POTATO. 



249 



and dry them in a sunny window. Sow tlie seeds in a 

 bed about the first of May. When the plants are four or 

 five inches high, transplant them into ground well pre- 

 pared, one or two plants in a hill." — Deane, Seeds from 

 the same ball will produce a great variety of kinds, some 

 of which may be of little value ; and in order to make the 

 most of such experiments, it will be well to proceed accord- 

 ing to the following directions, extracted from some re- 

 marks by Col. Pickering, contained in a pamphlet published 

 by the Essex Agricultural Society, Mass.; this society having 

 awarded premiums for the best potatoes raised from the 

 seed. 



1. " Seeing the seeds in the same ball will produce vari- 

 ous sorts of potatoes, it will be indispensably necessary, 

 that each young plant grows at the distance of eight or ten 

 inches apart. 



2. " In autumn, or as soon as the vines or stems of the 

 plants die, and the young potatoes are dug up, those of 

 each plant are to be saved by themselves, and it will be 

 easy to put each sort in a separate paper bag. Those pota- 

 toes will be very small, perhaps from the size of a pigeon's 

 down to a sparrow's egg. 



3. In the ensuing spring, the potatoes of each sort, that 

 is, the potatoes of each bag, must be planted by themselves; 

 and, if not in distinct rows, then stakes, driven into the 

 ground, should mark the divisions of the several sorts in 

 the same rows, leaving a space of about two feet between 

 one sort and another, to guard against any mixture. 



4. " In the time for harvesting them in the second year, 

 the potatoes [if grown in a good soil] will be large enough 

 to be boiled, to ascertain their quality. Each sort must be 

 tried by itself. Such as are watery, and ill flavoured, may 

 be at once thrown aside, for the use of live stock. Every 

 other sort, so valuable as to be thought worth cultivating, 

 must be kept unmixed, by putting each kind in a separate 

 bag or cask." — N, E. Farmer^ vol. vi. p. 286. 



The modes of propagating by layers, cuttings of the vines, 

 suckers, sprouts, &c., are rather curious than useful, and are 

 therefore here omitted, but may be seen in detail in the 

 Encyc, of Gard. p. 620. 



By portions of the tubers^ [or cuttings of the roots.] — " In 

 making the sets or sections, reject the extreme or watery 

 end of the tuber, as apt to run too much to haulm, [vine,] 

 and having the eyes small, and in a cluster; reject also the 

 root, or dry end, as more likely to be tardy in growth, and 



