SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 893 



■expect a failure. Be sure and get your soil in a loose and fine condition, 

 and always bear in mind, a crop well put in is half tended. Then, plant 

 as soon as the weather seems favorable, without subjecting the young 

 plants to severe cold. Planting should be done at such a time or date, as 

 to bring the stage of growth, during which the tubers are rapidly develop- 

 ing, at a time w^hen there is ordinarily an adequate supply of moisture, 

 in order that the tubers may have the moisture that they may fully 

 develop. 



DEPTH OF PLANTING. 



The roots of a young potato plant does not grow directly from the 

 seed piece, but from the under ground joints or nodes of the stem. From 

 these underground nodes also grow the short stems which bear the tubers 

 at their extremities. Hence, the seed pieces should be planted deep 

 enough in the soil to permit several of those joints to form below the 

 surface, so as to afford room for an ample supply of roots and tuber bear- 

 ing stems to grow. Very deep planting is open to objections because 

 of the increased labor of harvesting. Very shallow planting reduces the 

 yield and injures the quality of the crop. 



CHANGE OF SEED. 



Experience teaches that it is very beneficial to change seed potatoes to 

 different kinds of soil every few years. To make this change, tubers of 

 some desired strain may be sent to a careful, practical potato grower some 

 distance from a locality, where there is different kind of soil, and after 

 two or three years' culture under new conditions the seed may be 

 brought back to its original home, very much improved in quality and 

 apeparance. The color of the surface of the potato resembling the 

 variety of soil it was raised on. 



SELECTING THE SEED. 



The size of the seed tubers selected is a matter of very great import- 

 ance. By selecting the largest, best and smoothest tubers from the hills 

 in which the vines are most vigorous and yield the largest number of 

 smooth and w'ell-developed tubers, we invariably obtain the best results. 



SMALL POTATOES. 



Small potatoes for seed is an important question, on which many 

 potato growers are divided. Some present the plausible argument that 

 the use of under-sized potatoes result in degeneration. It may be said 

 that the planting of small potatoes year after year will result in degenera- 

 tion. 



CUTTING THE SEED PIECES. 



Most potato growers who raise potatoes for the early market use large 

 cuttings, two and three eyes to the piece. It is important that the seed 

 pieces be large enough to furnish abundant nutriment to the shoots which 

 spring from it, and, what is more important, large pieces improve the 



