No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 307 



they are in the car. I have shipped a great many jjotatoes to Pitts- 

 burg in hot weather, and when we have to ])nsh them upon the 

 market just as rapidly as possible to keep them from rotting on our 

 own hands. You will do well not to store any potatoes for eating 

 until the tuber has so well ripened that there is very little blemish 

 upon it as a result of handling. 



MR. HUTCHISON: I would like to inquire if the scab on pota- 

 toes don't come from the blight. 



MR. AGEE: O, no. 



MR. CLARK: I would like to ask what kind of manure you deem 

 it advisable to use. Would you use cow-stable manure? 



MR. AGEE: The stable manure is all right for potatoes; some 

 of our good, hard-headed growers are using that every year. We 

 have got to watch their judgment. I can say this, that fresh manure 

 tends to introduce scab; it tends to introduce a little too much 

 nitrogen. 



A Member: Does the potato take up its plant food in the con- 

 dition that it gets it from the soil? Is it possible that that plant 

 food is in just the same condition as it is when it is taken from the 

 soil? That is something that puzzles me to know. 



MR. AGEE: Certainly; when you get too deep in there, we are 

 in a field that I know nothing of. I know that the potato is just 

 like a branch above ground. We know this, that the plant will take 

 far more nitrogen out of the soil if it has a good supply there, than 

 it will take if there is a scant supply; I won't say relatively more. 

 It seems, if I got the idea right from Prof. Butz, to require so much 

 longer time to reach the stage when it is ready for reproduction, 

 that we do not get the large tuber that we want. 



MR. HUTCHISON: How would you prevent the blight? 



MR. AGEE: I have sprayed only for the early blight; the remedy 

 for the late blight is the same. The early blight produces a germ 

 that multiplies when the temperature is up in the nineties. The 

 late blight multiplies when we have a temperature along in the 

 seventies, with a low moisture. In my locality, we don't have the 

 late blight, only about one year out of eight, so we do not pretend 

 to protect ourselves from it, as we do from the early blight. In 

 this part of Pennsylvania you have both the early and the late 

 blight. If growing an early crop for early market, I do not think 

 I could recommend to you that you spray to prevent early blight. 

 You will prevent it somewhat; it might pay you and it might not. 



