PRODUCTION OF POTATO SEED TUBES 21& 



Some five of six years ago, when the stock of Early Ohio potatoes 

 mentioned in the early part of this paper was obtained from the Red River 

 country, the tubers were planted in the ordinary way on as uniform soil 

 as could be obtained. Later, one-half of the ground planted to this lot of 

 potatoes was mulched with straw and the other half received cultivation 

 throughout the summer. In the Fall the potatoes from the two plats 

 were dug at the same time, placed in sacks, and kept under the same 

 condtions in a root cellar during the winter. The next spring the two 

 lots were planted on adjoining plats of uniform land, and both plats were 

 given the same cultivation throughout the season. The only different be- 

 tween the two plats, then, was that the seed for one of them had been 

 grown the preceding year under a mulch while the seed for the other 

 had been grown by the ordinary methods of cultivation. When the two 

 plats were harvested it was found that the plat where the mulched seed 

 had been used had yielded about forty per cent more than the adjoining 

 plat, where cultivated seed had been planted. The test has been repeated 

 every year since with the original stock of Early Ohio potatoes. Some 

 of the potatoes grown under the mulch one year are mulched the following 

 year and some cultivated, and some of the potatoes grown by cultivation 

 one year are mulched the next year and some of them cultivated. In 

 addition to continuing the tests with this^ original lot of potatoes, new 

 stocks of potatoes have been brought in at various times. In each case 

 uniform potatoes are planted, a part of the ground mulched and part cult- 

 vated, the crop harvested and kept under identical conditions over winter, 

 planted on adjoining plats the next year, and given uniform treatment, 

 ordinarily by cultivation, the following summer, just as was done with 

 the original stock of potatoes. In none of these tests has the cultivated 

 seed given better yields than the mulched seed of the same stock. The 

 mulched stock of any lot has never given less than fifteen percent in- 

 crease in yield over the cultivated lot of the same stock. The average 

 increase in yield due to mulched seed, considering all the tests running 

 over five years, has been something over thirty per cent. 



It would seem that the experiment has been carried on with suffi- 

 cient care and that it had been carried on sufficiently long so that we can 

 now say with considerable assurance that the increase in yield observed 

 from the use of mulched seed has been due to the better condition under 

 which the seed tubers were grown the preceding year. It being settled 

 that mulching potatoes one year makes stronger seed for the next season, 

 the question arises as to whether this method can be used on the farms 

 of this state. It is probably impossible for the large potato grower to 

 grow sufficient seed under a mulch to plant his fields the following 

 season, but it does seem perfectly feasible for the ordinary farmer who 

 grows only an acre or two, or not more than five or ten acres at the 

 most, to grow sufficient seed under a mulch for his whole crop. We have 

 found that the labor required to haul straw or hay where the stack is 

 not too far from the potato field and apply it evenly over the surface of the 

 gropnd is just about equivalent to the time spent in four or five thorough 



