550 
On the Treatment of Decayed Potatoes, Sfc. 
ture like roots, and the roots themselves soon became covered 
with leaves like branches. It is not necessary for the production 
of a plant to use the seed itself; and on this account we may 
grow the potato in several different Avays. We may produce it 
from the seed, which contains the true embryo ; we may raise it 
from the tuber, or whole potato; or we may grow it by planting 
only part of the tuber. Let us consider the mode of growth in 
each of these three cases, in order that we may be satisfied as to 
the course which should be adopted in the present exigency. 
The seed of the potato is contained in the green apjile or cap- 
sule, which becomes black when ripe. The seed is removed from 
this capsule and spread out in the sun to dry. As an agricultural 
operation, the seed is occasionally planted in spring by sowing it 
broadcast, and the tubers taken up in October. By that time 
they have acquired the size of small plums, and are preserved and 
sown again next April. 
Before gathering this second year's crop it is necessary to bear 
in mind a peculiar circumstance connected with the produce of 
the seed. When potatoes are grown from the tuber, any pecu- 
liarity which this may have exhibited, such as early growth, 
colour, or tenderness, is exhibited and peipetuated in its descent. 
Thus, a York red produces invariably a York red, and not a 
kidney: but this is not the case with the produce of the seed. 
In the crop grown from seed, we do not find the peculiarities of 
the plant on which it grew, but find mixed together, white, red, 
and dark coloured potatoes, some being round, some oval, some 
kidney-shaped. Their habits also are very different : thus we 
have some coming to an early, others to a late maturity ; some arc 
coarse, others tender, in their growth. In reaping, therefore, the 
second year's crop we must recollect to watch the plants, and 
separate them according to their peculiarities. Those which 
ripen early, as shown by the dying away of the stem, must be first 
gathered, in order to perpetuate this peculiarity in their descend- 
ants. The kidney-shaped tubers are to be separated from the 
others, and like attention must be paid to select and keep those 
varieties which show any peculiar merits. As a horticultural 
operation, the return from the seed can Ije accelerated. They 
may be grown in hot-beds, and by transplanting into other pots 
the plants may be ready for border or field culture in the spring, 
and thus produce tubers of a larger size than those obtained by 
sowing the seed broadcast. But all this must suffice to show you 
that the growth from seed is not that to which we must look as 
calculated to relieve the scarcity of seed potatoes for the year now 
approaching. 
The second plan of growing potatoes is from the whole tuber. 
The tuber being merely a continuation of the stem, is furnished 
