Show potato breeders bleeders Bre eders make test plantings disease free potatoes only control of ring rot how new ne w knowledge of plant science can lift some of the load from the mind of a worried farmer is illustrated by results of test plant tings reported by potato breeders bleeders bre eders of of the U S department of agriculture ring rot is a serious potato disease it appeared in canada in 1931 in maine in 1932 and spread rapidly causing serious crop lo 10 losses ases the only effective control is to plant nothing but disease free seed potatoes traces of the disease in seed stock are difficult to detect and may lead to serious losses ring rot has been reported from 37 states if scientific knowledge had not advanced in the last years says dr R 31 salter chief of the bureau of plant industry the potato industry and the country generally mi might lit well worry over the possibility of a potato famine such as ireland had in the hungry forties potato specialists do not know of a gold commercial variety that will grow in spite of ring rot but authors of the article report a trial of 41 4 come on out guys and gals see cookin says this newly hatched chick waiting for pals 54 varieties artificially inoculated to insure a thorough test nearly all were severely diseased but a precious few came through uninjured various spuds tested these include two imported varieties not commercially promising and several seedlings half the hybrids of the cross between president imported from england and the valuable american variety showed no infection several other seedlings showed signs of resistance these tests indicate that resistance to ring rot can be inherited by the potato the president variety is not commercially valuable val dable but from a breeding 1 standpoint it looks to be almost p priceless ri celess based on these tests and their experience it should not be very difficult to produce varieties resistant to ring rot with good commercial qualities |