WAUPACA REPUBLICAN

January 23, 1895

New Varieties of Potatoes

            The tubers will sometimes, though rarely, “sport” and produce a different variety from the one planted, giving the impression that they will “mix in the hill.”  The only way to be certain of producing new varieties is to plant the real seeds, those found in the fruit of “bail”, that succeeds the flowers at the top of the vine.  Each seed in a ball may produce a distinct variety.  That wonderful seed ball which contained the seed from which came the early rose also produced several other varieties, some of which were good enough to be propagated.  People have been deterred from trying to raise potatoes from the seed by the statements in the books, copied from English writers, that the tubers first obtained were very small, and required several years of cultivation before their quality could be ascertained.  Mr. Breese, who was the fortunate originator of the early rose, and has had much experience in raising seedlings, informed us that he treated the potato seeds just as he did those of the tomato, sowing the seeds in the same manner, and setting out the plants at the same time. If a seedling did not at the end of the first season show some tubers of an eatable size, he did not bother with it any farther.  Some seedsmen offer potato seeds, but unless it is known what variety produced them we should prefer to wait and secure seed next fall from known varieties, and thus be sure of the pedigree of the seedlings.