No. 7. _ DEPARTMENT 01' AGRICULTURE. 46l 



of September, ten days before the potatoes die down, we go over the 

 seed plat and dig up all the diseased and degenerated hills that have 

 not made the growth they should. Understand this work is done 

 ten days or two weeks before the potatoes die down so we can see 

 what each hill has done. The hills not making the growth they ought 

 we dig up and discard. The dead or dying hills we dig up and take 

 out. We take a wheel barrow, crates and potato fork and one man 

 takes two rows and when he comes to a tuberculosis hill we dig it 

 up and take it out. By that method we take out of the seed plot all 

 the diseased stock. At harvest time these seed potatoes are dug and 

 put in the cellar. During the winter when we have time we go 

 through the seed plat product, sometimes 900 bushels, and select 

 out potatoes of the type we have our ideals set to. First, we want 

 the size; next, the shape. We like a potato with a good seed end and 

 a good stem end. Here is a very good type. It is too wide for the 

 length. Here is one I like, from three-fourths to a pound each ; and 

 these are treated with the formaldehyde, keeping the scab down. We 

 have an automatic potato planter. I would not recommend this ma- 

 chine. It is too complicated. 



I think one of the things brought to my attention forcibly in potato 

 culture was the result of this planter. Here and there in the field 

 were four successive hills of dwarfish plants not up in height with 

 the rest of the potatoes and I wondered what was the cause. I got 

 my thinking cap on and one day it came to me that the seed that 

 grew those four hills came from degenerated stock. We tested it by 

 taking seed from the poor hills and found out next year that was the 

 cause of the poor yield. The seed plant method that I have described 

 is one way of getting better and blooded seed. Every farmer can get 

 good seed himself. If you have a good variety of potatoes, Irish 

 Cobbler, Green Mountain or Sir AValter Kaleigh or any other variety 

 that you have taken good care of I would go into the field and dig out 

 250 or 500 hills and go to another part of the field where the potatoes 

 made a good growth and yield and dig out say 250, 500 or 1,000 more 

 hills and dig, lay out each individual hill separately. Don't mix 

 them up after you get the hills dug. Go over the hills as they are 

 dug out and select the hills that made the best yield. With these 

 next year start a seed and breeding plat. Our potatoes are planted 

 on a roiled surface to insure a uniform planting depth of three to 

 four inches, three feet apart for the drills and in the drills a seed 

 piece every eleven inches. I don't recommend that close planting. If 

 planted close like that on thin soil in an unfavorable season prob- 

 ably the whole crop would result in small marble-like potatoes. 



A Member: Do you say two and one-half feet between rows is 

 too close? 



ME. MARTIN: With late potatoes that is pretty close. You 

 tramp down and mutilate many vines with cultivator and sprayer. 

 I would rather plant the rows farther apart and the hills closer in 

 the rows. Then the vines don't interlock with each other and you 

 can get through with less damage from the machines. 



In cutting the potato, such a potato as that (indicating it) would 

 be cut in four pieces, again as large as that into eight pieces. We take 

 a common paring knife and cut the seed like that (indicating). The 

 way we plant there are 15840 hills to the acre. I think if we allowed 

 one pound to the hill that would give a yield of 264 bushels to the 



