SCIENCE AND POTATOES.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 January 1921, Page 8

SCIENCE AND POTATOES.

RAISING 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 one of their lady experts at the last meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society. The one great difficulty that has to be grappled with is that to grow all the new seedlings now obtained until it can be definitely proved which are the most serviceable involves more space and greater expense than any private enterprise can cope with; but to attempt to select a few and discard the rest will more than probably mean the loss of what might eventually prove to be the greatest success of the whole. During the past few years a devastating scourge, known as the. wart disease, has made 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. Perseverence has, however, successfully attended the efforts of the expert plant breeders, and already there are in cultivation several varieties which are immune from wart disease. The making of new varieties is a slow, tedious, and expensive pursuit, and 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 the head of a well-known firm of seedsmen. His 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 an enormous return from one tiny seed.