54 POTATO DEVELOPMENT WORK IN WISCONSIN. 



the color may vary quite considerably, depending upon the age 

 of the floAver and the climatic conditions. If the weather is hot 

 and dry the color will be much less intense. The vine growth of 

 the two groups is also quite distinct. The Green Mountain makes 

 a dense bushy plant, while the Rural New Yorker is long 

 jointed, sparingly branched at first, but gradually getting denser 

 as the season advances. 



To those who are more familiar with these two groups of pota- 

 toes, there are certain tuber characteristics, such as color of skin, 

 shape of tuber, arrangement of eyes, etc. The skin of the tubers 

 of the Rural New Yorker group is a light creamy white, while 

 that of the Green. Mountain group has a light russet appearance. 



While the shape of the tubers of each of these groups varies 

 very much in different localities, the prevailing type of the Rural 

 New Yorker is round to broadly oblong flattened, and that of 

 the Green Mountain has a tendency to become distinctly flat- 

 tened. 



In the Early Rose and Early Ohio groups the relationship is 

 nfuch closer and the distinguishing characters are fewer. The 

 color of the sprouts, sterns and flowers is similar. The sprouts 

 are suffused with pink, the stems are a dark green and the flowers 

 are Avhite. The differences in the habit of growth and color of 

 foliage arc not sufficiently marked to be easily described. They 

 are differences that are apparent to the eye rather than in des- 

 criptive language. Both contain the same blood, the Early Ohio 

 being a seedling from a naturally fertilized seed ball of the Early 

 Rose. When we come to study the tubers of the two varieties, 

 differences are at once apparent. Gregory in his 1875 catalogue 

 describes the 'Early Ohio as follows : 



"This is one of the numerous seedlings of the Early Rose, but 

 while almost all of the seedlings arc so like their parent as to be 

 indistinguishable from it, the Early Ohio while in color like the 

 Early Rose, is, in shape, quite distinct, being round-oblong in- 

 stead of oval-oblong, so that side by side is readily distinguish- 

 able. Eyes about as numerous as those of the parent, while the 

 brows are rather more p imminent. ' ' 



The present strain of Early Rose is generally a deeper pink 

 than that of the Early Ohio. Two other points of difference 

 should be noted, the first being a more or less distinct flat- 

 tening of the tubers of the Early Rose, and the second, the dis- 

 tinct small cork-like dots in the skin of the Early Ohio. This lat- 

 ter characteristic is in evidence in several varieties which have 

 been introduced under other names, but which to all intents and 



