244 



POTATOES 



United States. The total yearly production is about five 

 billion bushels. See Appendix A, Chart IV, page 468. 



179. The potato is a store of starchy food put away in a 

 modified stem, or tuber. It is not a root. This has been ex- 

 plained in Chapter XII. The "eyes" are buds on the 

 enlarged stem. A cross section of the tuber shows the 

 same arrangement of bark and pith that the stem has above 



COVERING POTATOES WITH A TWO-WINGED PLOW. 



ground. And the tubers do not have the small rootlets 

 that can be found on the true potato roots. 



180. Variety. About the first thing to be decided by 

 the potato raiser is the variety of potato that he shall grow. 

 Several matters are concerned in this decision, such as 

 yield, resistance to disease, cooking qualities, shape, ej r es, 

 leaves, color, and the practice of neighbors. 



a. Early varieties usually yield less than late ones. 



b. Certain varieties, like the Carmen No. 3 and the Rural 

 New Yorker, have great power to resist common diseases. 



