POTATO BREEDING AND SELECTION. 3 



In the case of selection, the limitations are those fouad within the 

 varieties themselves. 



Potato breeding, therefore, may be said to involve the raising of 

 seedlings from hand-poUinated or self -fertilized seeds. It becomes 

 intelligent breeding only when it deals with seedlings produced from 

 hand cross-pollinated flowers protected from insects and borne on 

 plants possessing certain characteristics which it seems desirable to 

 combine in the resultant progeny. In other words, intelhgent plant 

 breeding requires the same careful consideration of the parent plants 

 that is given to the selection of the male and female by the progres- 

 sive up-to-date animal breeder. Selection plays a very important 

 role in this kind of breeding. 



EARLY ATTEMPTS AT POTATO BREEDING. 



The first serious attempt at potato breeding m the United States 

 of which the -writer has any knowledge was made by Rev. C. E. 

 Goodrich, of Utica, N. Y.^ The incentive for this effort was furnished 

 by the widespread occurrence of potato blight, both in this country 

 and abroad, during the period between 1840 and 1847, and the con- 

 sequent almost total failure of the potato crop in some seasons. In 

 the opinion of Mr. Goodrich the apparent greater susceptibility of 

 the vines and tubers to this disease was largely due to the lessened 

 vigor of the plants, induced by long-continued asexual reproduction. 

 He conceived the idea that the only way in which the vigor of the 

 potaco plants could be restored was by sexual reproduction. Through 

 the kindly offices of the American consul at Panama a number of 

 promising South American varieties of potatoes, presumably from 

 Peru and Chile, W€'re secured. A seedlmg grown from one of these 

 plants in 1853, descriptively known as the Rough Purple Chili, was 

 introduced into cultivation in 1857 under the name of Garnet Chili. 

 Other introductions from the seed of these importations were the 

 Amazon, Calico, Cuzco, Central City, New Kidney, Coppermine, Pink- 

 eye, Rusty Coat, etc. Between the years 1849 and 1856 Goodrich 

 raised 8,400 seedlings.^ 



Th<' importance of Goodrich's work to the potato industry of this 

 country lies not so much in the n(>w varieties which he himself intro- 

 duced aa ui the imp«!tus he imparled to plant br(H>,duig and in the 

 efforts of thos<! who followed in his footsteps. Much of this zeal was 

 the result of the origination and intnKkiction of the Karly Rose, a 

 variety which was produced in 18G1 by Alhvvt Bn^see, of llubbunl- 

 ttm, \'t., from a naturally fe-rtilized seed ball of Goochich's Ganiet 

 Cliili. Thus then! was obtaineni in the second generation from the 

 importttd South American potato, (h^scribed by Gcxxliich as the 



' Ooorlrlch, C. E. UaLslnif wedllng potatoes, /n The Horticulturist, n. a., v, 7, 1867, p. 273-276. 

 » <Joo<lrlch, C. E. Op. cit., p. 270. 



