



THE POTATO. 197 



with few or no small ones, it should be early and be 

 popular enough in the Northern market to command the 

 highest prices. At present the " Early Kose" meets these 

 requirements and is generally the favorite, but the 

 "Beauty of Hebron," and the "Burbank," are also 

 planted. The potato grown in Bermuda is the "Chili 

 Red." 



SIZE OF SEED. 



One of the mooted questions in gardening is : whether 

 it is more advisable to plant the whole potato or to cut 

 it up into sets. The experiments undertaken to decide 

 the question have failed to establish any certain rule; and 

 the intelligent farmer will readily understand that cir- 

 cumstances must govern the case. 



The potato tuber is not a root, for it has neither root- 

 hairs itself, nor has the stem which connects it with 

 the parent stock either fibrous roots or root-hairs and, 

 therefore, provides the plant with no nourishment; nor 

 is it a seed any more than is a stick of sugar cane a seed. 

 The tubers are nourished by elaborated sap descending 

 from the leaves through the bark. The formation of 

 abnormal tubers above the ground at the point where 

 the stem of a plant has been injured by a cut- worm, or 

 otherwise, or in the axils of branches, is, among others, 

 a proof of this. The potato is an enlarged underground 

 stem, and the eyes are buds. These buds are more numer- 

 ous at the point furthest from the plant, just as the buds 

 are closer together at the end of a branch of the fig or 

 any other tree. When the potato has dried out suffi- 

 ciently and is surrounded by favorable conditions of 

 warmth and moisture, the eyes or buds begin to grow; 

 and until roots have been emitted for their nourishment, 

 the shoots are dependent upon the starch of the sur- 

 rounding substance for their support; resembling a seed 

 in this respect. The eyes are independent of each other, 



