POTATO CULTURE. 185 



last season, and afterward green up and grow for some time. 

 There were no prongs. The smaller tubers made use of the 

 new supply of food, and the large ones ripened. There is, as 

 you must have noticed, a greater tendency to grow prongs 

 where the ground is hard, as at the ends of the field where 

 the horses have tramped the soil much in turning. Two or 

 three wrote me this year, asking what they had better do 

 when their potatoes began a second growth and were getting 

 prongy. I advised them to dig and sell at once, if there was 

 a good demand. They were not ripe enough to store safely. 

 If they could not sell them green, why, they must let them 

 grow, although the crop would be very unsatisfactory when 

 badly covered with prongs. 



CONCLUSION. 



This book was mostly written and put in type early in the 

 summer ; but later the publishers decided to wait and get in 

 this chapter with this year's experiences; so you can see 

 why they are given by themselves, instead of in their proper 

 place in the book. 



Now, friends, please do not write me, asking questions 

 about this and that. Every thing has been plainly told you 

 somewhere in the book. I would willingly write to you ; but 

 there are thousands of you, and only one of me, and I get so 

 tired of writing. It looks mean not to answer a friend's 

 letter (to him), even if you are so tired you can not sleep. 



