THE POTATO 19 



very unfavorable conditions. The potato cul- 

 turists of Europe have originated and adopted 

 cultural methods and moulded varieties to con- 

 ditions in a most scientific, skilful, and practical 

 way. Potatoes are grown successfully on shifting 

 sands so light that they are thatched with straw 

 to keep the soil from blowing away, and on clay 

 lands so heavy that they require close tiling 

 (underdraining with tiles forty to sixty feet apart) 

 and the most careful, watchful cultural methods. 



It is true that there is no place in the temperate 

 zone where potatoes cannot be grown by adding 

 artificially to the natural conditions those things 

 necessary to make the soil and climate approach the 

 natural environment. It necessarily follows, how- 

 ever, that in selecting a place to grow potatoes under 

 ideal conditions some of the mountain valleys of 

 the Rocky or Andes Mountains would be chosen, 

 other things being equal. Latitude and altitude 

 are synonomous as far as they relate to potato 

 conditions when other requirements are the same. 

 There are good districts north at low altitudes 

 and good potatoes grown at high altitudes south 

 or at low altitudes south at sea level where nights 

 are cool and the air is moist. 



Maine, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, and 

 Minnesota are examples of low altitudes north, 

 the Snake River country, the Greeley and Car- 

 bondale districts of high altitudes south, and 

 Santa Rosa, Lompoc, and Salinas on the Pacific 

 coast in California, and southern Great Britain 

 and the Channel Islands of low altitudes at sea 

 level. 



These statements as regards north and south 

 refer to the north temperate zone and would be 

 reversed for the south temperate zone. 



