Potatoes The Seed. 173 



start on, it is quite a saving in cost of production, and pays for a 

 little extra care. 



There is a difference in varieties, though, about amount of 

 seed required. The Early Ohio grows a small top and sets few 

 tubers and needs more seed or the pieces very close together, in 

 order to get a good yield per acre. Planted as I do New Queen, 

 it would not yield half as much on my soil. The Freeman is of 

 the snowflake family, and these are inclined to set too many tubers, 

 even with one-eye cutting. The Early Rose, Beauty of Hebron, 

 Monroe, etc., are all right, cut to one eye. The old Peachblow 

 did better with more seed. Mr. Carman says he has a potato that 

 will not start sprouts from all its eyes. Of course, this could not 

 be cut to one eye. But these are exceptions. I was a good deal 

 laughed at many years ago for cutting such small pieces, pitied 

 because I did not know any better, etc., but now aU my neigh- 

 bors do the same on many acres, and so do many of our large 

 growers the country over. Of course, the plant will not start as 

 thriftily as with a whole tuber for seed, or a half one, but pota- 

 toes at $i a bushel are pretty dear manure. Feed and care will 

 make them end just as well. I never plant small ones. Like 

 tends towards producing like. The best are none too good for 

 seed. And yet with conditions right you might not for a single 

 season notice any difference in yield between small seed and large. 

 But I do not like to let down the bars towards deterioration. 

 Plant culls every year and you will in time pay the penalty, 

 sooner or later, according as you may care for them otherwise. 

 All of these numerous points I settled for myself years ago by 

 experiments, but I cannot stop to go into details too much, or 

 the whole book would be about potatoes. I can change the 

 shape of a potato by selection for a few years ; strange if little 

 seed has no influence. If you want to do your best, go in the 

 field and dig by hand, and select best tubers from best hills, from 

 hills that without any apparent reason are much better than their 

 neighbors. I did this for years, and it paid. With machine dig- 

 ging we cannot and do not do it, and varieties do not hold out as 

 long. 



It takes about eight bushels of large seed to plant an acre as 

 we cut and plant. To do the cutting we use a very thin-bladed 

 knife, such a one as is good for paring potatoes. If the blade is 

 thick, grind it until it is little thicker than paper. A very thin 

 knife blade goes through the potatoes easier. Wind some cloth 

 around your finger so the back of the thin blade will not cut it. 

 I do not like the curved knives. They are harder to use and 

 pieces grow no better. We carefully tested the matter by plant- 

 ing an acre cut that way. "To cut, take potato in left hand with 

 the stem end down. Cut with a slanting cut beginning at the stem 

 and turning tuber after cutting each one-eye piece off. You will 

 soon learn to get the same amount of tuber in each piece, not 



