WINTER MEETING. 291 



planted potatoes are not a success with us, and our main crop is planted 

 entirely in Jane. The past season we planted most of our crop be- 

 tween June 8th and 22d, and I can assure you that I never saw so fine 

 a crop before in my 20 years' experience as a potato crank. 



Tbe exhibit of potatoes on your tables from the lliverdale Seed 

 Farm will, I am sure, convince you that our crop was all I claim for 

 it. On June 29 and 30, on a piece of very poor sandy upland, we 

 planted two acres which yielded 220 bushels of medium sized tubers. 

 This was the earliest of our late crop. Our main crop, on river bot- 

 tom land, run from 200 bushels per acre up to 433 bushels per acre 

 without any special preparation of soil. 



We aim to plant our potatoes on soil with only ordinary prepara- 

 tion, so that we know that the varieties that we advertise are well 

 suited to the average farm method of cultivation. We have known 

 of many varieties which would yield enormously on very rich, highly 

 cultivated lands that were practically worthless for ordinary farm 

 use. 



Our Wisconsin crop is planted so late that it matures late in the 

 fall, and, kept in a good storage-house, our crop is like second crop 

 «eed, and will keep much better than potatoes that ripen early and 

 then lie through the long hot fall months. 



Ti^, our experimental plats, planted during July, we secured some 

 ■fine yields of smooth tubers about the size of hens eggs and larger, a 

 sample of which you will find in our exhibit. These will make the best 

 of seed, and we intend next season to plant a larger area during July, 

 if the weather is suitable. We shall use that seed ourselves for part 

 of our planting to further determine the merits of mature potatoes, 

 when properly kept, compared with second, or late crop seed. 



There is a law of nature that is as unalterable as was the laws of 

 the Medes and Persians, that all vegetation is at its greatest vigor in 

 the colder part of its zone of growth. 



Perhaps I am wrong in applying this rule alone to vegetation, for 

 without doubt the law applies as well to animal life as to the vegetable 

 kingdom. We see it in the human race wherever we go. The people 

 of the temperate zones have more energy, push and vigor than those 

 of warmer climates. 



By repeated experiments we find seed potatoes conforming to this 

 law. Northern grown seed, other things being equal, will always be 

 preferable to that grown in a more southerly latitude. 



Of course Northern grown seed, to be at their best must be grown 

 with care and a thorough understanding of the needs of the plants 

 and after being grown, the crop must be harvested, cared for and 



