234 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



is the best. Fewer potatoes are sunburned, and they do not suffer as 

 badly from the drouth if the ground is kept level. 



Experiments as to the best method of cutting potatoes have been 

 made at a number of the stations. At the Vermont station the best 

 results with ordinary cultivation were obtained from planting whole, 

 medium sized tubers with the sprouts rubbed off. The results were 

 nearly as good as when halves of the seed ends of medium tubers 

 were planted. As between the seed end, middle and stem end the 

 balance was in favor of the seed end. 



The best results of all were obtained by planting one medium 

 potato in a hill. When the plants were four inches high the hills 

 were mulched with six inches of fine hay. This mulching keeps down 

 all weeds, retains the moisture in the ground and maintains a very 

 even temperature, allowing the growing tubers to attain the largest 

 size. 



All authorities agree that the ground should not be stirred after the 

 tubers have commenced to form, for whenever this is done, new ones 

 will appear and will take a portion of the food that would have been 

 stored in the older ones. It is more advantageous to have a few large, 

 ripe, well formed tubers in a hill than a larger number of medium and 

 small ones. 



At the Ohio station an experiment was made in 1888 to see what 

 effect, if any, drying of the seed after cutting had on the productiveness. 

 Seed was planted on the same day that it was cut, and other seed was 

 also planted that had been cut five, nine, and twelve days. Taking the 

 crop from the freshly cut seed as the standard : the seed that had been 

 cut five days yielded in some cases more and in some less ; that which 

 had been cut nine days yielded more; and the twelve day cuttings 

 yielded less. In other words, their experiment indicated that an in- 

 creased yield may be obtained injplanting seed that has been cut from 

 five to nine or ten days. The probable cause of this is that the dry- 

 ing prevents rot. 



The theory is sometimes advanced that better results will be 

 obtained by cutting out all but two or three eyes from the tuber than 

 by planting it whole. That statement is sometimes made in books. 

 Results obtained at the New York Experiment Station show that the 

 idea is false. The young growing plant depends on the seed for its 

 nourishment only a very short time, and in the majority of cases not 



