124 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



diiced at the rate of OoSj l)t"isliels to the acre, wliile tlie uncovered 

 seed produced but 3ir»§ bushels. 



To show the power of the potato to feed itself, and force a vigor- 

 ous growtli, a trial was made l)y selecting two potatoes weighing about 

 one-half pound eacli. From each of these was cut one of the strong- 

 est eyes, with a very small piece of potato attached to it. The two 

 eyes thus severed were planted in one hill, and the two large pott- 

 toes in the next. The plants from the large potatoes started off with 

 great vigor, while those from the single eyes started much later, and 

 made a much slower growth, and the plants never grew much more 

 than half as large as those that came from the large potatoes. On 

 harvesting the crop it was fouud that the single e3'es produced two and 

 one-fourth pounds large and ten ounces of small potatoes, while the 

 large whole potatoes produced eight pounds six ounces of large, and 

 one pound ten ounces of small potatoes, or more than three times the 

 amount produced by the single e3'es. The same experiment was tried 

 with another variet}' with very nearly the same results, the proportion 

 being more than three times the amount from the large potatoes to 

 that obtained from the single eyes. Several hundreds of trials have 

 been "riiade by myself and others to test the difference between 

 single eyes and whole potatoes, when planted in ordinar}' soil, and 

 with two exceptions, the result has been largely in favor of whole 

 potatoes. Of one hundred experiments, the result was on an average 

 as ten is to thirty-two, which is a trifle over three times as many pota- 

 toes from the whole potatoes as from the single e3'es. 



Numerous experiments have been tried with scabby potatoes, but 

 the results have been so various that no conclusions of any great 

 value have been drawn. At first there seemed to be good evidence 

 that the planting of scabby potatoes was more likel}' to produce a 

 crop of scabby potatoes, but the last three years' trial has secured 

 crops perfectly free from scab from potatoes that were very scabby 

 — ^just as free as from potatoes that were carefully selected with do 

 appearance of scab. But I am not yet satisfied that it is wise to 

 plant scabb}' potatoes. In one of my experiments with scabby po- 

 tatoes for planting, a small handful of salt was put in the hill and 

 mixed with the soil. The potatoes at harvest time were perfectly 

 smooth and free from scab, though the seed was scabby, but they 

 were no more free from scab than those by the side of them that had 

 no salt, but the yield in the salted hills was the largest, being at the 

 rate of 366| bushels to the acre, while the unsalted was but 225 



