The Evolution of a Potato Seed-Ball 
A customer from Pennsylvania paid us a visit. He raised the question as to how our new 
varieties of potatoes were obtained. We showed him some seed balls saved, ready to plant this spring, 
then showed him our stock of about 200 seedlings ranging from one to four years old. He remarked that 
while he had “farmed” his entire life and had grown lots of potatoes, he never understood how new 
potatoes were produced. For the benefit of others who may be like our Pennsylvania friend, we have 
photographed several of our seedlings now under trial. These photographs are here reproduced and explained. 
“1st” in the above picture represents the first year and shows in the foreground the fine seeds spread on a piece of paper. These 
seeds are smooth, hard and flat, and not quite as large as a tomato seed. Back of these seeds are the potato balls, or apples, which 
are withered from wintering but contain the seeds. These seed balls when gathered in the fall are like a small green tomato. 
Sometimes the seed is sown in hotbeds and transplanted but in our light warm soil in Irondequoit we get splendid results in the open. 
“2nd” shows the second year in the life of the potato. In this view the camera shows you the shape and not the color. In this 
group we have round, long, and rough shaped little 
potatoes running in size from a large bean to a hen’s 
egg. For color of skin in this group there is white, 
pink, dark rose, pink and white, light purple, dark red 
and some almost black; in short, there is every color 
you ever saw on a potato. This view shows only a 
fraction of the seedlings we produced last year all of 
which are different, but we tried to select for the photo- 
graph some of each of the different colors. The strange 
part is that these seedlings of so many colors come 
from seed balls saved from white potatoes entirely. 
“3rd.” The foreground group shows a selection as 
near perfect as possible, as regards color, shape and 
apparent quality. This round, smooth potato is the 
most popular shape and is the type we aim to get in 
all main crop sorts. These represent the third year— 
The rear of group “3rd” shows an undesirable class all 
of which are discarded. 
"4th” shows a folly developed potato with the type 
thoroughly fixed and which can be depended upon to 
reproduce tubers of a similar character. The tubers in 
this group are five years from the seed ball. 
This photograph shows a very promising group of three-year-olds. 
NOT 1 in lOO of these seedlings is ever offered to our customers. Only those of exceptional qualities find a place in our catalog. 
ALWAYS REMEMBER when we offer something new it is because we have made a thorough test and are not depending 
on Tom Jones’ or any other person’s say so; It takes four to five years of time to produce a good potato, to say nothing of expense and 
trouble in selecting and growing so many kinds. 
Where we offer a few pounds of a new kind to give our customers the full benefit, as early in the life of a new potato as possible, we 
would gladly offer larger amounts if we could. These things can’t be made like boots or shoes— we have to wait until we can grow them. 
$100.00 PER BUSHEL would oftentimes fail to cover the actual expense of producing the first bushel of a new kind. 
Here are shown forty distinct sorts, all new seedlings, photographed just before planting time. 
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