VEGETABLE GROWING 35 



wish to plant an early spring crop of potatoes, and I fear the fresh 

 manure will cause disease. 



You can probably get all the coarse stuff free by rolling and disk- 

 ing more cheaply than in any other way, but we would not fear for 

 potatoes the amount of well scattered manure that you will get from 

 feeding down. We would put on a good bunch of stock and hurry it 

 off so as to plow under the trash as soon as possible and plow again for 

 potato planting. 



Potatoes "Going to Tops." 



Why do some potatoes all grow to top and have a great number of 

 diminutive potatoes that also sprout and grow more small potatoes? 



Excessive top growth of potatoes is generally due to over-stimu- 

 lation of the plant during its early life. This may be due to excessive 

 use of stable manure and sometimes to the lack of adaptation of the 

 variety to the local conditions. Where this excessive top growth occurs 

 small potatoes form but are not adequately enlarged by return flow from 

 the top in process of maturing because the plant starting vigorously 

 with too much moisture became afterwards too dry and then starting 

 again caused the small potatoes, after becoming abnormally checked in 

 growth, to break out with secondary tubers. 



Growing Seed Potatoes. 



How are good seed potatoes grown? 



After you get good clean seed potatoes and land free from eelworms 

 or other potato pests, the way to grow good seed potatoes is exactly the 

 same as growing good potatoes for eating; by good prior tillage, suf- 

 ficiently deep planting, constant cultivation to retain regular moisture in 

 the soil (and by irrigation during the normal top growth if necessary) ; 

 then when tubers are well formed, stop irrigation but cultivate to pre- 

 vent the soil from too sudden drying out and to keep the tuber well 

 covered from exposure to the sun and the potato moth until it is fully 

 matured. Select seed potatoes not alone by suitable size and form of 

 individual tubers, but from hills which bear the greatest number of good 

 tubers. It should be a question of hill selection as well as tuber selec- 

 tion when one is working on a scale which allows him to exercise this 

 greater effort. Of course too little attention is paid to such careful se- 

 lection for seed purposes. We have sometimes seen potatoes sold for 

 seed potatoes which were not respectable pig feed. 



Blackening of Potatoes. 



/ planted potatoes last year, but they were small and some of them 

 were black in the center, though they looked all right on the outside. 

 What is the best kind to plant? 



This may be fusarium wilt. If so, some that are less affected will 

 show only a dark brown circle a little way from the skin when the seed 



