 
Society was held at Spalding on the 11th ult., 
when an address on “ Potato Culture ” was 
given by Mr. W. P. Wright, the general 
secretary, before a highly-interested audi¬ 
ence. We learn that the society has now a 
membership of over ninety, and the subscrip¬ 
tion list has reached the respectable sum of 
over £50. 
Naturally, he referred to the Potato boom, 
which had risen to. dimensions that had 
almost, taken away the breath of the old- 
fashioned grower. The speaker thought, 
however, that if other products of the soil 
were taken into consideration, the Potato, 
boom would by no means appear extraordi¬ 
nary considering its importance to all con¬ 
cerned. It was the general opinion that 
Potato prices for the rarer varieties were false 
and inflated, and would sooner or later col¬ 
lapse. On the other hand, he thought that 
prices would grow. This we take it to refer 
to new varieties which ma.y yet be raised and 
while scarce, because as soon as any variety 
becomes sufficiently plentiful to be put on 
the market it must necessarily assume more 
moderate and reasonable prices such a,s the 
commercial market could withstand. It had 
been stated that Potato® at £10 per ounce 
were expensive, but Dahlia specialists could 
point, out that a small rooted cutting taken 
from the tuber of a new variety would fetch 
7s. 6d., but that many of these cuttings were 
obtained from a single tuber, and thus a 
single Dahlia root would be worth several 
pounds. He considered it a curious reflec¬ 
tion for a practical nation to offer and receive 
high prices only for flowers, thereby ignoring 
those things that were of first-class import¬ 
ance in the national supply of food. 
Referring to propagation and the methods 
adopted by growers for the rapid increase of 
new varieties', he thought that the alarming 
statements made by certain other growers 
were altogether unfounded. He referred to 
the method of placing the tubers in boxes in 
a. warm house and taking off the strong 
shoots when they were well rooted. This 
was met by the question whether the intense 
propagation practised on these expensive 
Potato® would prove detrimental to the stock 
of the same in the future. 
He asked if there was anything unnatural 
about the propagation of Potatos in heat 
under goPalled high pressure. If the Potato, 
were a hardy plaint the treatment would ap¬ 
pear more or less artificial, but he reminded 
them that the Potato was a tender plant, and 
we could not make it, hardy. By way of 
illustration he reverted to the Dahlia., which 
was propagated in a very similar way, thus 
affording an instructive parallel. It was well 
known that Dahlia experts exercised this 
high pressure in propagating their new 
varieties. Nevertheless these Dahlias gave 
the finest flowers, and if their system or con¬ 
stitution were injured by this practice it 
ought to be more evident than it is. 
On the contrary, he referred to the careless 
methods of propagation, of the Potato prac¬ 
tised all over the country for the simple 
reason, that the Potato is of very easy cultiva¬ 
tion, and the growers think that they cannot 
deal too, carelessly with it. Such slipshod 
methods of cultivation, he thought, were more 
likely to lead to the depreciation of the 
Potato, than intense propagation which em¬ 
braces care. 
The speaker also, referred to the short life 
of the modern Potato, which was placed at 
ten. years o>f profitable cultivation. If it is a 
fact that Potato® can only be grown for a 
period of ten years we should think this some 
evidence of depreciation of constitution. We 
hardly think that the limit of profitable life, 
however, considering that there are many 
standard varieties in cultivation much older 
than that. They continue to be grown and 
give satisfaction to. those who work along 
careful line®., except, of course, when the soil 
is naturally moist and very unsuitable, but 
more particularly when they are overtaken 
by an unusually wet season during August 
and September. In the latter case we think 
that no Potato, could be absolutely disease 
proof. 
Strong-growing varieties, especially if re¬ 
cently raised from seed, would, of course, be 
more disease-resisting than those which have 
been played out by a long-continued, careless 
