336 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
April 22, ±o05. 
Crocus, but the two surfaces are certainly different. In this 
case the back of the crimson flower was light rosy J purple. 
At present there is a very fine display of these Cinerarias in 
the glasshouses at Wordsley, where a good strain of florists’ 
flowers are cultivated in their season. The accompanying 
illustration, lent us by Messrs. Webb, gives a general view 
of the Cinerarias, where, in one of the divisions of a house 
one cultivator may be seen busy brushing the flowers for the 
production of seed. Through the open door another man 
may be seen at the same work in another division. 
Degeneracy of Varieties Propagated from 
Buds. 
(Continued from page 314.) 
Discussion by the Scientific Committee. 
Professor Percival said the matter was obviously one of fact, 
and what was wanted was more evidence, lie doubted whether 
any of those present had lived long enough to settle such a 
question, especially in the case of long-lived plants such as 
Vines. The idea of deterioration was no doubt widely spread. 
When they heard, as in the case of the Potato, that certain 
varieties had been in cultivation for a long time, it did not 
touch the point. A large number of varieties might have 
cjone very much more quickly than others which may have had 
more vitality. Certain it was that some varieties had dis¬ 
appeared, but why was not quite clear. There was evidence 
that they got weaker and weaker, and that was why they had 
been discarded for their poorness. A hundred years ago—in 
fact, in the middle of the eighteenth century—there was 
evidence of very great difficulty in rearing Potatos, which in 
many cases refused to come above ground. Some such effect 
was noticed nowadays by growers, and it was no doubt due to 
a weakening effect. If that were the case, he personally thought 
it strongly favoured the disappearance of the varieties veg-et ac¬ 
tively reproduced. To ask why was like asking why old age 
occurred. We did not know what old age was. Human beings 
did not live for ever—nor did trees. There seemed to be a 
distinct life-period for all these things, after which they died 
down from want of vitality. Everything underwent repair, 
and he believed the repair was not perfect, and that the life- 
machinery gradually weakened and vitality was lost. The 
question would only be settled, if at all, by experiments. 
Mr. Odell said that, after many years of experiments, lie 
had found that Magnum Bonunl grown for four years running 
on a heavy clay loam in Middlesex was completely worn out, 
and in two years the produce was reduced by 50 per cent. 
Dr. Masters: How would it have been on another field 1 
Mr. Odell said he could not answer that question. In the 
case he mentioned it was the same soil, but not the same plot. 
Mr. Druery: Would that not imply that the soil was not 
suitable for Potatos, and that would be begging the whole 
question ? 
Mr. Worsley said he got some advertised disease-proof 
Potatos, but at the end of eight years all the Potatos had got 
disease. 
Mr. Douglas said in his young days they had two beautifully 
flavoured Potatos, Buffs and Dons, but in 1845 they were prac¬ 
tically exterminated. The people then took to' the white 
Potato, but they were nothing like the others in quality. If 
was about that time that guano was introduced, and many 
farmers thought that was the cause of the disease. He did 
not know whether there was any truth in that, but he had come 
to the conclusion that artificial manures favoured the produc¬ 
tion of disease. In Essex they had Potatos for many years, 
but they deteriorated. They used to grow 100 acres of Potatos, 
and it paid to send to Scotland for the seed. He could only 
grow “ Up-to-Date” Potatos now, and after three years it did 
not pay to grow them. Owing to weakness many of the Potatos. 
never ripened, and degeneration soon followed. He could not 
say what was the cause of the disease, unless it were artificial 
manures. 
Mr. Foster said there was no doubt that Potatos did de¬ 
teriorate after they had been grown in the same" soil for a 
number of years. He exhibited largely some years ago, and 
he found that he could get much better crops from seed planted 
late than from tubers planted in the usual way in the spring. 
Mr. Gordon said the point for them to consider was how to 
prevent this degeneration. He thought the case of the Potato 
was wholly different from that of fruit-trees, because so far as 
he knew no varieties of Apples, Pears, or Plums had de¬ 
generated, although they were reproduced vegetatively by 
grafting. When he was a boy the llibs ton Pippin was "sup¬ 
posed to be dying out, but now they could see .thousands of 
trees in the country in the most healthy condition, and bearino- 
excellent crops of fruit. They ought to remember that the 
Potato was an exotic, and was grown in this country under 
conditions veiy different from those in its native home, and 
that was a point to which they should, he thought, pay special 
attention. Then they ought to consider whether their methods 
of procedure did not contribute to the degeneration. In his 
early days they used the grow the old Fluke, which was sup¬ 
posed to be dying out, but they used to grow some tons per 
acre more than their neighbours. Their practice was, instead 
of keeping the Potatos close in clamps until the time for plant¬ 
ing, the tubers used to be spread in cool sheds protected from 
frosts. Consequently they did not make long growths, which 
had to be removed, and the tubers were not exhausted to the 
same extent. They were thus able to grow the Potatos of that 
particular variety long after the other growers in the district 
were able to do so at anything like a profit. There was, there¬ 
fore, a great deal in their methods. The same could be said 
of the Chrysanthemum. These had been grown for a large 
number of years, and the plants retained their original vigour 
until there was a great demand for blooms of the veiy biggest 
possible size. Then the forcing system of cultivation was 
adopted. This brought about weakness of the plant and the 
particular varieties died out in a very few years. As to. the 
Potato, if they adopted a different method in selecting and 
saving the seed, they might be able to retain the vigour of the 
varieties longer than was the case at present. 
Mr. Shea said that Mr. Gordon had anticipated much that 
he would have said. They were undoubtedly dealing with an 
exotic which could not under the best conditions live its per¬ 
fectly ideal life. Therefore the Potato was in a measure slightly 
on the down-grade. It was not, however, to. be assumed that 
the Potato was rapidly disappearing for good. It seemed that 
Scotland had conditions which could maintain a particular 
variety in better health than could be done in the south. There 
was great deterioration in all Potatos, due to climatic trans¬ 
portation. It might be extremely slow, but it ivould be quicker 
where the soil did not suit it. They could not expect other¬ 
wise than their methods produced artificial causes of deteriora¬ 
tion which were not inherent-in the Potato.. They aggravated 
any inherent weakness there might be by transplanting the 
plant to strange conditions; and then they found that when 
new varieties were excessively boomed it led to their being in¬ 
troduced to places which were not fit . for them, thus leading 
to the idea that there was deterioration. 
Mr. Baker said he had done very well with Potato seed 
which he got from Scotland, but the second year s crop was 
best. After the second year, however, rapid deterioration set 
in. He had found that if the Scotch seeds were put in 
thoroughly worked soil with plenty of minerals, but which was 
deficient in nitrates, he got a good crop. He had sown ‘‘ Snow¬ 
drops ” on poor soil in which nitrogen was veiy deficient, and 
they had never yet fallen victims to disease. Under these con¬ 
ditions he had obtained better crops than from Potatos grown 
in richer soils. That was also true of the Chrysanthemum, or 
any plant. In the case of the Apple, which was not forced, to 
the extent that vegetables were, they did not get deterioration 
of varieties. That was why the Strawbeny did not deteriorate 
to the same extent a.s the Potato. The reason was that the 
grower realised that he must have abundance of minerals and 
not too rich soil. In other words, he believed that abundance 
