PREPARING POTATO SEED 407 



regarding varieties and types of potatoes and try to raise 

 potatoes that please them, without regard to the kind that 

 the large buyers want; consequently they experience diffi- 

 culty in selling their crop at good prices. Buyers, as a rule, 

 want medium-sized, smooth, clean, shallow-eyed potatoes of 

 good quality. If one takes into consideration the fact that 

 it costs from 5 to 10 cents more to peel a bushel of rough, 

 uneven potatoes than of smooth, uniform ones, and that the 

 loss in peeling the deep-eyed kind is very much greater, a 

 very good reason will be seen why the dealers are willing to 

 pay from 15 to 25 cents more for potatoes of a good type. By 

 growing only such potatoes as the market demands can one 

 hope to secure the best prices for one's surplus. 



552. Preparing Seed for Planting. Potatoes always 

 show a tendency to sprout as soon as the weather becomes 

 warm. The production of sprouts that are long enough to 

 break off in handling takes just so much plant food from the 

 seed tubers. Seed potatoes should be kept in a cool place 

 during the spring, and stored so that air can circulate freely 

 about them. A low temperature can usually be maintained 

 in the root cellar or basement if the windows and doors are 

 opened during the night and closed during the hotter part 

 of the day. It is usually well to treat potatoes for scab be- 

 fore planting (Section 568). 



553. Cutting Seed. Experiments have shown that pieces 

 of seed potatoes weighing 2 or 3 ounces give better yields 

 than smaller pieces. Tlie general practice, however, is to 

 I^ant about 10 bushels of seed to the acre. To plant an acre 

 with that quantity of seed, the pieces must be cut to about an 

 ounce in size, if planted at the usual distances. One eye is 

 sufficient for each piece. If one-ounce pieces are used there 

 will usually be more than one eye on each piece, but as a rule 

 only one will grow to any extent, and so the additional eyes 

 are not objectionable. When potatoes are grown on a 

 large scale, they are cut with a machine with stationarj^ 



