Experimental Cuttings !
A distinguished man of science is engaged in an endeavour to grow potatoes from cuttings of the haulm and thus not only to save seed, which is always expensive, but prevent disease. Success would mean an immense advance in production, for the potato, in the phrase of a philological don, is singularly " obnoxious to disease." The possibility of such a method of reproduction has been suggested by the success attending the application of certain hormones to any sort of cutting. There is little doubt that the tendency to produce roots is greatly enhanced by such substances, though it must be confessed that there is a wide gap between so perishable a thing as a potato-stalk and a tree-twig. Meanwhile those who are quite sure that their potatoes are free from disease are advised to save their own seed against a probable scarcity.
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