DAIRY AND SEED IMPROVEMENT MEETINGS. 349 



by planting scabby seed. Therefore, plant pathologists have 

 strongly urged that only clean, disinfected seed be used for 

 planting. Had this recommendation been followed powdery 

 scab would not have been introduced. Hence, to keep it out, it 

 is not even necessary for the farmer to know the difference 

 between common scab and powdery scab. 



SEED POTATOES, 



The first slide represents a potato field taken in Virginia. It 

 is not the result of an experiment, but the result of an accident. 

 The seed on this field came from two sources ; in one case it was 

 good and in the other bad, and it so happened that, without 

 design, a barrel of good seed and then a barrel of poor were 

 planted alternately. (The field showed strips with a perfect 

 stand alternating with those where the crop was practically a 

 total failure.) In contrast with this let us look for a moment at 

 a picture of a Maine field planted with healthy, carefully 

 selected seed. 



Some years ago the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station 

 was in the market for some high grade Cobbler seed. Several 

 growers were recommended as having first-class stuff. The seed 

 was purchased from two of these. The next slide shows some 

 of the tubers sorted out of one of these lots which were sold to 

 the Station as being a first-class article. Attention is called to 

 their small size and poor quality. 



On account of our short season for harvesting it is necessary 

 to handle potatoes very rapidly and often more roughly than we 

 would desire. Rough handling should be avoided as much as 

 possible, as injuries and cracks like those shown in the next 

 picture give an opportunity for the fungi which cause storage 

 decay to gain entrance. 



The next shows a trouble, sometimes spoken of as ''black- 

 heart," occasionally encountered with potatoes shipped south in 

 the winter. It is caused by over-heating the cars in transit and 

 is nothing that can be communicated to other tubers. 



Up in the mountains of Colorado, on the western side of the 

 Continental Divide, two business men have gone into potato 

 raising on a business basis. They are not writing books, deliv- 

 ering lectures, selling land or seed stock, and in many respects 



