198 TRUCK-FAKMIls T G AT THE SOUTH. 



having no vital connection. If both eye and tuber be 

 sound, the shoots will grow to be healthy plants, if condi- 

 tions are favorable, whether they be planted with the en- 

 tire tuber or only connected to a small piece of its de- 

 tached substance. 



The following rule has been given: cut large potatoes 

 to single eyes; small potatoes will produce as good a crop 

 if cut in pieces corresponding in size, for the young- 

 sprout requires substance to push it forward. The intel- 

 ligent farmer should have an object in view, and his 

 operations should be undertaken to attain it. In this 

 case his purpose is to procure a crop of as many large 

 potatoes as possible. It will not be secured, if many 

 stalks grow from each set, any more than four or five 

 stalks of corn to the hill will produce large ears of corn, 

 though single stalks may. Whatever be the size of the 

 potato, it should be fully matured. If any Irish or Sweet 

 potatoes are found rotten in the hill, they are always the 

 largest, which have decayed after becoming over-ripe. It 

 is, therefore, safest, for fear of having many stalks in the 

 hill, to use a medium-sized tuber, cut to single eyes, pro- 

 vided the buds show signs of development. If none of 

 the eyes are developed, or only one is, that one only, 

 from the whole potato, is apt to grow, the rest re- 

 maining dormant. The eyes upon seed potatoes procured 

 from the North are very apt to sprout upon arriving in 

 our warm climate, and these should always be cut to 

 single eyes. Northern seed potatoes should not be im- 

 ported, until the farmer is ready to plant them. If the 

 first shoots are rubbed off or killed by frosts, the suc- 

 ceeding ones will be weaker and are apt to be more 

 numerous. 



In cutting potatoes to single eyes, the cutter com- 

 mences at the stem end, where the eyes are less abun- 

 dant, and slices off pieces with a single eye to each, in 

 such a manner as to distribute the substance of the tuber 



