CHAPTER XX. 



POTATOES THE SEED. 



GREATLY dislike to plant anything but sound 

 seed that has not sprouted at all. If one plants 

 by hand the seed may have started to sprout a 

 little, particularly if kept spread in the light, and 

 these not be broken off. Machine planting will 

 destroy them about all. The first sprout makes 

 the strongest plant. The next is a provision of Nature to give a 

 man a crop who doesn't take good care of the seed, but she has 

 so arranged that he must pay the penalty of slackness. And 

 still under favorable conditions, and with large or whole seed, there 

 might not be any great difference, or possibly no difference. 

 Keep the potatoes warm all winter and sprout them two or three 

 times and they would be almost worthless for seed or eating either. 

 If they must be poorly kept I would not sprout until just before 

 planting, if they grew a foot long. Then the second sprout or 

 set of sprouts could grow, which is better than the third. Still 

 the growing of long sprouts takes from the vitality of the tuber 

 greatly. In some sections, early potatoes can hardly be kept from 

 sprouting until planting time. In such a case I would buy them 

 from the far North just before I wanted to plant. Or they may be 

 kept in cold ^tv.rage houses. I have friends in the East who keep 

 them in cold storage in the city. If kept at a temperature just a 

 little above freezing, they will not sprout. Some writers say keep 

 at a temperature not colder than 40 or they will be injured for 

 seed. All bosh! I have kept hundreds of bushels as low as 33 

 or 34 for months, and they were just prime and every eye grew. 

 I have exposed them to a temperature below freezing for a short 

 time to see the result. Potatoes cooled to 28 for a short time 

 were all right. They do not freeze as quickly as water. It takes 

 a degree of cojd out doors below freezing considerably to seriously 

 injure the vines. Keep your seed one or two degrees above freez- 

 ing in your cellar and they will be all right. Better test your 

 thermometer, however, with water to know it is right. Set some 

 on potatoes in a shallow tin and when a scale of ice begins to form 

 notice the thermometer. The seed should be covered, so that 

 when the cellar is open to let in cold air, they may not be injured 

 if it should get too cold before you noticed. For years I kept my 

 seed in this way. It was much work. We went down cellar a 

 good many times to open windows or shut them, and towards 

 spring, say in April, it is pretty difficult to keep sprouts back. 



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