POTATO CULTURE. 429 



be traced to causes outside the usual course of cultivation. In a 

 large majority of the comparative experiments reported — in nearly 

 all of them in fact — ^the best yield per acre, other things being 

 equal, has been obtained by planting large potatoes whole, or their 

 equivalent in weight if cut. It makes no difference with the 

 result, whether the seed be whole when planted or whether equal 

 weights which have been cut from larger potatoes be substituted. 

 The seed planted gives strength and sustenance to the plant till 

 such time as the roots of the plant have expanded and extended 

 into the surrounding soil, and are henceforth enabled to sustain 

 their growth from that source alone, when the seed decays. The 

 larger the potato which a given number of stalks have to feed 

 upon, if the expression be allowed, the more vigorous and healthy 

 the growth, and the better the yield at harvest. I am aware that 

 the present method of multiplying choice kinds, by cutting the 

 seed planted into very small fragments, by dividing the eyes, by 

 cutting ofi" slips, &c., gives a seeming fallacy to such a theory. 

 It is, however, only a seeming fallacy . These skillful practitioners 

 suljstitute, through the agency of high cultivation and liberal 

 manuring, an art which they well understand, artificial sustenance 

 to the young plant, in place of that supplied in a natural way in 

 our common field cultivation. The plant therefore grows, and 

 vigorously, too, notwithstanding its slender support from the seed, 

 while under ordinary cultivation it would hardly hold life enough 

 to sustain existence. 



The course pursued by professional propagators with high priced 

 new varieties is of very questionable utility. Is there not danger 

 that the vitality, the vigor, the constitution of the kind be greatly 

 impaired, if not quite destroyed, by the present methods of propa- 

 gation practiced by them, before they are generally disseminated, 

 and the world lose what otherwise would have been a healthy, 

 vigorous and valuable potato ? The connection between the plant 

 and the potato from which it was produced is so slight, that 

 though the variety be rej)roduced,. the vitality may be impaired. 

 Experience has proved this to be true of other plants, why may 

 it not be so of the potato ? May not the tendency to rot, so man- 

 ifest in some of these celebrated kinds, be attributed to these 

 causes ? The point is certainly worthy of consideration. 



But let us, after this slight digression, return to the planting. 



For planting, then, fully developed, healthy, good sized pota- 

 toes should be selected and planted whole, or if too large cut to 



