142 



Commercial Gardening 



some years of experience in Potato growing, we may say that there is 

 little to be said one way or the other if the "seed" is sound and the 

 cultivation good. Sometimes cut tubers will show a slight increase in 

 yield over whole ones, and vice versa. The same holds good with large 

 and small tubers. Indeed some very fine yields have been obtained from 

 experiments in which only potato peelings and cuttings were used. Gene- 

 rally speaking, however, it will be found economical to plant tubers weigh- 

 ing about 3 oz. each, that is, about the size of a hen's egg. The cost of 

 seed per acre will of course depend upon the distance of planting and 

 the current price. Taking prices at 3 per ton, with furrows at 3 ft. 

 by 3 ft., 3 ft. by 1| ft., 2 ft. by 2 ft., and 2 ft. by 1 ft., the following 

 costs per acre are obtained for seed potatoes: 



The vast majority of growers use about 1J tons of seed potatoes to 

 the acre, but they will probably be astonished to find that the results 

 are not in proportion to the cost of seed, labour, manures, &c., and that 

 better* results are to be obtained with a much smaller quantity of seed. 



In selecting seed potatoes, experience seems to prove that it is wise 

 to secure immature tubers from a different neighbourhood each year. In 

 other words, it is bad business for a man to plant his own home-saved 

 seed potatoes. At one time there was a general impression that the best 

 seed potatoes came from Scotland. This, however, is by no means the 

 case, as numerous experiments prove that the seed from Ireland is as 

 good as, if not actually more reliable than, the Scottish seed. Irish seed, 

 however, has the reputation at present of not being carefully selected and 

 "rogued". The safest plan would be for English, Irish, and Scottish growers 

 to arrange for an interchange of seed, and thus maintain the vigour of the 

 different stocks by growing them in different soils and climates. 



Planting 1 Potatoes. Farmers and many market gardeners use special 

 potato-planting machines for large areas. These machines work on the 

 dredger principle, having an endless chain with a series of cups and 

 hoppers, by means of which the tubers are transmitted down funnels to 

 the drills that are opened with the same machine and afterwards 

 moulded over. Fig. 484 shows the Richmond potato planter of Messrs. 

 J. Wallace & Sons, Glasgow. "In this machine a series of cups fixed to 

 a revolving endless chain lifts the seed from the hopper and deposits the 

 tubers at equal distances in the drills. The width of the planting may 



