THE POTATO IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, 



By CECIL TICE, B.S.A., SOIL AND CROP INSTBUCTOB. 



INTRODUCTION. 



HE potato is one of the most widely cultivated of all agricultural plants 

 and few crops are of more general interest. As human food potatoes 

 rank second only to wheat. The potato-crop is one of the chief sources 

 of food the year round, and also a very valuable cash crop to the 

 settler or the man with small capital. Almost every farmer in this 

 Province plants potatoes, and a very large number of the citizens of our towns and 

 villages grow potatoes in their gardens. Any improvement in the crop is therefore 

 of interest to both large and small growers, and it is with this object in mind that 

 this bulletin is published. 



Fig. 1. An exhibit of British Columbia potatoes (original). 



In the Province of British Columbia the climate is ideal for potato-growing, the 

 Colorado potato-beetle is so far unknown, and some of the more serious potato- 

 diseases, such as leaf-roll and mosaic, are very little in evidence. For this reason 

 it behoves the growers not only to take advantage of those conditions with which 

 nature has been so good as to endow us, but to couple with them better cultural 

 methods, improved selection of seed, and a more complete control of such diseases as 

 late blight, Rhizoctonia, and Fusarium wilt. 



HISTORY. 



The potato is a native of the mountainous districts of Chile and Pem, where it 

 is still to be found growing wild. It has been proved beyond doubt that at the time 

 of the discovery of America the cultivation of potatoes was practised with every 

 appearance of ancient usage in the temperate regions of South America, extending 

 from Chile to New Granada, at altitudes varying with the latitudes. This appears 

 from the testimony of all the early travellers. 

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