POTATO CULTUKE. 91 



The Aspinwall Potato-Cutter. 

 Several letters have been received lately, asking about the 

 Aspinwall potato-cutter, which was brought out last season. 

 The manufacturers have kindly sent me one for examina- 

 tion and experiment. It will cut potatoes better than some 

 men would, just as the planter will drop more accurately 

 than some would. It is not perfect, but it is quite wonder- 

 ful how well it will do. Where men are planting by ma- 

 chinery, and large areas, it will be used. If a man were 

 planting 100 acres it is doubtful whether he would get his 

 seed cut much better than this machine will do it. But it 

 does not come up to real nice expert cutting. The pieces 

 are of good shape, but vary too much in size. However, the 

 cutting can be done much faster than by hand. At one trial 

 I cut ten nice medium-sized Hebron potatoes. There were 

 30 good (except uneven in size) one-eye pieces ; 16 good two- 

 eye pieces ; 13 pieces that had i, H, or 2i eyes on ; 4 pieces 

 with no eyes on. Of the latter, two were stem-end pieces, 

 and would be as well out, and would have to be picked out 

 by hand, as the screen would not let them through. Two of 

 the pieces, without any eyes on, were large center pieces. 

 This is a fair average of work done. One good piece in 30 

 had no eye on at all. The seed end is cut off and screened 

 out fairly well. The misses would not be a very serious 

 matter, any more than the misses of the planter. Large 

 growers will take the chances, doubtless, because they can 

 cut faster. A miss of one piece in thirty means perhaps five 

 bushels short per acre, on a 200-bushel crop. At 30 cents a 

 bushel this would hire my seed nicely cut to one eye. But 

 there is another more important matter to me. Those 10 

 tubers gave only 59 pieces that would grow. We would have 

 made about 82 good one-eye pieces, of quite uniform size, 

 from the same tubers. Thus the seed would go over 33 per 

 cent farther. At a dollar a bushel this would about twice 

 pay the cost of hand- cutting. My seed will be cut by hand, 

 I assure you. This is all I can say about the cutter at present. 



