The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-03-24
cuLrlvATIs OF THE Potato.
The Seed and Vnriettas.

The Seed ana varieties
Questions relating to the quantity
of seed required for an acre, the man
ner of cutting and methods of plant
ing. have always been interesting ones
with potato growers, says a writer in
the American Agriculturist. Thou
sands of experiments, conducted with
greater or less minuteneSs, and de-
signed to ask many of these ques-
tons of nature, in order that an an
swer might be obtained which would
be regarded as a sure guide in general
farm practice, have been carried on
throughout all the states, with results
SO diverse and often SO contradictory,
as to obscure rather than enlighten
the farmer, and, after all. leave him
to depend upon his own skill, judgment
and practice. rather than trust to the
results obtained from the experiments
of others. And yet, the studies of the
American -Agriculturist potato tests
that we have. been examining show
many things of interest. and from
them some conclusions may be formu-
lated which are safely regarded as
fairly settled by the results Of the
most Intelligent practice.
Varieties and Time of Planting.
The question. What variety shall
1 plant?" will be largely answered by
the uses to be made of the crop
whether for home use or for the mar
ket, whether for early or late sale
chosen. for nearly all varieties differ
in their relative adaptability to differ
ent soils. no one sort doing equally
we'll on all kinds of soil. In general,
most money is made on the early ma
turing varieties. Among. these are
Gem. Sunrise, Beauty of Hebron,
Snowflake. For an early yield, plant
the seed early. The time will depend
largely upon the season, state of the
weather. condition of the soil. the mar
ket to be grown for, etc. Early plant
ing gives start to the crop that en-
ableS 1t to resist drouth to large de-
gree. Moreover, the worst attacks OF
bugs are generally late, after the hot
weather of midsummer has appeared,
and a sacrifice Of some qualities is
better than sacrifice of the entire
crop. For a table potato during win
ter, and a good long keeper far into
early. Among them are White Star,
Burbank, White Elephant, Peerless,
Mammoth Pearl, Dakota Red and Pearl
life.
Quantity of Seed Per Acre.
While the reports show a wide diff
ference in the quantity of seed used,
upon one leading point there is great
uIidnlinily among all growers, VIZ,
The careful selection of the potatoes
used for seed. In every instance fair.
smooth, handsome well-shaped pota-
toes were chosen. Not always were
they large, but they were always of
uniform size, and weighing usually
from six to eight ounces each. In one
case, 20 bushel used in seeding an acre
were selected from a choice lot of
so bushel Of fair merchantable pota-
toes. The range in the amount of
seed used was very great-from to Sc
bushels, the average being 211a bushels
The amount of seed used in preparing
for the three largest yields reported
els A curious thing about this seed
ing is that in the first instance the
crop was 974 bushels. in the second
SAT. and in the last 1888 bushels. An
other curious fact is shown by fur
ther study of the returns. In New
York a planting of 40 bushels of seed
yielded crop of AL bushels; and in
Maine. a seeding OF but 10 bushels
gave a yield of 597 bushels. In this
last instance the potatoes were all cut
to one eye, and the seed ends and
stem ends discarded. Everything
points to the fact that we want high
bred potatoes for seed, as much as we
want thoroughbred animals for breed
ing-and the same care in selection
should obtain in the one case as III
the other. BY all means reject under
sized, imperfect, badly-shaped potatoes
for seeda
There can be no rule stated as to the
value of home grown or foreign seed.
In an equal number of cases seed was
obtained from different states. and
from the farm or town where planted,
with results of yield showing no differ
ence. The best time for selecting seed
is during the potato harvest, the au-
tumn previous to planting.
Preventing the Scab.
1t may properly be mentioned here
that experiments made at the New
York and Connecticut experiment sta
TONS with certain fungicides on seed
potatoes. for the purpose of preventing
the scab. show that soaking the seed
for one and a half hours in a solution
of zinc sulphate (white vitrioD, one
ounce to a gallon of water, gave APP
parantly the greatest freedom from
scab, over copper su1phate (blus Wit
ROB, copperas Gron sulphate), or cor
rosive sublimate. Scabby seed was
in these experiments. purposely Sc
lected for planting.
81 z.z