THE PLANT WORLD UNDER CARE 



157 



for a single seed ball does not now hold 

 good, and perhaps it was never intend- 

 ed to be taken literally. From the first 

 the interest in the matter has been sci- 

 entific and not commercial, yet that 

 statement has been exploited and dis- 

 torted in various ways throughout the 

 country as a commercial offer applying 

 to a single potato ball wherever ob- 

 tained. A. T. Cook in the follow- 

 ing article quite rightly characterizes 

 sucb exploitation and distortion as can- 

 ard. Sensationalism is far removed 

 from the spirit of the original article 

 which was merely a plain statement of 

 the fact that potato balls are every- 

 where disappearing and in certain lo- 

 calities have altogether vanished. Mr 

 A. T. Cook, a seedman of Hyde Park 

 New York, desires information as tc 

 the extent of the disappearance in var- 

 ious places, and will purchase potato 

 seed at a reasonable price. 



$; % ^i ^ ^ 



The Vanishing Potato Seed Ball. 



BY A. T. COOK, HYDE PARK, NEW YORK. 



Forty or fifty years ago potato seed 

 balls were plentiful in every potato 

 field. Of late years, however, in most 

 sections, few if any are found- Mil- 

 lions of people have never seen one. 

 For the benefit of those who have not 

 it may be said that they grow in clus- 

 ters on the top of potato vines, a half 

 dozen more or less in a cluster. They 

 look much like green tomatoes, and in 

 the accompanying illustration are 

 shown in the natural size. 



Every now and then there looms up a 

 statement to the effect that a "scientist" 

 has offered twenty-five dollars for a 

 singfle seed ball. This canard has been 

 well circulated by the press but of 

 course has no foundation as applicable 

 in potato balls in general- Although 

 potato seeds surely are vanishing, they 

 are not all gone. Not yet. 



Last season I harvested the seed of 

 over seven bushels of balls- If I could 

 have sold them for twenty-five dollars 

 each they would have brought a tidy 

 sum. For this season the prospect is 

 that I shall harvest many more than 

 seven bushels. I have made a specialty 

 of potato seed for the past thirty-five 

 years and supply the leading seedmen 

 of the United States and Canada. There 

 is an immense demand for the seed. Few 

 things sell better. Everything pertain- 



ing to potatoes is now of absorbing in- 

 terest. 



Potato seeds are curious and wonder- 

 ful They produce an amazing diver- 

 sity of potatoes. It is not generally 

 known that each seed, even those from 

 the same seed ball, will bring a different 

 variety, each one more or less distinct 

 from every other. The product of a 

 packet of seeds will be a large number 

 of shapes, sizes and colors. From one 

 packet there may be white, yellow, 

 pink, red, blue, purple, black and varie- 

 gated potatoes of shapes and types in- 

 numerable, some early, some medium 

 and others late. Extraordinary "freaks" 

 sometimes develop, such as those with 

 tubers the shape of a banana and others 

 with vines running along the ground 

 similar to cucumbers, taking root and 

 producing tubers at every joint. I am 

 now growing a promising seedling that 

 produces very long tubers similar to a 

 long sweet potato. No one would rec- 

 ognize it as being of an "Irish" variety 

 I believe it to be of great value- 

 Potato seeds are exceedingly prolific. 

 It is not an uncommon thing for one 

 seed to produce from fifty to one hun- 

 dred and fifty tubers the first season 

 The Montana Experiment Station grew 

 one hundred and eighty-four perfect 

 potatoes from a single seed, and Mr. F 

 A. McDonald of North Dakota grew 

 the astonishing number of two hundred 

 and seventy-six potatoes from one of 

 my seeds. 



Why not, dear reader, try your hand 

 at growing seedling potatoes? They 

 will be the most unique product of your 

 garden- Give your boy and girl a 

 chance to grow them also. They may 

 be the lucky ones. Great success has 

 already attended the growing of new 

 varieties and the end is not yet. Many 

 varieties will yet be found that will 

 bring a golden harvest to the fortunate 

 growers and prove of inestimable value 

 to the world. 



The potato never "sports." It is only 

 from the seed that new varieties are 

 produced. Potatoes have their day, 

 deteriorate and disappear. W Tiere now 

 are the Mercers, Peachblows, Cole- 

 brooks, Prince Alberts, Cuzcoes 

 lady's fingers, Niggertoes and many 

 others so well known in days of yore? 

 They are gone and gone forever- If 

 all potatoes failed to produce seeds. 



