338 FIELD AND GARDEN PRODUCTS 



tubers to the sun at harvest time is the chief factor in determining 

 their keeping qualities. In other words, it is possible to keep pota- 

 toes in the extreme South from season to season provided the tubers 

 are not exposed to the sun after being dug. They should be imme- 

 diately carried to a protected place where there is ample ventilation 

 and where they will receive only diffused light, such as a cyclone or 

 other cellar, or the basement of a house, or even where brush protec- 

 tion will prevent the sun shining directly upon them. It is, of 

 course, necessary that the tubers be well matured before being dug 

 and that they be the product of disease-free plants. Plants killed by 

 blight yield tubers which seldom keep well even under the most 

 favorable conditions. 



Methods of Securing Extra-Early Potatoes. One of the most 

 important factors having an influence on the profitableness of market 

 garden crops is that of earliness. A difference of two or three days 

 or a week in placing a crop on the market often makes the difference 

 between profit and loss, and the prices obtained for extra-early crops 

 have stimulated cultural experiments with every kind of fruit and 

 vegetables. Some interesting results along this line with potatoes 

 have recently been reported by the Kansas and Rhode Island sta- 

 tions. At the Kansas Station seed tubers of four different varieties 

 of medium-sized potatoes were placed in shallow boxes with the seed 

 ends up in February. They were packed in sand, leaving the upper 

 fourth of the tubers exposed, and the boxes were placed in a room 

 with rather subdued light, having a temperature of 50 to 60 F. 

 Vigorous sprouts soon pushed from the exposed eyes. The whole 

 potatoes were planted in furrows in March in the same position they 

 occupied in the boxes. The same varieties of potatoes taken from 

 a storage cellar were planted in parallel rows. The sand-sprouted 

 potatoes took the lead from the start in vigor and strength of top 

 and produced potatoes the first of June, a week earlier than the 

 storage-cellar potatoes. At the final digging they showed better 

 potatoes and gave a 10 per cent larger total yield. In other experi- 

 ment part of the potatoes was treated the same as in the first test, 

 except that the sand was kept moistened, and the other part was 

 placed in open boxes and kept in a light room having a temperature 

 of 50 F. The tubers placed in sand developed strong sprouts and 

 nearly all rooted. When planted in the field they outstripped both 

 the tubers sprouted in open boxes and the storage-cellar tubers in 

 vigor of growth. The tubers started in ihe open boxes gave earlier 

 yields than were obtained from the storage-cellar tubers, but not as 

 early as the tubers sprouted in moist sand. The tubers sprouted in 

 moist sand produced table potatoes from 7 to 10 days earlier than the 

 storage-cellar seed. 



At the Rhode Island Station medium-sized whole potatoes 

 sprouted on racks, in a fairly warm and light room, gave a 27 per 

 cent better yield at the first digging than potatoes kept in a cold 

 cellar until planting time ; and this was increased to 40 per cent at 

 the final digging. The percentage of large tubers was also greater at 

 each digging with the sprouted tubers. The results of these cxperi- 



