A Study of Quality in Potatoes. 



231 



These figures are reduced to percentages in the three columns on 

 the right. No tubers were rated above 95 in quaHty because no 

 ideal or standard of quality has been established, and it was not known 

 how the best quality of Doe's Pride would compare with the best 

 quality of some other variety. 



The 0-50-quality class includes all the small tubers which were 

 immature, and those scabby or exposed and, consequently, of no 

 value for culinary purposes. More than four-fifths of the number 

 and more than half of the weight of the tubers on the two-inch plat 

 are in this class. This plat also leads the others in both the number 

 and weight of tubers in the 50-65-quality class, but from the quality 

 grade of 65 and upward the order for the plats, in both number 

 and weight of tubers, is reversed. 



The greatest number and weight of tubers of the best quality 

 were produced on the six-inch plat where the temperature and 

 moisture conditions were most constant. 



The six-inch plat, however, produced more scabby tubers than 

 the four-inch plat, but these were, as a rule, small and seemed to be 

 immature. They also grew at the lowest depths. It may be that 

 the constancy of both the temperature and moisture at the depth 

 of five or six inches promotes the development of the scab. It is 

 also a question whether the scab on the tubers of the two-inch plat 

 was produced by the same fungus or agency as that upon the tubers 

 of the six-inch plat. 



Table Showing the Mean Temperature in the Soit at Three Different 

 Depths, Also the Temperature of the Air. 



DATE. 



Mav 14 



21 



28 



June 4 



11 



18 



25 



July 2 



9 



16 



23 



30 



Aug. 6 



13 



20 



27 



Sept. 3 



10 



17 



24 



Average 



Tempera- 

 ture 

 of the air. 



57.57 



60.23 



58.38 



70.15 



58.77 



66.27 



80.07 



56.3 



69.11 



69.92 



63.07 



70.15 



69.7 



67. 



67.15 



61.65 



70.69 



63.03 



66.03 



63.5 



65.437 



