Potato Developtnent by Farmers and Gardeners. 547 



Beyond regulating the cover night and morning, little attention 

 is needed beyond an occasional light watering, just sufficient to 

 maintain a slight moisture, which is largely regulated by the power 

 of the sun. 



The planting out was done as the plants became big enough. A 

 good tilth was prepared in an ordinary field, and lines were marked 

 out by drill coulters set 32 inches apart. The plants were placed 

 about 80 inches from one another in the rows. In carting the pots to 

 the field, racks made on light frames, with divisions just narrow 

 enough to prevent the pots from slipping through, were used, and 

 each rack carried 100 pots. These are convenient also for carrying 

 the pots in the field to lay out for planting. The racks were long 

 enough to reach across the carts, one layer being placed in the 

 bottom, and another across the raves, so that it was easy to take 1,000 

 plants to the field at once. After the plants were laid out, the 

 planters, each with a garden trowel, wrenched out a hole in the loose 

 earth, and placed the plant with all the soil from the pot adhering 

 (being well held together by the roots) into the hole. Planting was 

 then completed, and the subsequent cultivation did not differ from 

 ordinary practice. The value of growing in pots was well illustrated, 

 for practically every one grew, while in a small piece not potted there 

 was a considerable percentage of misses. So robust was the growth 

 from these plants raised from single eyes that tlie large amount of 

 room allowed proved to be none too great for their development. 



By taking out each eye separately it is not difficult, with careful 

 management, to raise 100 lb. of potatoes from 1 lb. of tubers. This, 

 however, is not by any means the limit to which development may be 

 extended. The eye of a potato generally contains two to four shoots, 

 and it is possible to make use of all of these. If a potato is sprouted 

 as in the ordinary course of " boxing," and the shoots are allowed 

 to grow three or four inches in length, these may be pulled off, and if 

 carefully planted will produce plants. 



The development of a large stock of potatoes from a single tuber 

 can therefore be quickly carried out, and it will tend greatly to 

 growers' benefit when they realise how little expense need be incurred 

 in getting new stocks, even though the cost for the initial few 

 pounds at first sight appears to be great. The most expensive action 

 on the part of the grower is the growing of varieties which have been 

 cultivated so long as to have lost their original vigour, and have 

 become subject to disease. The two last years have very strongly 

 proved this. — {Journal of Board of Agriculture, ^ngla,nd, December, 

 1903.) 



