EXCESSIVE FOOD FOR EYES INJURIOUS. 26T 



seven cwt. to three tons per acre; and considerably more, on com- 

 parison of the clear produce, after deducting the weight of sets 

 employed in hoth cases. {Hort. Trans., n. s., i. 445, and ii. 

 156.) In these instances, I supposed the rankness of the vege- 

 tation from the whole tubers to be the cause of the dumnished 

 crop, for the stems not only expended their strength ia self- 

 augmentation, but were unable to support themselves, and were 

 blown about, laid, and broken by the wind. 



"While, however, in such plants as the Potato, all the eyes 

 are equally capable of forming new tubers, it is found by 

 experience that they do so with different degrees of rapidity, 

 according to the age of that part of the stem or tuber which 

 furnishes them. It is stated by a writer in the Ga/rdener's 

 Magazine (vol. i. p. 406.), that it is well known in Lancashire 

 to some cultivators of the Potato, " that different eyes germinate 

 and give their produce, or become ripe, at times varying very 

 materially, say several weeks, from each other ; some being 

 ripe or fit for use as early as the middle of May, and others 

 not till June or July. This wiU be understood by reference to 

 the accompanying sketch. The sets nearest the 

 extremity of the Potato (Fig. XXXV. a) are soonest 

 ripe, and, in Lancashire, are planted in warm 

 places in March or the beginaiag of April, and 

 are ready for the market about the 12th or 15th of 

 May. The produce of the next sets (6) is ready 

 in about a fortnight after, and that from the root ^m- xxxv. 

 end (c and d) stUl later. These root end sets (from b to d) are 

 usually put together, and the extremity of the root end is 

 thrown aside for the pigs." This fact, if correctly stated, 

 shows, not that the youngest eyes, or those nearest the point of 

 the Potato, are the ripest, which is impossible, but that they 

 are more excitable, and consequently grow more rapidly than 

 those at the middle or base. 



Besides the cases of propagation by eyes now mentioned, 

 there is another of which a notice is given by Signer Manetti 

 (Gardener's Magazine, vii. 663.), as practised ia Italy upon the 

 Glive. It appears that, from old Olive-trees, certain knots or 

 excrescences, called uovoU, are cut out of the bark, of which a 



