THE PLANT 



59 



Since the eye is a bud and our potato plant for next 

 year is to develop from this bud, it is of much importance, 

 as we have seen, to know exactly what kind of plant our 

 potato comes from. If our potato is taken from a small 

 plant that had but a few poor potatoes in the hill, we may 

 expect the bud to produce a similar plant next year and 

 a correspondingly poor crop. We must see to it, then, 

 that our seed potatoes come from vines that were good 

 producers, because new 

 potato plants are like 

 the plants from which 

 they were grown. Of 

 course we cannot tell 

 when our potatoes are 

 in the bin from what 

 kind of plants they came. 

 We must therefore select 

 our seed potatoes in the 

 field. Seed potatoes 

 should al way s b e 



selected from those hills 



. , FIG. 46. BEGONIA LEAF CUTTING 



that produce most 



bountifully. Be assured that the increased yield will richly 

 repay this care. It matters not so much whether the seed 

 potato be large or small ; it must, however, come from a 

 hill bearing a large yield of fine potatoes. 



Sweet potato plants are produced from shoots, or grow- 

 ing buds, taken from the potato itself, so that in their 

 case too the piece that we use in propagating is a part 

 of the original plant, and will therefore be like it under 

 similar conditions. Just as with the Irish potato, it is 



