6 MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



Rain interfered with our plans but one day and then we at- 

 tempted to work for we had crossed the whole state of Minne- 

 sota, to the edge of North Dakota to have a single day in this 

 region. 



Previous to this trip I thought I had some pretty well defined 

 ideas as to what constitutes a good potato soil. Before I got 

 back I decided that I knew nothing about it. In Michigan the 

 Danish farmers were growing excellent crops of potatoes, with 

 the help of clover and cows, on what was once largely pure 

 sand, and formerly covered with white pine — land so poor that 

 American farmers would not settle on it. In certain parts of 

 central Wisconsin the Germans and Swedes were doing even 

 better with what at first appeared to be a somewhat similar 

 soil. When we reached the famous Red River Valley of 

 northern Minnesota on the rainy day mentioned we found the 

 potato soil was a sticky, black prairie gumbo, so sticky and slip- 

 pery, in fact, that after the first mile or two with the automo- 

 bile provided, some of us refused to ride farther and got out 

 and walked the rest of the way in the rain. 



In Idaho they are growing potatoes, second to none in the 

 country, without fertilizer on land which, before the water was 

 turned on, would grow nothing but sage brush and jack rabbits. 

 Much of this soil came from disintegrated lava, for underlying 

 this section is solid lava rock at a depth of from 3 to 30 feet. 

 On the so-called tule lands of the deltas of the San Joaquin 

 and Sacramento river valleys in California, Japanese and 

 Chinese are growing thousands of acres of potatoes, also with- 

 out fertilization, the yields on the best of which running from 

 350 to 550 bushels per acre. . . 



In describing our trip I shall omit all reference to conditions 

 in our own state which are familiar to you, except to describe 

 certain phases of the potato disease situation which apply to 

 Maine or are related to what I shall discuss farther on. 



We have recently come to the conclusion that in Maine we 

 have entirely overlooked in the past one type of disease which 

 sometimes does considerable damage in the southern and central 

 parts of the state but which, apparently, is of less importance in 

 Aroostook county. I refer to the so-called Rhizoctonia disease 

 of the potato. The name comes from the fungus which is said 

 to cause it, but it is sometimes spoken of as the "little potato 



