Thk Colorado Potato Industry. 
9 
Planting. Much diversity of opinion prevails among the 
growers as to the details of preparing seed and planting. The 
general practice is to select seed from the stock which is left over 
winter in the storage cellar for the spring market if home grown 
seed is used. If not, the seed is purchased from the Divide 
country, the mountains or from the East. Medium to small seed 
is used by the majority of growers. Some make a practice of 
greening the seed. That is the seed is spread in a thin layer 
on the floor of the dugout a few weeks before planting time. The 
ventilators and doors are left open to admit the light. Occa¬ 
sionally the* potatoes are shoveled over to give a uniform expo¬ 
sure so that by planting time the tubers have become hardened 
and green, and the sprouts, if there are any are short and green 
instead of being long, slim and pale. The formailin or corrosive 
sublimate treatment is seldom used. Cutting* is done by hand. 
The number of eyes depends on the variety as some varieties of 
potatoes have many eyes while others have few. The usual aim 
is to leave two eyes on a piece, but the rule is not arbitrary. In 
fact the work coming at the busy season makes it necessary to 
employ inefficient help so that some pieces are left with many 
eyes while others have none. A method of cutting shown in 
Figure 2, Plate I, is thought to facilitate the work to some extent, 
fl he potatoes aie shovelled into a bin or hopper made of a dry 
goods box raised on legs. The back is made higher than the 
front so that the potatoes will run down to the opening. In the 
bottom are cracks to let out the soil that is shoveled up with the 
potatoes. The cutting is simple. An old case knife or a shoe 
knife is fastened to the end of a piece of plank or board in such 
a way that the potato can be pushed against the knife and fall 
from it into the basket beneath. The seed is planted soon after 
cutting as it is thought that the vitality of the buds rapidly becomes 
lowered as the seed drys out. 
Various substances are used on the cut seed that are sup¬ 
posed to be beneficial by drying the cut surfaces and preventing 
the work of insects 01 fungi. Air slaked lime, flowers of sulphur 
and gypsum (land plaster) are all used by different growers. All 
these are used in the same way. The cut seed is piled on a floor, 
the material is scattered on and then mixed by shoveling the pile 
over till the dust is brought in contact with each piece. 
Varities. Very few early potatoes are grown. Early var¬ 
ieties have frequently been tried but the yield is seldom satisfac¬ 
tory and the crop cannot be marketed in time to get a high enough 
price to make up for the deficiency in yield. Mammoth White 
Pearl leads all the other varities in acreage and generally in 
yield. Rural N. Y. No. 2 is second in popularity and some 
