228 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [6:8-Nov.,1910 



detriment to the crop. Others, however, claim that there is 

 probably some advantage in selecting the tubers from the most 

 productive hills. The class decided that the safest plan was to 

 select the best tubers to save for next year's planting. 



I may add that this fall we have selected our seed tubers with 

 greater care than ever before. We have also saved some small, 

 inferior tubers. We are planning to make a test next year to see 

 whether there will be any difference in yield between the selected 

 tubers and the small ones. 



After the seed tubers were selected came the storing for the 

 winter. A study of conditions best suited to keep potatoes was 

 made and a cool, dry, dark place decided upon. In lieu of a root 

 cellar we had the tubers buried in a well-drained spot in the 

 garden. 



The work was resumed in the early spring. For our indoor 

 lessons we had some of the tubers that had been buried, some 

 that had been left in a rather warm cellar, and others that had 

 been kept in a warm, light room all winter. 



The first problem that came up for solution was whether or 

 not this that we call a seed potato is really a seed. The pupils 

 recalled the study of flowers and the forming of seeds that they 

 had had the fall before and decided that the potato is not a seed. 

 What then is it ? Some suggested that it might be a root. 



The tubers were examined and the eyes found. There was 

 no difficulty in determining that the eyes were buds, for on the 

 potatoes that had been kept in the cellar, sprouts or shoots 

 were growing from them. The pupils found that the buds were 

 arranged in regular spirals around the tubers, and that they were 

 much more numerous and smaller at one end of the potato than 

 at the other. The stem or stem-scar was found opposite the 

 smaller buds. We now had names for the potato, stem-end and 

 bud-end. 



The pupils were asked to hold the tuber by the stem-end, 

 and think what it would resemble if it were stretched out many 

 times its length but having its width reduced proportionately. 

 The reply came without hesitancy : "It would look like a stem 

 with buds on it." 



This helped the pupils to see that the potato is a thick, 

 fleshy stem, and since it grows in the ground we cay call it an 

 underground stem. They were told that this kind of underground 

 stem is called a tuber. The point was now brought out that we 



