56 How THE FARM PAYS. 



eyes, the temperature of the greenhouse averaging, perhaps, seventy- 

 five degrees. 



As soon as the shoots got to be three or four inches in length, they 

 were cut off about one-fourth of an inch from the surface of the potato, 

 or far enough from the surface so as not to injure the dormant eyes 

 that were yet to start. The slips were then placed in the prop- 

 agating house, and shaded and watered until rooted in the usual way. 

 They were then potted in small pots, in ordinary soil, and started to 

 grow in the same temperature in which the potato had been placed. 

 As the season advanced, shoots in great numbers were thrown out by 

 the potato, which, in turn, were submitted to the same process of 

 rooting. As the first shoots grew to lengths of five or six inches 

 the tops were cut from these and used as cuttings, so that by the end 

 of May this small potato of five ounces had given me nearly 150 

 plants, every one of which was equal to a " set " made from a tuber. 

 These were planted out on the first week in June, in land very ill 

 suited for the growth of the potato, and the crop, when dug, 

 weighed exactly 450 pounds, or an increase of about 1,800 fold. 

 It may be asked if this process is of any practical value, or whether 

 it will pay. It is not claimed that there is any use in the practice 

 when potatoes are sold at ordinary rates; but, when they are sold 

 at the rates even yet paid for new varieties, there is no doubt 

 of its utility. For instance: one pound of potatoes so grown will 

 easily produce 500 plants, making 500 hills, which, with ordinary cul- 

 ture, will give three pounds per hill or 1,500 pounds. The process of 

 rooting the slips is neither difficult nor costly, and can be done 

 in a common hot-bed. The ordinary hot-bed sash, four by six 

 feet, will hold 600 plants, if placed in the soil of the hot-bed just 

 as lettuce or cabbage plants are planted out, and treated much in the 

 same way by careful shading and watering until the cuttings have 

 rooted. These, as they grow, make other cuttings from the top, 

 as before described. Without resorting to the glass propaga- 

 tion at all, a potato crop may be doubled or trebled in quan- 

 tity by "slipping" the shoots, and planting them out at once in 

 the field, if there is a continuance of rainy weather for two or three 

 days at the time. This should be done in June. The thinning out 

 of shoots from the regular planting will do no injury to the 

 plants. It is not claimed that the growing of potatoes in this 

 way is new; in fact, it may be doubted if there is much new in 

 agriculture; processes that are suggested to us by circumstances 

 to-tlay may have been practiced by others centuries ago, and if pub- 

 lished to the world at all have long since been forgotten; but there 

 is little doubt that this practice of growing potatoes from cuttings 



