New Plant Discoveries 
SUPER QUALITY CUCUMBER 
From India 
A very unusual slicing type of cucumber, having the most 
solid and crisp flesh we have ever seen. Interior is completely 
solid without any cavities and retains its solidness and crispness 
even to dead ripe. Size averages very large. Skin is extremely 
thin. We are increasing seed on this rare cucumber for intro- 
duction in our 1955 catalog. 
ANCIENT INDIAN POTATO 
Imagine growing a patch of potatoes without scab, rot or blight and vines that grow 
so fast even potato bugs get discouraged. Then picture yourself growing an ancient potato, the 
granddaddy of our present commercial strains, still the same, never crossed, that were grown in 
the 17th and I8th centuries. Its history and survival in propagation down through the centuries 
is almost a miracle, Not really Indian in origin, but somehow it entered this country by an 
explorer who left a few specimens at Nootka on Vancouver Island off the west coast and taught 
the Indians how to raise them. Its hardiness was really necessary for its survival as the Indians were 
hunters and not gardeners. Many times extinction threatened to occurr because the Indians were 
prone to neglect them. In years of scarsity they would trade frantically with other coastal tribes 
for seed. Presently it is being propagated only in about a half dozen Indian gardens in a small 
area along the west coast of Washington and they have stead fastly refused white man to have 
any seed of it. This rare and living potato fossil is a long and slender tuber, white as our common 
Irish strains but abundantly pitted with eyes. Larger specimens reach a circumference of a man's 
wrist and may attain six to ten inches in length, tapering toward the ends. There always exists 
some malformation and customarily are no larger around than a shovel handle. Aside from the 
number of eyes and a slight difference in taste from its modern cousin, the Indian potato differs 
in tremendous length and weight of vine. In fertile soil with ample moisture, vines will extend 
six to 12 feet long, completely smoothering the ground. A full pail of tubers is not unusual to a 
hill. For all its prolific tendencies the Indian potato has had a precarious existance, growing despite 
crude Indian methods of cultivation. Similar to the Indian's maze, a hole was gouged in the 
ground, a fish in the bottom and a spud on the fish. Only nature looked after them thereafter. 
Generally the potatoes were scarce among the indians and were treated as a delicacy. They were 
buried under the cooking fires and eaten to top off a meal of fish, as we eat our dessert today. 
Neglect and indifference almost doomed the strain many times, but always there seemed to be 
an Indian family or two, thoughtful or needy enough to plant a few hills. Through our friendship 
and cooperation with a minister who married one of the Indian's daughters, we were able to get 
seed for increase, to be made available in 1955. Without a doubt it will be the first time it has 
ever been available to any white man since its entry into this country over two centuries ago. 
