38 



AGRICULTURE OP MAINE. 



Plant a plat of this seed, not too large to be given personal at- 

 tention, and not so large but that you personally can dig the pota- 

 toes by hand. We would recommend that the size of this plat be 

 about 400 hills. 



Give the plat the same treatment as to (a) soil conditions, (b) 

 fertilizing, (c) cultivation and (d) spraying, which is given to the 

 main crop. 



If you desire to select for earliness go through the field several 

 times during the season and tag the plants furthest along at those 

 times. Keep record of date of blooming of selected plants. 



In digging the potatoes save as seed only hills possessing strong 

 upright tops and having 6 or more merchantable tubers, of fairly 

 uniform size and shape typical for the variety, and containing no 

 fmall, misshapen or diseased tubers. Ten hills so selected will give 

 sufficient seed for plat work in 191 1. 



Keep the tubers from each of the selected seed hills separate, and 

 give each lot of seed from one hill a number. 



Weigh the tubers from each selected hill and divide by the total 

 number of tubers, thus getting the average weight. Keep a record 

 of the work according to the following scheme: 



1910 POTATO SELECTION. 



Keep full notes as to size of plat and character of soil, date of 

 planting, fertilizing, date of blooming, date dug, j'ield of whole plat, 

 and any other items in which you may be interested. Keep record 

 of yield of general crop for 1910 for comparison. 



Work for 1911: Plant the 1910 selected seed in such a way that the 

 progeny of each original hill will be kept together. 



Repeat selections as in 1910 work. 



In digging it will doubtless be found that the progeny of certain 

 original hills is not as good as that of others. Reject the lines 

 which do not measure up to standard. 



