IS THE POTATO DOOMED?

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 285, 19 June 1917, Page 2

IS THE POTATO DOOMED?

We regret that lack ot space has previously prevented us discussing Mr E. Allan's recent informative letter upon the above subject. We are glad to learn that Mr Allan was interested in our views because the object of the article was to interest intelligent cultivators in a subject of so much importance to all the inhabitants of temperate climates, and lo Interest them will be going a long way towards enlisting them in the endeavour to prolong the life of the potato. That Mr Allan failed to follow our line of reasoning is probably because we failed to make it sufficiently perspicuous.

Mr Allan asks how old the potatoes we are cultivating to-day are and then proceeds to guess that they are about half ihe age of the Editor of this journal. Not having yet reached the age of Noah when he went into the ark we must disclaim the impeachment, gratifying though it would be were we able to claim that we were conducting the "Times" with the accumulated wisdom of all the ages dnce Robert Bruce won the battle of Bannockburn. (Mr Allan will not fail to observe our adroitness in mollifying him by this reference to Caledonia stern and wild). We are afraid that three hundred years is the least that can be assigned to the potato, even to those innocent young things that have to be sent to Wellington because in the neglected north we cannot afford to eat them. All we have, however modern their names, are merely off-shoots of the sto'k brought over by Raleigh. The varieties are merely seedlings, the product of individuals never further apart in relationship than brother and sister. Let us try and imagine that for three hundred generations we had been propagating some animal by keeping only one pair in each generation to continue the race and we arrive at a position analogous to, though not exactly on all fours with, the case of the polato. Does anyone imagine that if we had succeeded in keeping the variety in existence in the case of the animal we should have anything but degenerates of enfeebled constitution, and may not what is sauce for the animal goose be sauce for the vegetable gander ? So far strengthening the constitution of the potato by cross, fertilisation has not succeeded, but it is by no means impossible that it may some day, and if Scotland can do it she will have

won a greater victory than Bannoekburn. We have written cheerlessly but not by any means hopelessly of the future of the potato, and if it does no more than provoke discussion we shall feel we have done good. We trust that any of our readers, who are interested in the subject, will whether they agree with us or no, write and give ns their views