892 



Experiments in Potato Growing. [feb., 



EXPERIMENTS IN POTATO GROWING. 

 Henry Henshaw, 



Farm Superintendent , Department of Agriculture, Cambridge. University. 



Potatoes are an important crop in most of the counties 

 associated with the Department of Agriculture of the Univer- 

 sity of Cambridge; in certain of the districts, indeed, the 

 chief farm crop. Part of the University farm at Impington 

 has therefore been devoted to potato growing for the purpose 

 of furnishing reliable information on the merits of new 

 varieties and other important features of their cultivation. 



As the vigour and cropping powers of a potato appear 

 to decrease after comparatively few years' growth, and its 

 susceptibility to disease to increase, it is necessary to provide 

 growers with new and more vigorous sorts. The most 

 important point in successful potato cultivation is to secure 

 the best variety for the district, and the results of the experi- 

 ments to be described were mainly undertaken for the purpose 

 of testing varieties. Variety testing in the case of the 

 potato crop is required, not only because of the many new 

 varieties which are constantly appearing, but also because 

 the best sort is more a question of locality than is the case 

 with other farm crops. Tests made in other parts of England 

 do not serve the purpose of farmers in East Anglia. Some 

 varieties certainly do well in any district, but there are many 

 kinds which are only profitable under certain conditions. 

 The summary in the following pages states the main results 

 of experiments carried out at Impington and in the neigh- 

 bouring counties from the year 1902 up to and including the 

 year 1910. 



Methods adopted in these Experiments. — It is desirable in 

 the first place to explain how these experiments were con- 

 ducted. The potato is a very satisfactory crop to experi- 

 ment with if proper precautions are taken, but there are few 

 crops from which such misleading figures may be obtained 

 if these precautions are omitted. The results referred to 

 here were obtained on small plots varying from Jth to T ijyth 

 of an acre in size. In most cases, however, they were T Vth 

 of an acre, generally 58 ft. in length and 18 ft. in width. The 

 plots were always laid out in duplicate as a guard against 



