146 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



June, 1912 



Potato Growing in Ontario 



C. A. Zavitz, Professor of Field Husbandry, Agricultural College, Guelph, Ont. 



THKFiE are probably more people in 

 Ontario growing potatoes than any 

 other single crop. This is owing 

 to the fact that potatoes may be grown 

 extensively on the large farms for com- 

 mercial purposes or they may be grown 

 on farms and gardens of all sizes for 

 home use. 



According to the Census and .Statis 

 tical Report of the Dominion of Canada, 

 there were 152,887 acres of potatoes 

 grown in Ontario in 191 1. In that year, 

 Ontario had fifteen thousand acres of 

 potatoes more than the province of Que- 

 bec and about four times as great an area 

 as that devoted to potatoes in any othei 

 province of the Dominion. Although 

 about one-third of the potato land of 

 the Dominion was located in Ontario 

 in 191 1, the supply of potatoes in this' 

 province has been insufficient to satisfy 

 the home market. This, of course, is 

 partly due to the fact that the yield of 

 potatoes p>er acre in Ontario last year was 

 less than that of any year since 1898. 



Owing to the scarcity of potatoes, the 

 price has become abnormally high. When 

 prices are high there is usually a desire 

 to considerably increase production. It 

 is hardly probable, however, that there 

 will be an over-production in the potato 

 crop of the present year, as the scarcity 

 and the high price of the seed will tend 

 to restrict the amount planted. 



While potatoes thrive on a great var- 

 iety of soils, they grow particularly well 

 on a rich sandy loam, which contains a 

 considerable amount of vegetable mat- 

 ter. They generally do well on a thor- 

 oughly prepared clover sod. If it is de- 

 sirable to use a commercial fertilizer to 

 supplement the farmyard manure, we 

 find, according to the results of the co- 

 operative experiments throughout On- 

 tario, that a complete fertilizer contain- 

 ing nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and po- 

 tash, gives more economical results on 

 the average soil than one containing a 

 single element of fertility. 



TOO MANY VARIETIES 



There are altogether too many varie- 

 ties of potatoes grown in Ontario. If 

 .only three or four of the most important 

 varieties for general crop were used, 

 larger yields of potatoes of better quality 

 for home use and for the market would 

 be obtained. The Empire State, the 

 Rural New Yorker No. 2, and the 

 Davies' Warrior have given excellent re- 

 sults for general use both in the experi- 

 ments at Guelph and in the co-operative 

 tests throughout Ontario. The Dela- 

 ware and the Green Mountain, which ap- 

 parently have given good results in New 

 Brunswick, have been tested at Guelph 



for a number of years, and the results 

 have been fairly satisfactory. Of the 

 early varieties, the Extra Early Eureka 

 and the Irish Cobbler have made fine re- 

 cords. In testing one hundred and ten 

 varieties of potatoes for table quality in 

 the spring of 191 2 in which flavour, 

 mealiness, and appearance were taken in- 

 to consideration, the Empire State se- 

 cured the highest score, which was close- 

 ly followed by the Crown Jewel, the 

 Westcott, and the Pearl of .Savoy. The 

 Deleware gave thirteen points lower than 

 the Empire .State in table quality. 



A considerable proportion of the seed 

 potatoes in Ontario appears to be more 

 or less infested with the scab. It would 

 be well to treat the whole potatoes be- 

 fore they are cut for planting. This can 

 be readily done by immersing the pota- 

 toes for two hours in a solution made 

 by mixing one pint of formalin with 

 thirty gallons of water. After the pota- 

 toes have been treated, they can be dried 

 and prepared for planting. The scab is 

 produced by a fungus growth and can- 

 not be reproduced except from living 

 spores ; hence the importance of treat- 

 ing infested seed before planting. 



PREPARATIONS FOR PLANTING 



A large number of experiments have 

 been conducted at the Ontario Agricul- 

 tural College in preparing seed potatoes 

 for planting. It has been found that, on 

 the average, potato sets taken from good 

 sized potatoes will give a little larger 

 yield f)er acre than potato sets of the 

 same size taken from smaller potatoes. 

 The size of the sets which are planted 

 have a very marked influence on the 

 yield of potatoes per acre. The number 

 of eyes per set exerts a slight influence, 

 but not nearly as much as does the size 

 of the pieces. 



Under average conditions it is wise to 

 cut good sized, smooth potatoes into 

 pieces which will weigh from one to two 

 ounces each, and which will have two, 

 three, or four eyes in each set. If there 

 is only one eye in a set the yield is lighter 

 and if there are five eyes in each set there 

 are too many small potatoes. In some 

 sections large seed potatoes will likely 

 be very scarce and very expensive this 

 spring. A potato set one ounce in 

 weight, cut from a two ounce potato, 

 will likely give a greater yield than a half 

 ounce set taken from an eight ounce 

 potato. 



I would suggest that where potatoes 

 are very scarce a comparatively small 

 quantity of good sized potatoes be cut 

 into sets and used for seed for the pro- 

 duction of potatoes to be used for plant- 

 ing in the following year. For the main 

 crop for table use, however, potatoes 



weighing two or three ounces each might 

 be cut into ounce pieces and used for 

 planting to good advantage. 



A marked advantage is usually found 

 from cutting potatoes and throwing the 

 freshly cut pieces into land plaster or 

 gypsum allowing as much as possible of 

 the plaster to adhere to the freshly cut 

 pieces. This treatment usually increases 

 the yield of potatoes per acre from six- 

 teen to eighteen bushels. 



PLANT PROMPTLY 



Potatoes should always be planted im- 

 mediately after being cut. In some sec- 

 tions of Ontario it has apparently become 

 the custom to leave the potatoes a few 

 days before planting, believing that an 

 advantage is obtained thereby. This 

 practice was probably originated by cut- 

 ting the potatoes on a rainy day or on 

 a Saturday when the children were home 

 from school and the sets were kept a 

 few days before planting, and the re- 

 sults have apparently been good. As 

 the result of some ten years' experiments 

 at the College and five years' co-opera- 

 tive experiments throughout Ontario it 

 was found that potatoes which were cut 

 and planted immediately gave an aver- 

 age of about fifteen bushels per acre 

 more than those which were cut four, 

 five, or six days before they were 

 planted. 



If the land is a sandy loam the potatoes 

 can be planted to a depth of four or fiv& 

 inches and the land cultivated on the 

 level. If the soil is a heavy clay, how- 

 ever, it is probably better to plant to a 

 depth of only about three inches and to 

 slightly ridge or hill the land at the 

 proper stages in the growth of the pota- 

 toes. In experiments conducted for ten 

 years on an average clay loam, the yield 

 was practically the same from level and 

 from ridged cultivation. 



Experiments have been conducted 

 carefully by planting potato sets in drills 

 about twenty-eight inches apart with the 

 sets a foot apart in the rows in compari- 

 son with the planting of the same amount 

 of seed in rows thirty-three inches apart 

 both ways. Considerably larger yields 

 were obtained from the closer planting. 



It is found to be a detriment to use 

 more than one set in each place, as for 

 instance, one potato set two ounces in 

 weight is likely to give a larger yield of 

 potatoes than two sets of one ounce each 

 which are planted close together. 



Some people are very particular in 

 planting cut potatoes to so place the 

 potato sets in the land that the eyes will 

 be turned upwards. The results of ex- 

 periments, however, show that it does 

 not matter whether the eves or the sur- 



