HYBRID POTATOES.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1477, 8 February 1887, Page 3

HYBRID POTATOES.

b i.i known 1-it elm ppncies of pota oes, solanum tuberosum from which all the Vtvrißtna sn cultivation sprung, is a native if tho h'gher Andes mountains wh.-.re raiu is amnat unknown, and the varieties we poßsoaa may ihorefore be liable to degeneration m B'amina m oar mni-t climate- But tlu>re exist other varieties of po'ato which had ntver bean cultivatad before recent experiments were nude. One of them ia tho Solatium maglia, diaoovered by Darwin m the Chonos Archipelago, 44deg to 46Jeg Bouth htitud-j ; and this plant iB remarkable as choosing for its habits low-lying marshy places near tho coast. Could the solanum mctglia be made the p*reut of a Hort of potato which would not be averse to humidUy, and would not become affaoted by the peronospera infetans or potato d;seaso ? At the iusiigaiion of Earl CiUhoart, who procured horn Mr Baker, of Kew, tuberß believed to ba of the new variety, Mr Arther W. Sutton of Reading, commenced m 1884 the Important and hopeful experiments which have n>w reached a mature stage. The so-called solanum maglia bore abundant flowers but had never been known to yield seedberry. The red-ekinned tubers were started m pots, and care was taken to fertilize the flowers with pollen from some of the best 80-oalled disease resisting potatoes at present m cultivation. Thtee folly developed berries, well filled with seed, were obtained, and these were sown to produce seedlingß m 1885. The effeot of cultivation upon ihe solanum maglia was that, while the tubers received from Lord Cathoart were about | the »iz9 of a pigeon's egg, the produce of the first year's growth consisted of tubers quite as large as an ordinary potato, with as many as eight up to twelve taberß to a root. Cooked, they proved of fair quality for the table. There now remains to follow the fortunes of the seedlings to the present time. A number of scientific gentlemen, inoluding Dr. Hogg, Dr. Maeters, Mr Shirley Hibbar, and other authorities m potato history, visited Messrs Sutton and Sons' trial ground at Beading to note the experiments, which have been very eucceasfui and satisfactory. It ia agreed thst the parent m the cross wa* mt, after all, a true specimen of solanum maglia, but was » specimen of a wild form of solanum tuberosum of a dittnct y different geographical origin from the variety which furnished the varieties commonly cultivated, and th'B wild form has been preserved for many )eara at Kew-gardens m a bed Bide by side with the plants of solanum maglia. Twentythree plantß were obtained from the seed-grain m 1885, and the tuberd set again m the present year vastly increased m weight, up to 1221 b, from 16J i z The cross is between the wild solanum tuberosum and the variety known as Sutton's Reading Russet. In point cf quality and shapely form they leave nothing to be desired, and reach a high standard of merit. Several other croßsea have been obtained m the first attempt to introduce new blood into the potato, BUcceßsful hybrids being brei from tho wild species croEsed with Walker's Regent, Patterson, "Victoria, and o.her popular varieties. I