Corn Growers' Association. 153 



cient number of good tubers should be selected in the first instance 

 to plant a seed patch of about one-tenth the size of the general 

 crop grown. This ratio of size of seed patch to general crop would 

 probably hold in ordinary seasons. Ordinarily about twenty bush- 

 els of seed per acre are planted, and one tuber divided into quar- 

 ters and planted in four hills should produce about twenty good 

 seed tubers. The increase, so far as good seed tubers are con- 

 cerned, being therefore, about one to twenty. Therefore, by ar- 

 ranging for the seed patch to be about one-tenth the area of the 

 general crop, w^e have provided for discarding about one-half of 

 the hills in the seed patch. All of the tubers from the discarded 

 hills and all of those which are not retained for seed even from 

 the best hills, are placed with the general crop and sold, so that 

 it will be seen that the only extra trouble and expense connected 

 with growing this seed patch is the planting and digging by hand, 

 and the small amount of trouble required in making the selections. 

 As a matter of fact, this entails very little extra trouble and every 

 grower who is depending for his living upon the crops produced 

 should be willing to take this amount of time to insure good seed. 



STORAGE AND CARE OF SEED POTATOES. 



The factor of proper storage of the seed is also one generally 

 neglected by growers and is probably no less important. Very 

 few growers give sufficient attention to this matter. It has been 

 found undesirable to store potatoes in large amounts. If they are 

 dug and placed in large piles soon after harvesting, when the 

 weather is still warm, there is danger of their becoming heated 

 and injuring the vitality. If they are placed in large piles in cel- 

 lars, which is commonly the case, any rot which starts in one tuber 

 is likely to spread rapidly to the others, thus injuring their keep- 

 ing qualities. 



The best way to hold the seed potatoes is, of course, in cold stor- 

 age, at a temperature of from thirty-five to forty degrees Fahren- 

 heit. Should the temperature fall below freezing for a short time, 

 there would probably be no very serious damage done, as living pro- 

 toplasm seldom freezes at exactly freezing temperature. It is bet- 

 ter, however, not to subject them to freezing conditions. Most 

 farmers probably do not have facilities for putting their seed po- 

 tatoes in cold storage, and ordinarily fairly dry cool cellars form 

 good alternatives as storage places. 



As the select potatoes are dug in the field it would be well to 

 place them in open slat boxes or crates of uniform size which may 



