The Elbert County tribune., 1907-10-03
Selecting Seed Potatoea.

That improvement OF plants and anil.
mails may be accomplished by selec-
ton Of the parent stock has become a
general accepted theory. Some spe-
cies OF the domestic animals have, aft
er several centuries OF selection, been
bred to almost perfect type. Within
the past few years great work has
been done along the line of improve
ment Of plants by selection, especially
corn and the other cereals. Probably
less work has been done toward i'm
proving the potato than with any of
our other great food plants. Yet
enough has been accomplished to
prove that no plant can be more quick
ly improved both in quality and yield
than the potato.
II has been common practice in
the eastern states, and to a certain
extent In the West, among those who
grow potatoes for family use, to plant
only the small potatoes and culls that
are left in the spring after the supply
for the house has been picked out
This Is, of course, the worst possible
kind of selection. and always results
In degeneration, or what is known as
running out" of the stock. Because
OF this, varieties Of one generation are
unknown in the next. On the other
hand. there are localities in Colorado
where the same variety of potatoes
has been grown for the past twenty
five years, and is better and more pro-
ductiye now than when introduced.
Commercial growers have not made
this mistake to SO great an extent,
but have generally made a practice OF
selecting a good type and a medium
size of tuber from the bins during the
winter for the following crop. In this
way some good seed is planted, but
for several reasons a large per cent.
is poor seed. A potato tuber is not a
seed, but part OF the plant from
which 1t came. consequently the char
acteristics of the parent plant are
more sure to be reproduced in the new
plant than in plants that are grown
from seed that are the union of two
parent plants. A little observation in
the field when digging will show that
there is great variation in the differ
ent hills of potatoes on a given area.
One plant may have ten or twelve
good sized. smooth, marketable pota-
toes. The next may have one good po-
tato with three or four small or in
ferior potatoes, or possibly hill may
have but two medium sized potatoes
OF the same type as the first hill. Now,
II the selection is made in the cellar,
about as many of the seed potatoes
will come from poor hills as from good,
and the result will be to produce more
poor hills, and this carried on from
year to year tends to decrease the
yield of potatoes.
The best way to select is to take
only good potatoes from hills that pro-
duce nothing but good potatoes, and
goodly number of them. This work
may be done by digging by hand. but
so many hills have to be discarded
that it makes the work slow and ex-
pensive. If the potatoes cling to the
vines, the selection can be made by
following the digger. The system
used at the Colorado Agricultural Col
lege Experiment Station is to plow out
the rows with a common mold-board
plow. This leaves the potatoes on
the vines with most of the tubers eA-
posed on the surface of the turned fur
row. Not more than ten per cent. OF
the hills will be suitable to select from
the first year, but these planted ought
to produce much higher grade of po-
tatoes from which to select the next
year E. r. BENNETT.
Potato Specialist, Colorado Agricul
tural College. Fort Collins. Colo.