HIGH PRICED SEED POTATOES

Otago Witness, Issue 3854, 24 January 1928, Page 12

HIGH PRICED SEED POTATOES

£5OO PER TON.

In a list of prices of home-grown agricultural produce issued by the National Far. mers Union Of Scotland, seed of Arran Banner, one of the varieties of potatoes in the third year’s test for registration by the Board of Agriculture for Scotland is quoted at £5OO a ton; £3OO a half-ton t £5O a owt; £8 a stone. ' This seedling, Arran Banner, which waA awarded the Lord Derby medal at Orms.kirk in October, is one of three that reS* mained of 3000 seedlings planted out in 1&22P by Mr Donald MacKelvie, Lamlash, Arran'*: who is one of the leading and most sub-? cessful potato raisers in the world. AtiJZ other of his seedlings, Arran Consul, was" the first potato to -bo registered by th'a' Board of Agriculture for Scotland. In an address to the Agricultural Discus* sion Society of Edinburgh University ip November, Mr MacKelvie referred to ths' remarkable yields obtained from Arran Banner, and said that a few small lots of seed were sold last year at £5O a stone, a price he was a little ashamed of at the time, but now that the results were to hand he thought he had not charged enough, a remark that evoked loud laughter. He uses not only British, but German and American, parent plants for breeding new varieties. He endeavoured to use parents that had between them al l the characteristics desired in the offspring, but whether all these characteristics would appear m any one seedling was a problem that there was no means of solving beforehand. Among the most successful parent varieties were Flourball, Abundance, and Epicure, the first-named being the pollen parent that gave the best results. Sutton’s Abundance was the most satisfactory mother plant, being both healthy and vigorous, although it had been introduced as long ago as 1886, During the course of his address Mr MacKelvie gave some interesting particulars regarding the different methods adopted in propagating Arran Banner. In the County of Dublin one stone of uncut seed planted 70 yards of a drill and yielded scwt 2qr 201 b, equal to 26 tons an acre. In the County of Donegal one stone of uncut seed , yielded scwt Iqr 191 b, over 20 tons an acre. In another centre in County Donegal, lOjlb of seed gave a return of 17cwt Iqr 211 b, or 186 times the weight of the seed planted! These potatoes were cut to single eyes and set one yard apart. Plenty of room, careful tillage, and liberal manuring were responsible for this result, which was equal to nearly 18j tons an acre. Other two stones sent to Northern Ireland yielded, 21cwt and 20cwt respectively. The seed' potatoes, Mr MacKelvie explained, were sent out well sprouted. One Scots grower) who bought a stone of seed took off the sprouts and planted them in pots in A' greenhouse and his yield was 13cwt 621b'. Mr MacKelvie did not approve of thia method of propagation, as cultivation under cover exposed the plants to virus diseases, especially if there were tomatoes in the greenhouse. Another Scots grower cut his seed to single eyes, and wherever two stems came up together one was care* fully removed and transplanted. This gave a return of 18cwt from one stone of seed. ' Another grower waited till the plants were fairly well grown, then gently removed the original sets and planted them again; and his return was 15cwt. In another case one stone planted in 28in drills in a turnip field, and given no artificials until setting up yielded 16cw-t. The best result was obtained by a farmer who grew his potatoes under field conditions. He cut the tubers, to single eyes and planted the sets 18in apart in alternate drills (drills 28in wide). The ground got from 15 tons to 20 tons an acre of cow manure ploughed in, and straw off the top of the manure heap was spread at the bottom of the drills and the sets planted on it. The crop received lewt an acre of sulphate of ammonia at the time of setting up. The potatoes were weighed two months after lifting, and the results were: —Marketable tubers, 18cwt 91b; seed, 3cwt 361 b; chats, 291 b; blight, 101 b; total,21|cwt. In potato breeding the difficulty was which of the seedlings to reject, and if science could devise a test for blight which would allow susceptible varieties to be discarded in the earliest stages, it would be very helpful. No selection was mado in the first year except to throw out seedlings that were obviously of bad shape or with badly coloured flesh All the pro* duce of other seedlings was kept. In coining to a final decision the qualities taken into account were:—(1) Proportion of marketable tubers; (2) shape of tubers; (3( resistance to blight in the tuber; (4) early tuber formation; (5) resistance to blight) in the foliage of late varieties. The incidence of blight was very irregular, and the results of one year could not be depended upon as a test for the disease. Ifc was not expected, said Mr MacKelvie, that new varieties would be Bioduced that would be much heavier yieiders than the best of the existing varieties in the full vigour of youth; but the combination of desirable qualities would be greatly improved.