344 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



trouble, is to put a few well-selected, smooth tubers of medium size in a warm room in the 

 latter part of winter or early in the spring, and placed where they can have the light of the 

 sun and artificial heat of the room. This should be done long before there are any indications 

 of the soil being ready to work. The sprouts will soon begin to start and will continue to 

 expand and grow vigorously, though slowly, producing very desirable plants for the 

 future crop. As soon as the soil is dry and warm enough for planting, these tubers should 

 be carefully cut the same as for ordinary planting, taking care not to break off the sprouts. 

 The pieces should be set out with care as above directed, and if properly managed will sur 

 prise the grower by the early maturity of the crop. 



Cultivation. Frequent stirring of the soil and freedom from weeds are indispensable to 

 a large yield of potatoes. It is a good plan to plant rather deep, and give the soil one or two 

 good harrowings before the young plants make their appearance from the ground, in order to 

 cheek the weeds. Even after they are well started and are from two to three inches high, 

 many farmers use the harrow with little or no injury to the plants, as they are then well- 

 rooted and have a firm hold upon the soil, and if a few become broken off, the new shoots 

 will grow very rapidly to take their places. By these repeated harrowings in the early stages 

 of growth, the after cultivation is made much more easy, as it effectually checks the weeds at 

 this period and prevents their getting a hold upon the soil. 



When the plants are well up, the cultivator or horse-hoe can be used to good advantage. 

 If the planting is in hills, the ground should be stirred between them by running the cultivator 

 in both directions, which can be brought quite close to the plants without injury ; if planted 

 in drills it can be used only in one direction, between the rows. This stirring of the soil 

 should be frequent, in order to check the weeds and keep the ground mellow and open to 

 atmospheric influences. 



After the plants have made their appearance, some farmers make a practice of top-dress 

 ing with compost, chip manure, or a little plaster and ashes in which a small proportion of salt 

 has been mixed ; this stimulates the growth of the plants, and the latter has also a tendency to 

 keep off for a time injurious insects. The hilling horse-hoe is often used for this purpose. 

 Some farmers follow the practice of harrowing the whole surface, as has previously been sug 

 gested, regardless of rows, a week or more before the shoots come up, and then drag with a 

 smoothing harrow just before they break the ground, which will kill all the weeds that are 

 then up, using it once or twice after they are above ground. After this, the cultivator is run 

 between the rows two or three times before the plants blossom, after which they will require 

 no further cultivation, providing the weeds have previously been properly kept down. 



No culture should be given after the blossoms begin to appear, as it will cause the set 

 ting of a new lot of tubers and thus prove a great injury to the crop. The use of the hand- 

 hoe may be necessary in potato culture, in order to destroy a few weeds that are nearest the 

 plants and may be so located as not to be accessible to the cultivator or horse-hoe. It was 

 formerly a custom among some farmers to pick off all the buds before tfiey opened in blossoms, 

 in order to improve the crop, but the slight gain thus obtained does not repay the labor, and 

 the practice is now obsolete. 



How to Raise from Cuttings. An ordinary hot-bed is usually employed for the 

 purpose of starting the tubers. These should be cut lengthwise in halves and planted with 

 the flat or cut side down upon the soil. They are to be kept dry until the cut part has become 

 healed and the sprouts begin to start. When the sprouts are grown about four inches they 

 may be cut off from half to three-fourths of an inch above the eye, and set in the soil of the 

 hot-bed an inch or more in depth. They should be kept shaded from the sun, and the soil 

 moistened until they are well rooted and the leaves begin to develop, when they can be trans 

 planted to a well-prepared field, taking care not to injure the roots in so doing, and to press 



