’ <-4“V- 4 
Voi.. LXXII. No. 4193 
NEW YORK, MARCH 8, 1913 
WEHKI.Y, $1.00 PER YEAR 
. 
A SEED POTATO INDUSTRY. 
Drained Land in Vermont. 
Part I. 
MAKING HISTORY.—You would hardly say that 
the man shown in the picture is making history— 
would say he is spraying potatoes. The fact is he is 
doing both. When you prove that Northern Vermont 
has the peculiar climate and soil needed to grow 
superior seed potatoes you make history- It is much 
like proving that the islands of the English Channel 
produce superior butter cows, that the shores of the 
Mediterranean Sea produced laying hens or that 
around Northern France are to be found superior 
draft horses. The men who make history and change 
the life or industry of States or sections do not know 
what they are doing as a rule. They do not look nor 
act the part of heroes. 
STRONG SEED NEEDED.—A few years ago a 
group of Southern farmers and truckers who plant 
large quantities of potatoes went hunting for strong 
and vital seed. There was great damage from blight, 
which disease was peculiarly bad in their section- The 
scientific men have demonstrated that seed may carry 
the germs of blight if the plant goes down with the 
disease. How could it be otherwise, since the tuber 
is really a part of the potato stem—enlarged under 
ground? A crop may be well sprayed to hold off the 
diseases and yet go down at last. These planters 
wanted, if possible, seed from plants which never had 
the disease. They asked the Department of Agricul¬ 
ture to locate a section where there was least potato 
blight. Then they wanted a farmer to try growing 
seed. The agent of the Department suggested E- S. 
Brigham, who lives near St. Albans, Vermont. It 
cannot be said that there is no potato blight in this 
part of Northern Vermont, but it is infrequent, and 
in favored localities with proper spraying large areas 
of potatoes may be fully developed with no trace of 
the disease. The Department of Agriculture has 
found such immune or nearly immune sections here 
and there throughout the country. Following the 
natural law of business development, history will show 
that these sections are to produce healthy and vital 
seed- I saw the crop here pictured early last August 
and I want to tell how it is produced. 
GOOD SOTL.—The farm has been in cultivation for 
a century or more. There are rough and stony hills 
—suitable for pasture, but the potato soil is packed 
into the valleys or level stretches which rise back 
from Lake Champlain. That is the way Nature does 
both North and South—packs the best soil in the 
lower places and washes the strength of the hills 
down into it. Then she clogs it with water and 
sours it, like putting good food down into a pickle 
to hold it until man learns how to set it free- In 
the South, with mild Winters and warm rains, these 
rich fields are washed out and gullied, and the humus 
is destroyed. In Northern Vermont stern Winter 
stops that loss by holding the soil in an iron grip 
and loading it with snow. So the strong soil waits 
through the years until some farmer comes with the 
drains and lime to sweeten it. I do not wonder that 
wise men in Vermont are trying to give the State a 
drainage law under which the township can loan 
money to enable farmers to drain these rich places. 
Nature turns these swamps into banks of deposit— 
safer and with greater value than all the money banks 
which the thrifty Vermont farmers have established. 
It is in just such redeemed soil that the sprayer shown 
in the picture is working. The upper soil is naturally 
a clay loam underlaid with a stiff clay subsoil. In 
the average season this soil would not naturally be 
suited to potatoes, but when tile drained it produces 
plants of great vigor. 
For seed potatoes, medium sized, solid and clean 
tubers are wanted—not large hollow-hearted fellows 
which “cut to waste.” The seasons are short and the 
crop must be pushed through without check to the end 
for there is frost in the ground at one end of the 
season and frost in the air at the other. That is one 
of the penalties you must pay for a section immune 
to blight. Let us see how such seed is produced. 
TREATMENT OF SEED.—Great care is taken 
to keep the seed in a dormant condition during the 
Winter and early Spring so that the vitality will not 
be exhausted in throwing out sprouts. The storage 
cellar is kept down to about 33 degrees F. if possible. 
As soon as weather is warm enough in Spring, and 
potatoes show signs of sprouting, the seed is disin¬ 
fected for scab by soaking for two hours in a solution 
of one pint of formaldehyde in 30 gallons of water- 
Then it is spread in a thin layer on a barn floor where 
it is exposed to the sunlight for at least two weeks. 
Tough green sprouts are sent out which give a line 
on the cutting. All tubers which for any reason are 
dormant or which do not send out good strong 
sprouts are discarded. The seed is cut to one or 
two good strong eyes, the idea being to have a seed 
WHOLESALE SPRAYING OPERATIONS IN A VERMONT POTATO FIELD. Fig. 110. 
