THE POTATO GROWING INDUSTRY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3672, 29 July 1924, Page 13

THE POTATO GROWING INDUSTRY.

The grower of potatoes should, no less than the grower of cereals, the dairyman, or lamb fattener, be content with nothing less than the best modern methods of securing big yields. Why grow a. poor crop, or, if climatic conditions upset all calculations at times, why not plan to secure a bumper crop of tubers per acre under normal conditions? It surely is good business to increase the return per acre. It is cheaper, as less land would bo occupied by the tubers. Mr J. T. Ramsay, Victorian potato expert, always writes interestingly on this subject. In the course of an article he says: —- "Not only is it necessary that greater attention should be bestowed upon the selection and care of the seed, but also that more liberal dressings of complete fertilisers should be employed. Not until those important matters receive the consideration to which they are entitled can we expect to see our average yield appreciably increased, or the industry placed on the plane which it properly should occupy. With regard to seed selection, we have growers whose methods leave absolutely no room for criticism. They understand thoroughly what is required, and they take pains to have the work done accordingly. Most growers, however, simply put by so many bags of tubers for use as seed, and give little or no heed to the character of The plants which produced them. Not so the advanced men. A few of these, even while the plants are in full growth, put stakes alongside of those which impress them favourably, but the others wait until the commencement of the digging operations. They then give instructions that where the plants produce seven or more marketable tubers all of these must be reserved for seed purposes. In due course the chosen tubers are gathered up and placed in trays or boxes, and there allowed to green and sprout in lean. 1 ' ness for planting out later on. That this procedure' pays handsomely may be gathered from the fact that there individual growers who have as many as 3000 trays. ° The general practice in storing seed is to spread it out thinly-only a few tubers deep —on the ground under the shelter of e\eigreen trees, preferably pines. This procedure is quite as satisfactory as the other, except that it lacks the convenience of the boxing system, and involves considerably more trouble and labour at planting time. Some of the experiments which have been conducted by the Department of Agricu] ture have had reference to the selection ot seed and the respective values of immature and ripened seed. These have shown conclusively that, other things being equal, the unmatured seed gives heavier crops than the thoroughly ripened seed Taking a wide range of soils, etc . oar men No 3 ripe seed from P ] a nts producod seven and over marketable has yielded 17 tons 14cwt 2 qr, compared with 19 tons Ocwt. 2qr. from immature •Teed of the same place. From ripened seed , enme variety selected from plants which produced 10 ' or more H,bovs and over the. return lias been 18 tons 2owt lqr , while that from immature seed similarly selected has been 20 tons Bcwt. 3g . “ rr sr;;, “o' MihXrsf. K "«xvv.. !xrp. s r » i,,,, plot. « va l io "* areSngs a o7 about” 6 ewt! of superphosphate all Fii Vt 3cyd. of 13 vested l9 wMie^ouWe 1 it "u'qnalltHv’of "upon -ith lr\e o turn Ul raf e be 0 en a “s’ 7cwk‘ |q® r ’ an tore, a similar result having been registered with sulphate cf potash substituFod for ammonia. On the other hand the produce from the no manure plots has averaged only 6 tons lewt. an acie. Diessings of 3cwt, each of garden manure and basic phosphate have also been tried and have yielded in each case 9 tons scw*. of the average results obtained from experiments in four different parts of tho State, it would seem that the most satisfactory and profitable yields are likely to be secured by the use of dressings of complete fertiliser having Ccwt. of superphosphate as their base. In other words, for an investment of about £2 5s an acre in the way of manure, growers may reasonably, count- upon har-

vesting an additional yield of 8 tons of tubers an acre under normal conditions, representing a cost of about 5s a ton. Could a better financial proposition be deeircd by anybody on the land?