12 
SEED-TIME km HARVEST. 
<3 
Sports and Variations in Potatoes. 
Written for the Farm and Garden. 
BY ISAAC F. TILLINGHAST. 
S HAVE now finished digging my trial 
plot of potatoes in which I had planted 
samples of new seedlings which have been 
kindly sent me from various sections of the 
Union, by the side of old standard kinds 
for comparison, and feel well repaid for the 
trouble and care required by finding out 
one or two new ones which seem to possess 
unusual qualities, but a second trial will be 
necessary to fully establish their superority. 
I am frequently asked “if potatoes will 
not mix in the hill by being planted side by 
side.” I have never observed any tendency 
for them to do so, and do not think such a 
thing possible. Vegetables get mixed only 
by being grown from seeds which are pro¬ 
duced from blossoms which grow near 
enough each other to become cross fertilized 
by pollar carried by the wind, or by bees 
from one variety to another. Hence if we 
save true seeds from the potato which are 
found in the small balls on the vines we are 
liable to produce varieties differing from the 
parent. If many kinds are planted near 
each other in one plot, and seeds saved 
from any of them, the product will be much 
more diversified in consequence of the 
mixture or cross fertilization, but so long as 
they are propagated only by tubers there 
will l>e no mixtnre more than there would 
be by planting several apple-trees in con¬ 
junction and propagating from them by 
cutting scions and grafting. Cf course if 
you carelessly mix different varieties in dig¬ 
ging or handling, by dropping tubers of 
one kind among those of another and plant 
them they will be mixed in the hill, but 
they may be readily separated, as such a 
mixture will not effect the individual tuber. 
While this is all true, I find that any pecu¬ 
liarities or variations found in individual 
tubers may be continued and even bred up 
by propagation. Thus the Late Rose , 
Late Beauty of Hebron and Late Ohio 
Potatoes, are sports of the Early Varieties, 
bred from hills which for some reason were 
slower in developing and maturing than 
the others and by being saved and propa¬ 
gated continue to develope this peculiarity 
until it becomes fixed and is recognized 
as a different variety. I think a variation 
in earliness or color more easily fixed than 
a variation in shape. When digging the 
crop of La Plume Triumph, last season 
a large potato was found which, while it 
was exactly like the others in shape, was 
much lighter in color, in fact nearly white 
upon one side. Some, in looking at it. 
thought the difference was caused by sun¬ 
light, but I determined to see if it would 
transmit the peculiarity and accordingly 
saved and planted it, cutting it to single 
eyes. In digging them recently I found 
one hill which contained only light colored 
potatoes like the parent, while all the others 
from other eyes of the same tuber, pro¬ 
duced red potatoes true to the original type. 
Another instance of a peculiar hud sport 
was with the Victor Potato. This variety 
is probably known to most readers. It is 
a dark blue potato with occasionally a 
white spot upon it. A few years scince 
while digging this variety, I found a tuber 
about one half white but all the eyes except 
one or two were blue. I carefully cut the 
specimen into single eyes, and planted the 
blue pieces in one place, the white pieces 
with blue eyes in another and the white 
pieces with white eyes in another. The re¬ 
sult was, that the latter produced only 
white potatoes, while the other plots pro¬ 
duced regular Blue Victors. The white 
potatoes so produced were planted for sev¬ 
eral years and never showed a trace of the 
blue afterward. 
The ‘■'Belle'' 1 Potato, which I first offered 
to the public last season, has the peculiarity 
of having some specimens much darker 
colored than the others, so much so that 
some think that, there are really two varie¬ 
ties mixed. During the two years that I 
have grown them I have tried to separate 
these darker colored specimens from the 
others, but without avail. Last fall when 
digging I selected one of the darkest color¬ 
ed ones—a remarkably handsome speci¬ 
men—and after exhibiting it at the fair, 
wrapped it and labeld it carefully and pre¬ 
served. it until spring. I then cut it to 
single eyes and planted in one row in mj r 
trial plot. Upon digging them this fall I 
found that four-fifths of them were as 
light as the average from the field, while a 
few still preserved the dark netted appear¬ 
ance of the parent. This shows that al¬ 
though they present a different appearanee 
they are all the same potato and cannot be 
separated. 
Another experiment was made to try and 
fix a variation in shape, but without avail. 
Among a large quantity of Late Rose a 
specimen was found which differed greatly 
in shape, being large and very nearly round. 
It was carefully planted in the hope of 
producing tubers of a corresponding shape 
but the product differed but little from 
other specimens of the same variety grown 
from perfect shaped tubers. Still I believe 
if the roundest specimens were again plant¬ 
ed that in time a change might be wrought 
in the shape. For a number of years past 
I have selected a few specimens each, of a 
large number of varieties, for exhibition 
purposes as smooth and beautifull in shape 
