A STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE YIELD OF POTATOES 1211 



INTERVAL BETWEEN CUTTING AND PLANTING 



An interval of from one to ten days sometimes elapses between the 

 time when seed potatoes are cut and the time when they are planted. 

 Weather conditions unsuited to planting after the seed is cut sometimes 

 make this delay necessary, while in some sections the large amount of 

 seed to be cut makes it seem advisable to cut it several days early in order 

 to facilitate the earliest possible planting of the crop. To some extent 

 this is the case on Long Island. In a few cases, growers have cut seed 

 several days in advance of planting because of an assumed benefit from the 

 drying of the cut surface of the seed pieces to be planted. The object of 

 the present discussion is to determine the relation of this interval of time 

 to the yield. 



Adams (1887), using two varieties in a single-year test, obtained an 

 average difference of 26 bushels per acre in favor of planting immediately 

 after cutting, between seed cut and planted fresh and seed cut twelve days 

 before planting. Green (1888), on the contrary, using three varieties in 

 a single-year test, reported increased yields for two varieties from a five- 

 days interval, for three varieties from a nine-days interval, and for one 

 variety from a twelve-days interval, over the yields obtained by planting 

 freshly cut seed. These tests, he reported, agreed with those of Goff, of 

 Geneva, who recommended the benefits of drying cut seed for periods not 

 exceeding ten days before planting. T. C. Johnson (1912) , tho not reporting 

 yields, published cuts of fields planted from freshly cut seed and from seed 

 held for ten days after cutting. The outstanding feature of Johnson's 

 test of this factor,, carried out under carefully controlled conditions, was 

 the strikingly poorer stand grown from the stored cut seed. Zavitz (1916) , 

 in a test covering eight years at the Ontario station, obtained an average 

 difference of 8 bushels per acre in favor of planting freshly cut seed rather 

 than seed held for only four or five days. Furthermore, he obtained an 

 increase of 1 per cent of marketable tubers from the unstored seed. 



As previously stated, the period between cutting and planting is fre- 

 quently longer on Long Island than in any of the other three regions 

 surveyed. The relation between this interval and the yield is shown in 

 table 48. Altho the relation is not clearly apparent, it is evident that as 

 the interval is increased, the practice of dusting is also increased. Dusting 

 tends to eliminate any of the deleterious effects caused by the drying out 

 or heating of seed cut and stored over the longer periods of time. The 

 average length of the interval between cutting .and planting in this region 

 in 1912 was 5.7 days, and more than half of the growers dusted their cut 

 seed. 



The average interval between cutting and planting in Steuben County 

 being only two days, little correlation between this factor and yield would 

 be expected. This is borne out by table 49. Also, here, as on Long Island, 



