Lewiston evening teller. [volume] (Lewiston, Idaho) 1903-1911, 1907-12-25
SELECTING SEED POTATOES

That improvement in plants and
animals may be accomplished by Sc
lection of the parent stock has be-.
come a generally accepted theory.
Some species of the domestic animal
have, after several centuries of Sc
! lection, been bred to almost a per-
feet type, says E. r. Bennett in
Fruitman and Gardener. Within the
past years a great work has been
done along the line of Improvement
/ of plants by selection, especially
corn and other cereals. Probably
/ Probably less work has been done
toward improving the potato than
with any other of our great food
plants. Yet enough has been ac-
complished to prove that no plant
can be more quickly improved both
in quality and yield than the potato.
1t has been common practice in
the Eastern states, and to 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, of course, is
| the worst kind of selection, and al
ways 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 last 25 years, and is
better and more productive than
when introduced.
Commercial growers have not
made this mistake to any great ex-
tent, but have generally made prac-
tice 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
large per cent is poor seed. A po-
tato tuber is not seed, but part
of the plant from which 1t came,
consequently characteristics 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 the two parent
plants. A little observation in the
field when digging will show that
there is great variation in the diff
| ferent hills on a given area. One
plant may have 10 or ~ good-sized
smooth, marketable potatoes. The
next may have one good potato with
two or three small, inferior potatoes,
or possibly a hill may have but two
medium sized potatoes of the same,
type as the first hill. Now, If 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 to produce more
hooK hills, and this carried on from
year to year tends to decrease the
yield of potatoes.
The best way to select is to take
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 1t makes the work slow and ex-
pensive. If the potatoes cling to the
wines. the selection can be made by
following the digger. The system
used at the Colorado Agricultural
college experiment station Is tn pillow
out the rows with a common mold
board ploy.e This leaves the potatoes
on the vines with most of the tub
ers exposed on the surface OF the
turned furrow Not more than 10
per cent of the hills will be suitable
to select from the first year, but
these planted ought to produce a
much higher grade of potato from
R. Bennett, Fort Collins, Colo, in
which to select the next year.