376 THE POTATO 



they should be and the potato is not as digestible. 

 The well-ripened potato cooks dry even in water 

 and crushes into a flaky, powdery mass, with the 

 starch in fine, granulated form. 



Conformation. It is only within recent years 

 that potato breeders have paid much attention to 

 the formation of the potato. The ideal potato 

 must be regular in shape, round or oval, with eyes 

 nearly flush with the surface. Large hotels and 

 restaurants are compelled to use machines for 

 paring. With the old-fashioned, irregular shaped 

 potato, the loss in paring was often equal to a third 

 of the weight of the tuber. The Mt. Sopris po- 

 tatoes can be handled very economically in a par- 

 ing machine, the loss being practically nothing 

 but the tough skin. In the matter of economy, 

 therefore, the regular conformation of the potato 

 is highly important. 



The original potatoes were found growing wild 

 in the mountain districts of North and South 

 America. In looking for ideal climatic and soil 

 conditions, therefore, we have but to study the 

 environment of the wild potato. 



An important effect of the climate is the uni- 

 formity in the quality of the product from year to 

 year. Climatic conditions in the mountain sec- 

 tions of Colorado do not apparently vary enough 

 to materially affect the quality of the crop from 

 one year to another, and the crop this year is as 

 good in quality as last year, and will be the same 

 next year. This is highly important in establish- 

 ing a commercial demand. 



My experiments in improving and developing 

 the varieties of potatoes grown on Mt. Sopris 

 Farm cover a period of about fifteen years. My 

 first work was with the Perfect Peachblow. This 



