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Show COMMITTEE REPORT FOR POTATO IMPROVEMENT Given at Convention of Utah Extension Exten-sion Workers, Logan, Utah, 1 February, 1917 Because of the serious diseases that affect the potato and the careless care-less practice in growing it which threaten to destroy it as a profitable farm product, it has become necessary neces-sary to make a vigorous campaign for its improvement. ' Extended publicity in local papers of these conditions, with hopeful methods of improvement should first be made. Farm bureaus should then call meetings of prominent potato growers grow-ers where the county agent should report these conditions and the bureau bu-reau solicit interested co-operators from good representative sections of the county to demonstrate improvement improve-ment methods. At this same meeting a committeeman in each local bureau should be chosen to take the names of the co-operators and be the responsible re-sponsible representative of his local bureau in getting information' to his 'co-operators and seeing that they follow fol-low the instructions given to them. The county farm bureau should appoint ap-point one committeeman who should be the chairman of the local committees commit-tees and responsible for getting instructions in-structions to them and seeing that they perform the work required of them. It should be the duty of the county agent to furnish to the chairman of committees a definite and detailed plan with the necessary instructions for the co-operators. He should arrange ar-range to conduct demonstrations at local bureaus for seed treatment and hill selection. From results in the process of potato po-tato improvement the most suitable sections shoukfbe sought for the production pro-duction of the most vigorous seed. Local field tests should be made to determine the variety giving most satisfactory yields and best suited to market conditions. No tubers should be planted which are seriously diseased. All seed potatoes po-tatoes must be treated with corrosive sublimate as recommended by the College. The potatoes should be planted in soil that has not grown potatoes for at least three years previous, pre-vious, nor where waste waters from infected lands has been allowed to run. It is preferable to plant potatoes in land following alfalfa in crop rotation. ro-tation. Hill selection should be the basis for improving the crop. It may be done by means of a seed plot or from the regular field. It will be necessary neces-sary to select from the regular field the first year. The seed plot should be large enough to grow all the seed needed the next season and should be planted from the very best hills selected from the preceding season's seed plot. Where selection is always made from the regular field, it may be done by selecting the best hills before the vines freeze, or it may be . . done by marking and eliminating the poor hills. The seed potatoes should be dug and placed in sacks before they freeze in the fall, and stored in disinfected pits on cellars where they can be well ventilated and kept cold without freezing. A record must be kept by each co-operator co-operator of the place, variety, seed treatment, kind of selection, amount of land planted, kind of soil, and yield. |