188 Bulletin 228. 



it by enabling them to maintain at their highest state of productivity 

 any varieties possessing desirable characteristics, great vigor and 

 adaptation to their soil and markets. Probably they can go farther 

 and even increase the productivity of their best varieties. At all 

 events, seed selection is one of the important means of increasing 

 the crop. 



Most potatoes are these days dug by machinery, which does not 

 permit of selection by hills. But it would not be burdensome for 

 the farmer to dig by-hand the stock required for next season's plant- 

 ing. Let the necessary area be set aside from the best part of the 

 field — where conditions are such that plants of high vigor are likely 

 to be produced. Have the tubers from each hill laid by themselves, 

 so that inspection of the hills will be easy. First go through, taking 

 out and discarding all inferior hills. Next make a selection of the 

 very best — the gilt-edge hills. These are for the planting of the next 

 season's seed area. The remainder are for the planting of the main 

 crop, and by reason of the exclusion of all inferior hills should pro- 

 duce increased yields over "the run of the pile." The next season 

 the seed area planted with the gilt-edge seed should be harvested in 

 the manner described above and should give still better stock for 

 planting both the main crop and the seed plat the following year. 

 Thus year by year the productivity of a variety should be main- 

 tained or improved instead of suffering the deterioration so gener- 

 ally observed. 



It is possible to make decided gains in productivity by selecting 

 on the basis of vigor of vine as manifested during the growing season. 

 The best hills are usually the product of the most vigorous vines. If 

 markers are placed by the most promising-looking plants and these 

 taken out by themselves just before the general harvest, excellent 

 stock is secured with which to start a seed plat. A Chautauqua 

 Coimty farmer who followed this system for three years, reports that 

 he established a strain of a variety that was decidedly more produc- 

 tive than stock taken from the general harvest. This system of se- 

 lection often may be combined with the one previously described to 

 excellent advantage.* 



^Storing Seed Potatoes. The conditions under which tubers intended 

 for planting are kept during the winter and early spring, have much 

 to do with the vigor of the plants derived from them. If placed in 



*This matter of the selection of potatoes for planting is admirably adapted for 

 one of the co-operative experiments in our Agricultural Extension Work. We 

 shall be pleased to enter into communication with farmers who are willing to take 

 it up in this connection. 



