8 
Colorado Agricultural College 
whether early or late crops are wanted. It generally requires four 
months to grow a crop of late potatoes normally. This timie may 
be shorter, but if shortened it is generally at the expense of quality. 
It is better to let the plant develop normally than first to stunt the 
growth and afterwards hasten it. 
Planters .—There are two general types of planters on the mar¬ 
ket, and in use,—one known as the ‘‘picker" and the other as the 
“disk" type. Both of these types have their advocates. The picker 
is perhaps less accurate, as it will not always spear a seed—or it 
may spear the seed in the only bud or eye of that particular iseed, 
thus causing a miss in the stand. 
The disk type of machine has to be operated by two persons— 
one driving and one sitting behind and seeing to it that each com¬ 
partment in the disk has a seed. In this way, there can be no miss, 
if the person behind attends to his business. 
It costs more to plant a given acreage with the last mentioned 
type of machine, but if the seed is good and other conditions are 
favorable, a perfect stand may be obtained. 
The importance of a perfect stand is hardly ever realized by 
the grower. 
The average stand of hills in the potato fields in Colorado is 
only between 75 and 80 per cent. The losses from this neglect alone 
is fully 20 per cent of the total yield of the State. Practically, a 
perfect stand is rarely possible, tho at least a 90 per cent stand 
should be obtained. 
SEED POTATOES 
The importance of good seed is too often overlooked by potato 
growers, and more failures result from the planting of poor seed 
than from any other cause. We speak of seed potatoes in the same 
sense that we do of seed grains, while in reality we are not planting 
seed, but cuttings. ' The potato, itself, is an underground stem 
greatly enlarged, and serves as a storehouse in which food for the 
future plant is stored up, and this underground stem or potato' is 
either planted whole or in pieces. The eyes of the potato are 
equivalent to the buds on the stem of a plant. They perform the 
same functions in plant economy. When potatoes are exposed to 
light for a considerable length of time, the green color, or choloro- 
phyll develops. 
The common method of obtaining potato seed is well known. 
Generally, it is the small potatoes which go thru the grader, or, in 
some cases, the potatoes left over in the cellar or pit at planting 
time that are used. These methods of obtaining seed for planting 
are to say the least, poor. It reverses the practice that we are fol¬ 
lowing in the selection of seed grain and in the selection of breed- 
