BREEDING 23 



are used. However, after the first or second year from the 

 seed, large vines do not indicate that such excessive top 

 growth is opposed to the formation of tubers, as some be- 

 lieve. I find that large vines make large tubers and a great- 

 er quantity. But if a so-called "run out" or "stray" is 

 found, it must be noted that the vine is overgrown and very 

 few tubers are to be found. 



In selecting the seedlings from year to year, always 

 choose the one nearest your own ideal of a perfect potato. 

 Keeping this in mind, select and plant for eight years; or, 

 if planted twice a year, for four years. By this time your 

 potato will have reached a true-to-type one. 



The seedlings must be grown several years in a com- 

 parison test ; that is to determine the best type before a def- 

 inite selection is made. The discovery of a way in which 

 potatoes are bred up to a pure strain within less time is of 

 great advantage to the potato world. 



By the use of the potato cuttings from seedling vines 

 making four crops in one season, then the tubers produced 

 used for early spring and fall planting for the next two 

 years, the development would be shortened. 



In comparing and selecting the seedlings each year the 

 qualities to be kept in mind, in addition to productiveness 

 and uniformity in size and shape, are : 



1st. The largest seedling should be selected each year. 

 By so doing the potato will have reached its highest state 

 of development within a shorter period or will be a larger 

 potato when developed, which is a quality the people of Cal- 

 ifornia want. 



2nd. Select those that are hardiest, consequently less 

 liable to disease. The vigorous potatoes are more drought or 

 disease resistant, and by the selection of such progeny the 

 breeder is always assured a potato of good quality and yield. 



