sure to lessen the crop. It is a good plan to surface cultivate often 

 enough to maintain a mulch to prevent the escape of moisture until the 

 ground is thoroughly covered with the tops. A straw mulch or well- 

 rotted manure can be applied between the rows, after one or two culti- 

 vations, to good advantage. The mulch not only prevents the escape 

 of moisture, but it enriches the soil and prevents the hills from cracking, 

 thereby exposing potatoes which have grown near the surface. 



Seed 



Potatoes for seed should be regular in form, medium in size and free 

 from diseases. It is not a good plan to plant small shriveled seed or 

 tubers which are not marketable. While it is conceded that potatoes 

 yield best if slightly sprouted, it has also been demonstrated that if 

 potatoes are well sprouted and the sprouts are removed or destroyed in 

 the act of planting, that the yield is decreased from thirty to fifty per 

 cent. It has also been demonstrated that tubers sprouted in the light 

 grow rapidly and give better results than when sprouted in a dark bin. 

 A better plan is to plant when the sprouts are just starting. If the 

 sprout has become long and is then removed, which of necessity it 

 usually is, a great part of the vitality of the potato is gone, and the sec- 

 ond sprouts will be slow and the growth anaemic. 



Opinions differ as to how the potato should be cut. In considering 

 this question, the price of seed and the value of the farmer's time should 

 be taken into account. While a potato cut into single eye pieces and 

 each eye planted separately will yield more potatoes than it would had 

 the potato been planted whole, the aggregate weight is not enough 

 greater to pay for the extra labor of cutting and the number of mer- 

 chantable potatoes is less. The best results have been obtained by 

 cutting a medium-sized potato into two or three pieces and planting one 

 piece in each hill. In cutting, care should be taken to secure two or 

 three good eyes in each piece. 



The results given by the Ohio State Experimental Station coincides 

 with hundreds of other experiments which have been made. The Ohio 

 experiments were as follows: 



