S7^ READING-tCoURSE FOR FaRMERS. 



cultural crops. In 1907, according to the statistics gathered by the 

 U, S. Department of Agriculture, New York grew 426,000 acres, 

 which gave an average yield of 98 bushels per acre, and a total 

 crop of 41,748,000 bushels. The average valuation is given as 57 cents 

 per bushel, at which rate the farm value of the crop in New York was 

 $23,796,000. New York stands first among the states in potato pro- 

 duction, both as to amount of acreage, total product and value of prod- 

 uct. Michigan, the next largest potato-producing state, in 1907 grew 

 299,000 acres, which gave a yield of 26,910,000 bushels of potatoes. 

 While New York stands first in acreage and total production, our yield 

 per acre is very low, averaging only 85 bushels per acre for the last ten 

 years. In yield per acre the rank of New York among the states was 

 in 1905 forty-second, in 1906 sixteenth and in 1907 tv^^entieth. It 

 would seem from this low average yield per acre that there would be 

 considerable opportunity of increasing the yield, especially by breeding. 

 Yields of 300-400 bushels per acre are not uncommon in New York, 

 and in England and Scotland yields of 700-1000 bushels per acre are not 

 infrequently obtained. Probably less attention has been given to the 

 selection of the seed by farmers generally than to any other factor of 

 their cultivation. Breeding of new varieties of potatoes is naturally 

 accomplished mainly by the growing of seedlings and the selection of 

 the best, or by the hybridization of the different varieties. The majority 

 of our ordinar}' varieties of potatoes, however, have lost the ability to 

 produce fertile seed except under rare conditions. This sterility is 

 apparently due to the continued amelioration under continuous vegeta- 

 tive propagation from the tubers. The history of development of 

 cultivated plants as a whole indicates that when a plant is propagated 

 for many years vegetative'.y, it gradually shows a tendency to produce 

 fewer and fewer seeds. This would naturally be especially true when, 

 as in the potato, the part for which the plant is grown is not the fruit. 

 The difficulty of obtaining seeds from our ordinary types, and, further- 

 more, the cost and expense of growing and testing seedlings, would pre- 

 clude this type of potato-breeding from being recommended as desirable 

 for farmers generally to undertake. Must growers, then, give up the 

 idea of improving their own seed, or are there some methods of breeding 

 and impro\ement which are satisfactory for general use? 



IMPROVEMENT BY HILL SELECTION 



Fortunately, we have in the potato an illustration of a plant which 

 can apparently be greatly improved by tuber or bud selection. When a 

 single whole tuber is planted in a hill, the yield of the hill becomes a 



