584 Reading-Course fur Farmers. 



bag for the purpose is the 12 or 16 pound manilla paper bag used by 

 grocers. The 12 pound paper bags of good quality should cost only 

 about 40 cents per hundred. If the 12 pound paper bag is too small 

 use a 16 pound bag. Number each tuber-unit consecutively and place 

 this number on the bag. In your notebook record under the number 

 of each tuber-unit, the number of large, medium sized, and small 

 tubers and the total weight of the product. The bags containing the 

 seed should then be placed in suitable storage where they will not be 

 torn or the tubers mixed. The tubers from the best discarded tuber- 

 units should be retained to plant the general crop the next year. 



If at digging time the grower is crowded with work and wishes to 

 save time, the two or three hundred tuber-units retained after the first 

 gross selection (see paragraph 2 above) could be placed in paper bags 

 and the more careful examination and weighing of the product delayed 

 until some convenient time during the winter when the final selection 

 could be made. 



Selecting seed for the second year's planting 

 Some time during the winter or at any convenient period before 

 planting time carefully examine the product of each select tuber-unit 

 and pick out the ten best tubers of each as judged by the ideal standard 

 of a good tuber which has been taken as the type of the selection. The 

 ten best of each retain in the numbered sacks for planting and discard 

 the remaining tubers. 



Second year's planting. In the further handling of the selections 

 made the first year the planting the second year must be arranged in 

 order to test the productive power of each of the fifty select tuber-units. 

 Plant each tuber-unit in a row by itself by the same method used in 

 planting the first 3^ear's crop (see p, 758). That is, plant four hills with 

 each tuber cutting the tuber longitudinally into four equal- sized quarters, 

 making each cut from base to apex of the tuber. As ten select tubers 

 were retained from each tuber-unit this will make forty hills per row, 

 and if fifty tuber-units were selected there will be 500 tubers to plant, 

 which will make .a total of 2000 hills in the breeding-plot. The land 

 used for this breeding-plot should be carefully chosen for uniformity, 

 as variations in the land will modify the comparative yield and are likely 

 to render the results untrustworthy. Number each row of forty hills 

 with the number given the tuber-unit of the preceding year. It is 

 desirable for comparison to plant about every tenth row with unselected 

 seed of the same variety, cut and planted in the same way, but without 

 reference to keeping each tuber separate. The production of these 

 check-rows will show whether progress is being made in the selection. 



