Connecticut western news., 1898-07-14
GROWING SEED POTATOES.
How Growing Best Potatoes For Seed
 Differs From Average Culture.

Diners From Average Culture.
 There ought to be a business by itself in growing potatoes to be used for seed. The success of the crop always depends very largely on the seed planted. Its care after harvesting ought not to be such as average farmers give to their potato crcps. For pr, paring the very best seed the potatoes need to be exposed to degree of sunlight that will entire- ly spoil them for market or for cooking. Still more is it necessary that the pota- toes be well grown and riponed while the foliage is untouched by the potato beetle or its larv8 and uniniured by the fungus which causes blight and potato rot.
 In expressing the foregoing timely ideas The American Cultivator further remarks that after the potatoes are har- vested it is well nigh impossible to se- lect from the bin the potatoes that are sure Co produce strong, vigorous hills if cut and planted as seed. A we'll shaped, smooth potato may have been the only one fit for market that the hill which grew it produced. It may have had it's foliage badly eaten by potato larv@ or be prematurely ripened when it's vine blighted. In some seasons, and last year was one of them, very few potatoes came to maturity without injury of some sort. The quality of potatoes for cooking has been very poor this year, and fer seed it is probably much worse. The fact that a potato is rough and scabby and is "waxy" rather than mealy when cooked is presumptive evil dence that it suffered either from blight or its foliage was injured by the potato larva. Only with healthy and whole foliage can potatoes be grown that will be fit for seed. There are always some hills that are considerably injured by the potato Leetle. These the grower of potatoes for seed will throw out by themselves when he is harvesting the crop.
 Potatoes thus grown will naturally cost more than those taken from crops grown and harvested the usual way. 1t is not necessary for seed potatoes that the tubers should be large. If well ripened, medium and even small pota- toes are as good as anys though in pldntlnR small tuDefs lt IS Dest tO cut out all the eyes except the strongest one and then plant tine whole potato. It will produce stronger stalks than if more than one bud is allowed to grow.
 Much of the admitted advantage from planting new seeding potatoes comes, in the opinion of the journal quoted, from the fact that the interest of the originator impels him to givo extra care to the growing of seed, and so long as he can sell it at much above usual DO. tato price he is pretty sure to maintain the original vigor which every seeding potato starts out with. It is only when the new variety gets into the hands of those who are careless about growing potatoes that tho potato begins to run out, as it is commonly called. Even the most prolific varieties, after eight or ten years, become poor yielders and are extremely liable to become affected by blight. And yet we have known farmers who by careful selection and care of seed potatoes were able to keep the old fashioned Early Rose as a good profitable potato to grow, and that with out renewing this variety from seed, as has often been done since.