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true buds, and it stands to reason that good sound tubers with sttong 

 eyes or buds, will produce much more healthy and vigorous plants than 

 small tubers with comparatively weak eyes. This, also, has been 

 proved by actual experiments. 



When good sized tubers are used for sets they may be cut in halves 

 passing the knife through from the bunch of eyes at the top, and ge- 

 nerally the halves may be divided again. One good eye to each set is 

 all that is really necessary, but it is safer to cut the set so that it may 

 have two eyes, as sometimes an eye is blind, or so weak as to be unable 

 to push. 



The sets should not be planted for a few days after being cut, but 

 kept in a dry place, and some wood ashes or such like material mixed 

 with them to absorb the juice exuding from the fresh cuts, and thus 

 prevent decay setting in. 



Modes of planting. — For garden cultivation, or small patches of 

 ground, drawing drills with the hoe, if the soil is well pulverised, or 

 digging trenches are probably the best methods. I have no doubt that 

 drawing the earth into hills, as is done for Sweet Potatoes, and planting 

 one set in each hill would be an excellent plan. By this means each 

 plant could be moulded with fine soil when needed, and the hills being 

 above the level of the ground would ensure good drainage, and it should 

 always be borne in mind that two of the main things necessary to en- 

 sure success in the cultivation of the Potato are good drainage, and a 

 good body of pulverised soil. In heavy wet ground a good plan is to 

 throw the soil up in ridges. These are really raised beds about 4£ feet 

 wide, with trenches 18 inches wide between them ; the soil taken from 

 the trenches is thoroughly broken up, and used for covering the sets, 

 and for moulding the plants later on. The trenches act as so many 

 drains during heavy rains and keep the ridges comparatively dry. 



Some growers spread the manure on the ridges, or in the drills or 

 trenches just previous to planting and lay the sets on it ; but this is not 

 considered a good plan, as later on the young tubers come into direct 

 contact with the manure which causes them to scab, and as the manure 

 is provided to afford nourishment to the fibrous roots, not the tubers, it 

 is a mistake to run the risk of spoiling the appearance of a crop by 

 adopting this method. For field cultivation I should recommend open- 

 ing trenches or drills from end to end of the ground, spread the manure 

 evenly in the bottoms of the trenches, or on the tops of the ridges if 

 that system of cultivation is adopted, and cover it to the depth of a 

 couple of inches with fine soil, then lay the sets and cover up. If only 

 a garden, or small piece of ground is to be planted it will be better if it 

 is evenly manured and well dug over sometime previous to planting, 

 and when the season comes round the trenches can be opened and the 

 sets planted without any further manuring. 



Dibbling in the sets is a system followed in England to a consider- 

 able extent, but unless the soil has been well cultivated previously it is 

 not a system to be recommended here. The sets are likely to be placed 

 at unequal depths, and the chances are that the eyes will be turned down 

 in the holes instead of being placed uppermost, and in performing the 

 work the ground gets trodden unnecessarily, the consequence being that 

 if dry weather follows, the soil cakes and the buds are unable to push 



