POTATO. 77 
POTATO. 
It is impossible to improve a variety of potato by a 
selection of tubers. This may be demonstrated by 
planting a badly-deformed tuber; the product will show 
perfectly-formed tubers, true to the variety to which the 
deformed parent belonged. 
New varieties, therefore, can only be obtained by 
sowing seed, which is produced in the berry borne on 
the potato plant. From 100 to 300 seeds are contained 
in a single berry, all of which are likely to produce 
plants which will be entirely different from the parent; 
no two plants will be alike; dissimilarity will be shown 
not only in form but in color. It is evident, therefore, 
that the production of a new variety is a work requiring 
extreme patience, as before the discovery of one that is 
an improvement over already existing sorts, it may be 
necessary to cultivate many hundreds of seedlings. It 
was, however, by such patience and perseverence, that 
all our present valuable market varieties have originated. 
The Reverend Chauncey E. Goodrich, of Utica, N. Y., 
who originated about 1866 the king of potatoes, the 
early Rose, a seedling of the early Goodrich (also 
originated by him), certainly deserved to clear a fortune 
from it, if he did not do so. A neighbor and friend of 
his. who assisted in its introduction, did reap a small 
fortune, said to have been about $25,000 in one year, 
from its sale for seed, when it retailed at $4.00 per 
pound. After an existence of forty years, the early 
Rose continues to-day popular and unsurpassed for its 
earliness and good quality. 
It takes two years to produce full-sized potato tubers 
from seed. Starting of seed may be done early in 
spring in a hotbed, or in the house in shallow boxes 
filled with rich, light soil; in May transfer plants to 
