Potato Growing.

King Country Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 97, 4 September 1908, Page 4

Potato Growing.

The potato planting season will'soon be here round, and as the growing of this staple food crop is now attended with more difficulty than in former years,some notes on the subject may be of interest. The potato crop has been a favourite subject for experiments in recent years, and results maybe said to have settled some points in reference to its cultivation. Taking all the varities into consideration, it is confidently stated that a great majority of trials has proved that whole sets, as a rule, give the greatest ; but that the excess over the yield of sets of medium size is not generality sufficient to pay the additional cost of seeding. An exception may, of course, be made when potatoes are cheap. Another point in relation to se°d which has bren proved in nearly all trials is that sets sprouted in boxes are much more productive than tubers kept in pits through the winter in the usual way. The preservation of the first shoots is the most important result of boxing, whereas when the seed is kept in bulk many of the first sprouts are broken off before the sets are planted. The superiority of the seed potatoes obtained from Scotland for planting in England to those grown more than once in the latter country has been proved beyond all question by a multitude of precise trials.

It has been, commonly asserted as beyond doubt that immature seed is superior in productiveness to mature seed, but only two reports of precise trials of this point came under the notice of the writer from whom we are quoting and in one of these the results were conflicting. Many kinds of seed other than potatoes from a district of cold climate are more robust and productive than corresponding kindserown in comparatively warm* district, and it has not been assumed that the only difference was one of degree of ripeness. Therefore, until proved by a sufficient number of precise experiments, the point under • notice cannot be regarded as clearly settled. The results of experiments with different varieties of potatoes differ greatly with localities, so that they are of little more than local value. Taking a great number into account it may be said that no first-early variety stands out prominently as the best yielder. Among second-ear lies, however, British Queen still holds a position in reference to yield and quality combined, which is second to that of no other viariety of its class, whilst Up-to-Date in this double connection has not yet been clearly deposed from its premier place, although it has been beaten in yield alone in some recent trials by closely allied varieties, such as Factor and Duchess of Cornwall, or both. In Canterbury last year the Up-to-Date was our mainstay, when the Derwent, hitherto forming the principal bulk crop, was a failure through blight; but this year, though the disease was not so prevalent, the Up-to-Date did not altogether escape. With respect to manuring the potato crop, there is a vaßt accumulation of evidence in support of certain conclusions. .Nearly a maximum crop can be grown with the use of about twenty tons of farmyard manure per acre, and the addition of artificial fertilisers to this heavy dcressing, although it may increase the yield, hardly ever increases it sufficiently to prove remunerative. At least as good a crop can be obtained, as a rule, by the use of half the large dressing of farmyard manure and a complete mixture of artificials, containing nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, as by the applicaton of the full quantity of the natural manure alone, and at less expense. The omission of any one of the three clamor- of artificial manure almost invariably lead.? to a reduction in the yield. No quantit u■■.:• of artificials yet tried have proved of eqttnl efficiency to the combination of natural and artificial manure-, although the profit from the apl ic:uion of artificials alone has sometimes been the greater. A considerable number ol trials have indicated that the quality of the potatoes grown with artificial manures alone is superior to that of potatoes crown with the help of farmyard manure, and this may be "crrarded

as the rule, to which varying circumstances afford exceptions. It has been fully established that spraying with Bordeaux mixture, particularly when done two or three times in a season, reduces the percentage of disease as a rule, when there is any. It is commonly believed to increase the yield by prolonging the life of the haulm, at least so far as the main crop is concerned.- --"Press.'" Some idea of the money in grape growing oven in Australia, where the co /."petition is exceptionally keen, may be e:ai.:.-'d from the fact that a man 11, ,-. - Camden '"-'ridge, Sydney, has a two ;:.-:■■• prop.--iy, off which in his spare ['<■■■!■-- he has made practically a living income. lb- works eight hours a day safeguarding the tramway lines, and y< i he has fmmd time to lay miL an acre ami a bait in vines, giving the choice-!, table grapes. l.ast year, although the vines were not in full beari'i-v. he had a crop et six ton--". Nvhmh realised .iCCC This y> ar lbyield should be eight tons. When lucerne bay is fed to stock, and the manure applied to seme other holds en the favm, it is the most: economical and certain means ever devised tor economically enriching the farm. So far from be big- hard on the land lucerne excels clover as a soil improver, especiallywhen fertilised judiciously with potash and phosphates.