New Series, Supplement to February, 1906. 



431 



— it cannot be cured any more than whooping-cough can. Protection Hes 

 in covering the foUage by Bordeaux mixture, appHed before the dead- 

 beat plants can get a start. The most effective Bordeaux mixture is in 

 a hquid form and is sprayed on the plants. 



the potatoes 



In planting potatoes, we use pieces of potato for seed with one or 

 more " eyes " or buds on them. When a shoot springs from the eye it is 

 sustained by the starch stored in the fleshy part of the potato until it 

 develops feeding roots and leaves, and is able to support itself by its own 

 roots and starch factories. 



Some people think that the potatoes grow on the same roots that take 



1 



Underground part of potato plant in mellow soil. 



water to the leaves, but that is a mistake ; they grow on underground 

 branches. I wish you would see what goes on in the soil in a hill of 

 potatoes. Look at the stem where it comes through the surface and 

 follow it down into the soil until you come to its end. There you find the 

 seed pieces that were planted. They were once fresh and plump. The 

 pieces are now practically dead, but before giving up their lives they 

 started a prosperous family. Observe, if you will, the fine thread-like 

 roots spreading out in all directions. They seem to grow in sets, and 

 each set starts from about the same point in the stem, and from the 

 center of these clusters or sets of roots there grows an underground 

 branch. At the end of the underground branch you will find the potato. 

 The fine roots are what supply the leaves or starch factories with moisture 

 and such raw material as is needed from the soil. These roots show great 

 energy in reaching out after moisture and food, and sometimes get into 

 the pasture belonging to the potatoes in the next hill. 



