Methods of Breeding and Improving the Potato Crop. 589 



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 be piled 

 on top of each other. These can be transferred into the cellar and 

 piled up in a comparatively compact space and yet the crates 

 allow a free circulation of air, which is desirable. This method of storage, 

 furthermore, allows the grower to examine the seed occasionally during 

 the winter and take out any tubers which may have started to rot before 

 they have had opportunity to affect any of the adjoining tubers. Every 

 precaution possible should be taken to keep the tubers cold and there- 

 fore free from sprouting until about two weeks before planting time. 

 It is of the highest importance that the tubers should not be allowed to 

 sprout in the darkness previous to planting, and if the cellar becomes 

 too warm in the early spring to hold the seed tubers dormant, as is likely 

 to be the case, the tubers should either be put in cold storage, if such 

 means is available, or they may be stored in pits in the fields, and by 

 proper management kept dormant until it is time to expose them before 

 planting. 



It is probably not generally understood that it is important to expose 

 the tubers to light a short time before planting. They should be taken 

 out of the cold storage or cellar ten days to two weeks before it is 

 intended to plant them, and exposed to the light in some fairly dry warm 

 place. Several experiments which have been conducted at the Cornell 

 Station indicate the effect which may be expected from such exposure 

 of seed. 



In 1903 Professor Gilmore conducted an experiment with Maine- 

 grown stock of the Sir Walter Raleigh variety which was rather inter- 

 esting. About May 5 this stock, which had been kept in excellent con- 

 dition, was separated into two lots. One part was simply stored in a 

 cool place in the barn and the other part put into cold storage, until 

 July 6, when both parts were planted. The bam stored seed was con- 

 siderably wilted; sprouts two to six inches long had formed, which 

 were mostly broken off in the course of planting. The cold storage seed 

 was just beginning to sprout into growth. The yields of these two lots 

 of seed from equal areas were as follows: 



Bam stored seed, wilted and sprouted, 42.5 lbs.; cold storage seed, 

 solid, slightly sprouted, in. 00 lbs. 



These figures show a gain of 159 per cent in favor of the solid nearly 

 dormant seed. 



Another experiment conducted in 1904 by Mr. S. Fraser of the Cornell ' 

 Station is also interesting in this connection. The seed tubers were 

 stored from November to May in crates in a cool cellar. No sprouts 



