POTATO DEVELOPMENT WORK IN WISCONSIN. 



45 



graphically and commercially you are in close touch with the 

 east, and south and the west, and finally, you have the highest 

 type of leadership at your command in the officers of your associ- 

 ation a?id their colleagues at the University and Experiment Sta- 

 tion. 



Those who are watching 

 this association from outside 

 Wisconsin expect to see you 

 succeed in your aims. It is 

 expected of you that you will 

 increase your yield per acre 

 from its present low average 

 of about 92 bushels to perhaps 

 double that figure, that you 

 will find the varieties best 

 adapted to your conditions 

 and keep them pure, elimi- 

 note mixtures of varieties 

 from commercial shipments, 

 through community efforts 

 in establishing and enforcing 

 standard grades, and develop 

 closer relations between your- 

 selves as producers, and the w. A. ORTON. 

 consumers of your potatoes, 

 to your mutual benefit. 



]>ut in doing this, we hope that your efforts will be along lines 

 that can be correlated in a practical way with the needs of other 

 sections. When we said that other potato districts were depen- 

 dent on you, it was with primary reference to their need for good 

 seed stock, pure, vigorous and healthy. These things mean much 

 to the southern and western grower. Prof. Stuart will tell you 

 of the differences in vigor and productiveness between selected 

 and run-out strains, of the losses due to admixtures of late with 

 early varieties, and of the proper methods of developing and 

 maintaining the best stocks. Plant diseases also, are more destruc- 

 tive in many other states than in Wisconsin. Many of the worst- 

 are carried in the seed potatoes from farm to farm and from 

 state to state. There is need for special attention to the lessen- 

 ing of this danger, and we believe that a plan for inspection and 

 certification can be worked out that will do as much to control 



Washington, D. C., U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture. 



