No. i. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 699 



had an opportunity to do anything with it, we found so many volun- 

 teer potatoes coming that we concluded to let them grow. The 

 weeds were pulled and chopped out by hand, and in November we 

 dug a fine crop of potatoes from thetse broadcast volunteers. We 

 wrote to friend® in southeast Virginia that there they could do this 

 thing regularly, and from that time the growing of the second crop 

 from seed of the first crop took its rise. Of late, parties about Louis- 

 ville, Kentucky, have been claiming that the practice originated 

 there, but we are not disposed to yield the claim to the origination 

 of the idea. * * * * Our practice is to take the potatoes as 

 soon as dug in June, clip oif a thin shaving from the seed end, and 

 then spread them in a single layer in any convenient place and cover 

 them about an inch over the top with soil. The land is prepared 

 for the late crop by running deep furrows, going twice in a furrow 

 and cleaning it ont. Then at any time, last of July and early August, 

 as the bedded potatoes start sprouts, we plant the sprouted ones 

 (and no others) without any further cutting, and cover very shal- 

 lowly in the deep furrows. Planting continues until the middle of 

 August, though, in some seasons, those that sprout later will make 

 a. crop, but the middle of August is usually as late as is safe. As 

 the potatoes make green tops, the soil is worked into the furrows, 

 until, finally, all is level. The cultivation is as level as possible, the 

 object being to conserve moisture. If covered in full in the deep 

 furrow at once, few of them would' grow, but by gradually filling, 

 we get the roots well down in the moist earth and then cultivate flat 

 to keep all moisture there. The importance of this crop as a seed 

 crop cannot be over-estimated. They are gradually making their 

 way northward for spring planting, and as all who have tried them 

 find the crop better and earlier than from the northern seed, market 

 gardeners will be compelled to use them if they are to compete with 

 their neighbors who do. In our own experiments here, we used 

 second-crop seed' raised from potatoes from New York and Maine, 

 planted alongside of potatoes brought the second spring from the 

 same stocks. The growth from the home raised seed was much more 

 robust than from the northern seed, and when the potatoes were 

 dug there was not a potato in the crop from the northern seed that 

 would not have been classed as a culling in the crop from our home- 

 grown seed. The late southern crop of potatoes, dug last of No- 

 vember or first of December, have not started a sprout when plant- 

 ing time comes here in February, and kept in a cool, dark cellar they 

 will not start a sprout until after planting time north. They thus 

 start with the full, strong growth of the terminal bud, and make a 

 strong, erect main stem; while the northern potatoes, lying many 

 months in cellar, have to have the sprouts rubbed off, and their 



