Cultivation of the Potatoe. 13 
the halves will be found sufficient, provided, however, that 
they are set rather closely in the rows. 
6. It is not advisable to cut a potatoe into more than two 
pieces. 
7. It is better to set the tubers, one by one, and close to- 
gether, than to put a number of them into the ground togeth- 
er, particularly when all the labor is performed with the 
plough, and no cultivation is given with the hand-hoe. 
8. It is not advisable to plant mere buds; they often fail.* 
I give these principles as being in accordance with my 
own experiments made on the large scale, with the exception, 
however, of the first. It does appear, from actual experi- 
ment, that the quantity of produce is in proportion to that of 
the potatoes put into the ground. The author deduces a 
result by dividing his plantation into two parts. In one of 
these he places the trial in which the quantity set amounted 
to more than 1,254; and in the other, those in which this 
quantity was less. In the former the net produce of each 
row was 16.81; in the latter, only 15.41. These two results 
are in the proportion of 1000 to 917. The loss in the latter 
is, therefore, 84 per cent., but the difference in the relative 
quantity of the sets is much greater Then, again, among 
the trials included in the latter division, there are several 
which ought not to be included in the comparison: where, 
for example, the set consisted of mere eyes, or handfuls of 
very small scattered shoots, all of which gave but a very 
insignificant product. If we take into account those trials 
only in which good potatoes, or cuttings of them, were set at 
intervals of 1, 2, 3 and 4 decimetres,} it will be found that 
the difference is very small, not exceeding two and a half 
per cent, 
* German Agricultural Gazette. 
+ A French measure of three and a half inches. 
2 
