Semi-weekly herald., 1910-01-06
THE DEATH OF A POTATO.

The Early Ohio potato is easily the
most widely grown variety in the
United States. being of excellent table
quality and adapted to various soils
Both north and south.
At the present writing, so far as
the plains region is concerned. the
extinction of this variety seems to be
a matter of only season or two.
internal brown rot" or ''the stem end
disease is reported from Idaho. Mon
tana. Wyoming and South Dakota to
Nebraska and eastern Colorado. as af.
fecting this variety only.
Dr.. f. NJ Wilcox OF the Nebraska
station, and his four assistants have
spent most of their time for six
months or more on this disease, ap-
preaching the problem from every
conceivable way, but have not deter
mined, the cause, much less found a
cure.
A Nebraska potato region that has
shipped as many MS 400 cars of
Ohio's in single year, finds It's pres
ent market nearly destroyed by this
disease and other causes. During the
writer's recent institute trip in Ne.
braska, he saw 6.000 bushels of Ohio's
that one merchant had taken on store
bills, and for which he had not found
an outlet as yet.
frha ct.t, aud Jioaaua cbouy argt
as a slight discoloration seen on cut
ting off the stem and of the tuber
after brown decomposition extends
through the inner structure until all
with rusty brown. AT one place where
we held potato show, half the fancy
Ohio's shown were affected, and the
best lot, after cooking, gave Off, when
run through the rfcer, a dark liquid
and n fetid odor, although not visibly
affected with the trouble At another
place, fancy lot of Ohio's WAS thrown
out of competition as commercially
worthless because the first ten po.
tatoes cut open were all far gone with
brown rot. Nothing kills trade In po-
tatoes for a variety or region more
quickly than to find that the outside
appearance gives the lie to the inside
quality. For this and other reasons,
-s-s-s--y sSs.-',, rfs i,ersc ,arr. 4
There appear to. be two ways of es-
cape for growers of Ohio potatoes
First, good farming, rotation. cultiya.
tlon, storage--that at Greeley have
successfully resisted the gradually In
creasing vigor of this disease else
where; but he who knows the western
farmer is aware that 1t will be many
years before farm practice generally
can approach that of our best regions
In Colorado. The second way out is
by disease resistant varieties. Thanks
TO Professor Benefits work, / was
able TO recommend for conservative
trial the new and better early variety,
the Irish Cobbler, whose Introduction
from Maine promises to be worth, to
our own state. all our potato approprI-
ations to date. For their own use
many people on the Plains raise Blue
Victor n variety so far absolutely
immune to the disease, and also alb
solutely unstable because of its color.
was able to- show the Nebraska
growers that these purple potatoes
had white bud variations that would
enable them to change the variety to
white, salable one, without expense
and with sure local adaptshility.
The conditions most critical in Ne
braska and eastern Colorado, illustrate
two points; the usefulness OF disease
resistant plants. and the efficiency of
good rotation. fertility and tilth. like
enlightened home management for a
human family, to ward on and to pass
by diseases that come TO other homes
and fields.
C. l.. FITCH,
Potato Specialist. Colorado AgrIcnl.
tural College. Fort Collins.