The Blackfoot optimist. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1907-1918, 1913-12-11
GROWERS CIRCULAR No, 8

Note the following extract from the
Herald Republican of Salt Lake City
under date of December LIST:
Arrangements have been made
whereby the Utah Agricultural College
the University of Idaho and the Ore
gon Short Line railroad will join
forces in fighting potato diseases
which have made inroads On the
crops of Idaho and Utah the past
! two years. The colleges are to fur
nish the information telling how to
combat the diseases and the railroad
company will print and distribute the
phamplets and circulars to the far
bic with the scab, storage rot. stem
rot and Rasactonia scab and these dis
eases have been carried into Utah
and Idaho and agricultural experts
fear that there will be spread OF
the disease in these two states.
| J. U. Mcpherson. formerly state
horticulturist of Idaho and now gem
eral field superintendent of the North
Pacific Fruit Distributors company,
held long conference with General
Passenger Agent D.. r. Burley, of
the Oregon Short Line at the Hotel
Utah yesterday in regard to the dam
ger to the crops of Utah and Idaho.
1t was at first proposed to run
special train through Utah and Idaho
and instruct the farmers regarding the
diseases and teach them the pre-
ventive remedies. The railroad Off
Gals thought that a better plan would
be to have the agricultural colleges Of
Idaho and Utah procure the material
as to the cause of the diseases and
their percentives and have this in.
formation printed and disseminated
to the farmers OF the two states.
The storage rot is disease which
infests the potatoes while they are in
their first growth. The potato when
harvested shows no surface deteriora-
tons, but after it is in storage
short time the pulp goes into dry
powder and the potato is rendered
worthless The stem rot is also to
be looked into by the agricultural ex
perts. The stem on the vine begins
to rot and extends on into the tubers
and many hills are lost through this
disease.
| The campaign of education is to
be started at once and will be car
ried into every potato district i'd
the two states. 1t is expected that
the literature and the lectures upon
the diseases will be ready for the
printer within thirty days and that
distribution will start within sixty
days, in time to give the farmers
proper warning before the planting
season of 1914 begins. A question
and answer bureau is to be estab.
lished at Boise and at Salt Lake and
anything pertaining to the planting of
potatoes will be analysed in its
particular relation to the case pre-
scented.
The end of Colorado as a potato
state can be seen unless it finds q
remedy for these diseases" said Mr..
Mcpherson. There is only one way
to stop the inroads being made upon
the potato crop and that is for the
farmers to. inspect carefully their
seed and also ratate their crops. II
the same ground is used year after
year for potatoes diseases are bound
to prevail. The diseases were brought
into Utah and Idaho through the
importation Of seed potatoes from
infected districts. Idaho and Utah
must raise their own seed potatoes
and laws must be enforced SO that
it will be impossible to permit such
diseases to spread.
both Utah and Idaho need agrtcul-
tural laws very badly. The agricuE
tural inspector should be clothed with
the same powers as a horticultural in
spector SO that he can quarantine
state where diseases are prevalent and
in this way stop the importation OF
infected spuds. This is the only way
10 which we can clean up the potatoes
of Utah and Idaho and as this crop
has become one Of the most important
factors in the development of the
agriculture of the two states, some
thing must be done at once. AS
there are no agricultural inspectors,
the farmers. organizations such as
ours and the transportation lines
must cooperate.
Mr.. Burley has made arrange
ments with me to enlist the aid OF
the University of Idaho, the potato
experiment farm at Jerome and the
Utah Agricultural college in the Tight
which we are carrying on" !!