46 POTATO DEVELOPMENT WORK tx WISCONSIN. 



the spread of potato pests within our country as the National 

 Plant Quarantine Act does toward keeping out foreign para- 

 sites. 



There are great possibilities in the special seed trade as a pro- 

 fitable business for many of you, but there are many defects in 

 the present system of growing and selling potatoes which is fail- 

 ing to meet our needs. 



That southern growers must have northern seed is well known. 

 Some of them and some dealers, even now, think that if their seed 

 potatoes come from a northern source that is sufficient. It is not. 

 The sale for planting purposes of mixed, ungraded, unselected 

 potatoes, bought in ear lots by city buyers, has already done 

 much to injure the reputation of Wisconsin seed stock and to 

 divert the demand to other sources of supply. Scab, blackleg, 

 dry-rot, stem-blight, leaf -roll, wilt and other diseases are spread 

 every year through infected seed and the distant purchaser has 

 practically no means whereby he may be certain of obtaining a 

 safe supply. Many go or send an agent to inspect the fields 

 where the seed is being grown but this expensive precaution is 

 not sufficient to detect all diseases or to prevent substitution. 



An equally great bar to progress, inherent in our present sys- 

 tem, is that the progressive seed grower, who has produced pota- 

 toes of the highest quality, has insufficient means of convincing 

 the purchaser of the superior value of his stock, and fails to find 

 that special demand and that bonus in price which should be his 

 incentive for giving special care to seed-potato production. 



We need a system developed that will enable a seed distributor 

 or a grower's association in Colorado or Texas to order by the 

 carload or by the hundred carloads with confidence that the po- 

 tatoes delivered will not only conform to the standard grades of 

 your association, but carry also an official certificate that they 

 are true to varietal type, free from mixture with other sorts and 

 free from disease. 



We need this system developed so that the Wisconsin growers 

 or local Associations that have specialized in the production of 

 fine potatoes, may back their own guarantee with the statement 

 of an expert whom no one can question, and thereby secure a bet- 

 ter market price. 



It is with especial reference to freedom from disease that this 

 plan has been developed, and the relatively healthy conditions in 

 Wisconsin offer many advantages for beginning the work here. 



