Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-10-23
Saving Seed Potatoes.

| Potato STOWllS is lsiSl DsN' N'S on
| important feature of Dakota earning
| If while we are growing into TINS
business. we grow into it right. there
will be much more money made. ano
| made much more quickly, than IT we
blunder along, learning by hard exper-
fence what the experience of other
and older potato sections have already
| found out
| 1t may seem a little early to begin
| to talk about next seasons potato
crop, but it is not too early to begin to
properly prepare the ground, and ABOVE
! all not too early to begin to think
about next seasons seed.
| by all means gather next spring
seed while you are digging this fall
! If this is properly done. an increased
| WELD of more uniform and marketable
| potatoes is already assured.
To pick from the bin in the spring
can never give as good results as to
select from the hill while digging
I However perfect the potato, If it is
from hill of poor potatoes, or from
one with very few tubers in the hill
! it can never be the safe seed 1t would
/ be if selected from a large yielding
hin Of many or nearly all good smooth
/, uniform large potatoes. Such hill
/ should nearly all be saved for seed
1 but the one or two good potatoes from
hill of culls should never be saved
/ for seed purposes. The moment po-
tatoes are picked UP it is beyond the
| power of the grower to tell what kind
| Of company any single potato. how
ever perfect it may appear has kept
and there is no certainty just what
| that potato will do or may do in the
| future. E. r. Bennett of the Colorado
experiment. station while urging the Sc
lecting of the hill in place of selecting
from the bin says: :"
"Tubers from ideal hills should pro-
duce plants similar to the parent
plants, but certain per cent of them
will be poor hills owing to a revision
! to the parent stock further back than
| the first generation. With each years
selection this revision becomes less
and less, until the percentage Of poor
hills should be very small. The re-
| suits of two years selection of hills
| by Mr.. III. Edgerton, of Garfield county
| Colorado, was to reduce the number OF
culls, large cracked potatoes, and
very small potatoes, from one sack in
| twenty from the bin selected seed to
one sack in 200 from the hill selected
seed"
Referring to the care of seed pota-
toes, this same high authority says:
ga good practice is to leave seed
tubers exposed to the light for a few
days after digging, before storing for
| the winter. This practice, known as
greening the seed, toughens the skin
and makes the tubers more resistant
| to disease in storage.
"Seed potatoes should be stored in
crates, shallow bins or loose barrels,
| in a dry cellar with plenty Of ventila-
| ton, and a temperature between SO
and 40 degrees. Heating in the bins
| in storage is frequently the causes of
poor stands in the field. Heated po-
tatoes cannot be detected in the
spring. and the only way to avoid the
difficulty is in using care in storing
Treatment of seed potatoes with for
malin and corrosive sublimate before
| planting to prevent scab has not. i'll
most cases. proved successful in Colo
| RADIO. Exposing the seed tubers to
| the light and air in the fall and again
! in the spring before planting appears
| to be more satisfactory"
There is considerable work about
growing crop of potatoes. and this
work is about the same whether the
WELD is good or poor. The seed is the
very foundation of the whole thing
and time cannot be better spent than
| in seeing to II that the seed is as per-
| feet as possible.