The Colorado Potato Industry. 
i9 
make it more prevalent in some localities than in others, and what 
remedies or methods of culture will prevent the loss from this 
disease are problems that are yet to be solved. 
Treatment. Some experiments were made with treatment 
of soils with copper sulfate at the rate of thirty-five pounds to 
the acre to test its value as a preventative of the trouble. No 
effect either way could be detected. Cultural methods em¬ 
ployed by different growers have also been carefully noted but 
with no definite results, other than that all the fields that pro¬ 
duced satisfactory yields were given deep cultivation, while the 
small plots, as those planted in gardens even in the most success¬ 
ful potato growing districts, that were cultivated with one horse or 
kept clean with a hoe, produced nothing. Many fields that re¬ 
ceived deep cultivation were also failures. 
SUGGESTIONS TO THE GROWERS 
Although the potato industry of Colorado is new and only 
partly developed, the reputation of the product for high and uni¬ 
form quality is known in all the markets of the country. Few 
places have the natural advantages for producing the high grade 
product that the irrigated potato sections of Colorado possess. 
Because of the high altitude the season is comparatively short 
without extremes of heat. The nights are cool. The amount of 
moisture can for the most part be controlled and the soils are deep 
and rich. All these conditions give the grower an opportunity 
to produce in the potato the same standard of excellence that is 
maintained by the fruit growers of the West. 
We are not prepared to recommend many changes in the me¬ 
thods of culture practiced in the potato growing sections of this 
State, as those already in use are the results of a number of years 
experience in the application of scientific principles of soil manage¬ 
ment to a system of farming that is hardly known in the East. 
Undoubtedly the greatest need among the potato growers is or¬ 
ganization. This is particularly true of the Greeley District. The 
compactness of the district, value of the property and large out¬ 
put of the crop, are factors that might make a growers organi¬ 
zation there, a success, where in a more scattered or less wealthy 
community, good results would be less easily obtained. It is not 
our purpose in this report to suggest or recommend any scheme 
of organization. The advantages to be gained are many. At 
present there is no uniform system of grading. Scabby or mis¬ 
shapen potatoes may be put on the markets with the best grades. 
There is nothing to hinder potatoes from any place being sold as 
Greeley potatoes. With a registered trade mark and a uniform 
system of grading this could be prevented and the association 
