SCIENCE AND POTATOES.

Hokitika Guardian, 13 January 1921, Page 4

SCIENCE AND POTATOES.

THE RAISING OF NEW VARIETIES

Great changes are taking place in regard to the management of potatoes, writes a correspondent of the London "Daily Telegraph.” Now that the Government have taken it in hand, investigations are being made in every direction. Even at their own experimental grounds at Cambridge many seedlings have been raised, and these were exhibited in hundreds by some of their lady exports at the last, meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society. The one great difficulty that has to be grap•pled with is that to grow all th. new seedlings now obtained until it can he definitely proved which are the most serviceable involves more spa el* and greater expense than any private enterprise can cope with : hut to attempt to select a few and discard the rest will more than probably prove to he the greatest success of the whole. During the past few years a devastating st'olirge, known as the wart disease, has math* such ravages among the potato crops in several districts in England and on the Continent that for a while it was almost; feared that potato culture would eventually become an impossibility. Perseverance' lias, however, successfully attended the efforts of the expert plant breeders, and already there are in cultivation several varieties which aio immeno from wart disease. The making of new varieties is a slow, tedious, and expensive pursuit. wild even when a new variety is fixed and its merits proved, it takes several years to propagate sufficient stock to ensure general cultivation. Some elaborate experiments have been carried out by tlie head of a well-known firm of seedsmen. llis method has been to distribute among a multitude of enthusiastic amateurs "packets of seeds of scientifically hybridised potatoes, offering substantial prizes to those sending the best produce’. The first prize root gave a produce of U:|lb, which seems »n enormous return from one tiny seed;