ROOT CROPS. 231 



dred bushels. I did not take a potato that would weigh less 

 than a pound, or one that had a blemish or rough place OH it, 

 and I never saw a handsomer bushel of potatoes than those se- 

 lected. I then selected enough seed for five rows of the poor- 

 est potatoes I could find. I did not select one but what was 

 less than an ounce in weight, and when I could break off a knob 

 from a big rough potato I did so. It did not take over a half 

 peck of seed to plant as much land as the bushel of large ones 

 planted. These were planted side by side, cultivated just alike, 

 and dug the same day. 



I put the product of each five rows in a pile by themselves, 

 and called a carpenter and his three assistants, who were at 

 work for me, to come and examine them, telling of the two 

 kinds of seed from which they were grown, but did not tell 

 them which pile grew from the large seed. The three young 

 men said they could see no difference in quantity or quality, but 

 the boss carpenter, after a careful examination, picked out the 

 pile grown from the small seed as having the largest proportion 

 of merchantable potatoes. 



In the fall of 1859 the potato crop was quite short. Mine 

 did not make over thirty bushels to the acre, as I see by refer- 

 ence to my diary. I assorted them into three sizes, putting the 

 very small ones by themselves, intending to cook them for the 

 pigs; but, when I was planting the next spring, I ran out of 

 seed, and so went to the barrel of very small potatoes to finish. 

 I planted nearly a half acre of this very small seed, and never 

 grew a finer crop, quality and quantity considered. Several 

 years later I planted a row of potatoes from seed so small that 

 it took ten of them to weigh an ounce, and had just as good po- 

 tatoes, both in yield and quality, as from the adjoining rows, 

 planted with selected seed. 



When this question was discussed in our farmers' club, Mr. 

 J. B. Pugh stated that, when he was living in Warren County, 

 0., there was nearly a failure of the potato crop, and seed was 

 worth two dollars per bushel. He traded a sack of oats for a 

 bushel of very small potatoes, which a neighbor was about to 

 feed to his hogs, thinking they would not do to plant. He cut 



