I 4 o ELEMENTARY AGRICULTURE 



should be planted about four inches deep, in rows 

 three feet apart, and about two feet apart in the row. 

 Extensive experiments, carried on by the different 

 agricultural stations, show that the seed potatoes 

 should be cut in halves or quarters. When the price 

 of seed potatoes is very high, they may be cut in 

 smaller pieces of as nearly equal size as possible. No 

 bad results have come from planting small potatoes, 

 though one would naturally think that small potatoes, 

 used as seed, would give small potatoes in return. It 

 must be remembered, however, that the potato is not 

 a seed, but an underground stem, and that it does not 

 bear the same relation to the crop that the seed does. 

 Like the seed, it serves as a storehouse for the growing 

 plant, and if the pieces are of sufficient size to furnish 

 this food matter, the next crop will not be affected by 

 the size of the potato planted. 



Prevention of Potato Rot. To prevent rot or blight 

 the seed should be rolled in sulphur, the vines sprayed 

 with Bordeaux mixture as soon as blight appears, and 

 rotation of crops practiced. In no case should pota- 

 toes be planted on the same ground w r here the previous 

 crop has been affected, as the spores are in the soil 

 and will surely attack them. 



ONIONS. 



Advantages of Raising Onions. Not enough onions 

 are grown in the United States to supply the demand. 

 Millions of bushels are annually imported. They yield 

 heavily, sometimes as much as a thousand bushels per 



