and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society.— Oct., 1910, 379 



CULTIVATION OF POTATOES. 



Lecture Dehvekei # before the Nilgiri 

 Agri-Hortioultural Society. 



Oli Friday afternoon Mr George Oakes deli- 

 vered the following lecture on Potatoes before 

 a good audience, under the auspices of the Nil- 

 giri Agri-Horticultural Society. The chair on 

 the occasion was occupied by Mr L Davidson, 

 i.O,S., Collector of the Mlgiris : — 



" I do not propose this afternoon entering 

 into the history of this useful and valuable 

 tuber, but will rather confine myself to its prac- 

 tical cultivation on these Hills and place at the 

 disposal of the members of this Society iny ex- 

 perience in its cultivation. I would not advise 

 the implicit following of my system, for there 

 are great differences indeed, elevation, rainfall 

 soil, and aspect, and the would-be successful 

 grower must take all these into consideration 

 and base his operations accordingly. 



I think that most of the failures in the culti- 

 vation of potatoes on these hills are due to 

 planting in partially drained swamps. The 

 reason generally given for so doing is that as 

 the seed is planted in the dry weather, and 

 immediately the frost ceases, there is sufficient 

 moisture in the soil to mature the crop, but 

 as a rule we get heavy showers late in March 

 which saturate the soil, and in many cases 

 make it absolutely water logged, with the re- 

 sult that the crop becomes badly attacked with 

 one of the many fungoid diseases so prevaleut 

 in all the solauacas. I have no doubt that 

 many of you have noticed cases of cultivation 

 in swamp land, where it has been extended on 

 to the higher ground surrounding, and have 

 compared the clean stout growth with the weak 

 sappy growth of the haulm in the lower por- 

 tions. This I think is solely due to the better 

 drainage and warmth of the soil, and these 

 higher margins are always the most disease 

 resistant aud yield the best cooking potatoes, 

 though grown from the same seed, and having 

 the same amount of manure and cultivation. 



Now as to seed. Potatoes are fouud to become 

 Jess resistant to disease the longer they have 

 been in cultivation, and, therefore, a good new 

 strain is to be preferred to an old stock, but most 

 of the new varieties are delicate, and if planted 

 in infected land seem more susceptible than 

 some of the old established varieties. 



Too much stress cannot be laid on the import- 

 ance of change of seed. New seed is more dis- 

 ease resisting thau seed grown on the same land 

 year after year. Larger crops aud less disease 

 follow the frequent change of seed. The benefit 

 is evidently patent to the native cultivator, who 

 always endeavours, if he can possibly afford it, 

 to get his seed from Bangalore, The best size 

 for seed is \\ to 2 inches and weighing 1J to 2? 

 ounces. Of Jate years considerable quantities of 

 seed have been imported from England and 

 Australia both by Government and Europeans 

 interested in Potato cultivation. Mr. W Francis, 

 late Collector of this District, was very koou 

 on improving the hill grown potato, which had 

 fallen off in quality during the last decade, and 



was able to get a grant from Government to 

 import two tons of good seed from Australia. 



1 had the honour of growing the seed for Gov- 

 ernment, tho particulars of which I will give 

 you later on. 



Of the many varieties of potatoes it is hard to 

 recommend any particular one, but personally I 

 prefer " Up-to-date." It is known the world 

 over, and generally tops the list in any records 

 for yield, and freedom from disease. It is a 

 smooth skinned kidney potatoo, and bears a nice 

 even sized tubor — no "monstrosities" and very 

 few " marbles." 



The storing of seod has, until the last two 

 years, received little or no attention. The old 

 system was to keep it in the bags often in a 

 damp dark godown, until the eyes (which were 

 always beautifully blanched) were an inch or so 

 long, whoti they were emptied into baskets, 

 having half the eyes broken off in the operation, 

 and at once planted. 



The new system largely adopted by English 

 growers is to place the seel in shallow boxes 

 which aro stored in tiers in a light airy shed or 

 building ; this leads to greening of the tubers 

 and the development of short sturdy green 

 sprouts. In 1903 experiments were carried out 

 at Garforth with tho result that an advantage of— 

 two tons per acre resulted from boxed seed and 

 the Irish Department of Agriculture conducted 

 a series of experiments with greened seed which 

 showed an increase of 2 tons 13 cwt. per acre, so 

 that though a little troublesome it repays the 

 cost. I use on the Downham farm kerosine cases 

 sawn in half, the two sides are sawn into battens 

 and nailed on an inch apart, each half is fitted 

 with a three-inch leg on the inside, so that the 

 trays rest one above the other three inches 

 apart, which allows free circulation of air and 

 light. An advantage iu boxing is that all tubers 

 showing any sign disease can be rejected when 

 filling, and another advantage is that the trays 

 can be carried straight out to the field 

 without any damage to the eyes. As each 

 tray is filled it receives a dusting of equal 

 parts of flowers of sulphur and ashes. It 

 " Scab " is noticed the seed may be immersed 

 in a solution of commercial Formalin, one 

 pint mixed with 30 gallons of water, and the 

 seed may then be used without the slightest 

 fear of the disease spreading. The disease is 

 confined to the surface of the tuber, and the 

 quality of the potato is not in th9 least impaired 

 for eating. 



Soil. — A nice friable loam well worked to a 

 depth of 18 inches is the best, but on these hills 

 it is most difficult to find, say a 5 acre block of 

 this, or any other soil, so each oultivator must 

 make the best of his land, but I will say that the 

 worst soil for the potato is the cold sticky clay 

 common in many parts and this requires very 

 expensive treatment for some years before it is 

 fit to grow good potatoes, heavy dressings of long 

 manure, ashes, or even paring and bumiug be- 

 ing necessary. 



Sowing. — This as a rule does not receive the 

 attention it merits. Tho usual system is as 

 follows. The ground is dug over in December 

 or January in as large pieces as possible but 

 seldom deeper than 6 or 8 inches. It is left for 



