Abstract
DURING the annual general meeting of fellows of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany at Cambridge on July 21, the chairman of the Council, Dr. R. N. -Salaman, reviewed the Institute's work on potatoes during the past twenty years. The tests for immunity from, or susceptibility to, wart disease, has materially assisted the breeders' efforts towards raising only immune varieties; the critical examination of the many thousands of seedlings entered for these tests has led to a rapid elimination of useless varieties, and the work of the Potato Synonym Committee has resulted in the almost complete elimination of synonyms. The large-scale demonstrations at the Potato Testing Station, Ormskirk, have proved that it is possible for farmers in Great Britain to grow and maintain virus-free stocks for seed purposes. He estimated that the loss in yield in Great Britain alone from the use of virus-infected stocks for seed purposes is in the nature of a million tons a year. With regard to potato breeding, Dr. Salaman thinks it very unlikely that any outstanding varieties will be produced until new methods are introduced; breeding stocks require the injection of fresh blood by the use of wild tuber-bearing species of Solanum. In conclusion, Dr. Salaman stressed the importance of reorganizing and regularizing potato seed production, that being the basic element in potato culture and of the utmost importance in time of war. Our immediate need is a scientific organization of the industry from the production of seed at one end of the scale to the dish of potatoes on the table at the other. Virus disease and blight cost the nation about five million pounds a year ; % loss caused by the former could largely be avoided by the proper organization of the seed trade and further research might well eliminate the latter.
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Research on Potatoes. Nature 142, 205 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/142205a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/142205a0