2770 



POTATO 



POTATO 



The average annual production in the United States 

 from 1881 to 1890 was 169,809,053 bushels, while the 

 yield in 1913 was 331,525,000 bushels, which sold for an 

 average farm price of 48.9 cents a bushel. New York 

 stands first in potato-production, producing 53,215,000 

 bushels of the total yield. The crop of Europe aggre- 

 gates more than the entire wheat-crop of the world. 

 The production of the European countries for 1913 was: 



3155. Potato blight. True or late blight on the left; 

 early blight on the right. 



France, 477,111,000; Austria, 424,457,000; Germany, 

 1,988,591,000; Russia, 1,274,439,000; the United 

 Kingdom, 283,912,000 bushels. In 1912 the United 

 States exported .76,382,000 bushels and imported 

 80,134,000 bushels. 



Enemies. 



The most common enemy to the potato plant, the 

 Colorado potato-bug, is easily destroyed by applica- 

 tions in a powder or in a liquid of paris green or arsenate 

 of lead to the vines when the bugs first appear. The 

 fungus, Phytophthora injestans, causes the true blight 

 (Fig. 3155), which results in potato-rot. The true 

 blight may be kept in check by frequent and thorough 

 sprayings with bordeaux mixture. It is always well 

 to incorporate arsenicals with the mixture, that any 

 remaining bugs may be destroyed. The bordeaux mix- 

 ture is also useful in protecting in part the plants from 

 the flea-beetle. Two or three applications are usually 

 made during the summer. The early blight is more com- 

 mon than the true or late blight. It causes the shrivel- 

 ing and death of the foliage (Fig. 3155). It is usually 

 the combined result of several causes, chief amongst 

 which are fungi, flea-beetle, drought. Thorough good 

 care and spraying with bordeaux mixture are the best 

 treatments. A good potato field is shown in Fig. 

 3156 (adapted from "American Agriculturist"); and 

 the picture also shows a good hand-praying rig. 



A. W. GILBERT. 



Potatoes as a market-garden or truck crop. 



The chief difference between potatoes as a field crop 

 and a market-garden or truck-farm crop is that in the 

 former case they are grown in rotation with other long- 

 season plants and consequently may occupy the ground 

 for the entire growing season, while in the latter they 

 occupy the ground only a few weeks and are usually pre- 

 ceded and followed by some early or late garden crop the 

 same year. In the North the crop is usually grown in the 

 spring and early summer, but in the South it may be 

 grown either in the early spring or late fall. The spring 

 crop is grown to supply the demand for new potatoes 

 in the early markets while prices are high, but the fall 



crop is mostly consumed locally either for table pur- 

 poses or for seed for the next spring crop. In the truck- 

 ing region of the upper South, the spring crop is planted 

 in January, February, or March and harvested in May 

 and June, and the fall crop in July or August and 

 harvested in October or November. 



The favorite Virginia rotation starts with potatoes 

 planted in February and harvested in June. Cowpeas 

 are sown immediately for a summer cover-crop; these 

 are plowed under in August as a means of improving the 

 soil, and spinach is planted in September. This crop is 

 harvested in January or February and garden peas are 

 planted in rows 5 or 6 feet apart. The peas are inter- 

 planted in late March with cucumbers. The peas are 

 harvested in April and May, and the cucumbers in 

 June and July. The ground is planted to kale in 

 August, which is harvested in midwinter and potatoes 

 planted again in February or March. A second two- 

 year rotation starts with potatoes planted in February 

 followed by cowpeas or an annual grass for forage. 

 Winter cabbage is transplanted to the field in November 

 or January. Corn is planted after the cabbage is 

 harvested in May or June. Cowpeas are planted 

 between the rows of corn at the last working. The corn- 

 stalks remain standing in the field until late fall when 

 the grain is harvested and they and the pea-vines are 

 worked into the ground to supply organic matter. 



Since earliness, productiveness, and reasonable 

 resistance to disease are the main requisites for truck- 

 farm potatoes, the varieties that meet the require- 

 ments are limited. In the South Atlantic and Gulf 

 states, Bliss Triumph is the leading variety, while in 

 the Carolinas and Virginia, Irish Cobbler is the favor- 

 ite; but in the upper Mississippi Valley, Early Ohio 

 undoubtedly is in the lead. 



Seed grown in Maine, Michigan, Wisconsin, or other 

 northern states will produce potatoes of marketable 

 size five to ten days earlier than locally grown seed. 

 Consequently truck-farmers who wish to cater to the 

 early market depend upon the northern tier of states 

 for their seed-supply; but those who wish to sell on the 

 midseason market are now largely using locally grown 

 seed. Plants from northern-grown seed suffer more 

 severely from certain diseases than do those from local 

 seed, hence the extreme earliness of the crop from the 





northern seed is, to a marked degree, compensated for 

 by the healthier vines and larger yield from local seed. 

 The seed-stock to be used in producing the home or 

 locally grown seed is obtained from the North in the 

 winter or early spring, and held in cold storage until 

 July or August, when it is planted. The tubers are 

 harvested after the vines are killed by frost in October 

 or November, and are placed in farm storage until 

 needed for planting. 



