POTATOES * 
Epwarp van Austyyxe, Kinpernoox, N. Y, 
Director of Farmers’ Institutes 
No cne can lay down a set of rules 
which another may follow to the letter, 
and thereby insure a crop of potatoes 
or of anything else, for there is always 
to be taken into account differences in 
soils, as well as climatic and weather 
conditions, which prevent any hard and 
fast adherence to another’s methods. 
Nevertheless, there are with the potato 
crop, as with every other, certain fixed 
laws which always obtain, and he who works in harmony with 
them, rather than from custom or tradition, works with nature, 
and is more likely to succeed. 
Therefore, in calling attention to some of the principal laws 
which govern the potato — laws which are the same everywhere — 
I aim rather to help someone to secure a crop with a greater de- 
gree of certainty, than to give methods, which apart from the 
underlying principle may be of little value. 
First, then, let us look at the construction of the tuber. It is 
made up, in round numbers, of 75 per cent. water and 25 per 
cent. starch. The water — without which in sufficient quantities, 
and at the right time, it is impossible to obtain a maximum crop — 
must, of course, come from the soil. The starch is formed by the 
action of the sunlight through the green leaf. Whatever, then, 
tends to promote a vigorous growth, and maintain and preserve the 
leaf surface at its best throughout the entire period of the plant’s 
life, will insure the development of the greatest amount of starch, 
without which no potato can attain full size or highest quality. 
How shall we secure the requisite water supply? If we could 
control the rainfall, the problem would be an easy one. Unfortu- 
nately —or fortunately in nine years out of ten there is not 
* Revised from Report of Bureau of Farmers’ Institutes, 1910. Write for 
The Potato Industry in New York Statc, Bulletin 57, Department of Agriculture. 
[1374] 
