Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-06-03

20 cry out against lne soN4IrssItsS u CCtpo-
ratious. They are power in the land, and
if the farmers wouli ward off their encroach-
ments they must put themselves in the only
condition to do so. They must meet power
with power.
Want of Confidence.
1t is said with too much truth that farmers
have no faith in the business capacities Of
farmers. This condition of things arises from
the fact that every farmer knows that his
brother farmer is outside of the business ring
that brings knowledge. II is not because
farmers suspect the integrity Of their brother
farmers, but because they question the means
of information possessed by their brothers
knowledge is necessary to business success.
Farmers know that business men have
facilities for information which farmers do
not lssess. Hence they trust business men
more than they do their associate farmers.
Transfer an intelligent farmer from the field
to Office, and he will gain the confidence OF
his old associates in degree that he never
could command while on the farm.
How New Varieties of Potatoes are Pro.
duced
We must in the first place state that the
potato is not a root at all, but short,
thick, underground branch of the plant.
We have several times seen, and no doubt
many OF our readers have also, the branches
OF the potato vine developed as potatoes
above ground. We must start with the
idea, then, that the potato is really a
branch or stem. 1t is a well. established
fact among fruit-growers and florists that a
shoot or branch of plant may produce
very different fruit or flowers from the rest
of the plant, and this occurs without any
assignable cause, and without any human
agency. These cases, by horticuiturists
called "sports, are very numerous. A
late peach produced a branch on which all
the fruit was early. Other peach trees
have formed branches which bore only
nectarines merely sport OF the peach.
Certain branches on yellow plum trees have
produced red plums, and shoots on purple
grape vines have borne white grapes. In
flowers, especially roses, these variations
are very numerous. We only cite these to
show what may take place, indeed, has
taken place, in the potato. The tuber be-
ing really a branch, it may, like a
branch OF peach, plum or grape,
vary. A notable example of this
is the Late Rose" In field
of - Early Rose" single plant was found
to be green, and still growing long after
the vines in the rest of the field were dead
and ready for the harvest The owner
had the good sense to save and perpetuate
the product of this vine, and now, as the
Late Rose" it is one CT our valuable
kinds. Other varieties have been pro-
70
cause this variation to take place, but as II
may occur anywhere, the careful cultivator
should take note of any marked differences
in the vines that may appear in his potato
field. As to raising new varieties from
seed, we doubt if much actual cross-fertil-
ization has ever been done. To refer to
fruits again-the seeds OF the apples or
the peaches from any one tree, taken as
they are, without any attempt at fertilz-
alton, will give great variety of seedlings,
and we know it to be the same with pota-
toes. That greatest OF all modern pota-
toes-rreatest in itself and in the varieties
it has given rise to-the Early Rose, came
from a chance seed ball of the coarse but
prolific Garnet Chill. A grower had
picked this seed ball from his patch with
out selection, and pinned it against his
window to ripen, and finally gave it to Mr..
Breese-of blessed potato memory-who
sowed the seeds. From the seeds in this
chance ball, picked without any selection,
came Early Rose, Breese's prolific and sew
eral others, all of excellent quality, but all
very diffsrent-some long, others round,
some early and others late indeed, from
that one, and now famous seed ball, were
raised potatoes differing among themselves
as much as potatoes can differ. In view
Of the results from this single seed ball, we
doubt many Of the stories OF direct cross
ing. Still if one wishes to experiment in
this, the flower of the potato affords an
easy subject, as the anthers do not shed
their pollen early, and if removed as soon
as the flower opens, the pollen from another
flower can readily be applied to the pistil.
AS to raising potatoes from the seed, the
balls are kept until the time for sowing,
when the seeds are removed and treated
precisely as tomato seeds. They are start
ed in boxes in the greenhouse, the hotbed,
or in the kitchen window Mr.. Breese fol-
lowed the last named method), and the
plant treated exactly like tomato plants,
save that it may be set in the open ground
earlier. MIR. Breese informed
as that the original plant OF Early Rose
gave him several good sized tubes the first
year, aud stated that in his experience, if
q seeding potato did not do the first sea-
son, it was not worth while to continue to
grow it American Agriculturist.