Blackfoot news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1891-1902, 1894-05-12
THE FARM AND HOME.
WHY EVEN THE BEST OF PoTA-
TOES DEGENERATE.
More Care In Selecting seed Potatoes Is
Crying Necessity Life and
Land Growth Farm Life Farm Notes
and Home Hints.
Why Potatoes Run out.

Why Potatoes Run out.
1t is a common complaint of farm
ers that potatoes do not show the
vitality and vigor they used 20 do.
Varieties that endured thirty or
forty years, as the old Mercer or
Neshannock, have long since entirely
disappeared. though new varieties
greatly resembling them have been
reproduced from seed. Even so re-
cent potato as the Early Rose is
not what it once was. Those that
produce best now are not descendants
by cuttings from the original stock,
but have been reproduced from seed,
says the Market News.
This tendency to rapidly degener-
ate dates from about the time the
potato bug made its appearances II
was most pronounced as il affected
late potatoes. The year before the
potato beetle became very numerous
we grew Peachblow and Peerless po-
tatoes in the same field. It was a
good crop of each, upward Of 200
bushels per acre of Peachbiow and
about $50 of Peerless, the latter va
riety being then new and growing
more vigorously than it ever has
since. Late in the season some 20,
tato bugs got on one corner OF the
Peachblow patch. 1t was after this
vines OF other varieties had died
down, and the bugs did some injury
before they were discovered The
yield OF the potatoes did not seem
affected. as the bugs came so late in
the season Not much harm was
thought to DC done, but the next
season fow OF the Peerless potatoes
and more Of the FeachblOw variety.
came up weak. and made only :
spindling growth. In two or three
years thereafter, the Peachblow va
riety became wholly unreliable and
was scarcely grown at all
There can be little question that
any injury to potato foliage during
growth results in some deterioration
OF the vigOr and vitality OF its seed
1t is inevitable where bugs exist
that they shoald do some damage to
tho leaf II poisoned when very
small they are obliged to cat some
OF the foliage to get at the poison
Sometimes, too, the poison itself is
used so freely that it burns the Leaf
This, Of course, is just as bad as TO
have foliage eaten by the larvp.
Potatoes grown thus do not ripcn as
they should. When dug their skins
Slip as those Of new potatoes do.
The potatoes have to lie in pits in
the field thinly covered TO dry out.
In this unripe condition they are.
of course, more exposed to rot. We
may say, indeed. that ii potatoes can
be ripened early and properly ia the
field, loss from rot would be unknown.
As the potatoes have mostly got
their growth, the common idea is
that it does not make much differ
cnce how severely their tops are
eaten down. So long. however, as
frosts leave the leaves alive. they
are building up and developing the
tubers. In the old Peachblow a good
deal Of growth was made after the
leaves we're frosted, from the sap In
their stalks. The late crop Of bugs
prevents this. It is, therefore. as
important for future crops that this
late crop Of bugs be destroyed as Il
IS for the present that the early bugs
be poisoned. Not only do the late
bugs threaten greater dangers to the
crop next spring, but they decrease
the ability Of the potato to resist
them
More care needs to BE- taken IN Sc
lecting seed potatoes. 1t win usual
ly be found that the potato beetle
leaves uninjured the most vigorous
sappy vines. Instinct teaches it to
lay its eggs chiefly on those vines OF
slender growth. Yet at digging time
these poor hills may contain one. or
more good looking marketable tn.
bcrs that in a bin would DO naturally
selected for seed The only way to
guard against poor or missed hills
next year is to select seed while the
CROP IS growing, keeping or all bugs
and taking the best and smoothcst
tubcFs from hills that give tho larg-
est yields.