250 Report of Farmers' Institutes 



should be used, and the least desirable lines discarded each of the 

 three years. My experience during the past three years with many 

 fields leads me to believe that the quickest, surest and most prac- 

 tical means of securing a potato that will give large production, 

 of ideal shape, and free from inherent disease, is by selection for 

 these characteristics, and developing this line pure until all 

 the field can be planted from it. Then practice a method of 

 elimination of all weakness or disease that may creep in. I should 

 suggest that each year the home seed be dug by hand and every 

 undesirable hill discarded. To do this the plants should not be 

 close enough so that the hills cannot be separated when dug. 

 If the seed trade wants and will pay extra for potatoes to run un- 

 der ten ounces, then they can be crowded, and a type may be se- 

 lected having a large set. Growers might profitably use planter 

 size taken out with a grader, providing the parent hills are thor- 

 oughly rogued each year. The practice of using small potatoes 

 from the bin year after year cannot be too severely condemned, 

 because the greater number of these small tubers are produced by 

 the poor, weak and diseased hilla. 



