694 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Oft. Doc. 



ratoes cannot be grown profitably on liis farm whea the fault lies 

 with the seed he has been using, aud the easy trial of good seed is 

 within his reach. There are large areas that will not grow potatoes 

 well, and are not needed in the country's production, but most farm 

 ers should grow Iheir home supply, and do it with some profit. Thi^ 

 may demand a different fitting of the soil than that given hereto- 

 fore, but to poor seedi is many a failure attributable. 



What is Good Seed? — The tuber of the potato is not the true seed 

 of tihe plant; tliut is in the »eed ball. Neither is it the root of the 

 plant, as is the case with the sweet potato. It is merelj- an enlarge- 

 ment of an underground stem. The plant puts forth branches above 

 ground which form blossoms, and at a certain stage of growth the 

 plant puts forth branches, or stems, that do not come above ground 

 and blossom, but remain below the surface, enlarge at the ends, 

 and form that w hich corresponds to the blossom of the branch above 

 ground, with the adddtion of starchy material stored about the cells 

 leading to the buds, which is intended by nature for the feeding of 

 the young plants when they are started another season. These 

 buds, cells and stored starchy material, wrapped up in one package, 

 is the tuber for v. hich we cultivate the plant. 



Just so sure as like produces like in this world, the tuber par- 

 takes of the nature of the vine that produces it. If that vine has 

 grown in a heat that weakened it, or has been affected by disease or 

 insects that lessened vigor, the tubers have a correspondingly low 

 vitality. As we know, the potato thrives best in a cool climate. 

 Excepting the high mountain elevations, all land south of the for- 

 tieth parallel has too much heat during some period of the growing 

 season in normal years for the best development of the early-planted 

 potato. It does not follow that big pelds per acre are not obtained 

 some seasons in the heart of the belt liked by our heat-loving corn 

 plant. Our southern States grow good fields of potatoes, and yet 

 the fact remains that the big yields are most easily gotten in north- 

 ern latitudes — in Maine, New York, Michigan and the northwest. 

 There the potato thrives in the absence of extreme heat, and has 

 great vitality, as the size of the tubers attest. 



Potatoes grown year after year under unfavorable climatic or 

 soil conditions, decrease in vitality, and the man who clings to such 

 tubers for planting must reap what he sows. The vines lack vigor, 

 and the underground stems, or tubers, lack in size. Excepting high 

 altitudes in our mountain sections, there are no sections south of the 

 States mentioned above where the vitality of potatoes is fully main- 

 tained, and I am very sure that it would pay growlers to get seed 

 from the north every second or third year when prices are apt to be 

 low. This statement could be put stronger by me, as I find it profit- 

 able to get seed from more northerly sections every year. But even 



