POTATO 207 



POTATO (Solantum tuberosum), often called White, 

 Common, or Irish Potato, is grown for its root-enlarge- 

 ments, or tubers. Although unknown to civilization 

 until the sixteenth century, the potato is now one of 

 the most important crops in the world. A perennial 

 plant in its native valleys of Mexico and South America, 

 it is grown as an annual, being tender to frost ; the 

 tubers are injured by freezing. Success with the potato 

 requires several proper conditions, the chief being the 

 soil and its preparation, the seed, the culture, and the 

 means taken to check disease and kill pests. The soil 

 should be neither dry nor wet; it should not be infes- 

 ted with scab, for which reason also it should not have 

 been recently dressed with fresh manure ; it should be 

 rich. The seed should be good, preferably northern- 

 grown, from the most vigorous-growing plants and free 

 from scab. Culture should begin early and not cease 

 until the plants shade the ground. Early and repeated 

 spraying is necessary to ward off blight and insects. 

 Careless, ignorant, or haphazard methods, so usual with 

 our farmers, are fortunate if they bring success, and the 

 amateur, well read in experiment-station literature, can 

 often beat the farmer at his own game. At the same 

 time experience is necessary for steady success with 

 potatoes, and knowledge of the fertilizing requirements 

 of each individual plot is needed to produce good 

 results economically. While the following advice is for 

 garden rather than farm conditions, its lessons are 



