POTATO 



POTATO 



2769 



Group 1. Cobbler. 



Tubers: Roundish; skin creamy white. Sprouts: Base, leaf- 

 scales, and tips slightly or distinctly tinged with reddish violet or 

 magenta. In many cases the color is absent. Flowers: Light rose- 

 purple; under intense heat may be almost white. 

 Group 2. JViumpA. 



Tubers: Roundish; skin creamy white, with more or less num- 

 erous splashes of red, or carmine, or solid red; maturing very early. 

 Sprouts: Base, leaf -scales, and tips more or less deeply suffused 

 with reddish violet. Flowers: Very light rose-purple. 

 Group 3. Early Michigan. 



Tubers: Oblong or elongate-flattened; skin white or creamy 

 white, occasionally suffused with pink around bud-eye cluster in 

 Early Albino Sprouts: Base light rose-purple; tips creamy or light 

 rose-purple. Flowers: White. 

 Group 4. Rose. 



Tubers: Roundish oblong to elongate-flattened or spindle- 

 shape flattened; skin flesh-colored or pink, or (in the case of the 

 White Rose) white. Sprouts: Base and internodes creamy white 

 to deep rose-lilac; leaf -scales and tips cream to rose-lilac. Flowers: 

 White in sections 1 and 2; rose-lilac in section 3. 

 Group 5. Early Ohio. 



Tubers: Round, oblong, or ovoid; skin flesh-colored or light 

 pink, with numerous small, raised, russet dots. Sprouts: Base, 

 leaf-scales, and tips more or less deeply suffused with carmine-lilac 

 to violet-lilac or magenta. Flowers: White. 

 Group 6. Hebron. 



Tubers: Elongated, somewhat flattened, sometimes spindle- 

 shaped; skin creamy white, more or less clouded with flesh-color 

 or light pink. Sprouts: Base creamy white to lilac; leaf-scales and 

 tips pure mauve to magenta, but color sometimes absent. Flowers: 

 White, 

 Group 7. Bwbank. 



Tubers: Long, cylindrical to somewhat flattened, inclined to be 

 slightly spindle-shaped; skin white to light creamy white, smooth, 

 and glistening, or deep russet in the case of section 2. Sprouts: 

 Base creamy white or faintly tinged with magenta; leaf -scales and 

 tips usually lightly tinged with magenta. Flowers: White. 

 Group 8. Green Mountain, 



Tubers: Moderately to distinctly oblong, usually broad, flat- 

 tened; skin a dull creamy or light russet color, frequently having 

 russet-brown splashes toward the seed end. Sprouts: Section 1 

 base, leaf-scales, and tips creamy white; section 2 base usually 

 white, occasionally tinged with magenta: leaf-scales and tips tinged 

 with lilac to magenta. Flowers: White. 

 Group 9. Rural. 



Tubers: Broadly round-flattened to abort-oblong, or distinctly 

 oblong-flattened; skin creamy white, or deep russet in the case of 

 section 20. Sprouts: Base dull white; leaf-scales and tips violet- 

 purple to pansy-violet. Flowers: Central portion of corolla deep 

 violet, with the purple growing lighter toward the outer portion; 

 five points of corolla white, or nearly so. 

 Group 10. PearL 



Tubers: Round-flattened to heart -shape-flattened, usually 

 heavily shouldered; skin dull white, dull russet, or brownish white 

 in section 1 or a deep bluish purple in section 2. Sprouts: Section 

 1 base, leaf-scales, and tips usually faintly tinged with lilac; sec- 

 tion 2 base, leaf -scales, and tips vinous mauve. Flowers: White, 

 Group 11. PeachbUne. 



Tubers: Round to round-flattened or round-oblong; skin creamy 

 white, splashed with crimson or solid pink: eyes usually bright 

 carmine. Includes some early-maturing varieties. Sprouts: Base, 

 leaf-scales, and tips more or less suffused with reddish violet. 

 Flowers: Purple, 



Cultivation of potatoes. 



The best soil for potatoes is a sandy loam, well 

 drained but provided with an abundant supply of water. 

 If the soil is deficient in moisture, the water from rain- 

 fall must be conserved by shallow cultivation. The 

 ground should be plowed deeply and worked thoroughly 

 so as to bring about perfect aeration. Whether the 

 plowing should be done in the fall or the spring will 

 depend largely upon the distribution of time and labor 

 which the grower has at his disposal, 

 except that hilly fields which are likely 

 to wash during winter should not be 

 plowed in the fall. 



