Here are the tubers of one typical hill 
of potatoes grown by \V. W. Stanffer, 
Akron, Ohio. This kind of thing is 
profitable under any conditions 
Short green sprouts, developed on 
tubers placed for three or four 
weeks in a well lighted room result 
in earlier crop and increased yield 
But, stored in a warm and dark 
place, long white sprouts (below) 
push out. Such tubers mean 
poor yield 
WHY NOT GOOD POTATOES? 
F. C. GAYLORD 
Purdue University 
ROWING Potatoes in a back lot or in a typical suburban garden is 
usually not advised because it is urged that, given the same amount of 
space, other crops are apt to be more profitable. That is true if Potatoes 
are not really “grown;” yet it is in fact possible almost any season, if 
you meet every requirement of this exacting crop — for it is exacting— and do 
your part in making conditions favorable, to dig hills where eight to fifteen 
smooth, high quality potatoes roll out. And then potatoes are worth while! 
Commercial growers are taking advantage of every “trick of the trade” in 
securing large yields, but many gardeners who have but a few square rods of soil 
are losing many bushels of potatoes by failing to make every link in the chain 
of potato production a strong one. Last year many potato growers in my 
section actually doubled their ordinary yields by selecting seed of varieties suited 
to their conditions; by treating these for disease; by later green-sprouting them, 
fertilizing, spraying, and giving the crop the best of culture throughout the 
entire season. 
If you are planting only a few rows or a few bushels of seed it is most im-- 
portant that every potato has a record of high performance back of it, or in other 
words that it comes from good seed, of a variety suited to the locality and that 
it be planted free from disease and kept that way as far as possible. Irre- 
spective of the variety, by all means get certified 
or hill selected potatoes for your seed, and be sure 
they are not potatoes merely sold for seed. Many 
a grower has found that high prices are not 
always a reliable guide in buying seed stock. 
T HERE are a few outstanding varieties from 
which the gardener should select the type he 
wishes to plant. For cool, moist regions and a 
deep rich soil with plenty of rainfall and cool 
weather, Green Mountain for late planting will 
give large yields of the highest quality; for the 
early planting Irish Cobbler, a blocky white- 
skinned tuber will prove admirable. Where the 
crop has to contend with hot, dry periods during 
the summer, nothing will give better results than 
some variety of the “ Rural ” group. Among these 
are to be found such common favorites as Rural 
New Yorker, Carmen No. 3, Sir Walter Raleigh, 
and Golden Petosky. Here too such early varie- 
ties as Early Ohio and Irish Cobbler will give 
general satisfaction. If a few of the earliest type 
