CERTIFICATION ARRIVES (1916-1950)

The potato industry on P.E.l. received a tremendous boost in 1916 with the inception of a seed potato industry. In 1914, the United States placed an embargo on Maritime potatoes because ofthe powdery scab disease. This embargo was lifted later in the same year, on the provision that every bag of potatoes shipped had a certificate or tag guaranteeing the contents were free of the disease. In 1915, the P.E.I. Plant Pathology Laboratory was established in Charlottetown under the direction of Dr. Paul A. Murphy and Mr. Sidney G. Peppin. They proved from laboratory testing and spraying for control of late blight that disease free or relatively disease free potatoes could be grown on the Island. In 1916, a Seed Potato Certification Service was organized and by 1918 samples of Island grown Green Mountain potatoes were found to be disease free after tests at Riverhead, New York. Growers had to be taught how to grade their potatoes and Mr. Peppin spent a day with each grower. Farmers crawled by hands and knees over the potato pile picking potatoes

into baskets.

Paul Murphy was aware that white potatoes were favored by most markets and he introduced the Green Mountain and Irish Cobbler varieties in 1916. It was also well known that northern grown potatoes had good yields in Southern countries like Bermuda. Combined with seed certification this opened a vast market for PE]. grown potatoes. The first carload of Island grown seed potatoes, Irish Cobblers, was shipped to

Ontario by William H. MacGregor of Lot 16.

In 1918 Agriculture Canada recommended the following varieties to growers on P.E.I.: Early Crop: Early Rose, Irish Cobbler.

Main Crop: Green Mountain, Table Talk, McIntyres. Bermuda Market: Garnet Chili, Bliss Triumph.

Green Mountains and Cobblers became the main seed potato strains for the next forty years. In 1920, a total of 886 acres were grown as certified seed on P.E.I. and by 1951 the total had increased to 21,771.5 acres.

Inspection of table potatoes began in 1922 under the promotion of J. Lester Douglas, M.P. He was followed by Chester Shaw in insisting on high quality tablestock potatoes and by 1951 a total of almost 10,000

acres were being grown for inspection.

The increase in quality and quantity of both seed and tablestock potatoes is also attributed to an increased use of pesticides. Paul A. Murphy estimated that one third of the potato crop used to be lost due to late blight and dry rot. In 1917, field tests of Green Mountains and Cumming’s Pride strains showed that 50-100% of this loss could be prevented by chemical spraying. Potatoes were sprayed for blight with a mixture of four pounds copper sulphate (bluestone), four pounds of stone lime, and forty gallons of water. This was known as the Bordeaux Mixture. The Colorado Potato Beetle was controlled by at least four insecticides in the early 19205; arsenate oflime, arsenate of lead, arsenate of zinc and Paris Green. The first pesticides were applied with a hand sprayer, but by 1920 horse driven “power” Sprayers like the “Watson” and “Spraymotor” were coming into general use.

Freetown farmers began to grow seed potatoes in the early 1920s. The largest growers were Austin A. Scales, Lewis & Lewis, and Simmons & MacFarlane Ltd. Smaller growers included: Leonard McCarville,

Ray Lidstone, George Paynter, William Rogers, Brewer Auld, D.M. Bernard, George Jardine and John A. Campbell.

Austin Scales planted his first crop of seed potatoes in Freetown on the Jonah Lewis property (code 66) beginning in April of 1921. Johnny Lewis and Ray Lidstone were in charge ofgrowing his seed potatoes. Mr. Scales purchased his first land at Freetown, one hundred and forty-seven acres (code 74) from James Smith in March 1922 and also built a storage warehouse, measuring thirty by fifty feet, with a ten foot cellar along the RBI. railroad in Upper Freetown (code 74). He then purchased forty acres from Russell Reeves (code 73) in September 1923, followed by another purchase of one hundred and twenty-two acres from Charles Holmes (code 20) in September 1924. Austin Scales grew 105 acres of seed potatoes that year with an average yield of 245 bushels per acre. A breakdown of his costs for the year are as follows:

Seed .............................................................. $ 17.42 per acre Fertilizer .......................................................... 18.60 per acre Spray ............................................................. 4.15 per acre Wages ............................................................ 27.08 per acre Horses ............................................................ 9.30 per acre Storage ........................................................... 4.00 per acre

46