L& pecs THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER. September 1, 1904 _ 
EL DORADO POTATOES. 
£448,000 PER TON. 
The above heading is rather startling 
enc may be met by an incredulous cur! of 
the lip, but we extract the particulars from 
«‘Ohambers’ Journal’ for July, in an article 
entitled ‘Romance of the Potato.’”’? We 
are uot accustomed to look upon the potato 
as a priceless gem, but the following article 
certainly lends a romance to the modest 
potato which lifts it considerably out of a 
<cumcn kitchen garden status of regard. 
‘Ihe writer goes on to state that ‘in the 
spring of 19038 rot alittle surprise was felt 
when it became known that a novel variety 
of potato was being eagerly bought up for 
planting at £1 a pound, the usual price of 
seed potatoes being from £2 to £4 per ton. 
A still greater surprise was awaiting at the 
end of the year when tubers of another 
variety—El Dorado—were sold at prices 
rapging from £100 to £2 Oper lb. avoirdu- 
pois. As numbers of potatoes average two 
to the pound the altogether remarkable sum 
of £100 must have been paid for many of 
the single tubers. It must ke a puzzle to 
the general reader whose knowledge of this 
diumble esculent does not perhaps extend 
beyond a daily renewal of acquaintanceship 
with the cooked article, and to whom all 
potatoes are alike, to understand how such | 
things ean be. It will partly explain the 
matter if we say that during the last 30 
years potato growers have been continually 
on the lookout for improved varieties of the 
potato—varieties producing larger crops 
and unsusceptible, or slightly so, to disease. 
Sv remarkable has been the success of 
potato specialists, whose business it is to 
produce from the potato apple new varie- 
ties, that whereas formerly 6 tons of tubers 
‘to the acre was considered a fair crop, in 
1903 the sort called Evergood produced 
drom 14 to 18 tons, and in a year when 
disease was more than usuaily prevalent 
the crops of that sort were quite clean. 
4évergood had of course made its name pre- 
vious to 1903; but when the specialist who 
produced this variety declared that he had 
‘succeeded in obtaining a superior variety to 
that which on trial produced such enormous 
returns as, roughly, 1 to 14 ewt. from a 
pound of ‘‘seed,” with 50 to 90 tubers to a 
single plant, the desire to secure such an 
extraordinary prolific potato can easily 
be understood. What 1s said to be an 
@ven superior variety came into notice 
during 1903. It was to be sold to the 
public in 1905; but a few pounds grown in 
England got upon the market and sold at 
the price already quoted. Orders are being 
solicited for the autumn of 1904 at the — 
reascnable price of five guineas a pound, 
or, ier the ton the alluring figure of 
£11,760. The present value at £200 a 
pound aycirdupois is the startling one of 
44t ,000 per ton, and what a field of a few 
acres in extent planted at these’ prices 
‘would be worth is too stimulating to con- 
wemplate. : tee 
Nov doubt it will occur to those of an en- 
quiring tum of mind to ask how potatues 
costing £200 a pound for planting can be 
made to produce a paying crop at five 
guineas. The cost of production need 
hardly be considered, as the prices are so 
abnormally large as to be unaffected by 
rent or wages. It is clear that if only 1 cwt. 
is secured from each lb. planted the crops 
at five guineas a pound will amount to 
£558, yielding a not unhandsome profit. 
Astute potato cultivators have reverted 
to a method tried some 60 years ago, 
whereby the seed potato is made to provide 
a_large number of sets. Usually the po- 
tato tuber is prepared for planting by 
cutting it in pieces, each provided with one 
or more growing ‘‘ eyes” which become the 
potato plant. By starting these ‘‘ eyes’’ or 
shoots into growth by means of artificial 
heat they may be removed when large 
enough and rooted in flower pots, and when 
these have grown somewhat the tops of the 
shoots may be cut off and also rooted in the 
same way, and so on till the advancing 
season renders it impossible to proceed with 
profit. Meanwhile the tuber produces more 
shoots, which in turn are treated as above; 
and once this method of propagation comes 
to an end ‘the tubers themselves are utilised 
for planting. By these methods the pro-. 
ducing power of a tuber is increased accord- 
ing to the number of times each shoot is 
increased, hence it is apparent that by a 
comparatively small outlay the value of the 
crop can be increased to an enormous ex- 
tant. 
No potato has ever gained so ‘much 
variety as El Dcrado, raised by the famous 
Scotch grower, Mr. A. Findlay. of Mark- 
inch. There was considerable excitement 
in Peterborough market over the sale of a 
specimen of the famous El Dorado potato. 
The potato weighed a little under 4 Ib., 
and was disposed of at the record price of 
£80. The story of this potato, says the 
‘¢Gardeners’ Magazine,” is quite romantic ; 
the very name was a stroke of genius. The 
promise fulfilled by Northern Star assured’ 
for El Dorado a hearty reception ; but the. 
output of seed was so small and the compe- 
tition for tubers wherewith to: raise stock 
was so great that the price bounded up. 
Mr. George Massey, of Spalding, was one 
of the very first to obtain stock, and from 
him Mr, Z. Gray, a well known grower at 
Everton, purchased a stone weight for £20. 
This set the ball rolling, and as Mr. Find- 
lay resolved not to further distribute El 
Dorado until the autumn of 1904 the de- 
mand for the small stock available was 
doubled and trebled and so the prices rose. 
Messrs. Dennis, the Covent Garden sales- 
men, and Messrs. I. Pond & Sons, of York, 
possessed supplies, and the latter firm 
found a purchaser of 4 lbs. at £150 per lb. 
This determined them to obtain further 
stuck, and so at Smithfield Club Show a 
member of this firm, finding that Mr. 
Massey had a limited stock for disposal, 
made an offer of £1,000 for astone. Mr. 
Massey refused, as he wanted £1,500, but 
eventually the bargain was struck at 
£1,400. Subsequently Mr. Massey sold a 
relatively small quantity for £2,000, so 
that his original transaction brought him a 
very handsome return.’ ' 
Some people are enquiring how so many 
potatoes can be used when at present the 
crops in a favorable season produce a glut 
in the markets, and prices are so low that 
margin of profit to the grower comes some- 
times perilously near the vanishing point. 
As in many other cases it would appear 
that also in this an outlet is waiting for any 
increase in crops that may occur. Potatoes 
are already being used in the production of 
petrol, at least one large factory being in 
course of erection for the transformation o 
the tuber into oil. As to whether these abf 
normal prices are likely to be maintaine- 
no one can say; possibly they may for d 
year or two, but it can hardly be for long.a 
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(eS 
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; Appress—* THE AUSTRALIAN GARDENER,” Adelaide. 
