CAREFUL reading of the article by L. H. Bailey in the November Garden fails to convince me that the "influence of latitude upon potatoes'* has so much to do with the yield as he claims. One experiment fails to prove anything conclusively. Were the potatoes he procured from T. C. Davenport's warehouse Pennsylvania grown ? Mr. Davenport claims to deal in eastern stock, mainly Prince Edward Island and other stocks grown far east or north, and I have no reason to doubt that this is the case, as I have repeatedly bought through my agents, for sale or planting in the spring, from Mr. Davenport, and I have never had any reason to think they were not eastern or northern seed as claimed.

Careful experiments conducted in this vicinity by conscientious and painstaking experimenters have proven conclusively that the best seed potatoes to plant are the second crop potatoes grown on the Delaware, Maryland and Virginia peninsula and perhaps farther south. By "second crop" is meant the matured early potatoes planted in February or March. After maturing and being dried or cured, they are planted again, producing a moderate crop of far finer tubers late in the season than can be grown in the north. Were they grown in sufficient quantities to market, they would sell for more money in Philadelphia or New York markets than any northern potatoes offered, but so far as we know, none are sent to the larger markets, though at least one dealer in Maryland makes a specialty of them and is able to sell them at remunerative prices.

The fact is that the talk about northern seed potatoes being so much superior to southern is "all bosh." It is and has been the custom for a long time for our border state farmers to send their potatoes to northern markets in the spring to their commission men and receive, perhaps, fifty to sixty cents per bushel for Early Rose potatoes, and order from the same commission men northern-grown seed potatoes for which they were compelled to pay $1 to $1.25 per bushel.

An amusing true story is told of a Caroline county, Maryland, farmer who shipped some Early Rose potatoes to his Philadelphia commission man and at the same time ordered a barrel of the best northern-grown Early Rose potatoes for planting. In the meantime his jack-knife, which he highly prized, had been lost and could not be found, but when his barrel of seed was unpacked his knife was found among the potatoes ! It was the identical barrel of potatoes sent by the farmer to the commission man, and returned as "best northern seed potatoes." Seed potatoes that have the most unexpended vitality will give the best results. Potatoes grown in the far north and kept there or elsewhere in a dormant condition till planting time have the most starch and other nutriment for the young plant. If their vitality has been expended in sprouting, as is often the case, they cannot support the young plant until it is able to draw its nourishment from the soil, and it fails to produce a full crop. This is why second crop potatoes, grown where second crops are possible, give the largest yields. .

Delaware. R. W. Hargadinb.

[Note. - The potatoes procured from T. C. Davenport, in the tests under discussion, were obtained purposely for the experiment, and were Pennsylvania grown, as stated in the article in The American Garden for November. - L. H. B].