NOT AFFECTED BY FROST

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 90, 5 February 1947, Page 6

NOT AFFECTED BY FROST

NEW VARIETY OF POTATO The Cordilleras of Bolovia and Peru may be the birthplace of the potato, the vegetable introduced into Europe through Spain in 1570, and into England in 1586. Potatoes cultivated there by the local Indians from the immemorial, have now been found that differ very materially from those grown in Europe and elsewhere. Tubers are of all shapes and sizes from long and snakelike to round and small, many with curious markings, and of all colours, ranging from inky black through various shades of purple and pink to cream colour. Many of these characteristics tally with the descriptions of the potato as given by the early herbalists. Through generations of breeding, however, many of these characteristics have been lost.

The practical importance of this discovery in Bolovia and. Peru lies in the fact that some of the potatoes found have characteristics previously unknown. One of these is frost resistance. The potato, as it is known in Europe, has never been regarded as a hardy plant. In the Andes, however, where some of these “potatoes” are cultivated at 14,000 feet and frost occurs nearly every night, the crop comes through undamaged. It is now known that the original tubers introduced to Europe were such an unrepresentative and random sample; that those with frost resistant capabilities never made their appearance in Europe or the rest of the world. *

If plant breeders could transfer this hardiness to the ordinary commercial varieties then not only would frosts cause no trouble, but large areas of land would, for the first time, be able to grow potatoes.