PLANTING OR CUTTING POTATOES. 327 



there is some hazard in drawing analogies between vegetable and 

 animal pathology, but the causes of disease, arising from poor 

 nutrition, original want of constitutional vigor and the changes 

 of the weather are much the same in vegetables and animals ; 

 and we are confident that one of the causes of degeneracy in the 

 potato is the want of proper nourishment when only the sprouts 

 or small pieces are planted. In these cases invariably the sprout 

 is small, grows slowly at first, and the first leaves are small and 

 shrivelled, and if the weather is unfavorable many of the sprouts 

 die. 



We knew an experiment of this sort made the past summer 

 with the Rose potato, in which three successive generations of 

 sprouts from the same eyes were planted, the first in April and 

 the two succeeding in May, and finally the tuber itself was cut 

 up and planted. The sprouts were feeble, and many of them 

 died, but by good cultivation yielded bountifully over one hun- 

 dred fold. The gain of one year will, however, be more than 

 balanced by the loss of constitution in the potato. In fact, we 

 fear the character of the Rose potato has already been injured 

 by this excessive lust of gain, prompting to this injudicious 

 mode of propagation. We know of some instances in which the 

 Rose has rotted badly the past summer, whereas such a new and 

 thoroughbred seedling, coming as it does directly from the Gar- 

 net Chili, one of the healthiest of Mr. Goodrich's varieties, and 

 boasting of a descent from a Peruvian ancestry, should not rot 

 under the most unfavorable circumstances. 



The objection to planting whole potatoes is that we get too 

 many stems growing together. It is like planting six or eight 

 kernels of corn in one hill. There is not room for proper devel- 

 opment of the seed. Such thick growth may answer for a 

 forage crop, but when the object is seed or roots the ground 

 must not be overstocked. Tlu-ee or four stems in a hill are 

 better than more. 



As large potatoes will manifestly furnish more nourishment 

 to the young shoot, it may be asked why not plant the largest 

 and thus get a vigorous start. Tiie objection to these large 

 potatoes for seed is that their tendency is to reproduce large, 

 overgrown, hollow-hearted tubers, of coarser texture and flavor 

 than the medium sized. This was the objection to the Garnet 

 Chili's on tiieir first introduction. They were too large, often 



