The Delta independent., 1912-09-20
SOOTHING OUT THE SEED spuDs

SORTING OUT THE SEED SPUDS
1t is a common belief that If We
have purchased a variety of pota-
toes from a scotsman that we have
secured just one certain thing. This
is true in a measure. II the seeds
man is relibale he will send pota-
toes that are uniform in color, in
depth of eyes. earliness of maturing
size and other qualities, but unless
these particular potatoes have
been pedigreed, then We have not
received one thing. but many The
farmer can demonstrate t his fact
to his own satisfaction. At dig
ging time let him lay off part of
Il row containing 100 hills. In order
to show this, each hill must have
come from only one piece of seed
The 100 hills are dug and the tu-
bens are kept by themselves on top
bf the hill. The products of the
| 100 hills are now ready to be
studied. AT first galnce they may
appear to run very uniformly A
little closer view will reveal the
fact that about the only thing that
is uniform is that they are all po-
tatoes. The first hill has one large
one, two medium sized ones and half
a dozen small ones. The next hill
has two mediums, one large one
and several smaller ones. Perhaps
the next hill has three or four fair
sized ones. Another hill has a soli-
haps another has nothing but little
runts. Thus it goes through the
100 hills. The ordinary farmer will
pick up the tubers from all the
Ellis and put them together. He
does this complacently and with sat
isfaction. His fathers did 1t be-
fore him and all his neighbors do
it. Why should not he?
Late in the winter. when he be-
gins to read the seed catalogs. he
begins to wonder why 1t is he can
not raise such beautiful crops as
he sees pictured. Now this is the
po,pt l am getting at; our variety
is rot unit. In the 100 hills we
have dug. Close study might reveal
the preserce of at least ten strains
of varieties instead of the one that
we thought we had. The hill that
bore the little runts has the runt
character as habit. 1t is going to
persist for years and every time we
plant seed of that strain we will
KNOW to certainty. that we are
going to harvest little potatoes. The
good size and several small ones. are
common feature of potato fields.
The hill that bears four or five
good tubers is the one to fasten
your eyes upon. That is the hill that
has ability and the one we should
get next to. We will assume that
we have three potatoes to every hill
and that the total weight of the
three tubers Is one and one-half lbs.
There is nothing absurd in this.
Tor often an individual tuber will
weigh more. We will further assume
that our rows are three and one-half
feet apart and that our hills are
two feet in the row. This is open
planting. Probably more open than
Is commonly practiced. At this rate
there will be $500 hills to the acre.
assuming nearly perfect stand.
with one and one-half pounds to
the hill. ha would have field of
155 bushels, yield worth striving
for by the majority of growers. Now
1t may he that the hill with the
three or four good tubers Will not
breed true, but the chances are that
IT will. The offspring OF the hill
Is almost certain to produce a GER
tain per centsge of small tubers.
but we may count upon 1t that 1t
VIII produce a lesser per centage of
small ones than the average hill.
What a grower should do at pota-
to digging time is to dig "A fair
sized patch. leaving each hill by it.
self After the patch is dug he
should carefully go over II and pick
out those hills that have few tubers
OF good size. These should be put