698 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



to get a hill of marketable tubers. The maa who is so rushed by 

 work that he plants a piece of worthless seed knowingly because he 

 does not have time to discard it when cutting, or before, is planting 

 too extensively for best net profit. If the value of a good hill of po- 

 tatoes, when produced, is not equal to the cost of throwing out worth- 

 less tubers before planting, there is no money in the crop. Each seed 

 piece represents a success or failure for a certain area of soil. The 

 yields of fields are kept low largely by the failure of many hills to do 

 a fair share of the work of production. Many hills in a field usually 

 produce at a rate that would seem extraordinary to a grower, while 

 vacant hills and spindling vines in others, reduce the average to a 

 moderate yield per acre. When potatoes are drilled eighteen inches 

 apart in rows thirty-four inches apart, there are over 10,000 hills per 

 acre. A single potato in each hill weighing a pound, would give 

 166 bushels per acre. I am entirely aware of the misleading char- 

 acter of estimates based upon single hills or very limited areas, and 

 equally am I aware of the practical impossibility of making each hill 

 do its. fair share, but such estimates as the foregoing have shown 

 me the folly of using a seed piece that I knew could not make a vigor- 

 ous vine. Often we do not know; the impaired vitality cannot be 

 detected. Hence a degree of failure no matter how successful the 

 crop. But it is indefensible carelessness to use any seed that does 

 not appear vigorous. 



The tubers that make abnormal development are not the safest 

 seed. The buds often start weak. Experience teaches that it is 

 wise to select tubers of medium size, unwasted by sprouting in stor- 

 age, smooth as type will justify, and free from evidence of disease 

 and degeneracy. 



Southern Second-Crop Seed. — Twenty years ago the market for the 

 potatoes of the producing sections along the Ohio river was found 

 in the south. This was equally' true for a portion of the New Eng- 

 land crop, which was quoted in the market reports as ''Boston Peer- 

 less." These potatoes were sold chiefly for planting, the south being 

 dependent upon the north for seed, and when we rolled the barrels 

 out upon the New Orleans levee after storage for many w^eeks in our 

 flatboats, the sprouted, wilted condition of the potatoes made them 

 present a sorry sight, but nothing better was available for our cus- 

 tomers. In time the demand fell ofl', and we learned that the x>lant- 

 ers were using a later home-grown crop of the preceding year for 

 spring planting. This was the so-called second-crop seed. Con- 

 cerning this seed, Professor Massey, formerly of the North Caro- 

 lina Station, says: 



"About twenty-five years ago, by reason of an early and favor- 

 able spring, in northern Maryland, our early crop matured much 

 earlier than usual. Many cullings were left in the ground, 

 which we had intended to prepare for celery. But before we 



