Cultivation of the Potato. 
347 
Secondly, if the potato is left in the ground until it is perfectly 
ripe, or till the haulm is quite ctead, the eye becomes quite formed, 
which may become suddenly checked, or sometimes bruised, when 
a kind of mould almost imperceptible fixes sometimes on the eye, 
and, if it does not quite kill the embryo bud, lays the founda- 
tion for the curl, &c. ; or the bud, if it chance to escape either, 
is generally weak and unproductive. 
It has been frequently asserted, that cutting potatoes before 
planting is the cause of failure in the produce: this I am fully 
convinced is a fallacy, for it is my invariable practice to cut a 
small portion of the potato off before planting for the purpose 
above mentioned, of causing it to decompose ; even when the 
tuber is not large enough to make two sets, it has been the prac- 
tice of mvself, my father, and my grandfather, to cut our potatoes 
for planting, and we have never yet found it to produce a failure ; 
but on the contrary, when properly cut and laid thin on the barn- 
floor, or some other dry place a fortnight before planting, the 
very best results have occurred from the practice. We always 
find middle-sized tubers cut in two (taking care to divide the 
number and strength of the eyes equally) to be the best for seed ; 
care should also be taken not to rub oft the bud, or if the shoot 
be by accident allowed to get too long, it should be rubbed off and 
laid in some dry place until the bud is formed at the eye again, 
for if planted just as the spire is rubbed oft", and wet follow, they 
are very apt to go blind, and not shoot at all. 
Time of Planting. 
The time of planting potatoes must depend on sorts, soil, and 
weather ; but as a fair medium I should say for early crops and 
sorts, March ; for second early, April ; and for late. May ; if 
planted earlier they are liable to many accidents ; some soil be- 
comes close with the rain, and consequently the tuber cannot 
swell, neither can it receive the air as freely as it requires. It 
sometimes happens that we have a very fine March or April, and 
a very cold May. When this occurs, potatoes that have been a 
long time in the ground, and are just ready to burst forth, receive 
a great check, especially in wet or adhesive soil, there being a 
constant struggle between the tuber to push forth its spire and 
the atmosphere to keep it back, until a substance is formed in 
the spire which actually becomes a tuber, and other stems or 
branches form in the same manner, till we find a quantity of small 
tubers formed instead of a plant of green and healthy foliage. 
This is what country people call Bobbing Joans. My opinion 
is that it is not an inherent disease of the seed-potato, but is occa- 
sioned by — first, early planting ; secondly, planting in wet weather 
and in adhesive soil ; and, thirdly, by planting after the stem and 
VOT-. VI. 2 n 
