IRISH POTATOES 247 



DO POTATOES RUN OUT? 



Undoubtedly under careless culture a variety may become, in a particu- 

 lar place and with a particular grower, inferior in quality and productive- 

 ness. But we cannot agree that a good variety of potato cannot be kept up 

 to the standard and even improved by the proper selection of seed potatoes. 

 Farmers have long discussed the question whether small potatoes are as good 

 as large ones for planting, and many seem to forget that the potato tuber is 

 not properly a seed at all, but an underground development of the stem of 

 the plant. If a planter chooses a potato simply because it is large and rejects 

 another simply because it is small, he shows that he has not studied the laws 

 of plant life. Planting large potatoes for no other reason than size will 

 probably result in the planter getting larger than if he planted small ones 

 simply because they were small and hence unsalable. But he is making the 

 same mistake that he would in selecting any plant merely for the size of the 

 product; he may get size at the expense of other desirable characters in the 

 plant. We want good sized potatoes of course, but we want large crops of 

 good sized ones, and to get both we want the best developed plant for the 

 purpose. Conditions may make the potatoes in a hill, the plant of which 

 has the desirable character of vigor and productiveness, small. But these 

 small ones have a tendency to inherit the productive character of the plant 

 and would make valuable seed stock for planting. On the other hand a large 

 and handsome potato or two may be the entire crop on a plant with rather 

 inferior character, and which simply formed one or two potatoes. These 

 would inherit a tendency to reproduce similar conditions. Hence in the sav- 

 ing of potatoes for seed, the real student-farmer, who is ever on the lookout 

 for desirable variations in the plants he grows, will study the growing plant; 

 and will go through and mark those having the sturdy and well developed 

 plant he seeks to perpetuate. Then, at digging time, he will study the re- 

 sults in each case, and will select from these the ones that have the greater 

 number of desirable characters in the crop ; those that make not only 

 the greatest number of tubers but the greatest number in proportion of 

 marketable tubers. Thus year after year he will be devloping and perpetu- 

 ating the most desirable characters. His potatoes will never "run out" 

 while those of the man who always plants small potatoes because they are 

 small and unsalable and the man who always plants large ones simply be- 

 cause of their size, may find a deterioration in the vigor and productive 

 capacity of his plants and will conclude that potatoes run out. There is no 

 doubt that the constant planting of culls will more rapidly run out the crop 

 than the constant planting of only the large ones. 



