The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-12-21
SEEDS.
An English View of the Potato Question.
London Agriculture.

London Agriculture.
After an experience including Seeding raising,
and exhibiting at most of the leading shows.
and an acquaintance with between 200 and 300
kinds of potatoes, l am almost inclined to think
that it is pity there are SO many varieties /
am sure that the newer sorts are not invariably
the best Going back to the period prior to the
potato deluge'-nOt such very long time,
after all--when few still well -remem bered old
sorts We'd with each other in the collections of
vegetables at the shows, or competed for the
prize for the best single dish-the only prize
then offered to growers of the potato-the types
were more distinct than they are now.
But when we come to examine more
closely those old types at the present day.
we still find them as potatoes to be all that we
could wish for in sterling qualities, failing per-
haDs little to come up TO the required modern
standard as regards handsome appearance but
inferior III no other respect. And this leads us
to ask: What are the qualities of first
potato2"
Now. taking it for granted that the potato is.
simply and truly, the best and most important
vegetable grown in this country as an article of
food we must shape answer accordingly.
We are, then, to look at the potato as an all
the-year-round necessity; we are to bear in mind
its power to resist the fatal disease and we must
consider its adaptability to soils and seasons be-
sides bearing in mind it's good cropping qualities.
1t must also be granted that year or two, or
even three years. is not long enough time to
thoroughly establish reputation in.
US see how they they have stood the test of old
Father Time. We have only to get away to the
home of the older varieties-the rural cottager's
garden-to find these old sorts still reigning SUI
preme. Despite the discontinued re-cropping,
the rarages of disease. and the advent of new
varieties, these Sorts are still to the fore, and
they will remain so long after many of the pres
ent loudlyvaunted ones are forgotten. The adj
vent of the American Early Rose, the Mag mum
Bonum. and many Others led to a new era in
hon
popular practice, the American Rose, from its
free seeding properties. forming foundation
for many new Sorts all having more or less the
features of that variety. But already we hear
or experts in potato-ra stating their
inclination to cut the American Rose
American blood is injurious, in our soils and
climate rather than beneficial. And others
again declare that the game is about played out;
one experienced grower candidly admitting
that from seventy or eighty sorts grown by
him, on making selection of the best twelve,
bearing in mind their cropping qualities and
hibition use, eight of that twelve date at least
| seven or eight years back" TO make closer
comparison between these and the older types
that / have before mentioned, would / think.
leave tho weight of opinion in favor of the older
sorts all points. except, perhaps, mere beauty.
The craze for new sorts of potatoes has GER
tainy led to a wider knowledge of potato cult
ure; but it is one thing to produce large
handsome exnlDltlOn CuDerSs ana anoCner, ana
quite a different thing to grow good crop of
potatoes. Of course, ordinary growers do not
need to follow out such elaborate culture, or to
possess such fancy sorts AS the trade grower
who makes a business of exhibiting and raising
new varieties. 1t would be sweeping con-
domination to aver that nothing extra good has
been produced of late years, but it is certainly
! not far from the real truth to state that with
one or two notable executions, such as the
Magnum Bonum and the Schoolmaster, old sorts
op unit rpnn0 tow rfa
ling qualities. No one has as yet succeeded in
producing a potato that owns the only desirable
quality that the older sorts / have named have
not-that is the ability to perfectly resist the
disease. All new seedlings, from some unex
plainable cause, seem more or less disease proc.
at first but they soon succumb to the great fam
lily failing, and prove themselves no better than
the rest