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with the best effect. Even Loudon used to feed horses on potatoes, 

 boiled and mixed with cut hay and straw, and judged that, for this 

 purpose, one acre of potatoes went as far as four acres of hay. In 

 Scotland this kind of food is given to horses, even when on the 

 hardest work, and is found both wholesome and economical. 



In this stage of our experience, it is impossible to affirm anything 

 positively, as to the comparative value of potatoes as food for cattle. 

 It is worth while for farmers to repeat and continue their experi- 

 ments, keeping accurate accounts of the expense and the results. 



3. Planting. 



"What ought we to plant ? Large potatoes or small ? The whole 

 or a part ? Or without reference to these distinctions ? The reason 

 is not evident, or, to say the least, has not been confirmed by suffi- 

 cient experiment, why we should depart from the analogy of other 

 things, which we must do, if we select for seed the smallest and 

 poorest potatoes. We purchase, at high prices, the ripest and 

 soundest corn, wheat, and oats. We carefully save that stem of a 

 cabbage which ripens first. In raising domestic animals, we choose 

 for parents the noblest specimens of their respective species. 

 Deterioration follows a neglect of this rule. But of late years some 

 farmers have chosen small potatoes for seed, and justify their choice 

 by its results. It is possible that a large crop may be grown from 

 such seed. But has the experiment been tried on a scale sufficiently 

 large to justify us in laying down a general rule ? One of the most 

 intelligent farmers in this county prefers small seed potatoes, for the 

 reason that they are less ripe than the largest ; that they have a 

 greater power of reproduction than those which have exhausted their 

 energies in growing and ripening ; and that plants raised from unripe 

 tubers are earlier and stronger than from over-ripe. If there is any 

 force in this reasoning, would it not be better to dig the potatoes 

 intended for seed a little before they are quite ripe, when the stalk 

 begins to wither, and then to save for planting the fairest and largest? 

 These will produce not only larger potatoes, but a greater number of 

 them. 



The best cultivators in England plant only the finest specimens. 

 Professor Low says, " when proper care is bestowed, large and well- 

 shaped tubers are selected for planting." Von Thaer says, " small 



