i 4 6 



Commercial Gardening 



This experiment again is a strong argument in favour of wider plant- 

 ing than usual. Not only is a heavier crop produced at less cost, but 

 the general sample in the 3-ft. -apart plots will be superior to that from 

 the 2-ft.-apart ones. 



"Cut" versus " Whole" Sets. This matter is frequently debated, 

 but, so far as actual results go, there is very little to chose between 

 good medium -sized sets (say about 3 oz. each) and cut sets of large 

 potatoes, as may be seen from the following figures: 



VI. EXPERIMENT WHOLE SETS VERSUS CUT SETS MYATT'S ASHLEAF 



It will thus be seen that although there was 2i Ib. more weight from 

 the whole sets than from the cuts, and 643 tubers against 538, the 

 average weight of the whole-set tubers was slightly inferior to those 

 of the cut-set tubers. Somewhat similar results were obtained in ex- 

 periments carried out at the Cheshire County Council's Agricultural and 

 Horticultural School in 1899, as the following figures testify: 



CUT SETS VERSUS WHOLE SETS 



In connection with this experiment it was remarked: "In planting cut 

 and whole sets there appears to be very little difference in the yield. 

 The average returns of sixteen trials during four years with eight varieties 

 show that whole sets give slightly better results, with a gain of 9 cwt. 

 of saleable potatoes per acre, and that cut sets gave 1 cwt. per acre more 



