POTATOES. 345 



the soil around the bottom of the stem to retain moisture about the roots until they have 

 become established in their new home. A cloudy day, or near evening, is the best time for 

 doing this, as the hot sun will otherwise be liable to wither and destroy many of the young 

 plants. They can be set in drills or hills the same as tubers are planted. These plants are 

 generally quite vigorous, after getting well started, and will grow rapidly. The pieces of potato 

 from which these cuttings or slips are taken will continue to send out shoots to an almost 

 incredible extent, which can be removed in the same manner as the first as soon as they are 

 long enough for the purpose. In order to increase the crop still more, the first cuttings may 

 themselves furnish slips when they are eight or ten inches high, by having their tops removed 

 about four inches, and planted in the same manner as the first. Sprouts will soon start from 

 the base of the lower leaves of the first set, when this method is practiced. This is a laborious 

 mode of propagating, but may be employed with advantage and profit where new and high- 

 priced varieties are being introduced. No cuttings should be planted after the middle of 

 July in a northerly climate, as they will not have sufficient time to mature before cold weather. 

 It is stated that a pound of tubers, which will contain about four of medium size, will fur 

 nish by three cuttings a total of about two thousand slips or plants to be set out. 



Two Crops of Potatoes a Year. The following method of producing two crops 

 of potatoes in one season is recommended by B. K. Bliss & Sons, of New York, and will 

 prove of advantage to those who may wish to increase their potato product in this manner, 

 which, whether regularly practiced or not, may be desirable in certain circumstances, such as 

 for the propagation of a sufficient supply of seed potatoes of some choice kinds for the 

 succeeding year. 



&quot; Take good, sound, early potatoes and cut into single eyes (as shown in the cut previously 

 described). Allow these pieces to dry for a day or two, and then plant as early as the ground 

 can be worked (a slight frost will not injure the potato after being well planted). With ordi 

 narily favorable weather the new crop of tubers will mature in from eight to ten weeks. As 

 soon as they are ripe, dig them, and after remaining a day or two in some dry and warm 

 place proceed to cut them to a single eye as before. Place the pieces thus obtained in pans 

 or boxes containing dry plaster or gypsum. This absorbs the moisture, which would other 

 wise greatly check the growth if it did not destroy the sets entirely. Allow them to remain 

 in the plaster for ten or twelve days, or until the eyes commence to start, when they are to be 

 taken out and planted as before. In the latitude of New York this is only applicable to early 

 varieties, like the famous Early Rose, or Extra Early Vermont, which are of quick growth, 

 and early maturity ; but in many parts of the South, where the growing season is long, it may 

 be practiced indiscriminately upon all varieties. A gentleman raised two crops of Early 

 Rose, a short time since, in this vicinity, the two crops yielding an aggregate weight of twenty- 

 five hundred pounds. He planted his pound, cut into single eyes, early in March, and dug 

 his first crop about the middle of May. These were then treated as above described and 

 planted the 10th of June, and the second crop dug the 1st of September. The yield from the 

 one pound at the first digging was fifty pounds, and the second crop of this increase was twen 

 ty-five hundred pounds, or over forty bushels. This method is within the reach of all, and 

 there is no extra expense incurred for hot-bed sashes or any other forcing requisites.&quot; 



Hybridizing Potatoes. Many of our best varieties of potatoes were produced by 

 hybridization, which usually results in a larger number of good kinds than by planting the 

 seed of the seed-balls at random. It is accomplished by selecting for this purpose a few of 

 the most perfect flowers from the most thrifty and vigorous stalks, and removing all the other 

 flowers except those to be hybridized ; the anthers (or those parts of the stamens containing 

 the pollen or fertilizing dust,) of the blossoms to be impregnated are carefully cut out with a 

 pair of sharp scissors. This should be done just before they commence to cast their pollen. 



