CHAPTER VI 



CONSIDERATIONS OF SEED 



Source of Seed. — It is often advised that potatoes 

 be obtained from another soil and from a more north- 

 ern latitude if vigor and dela3'ed maturity are desired, 

 and from a southern latitude if earliness is sought; 

 but, generally speaking, potatoes bred for a distrid; do 

 better there than elsewhere. Few European varieties 

 of potatoes are worth growing in America, and any in- 

 trodudlion requires acclimatization and seledlion. In 

 England we noted that northern grown Scotch seed 

 did not yield so heavily the first year as the second, 

 and the same was true of Maine grown seed in the 

 Hudson River valley. Brooks,' of Massachusetts, 

 and Bishop, of Maryland, report exadlly to the con- 

 trary, although in a subsequent year Brinkley,^ at the 

 same station, obtained higher yields from home grown 

 seed. The Rhode Island Station' found that varieties 

 which produced large yields gave increasing yields the 

 longer the seed tubers had been home grown, and that 

 those which produced smaller jdelds gave diminishing 

 yields the longer the seed had been home grown. At 

 lyouisiana Station* home grown seed was equal to, if 

 not better, than western, or eastern grown or Boston 

 seed. At Georgia Station" southern grown seed did 



' Mass. (Hatch) Report, 1896, pp. 25, 26. '^ Md. Bui. 17, p. 257. 



' R. I. Report, 1897, p. 380. * I,a. Sacond Series Bui. 4, p. 77. 



•Ga. Bui. 17, p. 166. 



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