POTATO. 



^51 



From an experiment made by a person in the employ of 

 the Hon. Josiaii Quinc}^, the particulars of which are given in 

 J\fass, Agr, Repos, vol. v. p. 64, it appears that the product 

 of certain rows, planted with whole potatoes, exceeded an 

 equal extent of adjoining rows more than one third, A 

 writer for the N. E. Farmer^ vol. i. p. 330, gives an experi- 

 ment, which tends to the conclusion that potatoes planted 

 whole produce more than those which are cut. The ex- 

 periments of most cultivators, however, are in favour of cut- 

 ting. Dr. Cooper, in the last Philadelphia edition of Wil- 

 lich'^s Domestic Encyclopedia^ says, The best mode [with 

 regard to seed potatoes] appears to be this : — choose your 

 potatoes for planting of a moderate size, rather large than 

 small, for there is no good reason to be assigned for breed- 

 ing from diminutive parents ; cut your potatoes into sets, 

 two eyes to a set ; throw away, without hesitation, into the 

 hog-trough, all the inferior and diminutive eyes, choosing 

 your sets from the middle of the potato ; do not cut the po- 

 tato down the middle." Loudon observes, " In preparing 

 the sets of potatoes, some cultivators recommend large sets, 

 others, small potatoes entire. Others, on the ground of 

 experience, are equally strenuous in support of small cut- 

 tings, sprouts, shoots, or even only the eyes or buds. With 

 all these different sorts of sets, good crops are stated to 

 have been raised, though tolerable-sized cuttings of pretty 

 large potatoes, with two or three good eyes or buds in each, 

 are probably to be preferred. A very slight exercise of 

 common sense might have saved the advocates of shoots, 

 scooped-out eyes, &c., their experiments and arguments, it 

 being evident, as Brown has observed, to every one that 

 has any practical knowledge of the nature of vegetables, 

 that the strength of the stem in the outset depends, in di- 

 rect proportion, upon the vigour and power of the set. 

 The set, therefore, ought to be large, rarely smaller than 

 the fourth part of the potato ; and, if the root is of small 

 size, one half of the potato may be profitably used. At all 

 events, rather err in giving over-large sets, than in making 

 them too small ; because, by the first error, no great loss 

 can be sustained ; whereas, by the other, a feeble and late 

 crop may be the consequence." Deane says, " The shoot- 

 ing parts exist, in a potato, in the form of a tree, of which 

 the stock is at the but or root-end. I therefore take care 

 to cut athwart those parts as little as possible : though they 

 will grow any way, the greater length shooting stem 



