POTATO CULTURE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81876, 29 October 1906, Page 4

POTATO CULTURE.

SOME EXPERIMENTS. A News representative railed in at die New Plymouth Ca.edo.iian Nur any on Thui.day afternoon, and nao i.i interest ng c.iai anent p'UUo cu: ure and other manors, with Mr T.M i:ei'lieiis. ,iv; pioprii'tor, who ha i<w In laig-.iy loi jimato growing i.: ..i on. having some Mven oi .gnt aeies planted v..tu tuoers o, .ai,ou- Kinds, p,mcipaliy am'ng ..hieii aie "Lp 1 .0-d;ue." Star." "White Ek'phan." ano ijucen i.f Eng.anc!. fee crop :.e very well toward, and just abou .•> aui.e at the flows ring stage. N> gn of biight Ikis yet appeared. Ira a-Unb are kept reguiar,y sp:aye. .Mill "liorddeaux ' mixture. Besides thj larger plots under potato cultivation .Mr Stephens :s conducting .• .cries of experiments with the tubers >n areas.

"My opinioa icgarding blight,' •tated Mr Stephens, "does not alto gether coincide with the opinions of jome authorities. My belief is that i good deal of tae bligtit i*> in the ground from previous seasons crops. Of ccurse 1 agree entirely that if a ciop is blighted die wind can carry the microbes to another crop. I in tend, iiowevi-r, by experiments, :o fine, out whether tae ground holds the bight geuns or not.'' With tins cad in view Mr Stephen* ha* chosen virgin soil and planted < o>upk' of rows of the worst bligii. sincken potatoes he could secur. These plants have sprouied up ant so far could not look more healthy. No -pray lias been nor will be us«, in them. Next year Mr Stephen intends to plant ths same plot o, giound with seed tiiat has not beer; bl.ghtcd. By this means he hopes to prove whether or not the bligii; microbes are retained in the carta irom year to year.

"He;c is another novel experiment,' explained Mr Stephens, pointing to a couple of short rows. "All those plane' have come from this tuber' (pointing to a large potato partly coveted with soil). "Each eye of the potato has in turn been buried undci a light covering of earth until it sprouted. Then the sprout wa- care fully rembvec! and transplanted Altogether I have seven plants from thv one potato and there is one mof "eve ' to cultivate, after which the potato will be cooked.' and eaten. How's that for economy?" The potato appeared to be thoroughly sound and none the worse for having grown Jie plants. "What about this plot across here" asked the News man, pointing to another patch of healthy looking po tato plants. "Those." said Mr Stephens, "were grown from potato peelings." Sureenough, as the ground was turned up. tae roots of the plant were attached to a piece of potato peeling. Further experiments arc being car rif-d out wit!) whole potatoes and potatoes cut into pieces with a view oi testing the variability of the respec tive crops. At the end of the season Mr Stephens has kindly consented to write up full particulars of his season's ex perimmts for the benefit of the readers of the News.

SUCCESSFUL POTATO GROW INC.

THE TOXGAI'ORLTU MIXTURE. "G.F.A. V writes from Port Underwood, Auckland North, as follows: Any useful facts concerning successful potato growing will doubtless interest many of your readers. Your "warning to potato growers'' of a few weceks back, tmoted the experience of some of_ our North Tara.oaki friends, who had employed what 's termed the "Tongaporutu mixture.'' The main result appeared to be that any life inherent in the tuber submitted to it. would almost certainly be destroyed. But no evidence was ;adduced to show that the cause < I nqn-germination of the potatoes was the fact of their prior immersion n the mixture. The writer has grown potatoes for over a third of a century, and now and again quite a number have failed to come up to time, or any other time. Every potato grower has had this experience. AI! over the world there are quite a 'number of people who fail to see facts, waen they do see them; and as often draw wrong conclusions from what is actually seen. It may be well to note that in this location, some sixty miles north of Auckland, both fungoid and other pests are probably more :ife jmd rampant than anywhere in 'laranaki. The ''Tongaporutu mixture" js composed of about 40Z of nitrate of pota-li, 40Z of sulphate of ammonia, 10 one gallon of water. I immrnersed the following potatoes, and others, for 24 hours in this solution: Northern Star. Eldorado, and Star of New Zealand. They were dried for 24 hours and planted- There are more of the first named yet 10 put in ihe ground. The h.st twvj are abovu ground; also many of the first. So far, scarocly one in a hundred have "missed.They all look remarkably lively, vigoious. and give satisfaction. Bui v iit they prove immune from blight ? Time might tell. 1 don't think it will. The above, and some other ciops, are certainly in for several honest vigorous sprayings, with Boideaux mixture, or some other formula. It is üßually wiser to be safe than sorry. Is not the Government much to blame, for not instituting a series of full and exhaustive experiments with every known or possible remedy and reporting results throughout the whole colony ? I am a few potatoes., treated as above, ,'of you or anyone's inspection and experinV'U.—l am, otc, Se T. H.