230 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



AN EXPEEIMENT IX POTATO CULTURE. 



It has long since been proven that northern grown seeds are the best. The 

 demand for northern grown seed potatoes is increasing more rapidly than that for 

 seeds, owing to the fact that the potato, especially for home use, is more generally 

 cultivated than any other crop, and because potatoes when ripened in the southern 

 states, are less fit for seed. 



The limestone soils of this region, together with its cool atmosphere, its heavy 

 dews and otherwise always abundant moisture made secure through its geographi- 

 cal position, ought to make this a supply center for choice potatoes, second to 

 none. 



Until the advantages of a new region become a matter of general knowledge, 

 its producers must search for a market, when local demand is supplied. For 

 some time, therefore, the pioneer farmer in this region will be confronted with 

 the usual problems relating to the production besides those concerning the dis- 

 position of the potato crop. The principal questions in regard to the economical 

 production of the crop have been exhaustively treated by most experiment stations, 

 and it is not likely that further experiments aloug these lines will do more than 

 substantiate the correctness of former conclusions. 



A careful observation of the general methods employed in the principal potato 

 growing regions, leads to the assumption that many now northern grown potatoes 

 will sooner or later find disfavor with the southern consumer. It may be confidently 

 asserted that over one-half of the potatoes put on the market in recent years 

 are in an unripe condition. Not infrequently, late potatoes can be seen, but little 

 better than out of season southern potatoes, bought in a limited way as a fad and 

 not for their food value, since they practically have none from a nutritive stand- 

 point. The general tendency is to grow potatoes regardless of rotation of crops 

 or other sound farming methods, and the consequence is a constantly diminishing 

 yield which ceases to be profitable. Rather than to apply correct farming prin- 

 ciples, the average farmer is beginning to reduce the cost of production at the 

 expense of quality, by planting too late in order to "cheat potato bugs" as he 

 puts it. 



Were it safe to presume that the average consumer will always be satisfied witli 

 potatoes raised under such conditions, then the question of shorter seasons will 

 never affect the farmer in this region, when trying to market his surplus potato 

 crop. It should be, and is, however, the aim of experiment stations to teach not 

 only what to raise and how to raise it, but how to satisfy the consumer. To pro- 

 duce and market the best has been found essential in trying to win back distant 

 markets for dairy products, and in the profitable disposition of fruit crops. It 

 cannot be claimed that the best in potatoes is an unripe potato no more than it is 

 contended that unripe peaches are best because they cannot be profitably shipped 

 in any other condition. Since the demand for better ripened potatoes is there- 

 fore likely to become more general, and since it would then mean a longer season 

 between the time of planting and harvesting, it is liable to become of importance 

 whether the season in this region will ultimately be considered of sufficient length 

 for thoroughly ripening all varieties of potatoes. Though it is a well established 

 fact that hardy plants will grow faster and mature quicker in northern regions, 

 and that this is due either to some peculiar atmospherical influences, or to the 

 greater length of days during the growing season; and though all varieties of 

 potatoes heretofore tested at this Station have been as ripe at harvesting time 

 as the average potatoes seen elsewhere, the fact remains nevertheless, that a 

 few of the late varieties would have required a season longer by fully two weeks 

 should the demands of the market be more discriminating in regard to the degree 

 of ripeness. In more southern regions, such discrimination could easily be met 

 by returning to the former practice of earlier planting. In this latitude, the 

 task would be more difficult, since but a short time elap.ses between the disappear- 

 ance of snow and planting time. One of the objects of the experiment under 

 discussion, is to determine the means by which the difficulty can be surmounted 

 in this region and the potato crop be given a longer time in which to mature. 

 In casting about for a solution, fall planting suggested itself for several good 

 reasons : 



1st. It is safe, since the early snowfall prevents the ground from freezing, 

 or rapidly thaws out the thin crust which sometimes forms during late fall. 



