POTATOES * 



Edward van Alstyne, Kixderhook, N. Y. 



Director of Farmers' Institutes 



Xo cue 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 he 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 he 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 State, Bulletin 57, Department of Agriculture. 



[1371] 



