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Show SELECTION OF SEED POTATOES The potato dlKtflng season Is now at hand. Are you satisfied with your crop, or do you feel that It ought to be better than It Is? You feel thutj you have given It the best tillage, j and have Irrigated according to your j best Judgment, and yet have failed to get the bent results. The soil, too, you are sure, was In excellent condition condi-tion at planting lust sprlug, and the seed you purchased, according to your local dealer, was free from dlneane. Yen, all this may be true, and yet you have failed to consider one very Important factor: HOW AND WHEN WAS YOl'lt SEED SELECTED FOR PLANTING? You bought It at the dealers lust spring, did you not? You are not alone, a very great many of the farmers In thin county did the same. Some of their potatoes are diseased, some hills are good, others are very poor. Yours, you complain, are the same. It this teach ou a leitson, and In the future, remember that you must not buy ordinary market mar-ket potatoes for seed, neither buy new seed every year. If your potatoes this year are diseased dis-eased or are a very poor crop, do not keep them for seed, but buy your seed, a good variety, from soms reliable re-liable seed desler. Now, don't truxt to them being free from disease, but treat them for d Incline before planting, plant-ing, and don't plnnt them on the same old field where the dlneaned potatoes grew this year, for the disease Is still In the soil. An alfalfa field fall plowed plow-ed makes a good potato field. If your potatoes this year are free from disease and you have a fairly good crop, you had belter use your own potatoes for seed If you will select se-lect your seeds properly. This requires a great deal of care. Do not dig and pile your whole crop and then select f i out the heap thoxe which look best' to you. You must remember this, you can not judge the seed In this msnner, for the nice potato which you have selected Is Only one representative repre-sentative of the vine on which It grew. It may be the only one that grew on the plant If this Is the case. ! it wilt tend to produce low yielding vines, and If all selected were from similar vines the yield next year will be small and disappointing. The vine, then .not the single potato, po-tato, Is the unit of selection. Now, the thing for you to do Is to go out on your field, digging fork In band and eelect your seed hills to plant for your next year's crop. This can best be done a day or two before the whole crop Is to be dug. Now, we must know what Is a desirable hill for Reed. It is the hill which bas a large number num-ber of good, uniform potatoes of medium me-dium size, with corky skin free from little luiobs and with shallow eyes. The largest potatoes are not the bent. Once more, keep In mind that you want the hill with the large number , of uniform Uc. If you secure a good variety and follow this method of selection carefully, care-fully, you can produce potatoee of as high yielding qualities as any one can sell you and you may even Increase your own yields. Henr In mind, also, that homegrown seed Is sujerlor to the seed brought from other soils and climate, providing proper seed selection is practiced. JOS. P. WELCH. Farm Demonstrator. |