The Potato in British Columbia by Cecil Tice is a substantial regional handbook issued as Bulletin No. 86 by the provincial Department of Agriculture in 1921. Its scope reaches from the history and character of the crop to seed selection, field work, storage, marketing, varieties, insects and diseases.
A regional handbook for growers
Tice writes for both farm growers and people raising potatoes in gardens. The introduction presents the crop as a source of household food and cash income, then connects improvement with cultivation, selection of planting stock and attention to crop problems.
The early chapters consider history, botanical characters, production, the chief growing sections of British Columbia and uses of the potato. A separate discussion of quality helps explain why the crop is judged by more than weight alone.
This regional setting is one of the book’s strengths. It preserves the questions a provincial agricultural service considered important to its growers, rather than presenting every district as having identical conditions.
Ground and planting stock
Climate, soils, rotation, manures, fertilizers and preparation of the ground lead into an extended treatment of seed. Here seed generally means the tubers or cut pieces used for planting.
The seed discussion is unusually detailed for a compact bulletin. It covers condition at planting time, greening, selection, certification, change of seed, immature seed, cutting, care after cutting, size of sets, number of eyes and whole versus cut tubers.
Readers comparing older growing manuals will find a useful concentration of the decisions made before a crop enters the ground. The headings also make the book easy to consult for a particular stage of the work.
An errata notice is worth reading before the main text. It corrects a sentence on sprouts so that the advice says they should not grow so long that they break off during planting.
Planting and field operations
Planting methods include hills and rows, machine and hand work, planting under sod, timing and depth. The sequence then moves to cultural methods after planting, hilling and irrigation.
This organization lets the reader follow the crop through its successive operations. Photographs and other illustrations provide evidence of the equipment, crops and working arrangements discussed in the text.
For a self-sufficiency collection, the useful connection is between decisions: the state of planting stock, the prepared ground, the planting method and later cultivation all belong to the same production system.
Harvest, storage and marketing
Harvesting is followed by picking, sorting and grading. Storage receives several distinct sections, including seed potatoes, the general crop, storage-house construction, types of storage places, pits and shrinkage.
The marketing material considers disposal of cull potatoes and preparation of railway cars for shipping. Further sections discuss growing costs, field-crop competitions and competitions for boys and girls.
These topics broaden the handbook beyond a garden planting guide. They show the relationship between crop handling, saleable quality, transport and the organization of agricultural improvement in the province.
Varieties and crop problems
The variety chapters cover standardization, production of new varieties, mixing, classification and descriptions. They help readers interpret the names and distinguishing characters used in period agricultural writing.
Insects and diseases occupy much of the later portion. The contents distinguish problems such as late blight, black scurf, wilts and rots, scab, leaf-roll and mosaic, together with several disorders and injuries.
The treatment sections include historical seed disinfectants and spray mixtures. These passages are evidence of early agricultural practice; their chemicals and recommendations require comparison with current guidance before practical use.
Audience and digital copy
This free ebook suits gardening historians, researchers of western Canadian farming and readers assembling a broad potato reference collection. Its particular value lies in bringing seed, cultivation, storage and marketing into one regional account.
The PDF has 81 digital pages, including covers, preliminary material, the contents and illustrations. The scan preserves aged paper and small type. Use the printed pagination when following the contents, and enlarge captions, tables and variety descriptions as needed.
Book details
- Author: Cecil Tice
- Publisher: Department of Agriculture, British Columbia; printed by William H. Cullin, Victoria
- Year: 1921
- Edition: Bulletin No. 86; 1921 issue
- Digital length: 81 PDF pages
- Language: English
- File size: 7.67 MB
