POTATO. 77 



POTATO. 



It is impossible to improve a variety of potato by a 

 selection of tubers. This may be demonstrated by 

 planting a badly-deformed tuber; the product will show 

 perfectly -formed tubers, true to the variety to which the 

 deformed parent belonged. 



New varieties, therefore, can only be obtained by 

 sowing seed, which is produced in the berry borne on 

 the potato plant. From 100 to 300 seeds are contained 

 in a single berry, all of which are likely to produce 

 plants which will be entirely different from the parent; 

 no two plants will be alike; dissimilarity will be shown 

 not only in form but in color. It is evident, therefore, 

 that the production of a new variety is a work requiring 

 extreme patience, as before the discovery of one that is 

 an improvement over already existing sorts, it may be 

 necessary to cultivate many hundreds of seedlings. It 

 was, however, by such patience and perseverence, that 

 all our present valuable market varieties have originated. 

 The Reverend Chauncey E. Goodrich, of Utica, N. Y., 

 who originated about 1866 the king of potatoes, the 

 early Rose, a seedling of the early Goodrich (also 

 originated by him), certainly deserved to clear a fortune 

 from it, if he did not do so. A neighbor and friend of 

 his. who assisted in its introduction, did reap a small 

 fortune, said to have been about $25,000 in one year, 

 from its sale for seed, when it retailed at $4.00 per 

 pound. After an existence of forty years, the early 

 Rose continues to-day popular and unsurpassed for its 

 earliness and good quality. 



It takes two years to produce full-sized potato tubers 

 from seed. Starting of seed may be done early in 

 spring in a hotbed, or in the house in shallow boxes 

 filled with rich, light soil; in May transfer plants to 



