THE POTATO 465 



sells for more than plowed or arable land, and it is 

 quite impossible to lease it for the purpose of 

 breaking it up. They run six 1,200-pound bul- 

 locks to four acres, always give them a bit of oil 

 cake, and never graze too close. 



The older Mr. Dennis tells me that their suc- 

 cess, prosperity, and accumulations are all directly 

 due to potato growing, and corroborates the state- 

 ment that I have made continuously whenever I 

 talk potatoes, that potato growing when given 

 proper attention returns more revenue for capital 

 and labor invested than any other crop. 



The Lincolnshire district has used whole seed 

 potatoes for upward of forty years, and their 

 prosperity is largely due to this using of good, 

 sound whole seed, as against cutting the tubers for 

 seed pieces. 



Dennis and Sons are also the pioneers in the 

 most successful methods of storing their seed po- 

 tatoes. They use glass storehouses, and have 

 five on their farms. They are 160 x 24 feet and 

 the walls are twelve feet high. The lower six feet 

 of wall is of brick, and the upper six of glass. The 

 roof is all glass. They give the appearance of 

 conservatories or greenhouses. They cost $2,250 

 each and store 200 tons of seed potatoes in crates, 

 giving a total storage capacity of 1,000 tons 

 annually. The balance of their seed stocks is 

 shipped from the north of Scotland. They are 

 large importers of seed. 



Mr. Dennis says that no matter how perfect 

 every condition of potato work is made, if seed 

 stock is not perfect, of high germinating power, 

 free from disease, and planted uncut, the grower 

 will lose. 



Their home-grown seed is one and three fourths 



