POTATO CULTURE. 453 



under ordinary culture, and it will hardly sustain itself through 

 the season. 



Mr. Luce, The gentleman says that by using a large amount 

 of seed you will get an increased yield, more than enough to pay 

 for the expense of the seed. I wish to ask him this question : 

 Shall we get enough more to payfor the extra amount of seed, 

 and for the labor in thinning the stalks down to two, three or four ? 



Mr. Gilbert. I think so, decidedly, but my answer is only a 

 matter of judgment. It is not exactly established just how much 

 you would receive. 



Secretary Goodale. A good deal having been said on light or 

 heavy seeding, both pro and con, I would like to add a word. It 

 might be expected from analogy that the tubers would yield, not 

 what may be so properly called fertilizing matter, as valuable nour- 

 ishment to the young plants ; and furnish it too at that period of 

 its life when it would accomplish the best and largest results; that 

 is, before it is strong enough to forage upon the soil for its own 

 support. We know that milk is provided by nature for the wants 

 of the young of all mammiferous animals, and that sugar is an im- 

 portant nutritive constituent of the milk. We know also, that a 

 great many kinds of young plants are nursed on sugar contained 

 in the seeds, or, if not on ready formed sugar, yet upon sugar fur- 

 nished by the conversion of starch into sugar, which change always 

 takes place in the process of germination. It is the same change 

 which takes place in the process of malting barley. In this case 

 it is effected by subjecting the grain to the combined action of heat 

 and moisture, causing growth to begin, and then nipping that 

 growth as soon as the change is effected. The sugar thus made is 

 "switched off" from the young barley plants and run into beer 

 barrels, or into whiskey. Now, in every seed containing starch, 

 and I am not sure that any are wholly destitute, and some, like the 

 grains and horse-chestnuts, contain a good deal, this change takes 

 place at the commencement of growth. The starch of the potato, 

 when growth begins, undergoes the same conversion into sugar, 

 and it serves the same function ; it nurses the young plant. 

 If you please, you may induce the same conversion into sugar 

 by artificial means, and when obtained you may induce farther 

 changes and convert the sugar first into whiskey and next 

 into vinegar. You are all familiar with the fact of this change 

 taking place, whether all apprehend the scientific nature of that 

 change or not. Who has not observed, that towards spring the 



