UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 

 BULLETIN No. 195 



Contribution from the Burean of Plant Industry 

 WILLIAM A. TAYLOR, Chief 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



May 20, 1S15 



POTATO BREEDING AND SELECTION 



By 



WILLIAM STUART, Horticulturist, 

 Office of Horticultural and Pomological Investigations 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 1 



Potato Breeding and Selection Defined . 2 



Limitatior.s of Breeding and Selection . 2 



Early Attempts at Potato Breeding ... 3 



Technique of Potato Breeding .... 6 



Pollen-Producing Varieties 9 



Results of Ezperimsntal Crossing ... 11 



Reciprocal Crosses 15 



Varietal Affinity 16 



Page 

 17 



Potato Crosses JVf ade in 1910 ... 

 Method of Growing and Testing Seed- 

 lings 18 



Seedling Inheritance in the Fi Generation 20 



Potato Improvement by Selection ... 21 



Early Selection Experiments 22 



Selection Methods 27 



Departmental Investigations 29 



Summary 35 



WASHINGTON 

 GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 



I9IS 



