140 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



the potatoes are dug. The second is, whether we shall con- 

 tinue to plant our own seed, seed which we grow, or whether 

 we shall get new seed every year. I know in large potato 

 growing sections in many parts of the country they will not 

 plant their own raised seed, but they will go to Maine or New 

 York for seed every year. I'd like to get an answer from 

 Dr. Clinton on these points. 



Dr. Clinton. Our method of seed selection is this : First 

 I call attention to the fact that you can breed up good strains 

 of plants just as you can breed up good strains of animals, but 

 it has got to be by selection. It has got to be rigid and carried 

 through some years. Our plan of selection is like this: We 

 go through the field and mark out the most vigorous vines — 

 those freest from disease. At the end of the season we dig 

 those vines and you select only from those that have got not 

 necessarily the largest potatoes or those that have the largest 

 number, but those that have the best shape, freest from disease, 

 and that indicate the largest total yield, also selecting for the 

 size or type of potato that you want. You select very carefully 

 in this way, and the very best that you find. Then take the 

 potatoes next spring and plant a little plot of those whole tubers 

 so that you know that the vine comes from a single cutting. 

 Then you go through the crop at the end of that season, and 

 from them select the very best individuals, the same as the pre- 

 ceding year, and plant those the third season. The fourth 

 season you can make your selection a little larger and plant 

 enough so that from that crop you will have enough to plant 

 your whole acreage the succeeding year. You have had four 

 seasons' selection. The fifth season you may plant your crop 

 from those selected plants. Each year keep up the selective 

 process. At the end of the tenth you have been selecting the 

 best tubers from certain points. If there is anything in evo- 

 lution or breeding up one individual from another, you have 

 perhaps accomplished that result. I know it can be done in 

 other things — in corn and wheat — and they are doing it with 



