CUTTING AND PREPARING THE SEED TO PLANT 45 



CUTTING AND PREPARING THE SEED TO PLANT 



CHAPTER III. 



FTER the seed potatoes have been greened 

 (when greening is needed), they are cut, limed 

 and allowed plenty time to heal over before 

 planting. The potato should be cut, first, 

 lengthwise through the bud-eye cluster or blossom end, and 

 then crosswise, depending upon the size of potatoes used. 

 Each seed piece should weigh not less than two ounces. 

 However, the piece at the stem-end should be larger, as 

 this end of the potato is weaker and therefore more subject 

 to disease than the bud-eye end. It is essential that they be 

 of good size, as each seed piece must have strength enough 

 to support a sprout, or sprouts (as the case may be), until 

 the feed roots are able to support them. The sprouts take 

 all the strength from the seed piece until the feed roots are 

 long enough, when the little "pumps" on the end of the 

 roots start working and drawing up the plant food by ca- 

 pillary attraction from the soil. Therefore we would rea- 

 sonably conclude the advantage of using a large seed piece. 

 If it is not large enough the sprout will be stunted and the 

 crop likewise will be lessened. There should be one or more, 

 and not over three, good eyes in each piece, and the eye or 



