4 The Colorado Experiment Station. 
°f $5>9 2 8 ,ooo. The production in bushels has risen from three and 
one-half millions to an average of between seven and eight, with 
the high point in 1909 of 10,400,000. 
As to the future, more acres will be put in to potatoes, and 
great increases in production are to come from better methods. 
Better understanding of seed potatoes and the laws of productive¬ 
ness are to be a big factor. Improved strains and improved varie¬ 
ties will count a great deal, and we are beginning the work of 
developing such strains and varieties. 
It is calculated that improvements in varieties and seed stocks 
can workably affect a minimum increase in quality and value of five 
per cent., and associated with it will be an additional yield of at 
least as large an amount. If we figure only ten per cent, on a six 
million dollar crop, and another ten per cent, in possible betterments 
of methods, the economic prize to the state is well worth reaching 
out after. Colorado has been ambitious for her potato industry and 
its expansion, and liberal in her provision, that no industry be 
better served, and that the experience of all be gathered and made 
available to all, to the end that potato growing shall be nowhere 
on a higher plane of intelligence, service or profit. 
With this brief general glimpse of the potato industry of Colo¬ 
rado, and its relations with the college, we will plunge into a de¬ 
tailed account of potato growing and its problems, designed for 
the use of Colorado growers, of those interested in the crop com¬ 
mercially, and of high schools in potato districts. To it is appended 
a report of field work in 1910. 
