The Potato Industry of Colorado. 17 
son market. In the San Luis Valley, a potato known as Monroe 
County Prize, has been grown for a long time and is a desirable, 
long potato. The Russet, grown in the Carbondale district, is a 
high quality, early, long potato of great promise in our mountains. 
See Field Experimentation for the undesirability of any other sorts 
than those mentioned here. 
soils. 
What is a Potato Soil. —In a very general way this question 
may be answered by saying that potato soil is deep sandy loam, with 
some sort of under drainage. Potato growing in the Greeley dis¬ 
trict is on soils that range from light sand to heavy clay. The 
underlying stratum of most of this district is coarse gravel at a 
depth of from one to several feet. Some of their best lands are 
deep medium sandy loams underlaid with porous white clay either 
above gravel or in connection with a good slope.* 
The Character of the Subsoil appears to be more important 
than the character of the surface soil. In fact some of the heavier 
soils of the district where underlaid by gravel at two to five feet, 
are among the best of the potato sections of the district. 
In the San Luis Valley, which is an old lake bed, there are con¬ 
siderable areas that are inclined to be gravelly, although the soils 
there vary from light sand with gravel subsoil to heavy clay or 
adobe. Some of the best potato soils are those of the river bottoms, 
composed of river sedimentation and wash from the surrounding 
hills. 
On the West Slope the deep red sand stone soils are among the 
best adapted to potato growing. The gray wash or till soils from 
the hills are also good. The Carbondale district and some of the 
mesas of the Uncompahgre and North Fork Valleys are of the red 
sand stone character and are particularly adapted to this crop. 
Adobe Soils in these districts are often used for potatoes but 
with constant risk of bad seasons and damage from soil diseases, 
owing to the tendency of these soils to become puddled. Greater 
care is necessary in cultivation and in irrigation, and even where 
the greatest care is used rains frequently compact the soil so as to 
stop tuber formation. This is particularly true of the soils on the 
college farm. 
Potatoes Unsuccessful on Most Heavy Soils. —We have planted 
potatoes on this kind of soil at Fort Collins for the past five years. 
The cultural methods used have been similar to those which give 
* Their most common soil is that which is designated by the Govern¬ 
ment Soil Survey as the Colorado fine sand. Other soils of the same dis¬ 
trict are those known as the Billings loam, Colorado sand, and Billings 
clay loam. The soils of the river bottom known as the Laurel sand loam, 
also grow potatoes. 
