434 
THE GARDENING WORLD 
May 27, 1905. 
The Alleged Deterioration of Potatos. 
(Concluded from 'page 398.) 
- A great deal has been said and written as to the necessity of 
rigorous selection in order to prevent or postpone deterioration. 
Mr. Burbidge, on page 238 of the “ Gardeners’ Chronicle,” 
quotes (but I believe inaccurately) Professor Hugo DeVries in 
support of selection as a means of both improving any variety 
of Potato and of preventing its deterioration. 
Professor de Vries, whose experimental work will be closely 
followed by horticulturists, even though they may be unable to 
adopt the “ Mutation theory ” for the origin of species, very 
truly shows that any crop of coni or roots consists of in¬ 
dividuals of varying vitality and productiveness, and that this 
makes selection possible and desirable. I cannot think that 
Professor de Vries would for a moment include Potatos as 
roots in this connection, and without a precise reference to 
De Vries’ work I cannot verify the quotation. Though the 
several plants in a corn or root crop are all separate individuals, 
as De Vries says, it is entirely otherwise with Potatos. In 
the case of Potatos, we all know that, if the crop is not mixed, 
only one “ individual ” is represented in a crop, even if the 
field should be 50 or 100 acres in extent. Each plant is but 
a portion, in a semi-dormant state, of the plant which flourished 
in the previous season, and no' selection in the world can make 
the plants of one year vary or differ from those of the pre¬ 
vious year, of which they are integral parts. This can be 
proved by anyone who can devote the necessary time and 
ground to careful experiments, but I am aware that there is a 
common prejudice against this very obvious fact. 
Had Professor De Vries been speaking of the selection .of 
Potatos lie would of course have referred us, not to a crop of 
any one variety, each plant the same as the other, but to the 
" nursery bed ” where the seedling plants were first raised from 
seed. It is here, and here alone, that we can say truly that 
a crop of Potatos “ consists of individuals of varying vitality 
and productiveness.” It is here alone that selection can be 
and is usefully employed by Potato raisers, and during the fol¬ 
lowing years when the “ individuals” in groups, propagated 
directly from the original seedling plant, are grown side by side 
for the purpose of eliminating the least promising and retain¬ 
ing only those which are superior to others. Any selection 
after the first year is of course applied, not to single tubers 
nor to' single plants, but to the several groups of plants repre¬ 
senting each original seedling. 
It has been stated that the selection of small tubers for 
planting leads prematurely to deterioration, but provided each 
tuber be fully matured, the size of the “set” planted does 
not greatly affect the crop, although the result of long-con¬ 
tinued experiments points to' medium-sized “ sets,” uncut', as 
giving the best return. 
The fact that some varieties produce seed very readily and 
others do not has been referred to as a possible explanation of 
deterioration ; but the “ Ashleaf ” is one which produces seed- 
berries quite as freely as any other variety, and it is the lead¬ 
ing example of a Potato which shows little or no deterioration. 
The method of storing “ seed Potatos ” during the winter 
certainly has great influence on the succeeding crop. “ Sets ” 
which are allowed to shrivel and exhaust themselves by throw¬ 
ing out long sprouts, which are rubbed off before planting, are 
naturally greatly inferior to those which have been well kept 
from the time of raising the crop in the previous autumn. 
Deterioration can certainly be postponed by a frequent 
change of seed from another district, and experience points to 
Scotland as the source from which such a change of seed is 
likely to give the best result. The reason why tins is soJhas 
not been fully shown. It is thought by many that the moister 
and cooler soils of Scotland prolong the period of growth, and 
thus prevent premature ripening of the tubers. It is very in¬ 
teresting to note that even in Forres, N.B., Mr. Fraser obtains 
the best results by getting his change of seed from a higher, 
colder, and later district, and that the worst results are from 
the dryer and warmer soils. 
It may be interesting to note that in the first two or three 
years of a seedling's existence there often are very many more 
fibrous rootlets produced than in subsequent years, and this 
naturally may account for greater vigour and robustness. In 
the fourth, fifth, or sixth year these fibrous rootlets often de¬ 
crease m number, but a Potato which retains such a habit of 
growth may also conceivably be less liable to degeneration. 
It, is sometimes considered that Potatos improve in quality 
after they have been put into commerce, and there are in¬ 
stances which seem to' prove this to be the case. It may conse¬ 
quently be true that vigour of growth and “quality,” or 
flavour, are rarely found united in one variety—in other words, 
that improvement in quality has been accompanied by loss 
of productiveness. 
Certainly it is the case that the one thing market dealers 
are now demanding more than anything else is “ quality ” and 
flavour, and no one can well dispute the fact that few, if any, 
of the Potato's in commerce to-day either equal or surpass in 
flar oui the old Dunbar Regent. If this be so, nothing but 
deterioration or degeneration can possibly account for the 
total disappearance of this Potato from commerce at, the 
present day. 
In my opinion the best safeguard against premature degene¬ 
ration will be found in the exercise by raisers of greater 
caution in the introduction of new varieties j by growing a 
larger number of seedlings side by side under precisely similar 
conditions, and by subjecting them to a far more critical com¬ 
parison with the best varieties already in commerce, so that 
only those which show very marked superiority and constitu¬ 
tional vigour may be chosen for introducing to the public._ 
Arthur W. Sutton. (Letter to Dr. Masters, read to the 
Scientific Committee on April 25th.) 
Japanese Horticulture. 
Two very interesting papers on the subject of Japanese hor¬ 
ticulture were read at a, meeting of the Royal Horticultural 
Society held on Tuesday, May 9th, one by an Englishman, and 
the other by a, native of Japan. Mr. N. Hayashi pointed out 
that although his nation was one of the oldest in existence, 
2,566 years having passed since the first Emperor’s ascent to 
the throne, the fact of her complete isolation from the Western 
world had prevented them from profiting by the advance in 
Western civilisation, and thus they had been compelled to look 
to China as their teachers until the reformation and subsequent 
opening of the country to Western influences and civilisation 
some fifty years ago. Under these circumstances, horticulture 
also had been developed on Chinese principles and bound by 
Chinese conventional rules. Not until the tranquil era, of the 
great feudal ruler Shogun Takugawa did the gardening art 
make any marked development. 
For the next two> hundred years soldiers-and commoners 
alike paid such very great attention to horticulture that, even 
at the present time, the Tokugawa dynasty is still regarded as 
the golden age of Japanese horticulture. Then, too, the re¬ 
volution, or more strictly speaking, the reformation of forty 
years ago was aimed at effecting a complete change in the 
things which had appeared to' the leaders thereof to, be im¬ 
pediments in the path of obtaining Western civilisation. Thus 
the beautiful gardens attached to the town houses of feudal 
lords and Shogun’s knights in Yedo (now Tokyo), the then 
capital of the defeated Shogun, were remorselessly destroyed; 
trees and shrubs had been cut down and converted into fuel for 
the popular furnace, and ornamental stones had been dug up 
tO' pave the streets. Thus horticulture had for awhile been 
entirely suppressed, and the time, he reminded his hearers, had 
not yet come to the extent they desired for the nation’s un¬ 
disturbed devotion to such a, peaceful art. Though the cul¬ 
tivation of utilitarian fruits and vegetables has been more or 
less encouraged by the' Government, the cultivation of garden 
plants and flowers had not occupied the people’s attention so 
much of late years as formerly. “ Moreover, only a few years 