In cutting potatoes for planting, each 

 eye should be supplied with an abun- 

 dance of food to start the young plants 

 vigorously. The pieces should be as 

 large as possible and not bear more than 

 two or three eyes. (See Fig. 3154.) 



The potato is sensitive to frost, and therefore must 

 complete its growth in most localities in three to six 

 months. The period of development may be shortened 

 by exposing the seed potatoes to the more or less direct 

 rays of the sun in a temperature of about 60 for one 

 or two weeks before planting. Some of the starch is 



3154. A good 

 cutting or seed- 

 piece. 



transformed into sugar, which causes the eyes or buds 

 to develop into miniature short tough" plants or 

 ''rosettes" which results, when the potatoes are planted, 

 in hastening growth and shortening the period between 

 planting and harvesting. Some varieties, when thus 

 treated in warm rich sandy soil, produce merchantable 

 tubers in six weeks. 



The kind and amount of fertilizer which should be 

 applied to potatoes will, of course, vary with conditions, 

 such as method of rotation, natural fertility of the land, 

 methods of growing the crop and so forth. The best 

 method of rotation is one in which a crop of clover 

 immediately precedes the potato-crop, particularly in 

 the North. This furnishes nitrogen and leaves the 

 ground in good mechanical condition. Ordinarily, pota- 

 toes require a fertilizer analyzing about 4 per cent of 

 nitrogen, 7 per cent of phosphoric acid and 10 per cent 

 of potash. If lime is applied to the land during the 

 rotation, it should follow the potatoes and not precede 

 them, as it furnishes the best conditions for the devel- 

 opment of scab, which is a serious disease. The same 

 is true of wood-ashes which, ordinarily, contain 30 per 

 cent of lime. 



Potatoes are planted either by hand or with a 

 machine. Good-sized tubers should be cut into about 

 four pieces and a single piece placed in each hill. The 

 seed-pieces should be planted soon after cutting so as 

 to prevent "bleeding" or loss of water from the cut 

 surfaces. The depth of planting will depend upon cir- 

 cumstances, but ordinarily 4 to 6 inches may be con- 

 sidered an average depth. The planting-machines are 

 usually drawn by two horses and perform several 

 operations at once. They open the furrow, distribute 

 the fertilizer, cover it slightly so that it will not come 

 into direct contact with the seed, drop the seed-pieces 

 and coyer them. Sometimes a heavy wheel, to act as a 

 roller, is attached to the rear of the machine to pack 

 the soil over the hills. By means of these machines, 

 large acreages may be planted in a short time. 



Potato fields should be given frequent and thorough 

 tillage to keep down the weeds and conserve soil 

 moisture. These cultivations should be shallow to 

 prevent injury to the roots. The soil is cultivated until 

 the plants are large enough nearly to fill the rows and 

 have begun to "set" tubers. Further tillage is likely 

 to injure the plants and reduce the yield. 



After the plants are mature, the tubers are dug 

 either by hand or with an elevator digger drawn by 

 two or more horses. 



Yields. 



The yield of potatoes to the acre in the United States 

 is meager, the average vield for the ten-year period 

 1900-1909 being 91.4 bushels. Under favorable soil 

 and climatic conditions, with rational methods of 

 procedure, 200 to 400 bushels are not uncommon, and 

 under superior conditions more than 1,000 bushels to 

 the acre have been secured. By dividing the eyes and 

 planting them in the greenhouse in the winter, and 

 after a little time re-dividing them, continuing this 

 until many plants were secured, one grower was 

 enabled to raise 2,558 pounds of potatoes in the open 

 from one pound of seed, being an increase of more than 

 2,500 fold. Two other growers secured, by similar 

 methods, 2,349 pounds and 2,118 pounds. The low 

 average yield is due, in part, to the ravages of the many 

 enemies of the potato plant, which, uncontrolled, some- 

 times destroy the crop, and usually seriously diminish 

 the yield. In the United States, the potato is not so 

 universally used or so productive as in Europe, though 

 its use as a food is steadily increasing. 



In common commercial culture, the yield as well as 

 quality may be greatly enhanced by care in selecting 

 seed. The progeny of two similar potatoes is shown in 

 Fig. 3153, showing the inherited performance of the 

 tubers. 



