unevenly. An examination of the backward hills reveals the fact that the first sprout has been cankered off near or at the tip and is branching below the cankered spot, or the entire sprout is cankered and new sprouts are starting from the same eye. This effort to send up healthy sprouts may be repeated two or three times with the result of very weak plants or unequalness in the maturity of the delayed plants.

Frequently this disease will appear in small areas covering four or five farms, no matter what the source of the seed, then skip several miles before its injury will be found again.

It has been found that treating the tubers with corrosive sublimate solution* for two hours will destroy the dormant stage or sclerotia" on the tubers; but this treatment will not reach the same stage of the fungus on old roots in the soil.

Other diseases such as scab, powdery scab, silver scurf and russet, may affect the yield and sale of potatoes but do not, so far as known, often affect the "come-up" of the plant. A few troubles known as “leaf roll," "curly dwarf" and "pindling stems" may be an after effect of one or two of the diseases described above, but as yet the exact cause has not been determined.

The combination of the four diseases described frequently results in very uneven stands in the older potato sections of the country. Some seasons a combination results in total failure to get a stand in these sections. Part of the injury resulting from these diseases can be controlled by the user of the seed. For example, scab and black leg can be eliminated by thoroughly soaking the seed potatoes in the formaldehyde solution, combined with planting on fields that are free from these diseases; but the ill effects of late blight and the Fusarium dry rot can be controlled only by the combined efforts of the grower and user of the seed potatoes. There are cases in which the potato grower who has to depend on northern grown seed is more or less at the mercy of the producer. For example, if the grower in northern New England is careless about growing potatoes for seed purposes on land which grew potatoes affected with Fusarium blight the

* Corrosive sublimate solution is prepared by boiling two ounces of corrosive sublimate in one gallon of water; when dissolved add the solution to fourteen more gallons of water.

previous year, or is careless about spraying thoroughly for late blight, and using methods to protect the tubers from the latter, the grower in the south who purchases these potatoes as good seed stock "gets left." On the other hand if the grower in the north raised his potatoes on new land or in a rotation of several years, sprays thoroughly, destroys tubers which show traces of these diseases when he plants; then it is up to the purchaser of such seed to use the same amount of care and pay a remunerative price for the seed.

At the beginning it was stated that diseases of the potato was one of the causes of a poor stand. Too frequently failure to get a good stand of potatoes on a field is due to carelessness of the grower. Growers are frequently found who may have planted part of their acreage, then been delayed a week or ten days by rains before planting the remainder of the crop. The stand of potatoes where planted before the storm would be good while the later planting would be a failure. These conditions result with both home-grown and new seed. Inquiry usually develops the facts that the soil was all fitted alike, the same fertilizer used and in the same amounts, the seed cut and treated alike,— that is, cut while the land was being fitted and put into bags ready to take to the field, but in the latter case care was not used to prevent healing of the cut potatoes. The cut potatoes in the bags were piled hit and miss in some building. Fortunately what was planted before the storm did not have time to heat. Frequently this seed may have been slightly affected with some of the diseases described. In such cases the neglect of the seed after cutting favored the growth and spread of same in sacks.

Too much attention can not be given to the care and treatment of seed potatoes when preparing them for planting. The potato should always be dusted as cut with either land plaster or flour of sulphur to dry the cut surface (avoid the use of lime on cut. potatoes). In addition, if the seed is put into bags as cut care should be taken to prevent heating in the bags.

Another frequent cause of poor stands in sections where chemical fertilizers are used, is carelessness regarding the methods of applying the fertilizers. A potato planting machine that does not mix the fertilizer with considerable quantities of soil sur

rounding the seed pieces is faulty and frequently results in a poor stand.

Finally, too deep covering in a cold soil may result in a poor "come-up." I have exchanged seed, bushel for bushel, and planted so that the same was planted on adjoining fields. The seed purchased by my neighbor and planted shallow by him came up in a few days and made a good stand, while the bushel of seed from the same sacks planted on the adjoining field at the same time as on the first field, but planted two or three inches deep and covered full depth, made a poor stand. In such cases the tubers may be affected slightly with some disease or low vitality. As a result the seed pieces were destroyed before the sprouts could get to the surface and on their own roots.