108 POPULAR VEGETABLES 



Seed tubers should receive attention as soon as a 

 crop is lifted if the intention is to use any of the crop 

 for seed the following year. The best plan is to pick 

 out from the crop, lifted after maturity, quite medium- 

 sized handsome clean tubers, such as weigh out about 

 three ounces each, tubers that are rather small for 

 table, but of the best description for seed. Place 

 them in single layers in trays or on shelves where there 

 is ample air, and keep in a cool place. An outhouse, 

 store or north room are suitable places. The more 

 light and air they receive the better, but frosts must 

 be excluded. A floor of soil will be better than one 

 of board, as so stored the seed tubers keep until plant- 

 ing time all their strength and vitality. They will in 

 the course of time produce strong, hard sprouts, 

 which should not be broken off, and if planting be 

 done late, so much the better, as the soil being then 

 warmer, the sprouts soon become rooted, and the 

 growth is quick and vigorous. 



Where of necessity seed tubers have to be pur- 

 chased, then it is well to get them in early in the 

 winter, and store them as advised to preserve their 

 sprouts when made. If the seed tubers be received 

 in the spring, after having been badly stored in heaps 

 or pits, or in a dark, warm cellar, or in any place 

 which induced the formation of shoots prematurely, 

 so that these are blanched and have to be removed 

 prior to planting, then one may consider that the 

 tubers have greatly deteriorated, so much so as to pre- 

 vent a heavy crop. It is impossible to lay too much 



