4 I2 



GARDENING FOR BEGINNERS 



treated. All tubers to be eaten as food when cooked must be kept secluded from light 

 in soil pits or clamps made outdoors, but well covered with straw and soil to exclude rain 

 or frost, or they must be kept in cellars or dry sheds well covered up. The object in 

 excluding light is to prevent the tubers from becoming green, as they will be if thus 

 exposed to light, and when so greened be quite unfit for eating. The seed tubers, on the 

 other hand, need to be so kept that, whilst dry and free from frost, yet they have ample 

 light and air, so that the skins by such exposure become hard, and when later in the 

 winter the eyes or buds begin to shoot or burst into growth, such shoots as may be formed 

 will then be stout, strong, and green, andean be retained on the tubers for planting. 

 Were the tubers kept in darkness, the shoot made from the eye would be long, weak, 

 and blanched, and in that way worthless, while their production would rob the tubers 

 of much nutriment, and check the production of strong shoots when planted. 



Preserving Seed Tubers. The. best and simplest method of doing this satisfactorily is 

 to have shallow trays or boxes made from thin boards. These may be but 4 inches deep 



FIG. 26. 



Produce from Sets with only one strong 

 Shoot when planted. 



Several Stems and small Tubers 

 due to bad storage. 



inside, and be of such sizes as may be preferred. Those of 14 inches by 18 inches hold 

 quite a large number of seed tubers, which should be stood in the boxes with their shoot 

 or bud ends upwards, and close together. If a strip of stout wood be fastened to each 

 end of the box to form a handle, great convenience for moving and planting are furnished. 

 These boxes may be stood in quite a cool, airy place during open weather, and be 

 stacked close together and covered up, or removed into a less cold position when frosts 

 threaten. It is difficult to overestimate the value of such treatment meted out to seed 

 tubers, as the crops from such cared-for sets are usually double in bulk to those that 

 result from badly wintered tubers, especially as bad storing always tends to weaken the 

 stock. Only one or two of the strongest shoots should be left in each tuber at planting 

 time, rubbing the weakest out. If all are left a lot of small tubers will result. 



Raising from Seed. The Potato as grown now, with the object of securing the 

 greatest possible crop of tubers or root produce, seldom produces seed naturally, although 

 the plants will in the summer bloom profusely. The plants seem incapable of carrying 

 at once abundant root tubers and seed balls or apples which contain seed. Those who 

 wish to raise Potatoes from seed must obtain pollen or fine fertile dust from the flowers 

 of one variety, and employ it to fertilise the pistil points of one or two flowers on some 

 other variety, and thus induce the bloom to set, to carry seed, balls or apples. These 

 when ripe can be saved, kept in a box in a dry place for the winter, when only seed 

 and skins will be left. The seeds may then be cleaned, and about the middle of April 

 sown in pans on fine soil, and be stood in a greenhouse or frame to germinate. Later 

 the young plants have to be dibbled thinly into shallow boxes, and from these at the 

 end of May be transplanted into the open ground in rows, 2 feet apart, for the summer. 



