76 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



or whole tubers. We think the majority of these ex- 

 periments is in favour of medium, or a little more 

 than medium sized roots for seed, cut into sets of 

 two or three eyes. On the principle that like pro- 

 duces like, such a seed will produce a crop of the 

 most desirable size for the table. Each eye forms 

 a distinct plant, like a kernel of corn ; and the size 

 of the tuber, and not of the set which is taken from 

 it, will give character to the product. If the variety 

 has a dwarf habit of growth, more sets may be put 

 in a hill, or they may be planted nearer in the drill, 

 than where the growth is tall, or where the tops 

 send out many lateral shoots. Rich ground will also 

 sustain a greater number of plants than poor ground. 

 The Rohan, and we are told, also, the forty-fold, re- 

 quire thin planting. The object should be to give 

 the plants a good pasture, and not to have the top-s 

 so thick as to exclude the solar rays from the soil. 



To produce early potatoes, or to bring a crop to ear- 

 ly maturity, it is advised to gather the seed before 

 it has attained maturity, to expose it some days to 

 the influence of the sun, and to select the top ends 

 for the earlier crop. We have a strong illustration 

 of the correctness of these conclusions in London's 

 Gardeners' Magazine. A correspondent of that jour- 

 nal made the experiment : he dug every other row 

 of a potato patch for seed while the vines were fresh, 

 and exposed them in the sun until they had become 

 green. In February he cut them crosswise, leaving 

 the bottom and top in separate sets. He cut those 

 which had been suffered to ripen in a similar man- 

 ner, and planted the four kinds in alternate rows. 

 They were all planted on stable litter, and covered 

 with about three inches of earth. A part of each 

 kind received no subsequent earthing. We give the 

 result in the writer's own words. 



"The early potatoes not earthed up grew close 

 around the stock or stem, like eggs in a nest, and so 

 near the surface of the ground that they might be 



