1882 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
375 
New Potatoes from Old. 
Nearly every summer there are sent to us 
specimens of old potatoes, within which are 
newly-formed tubers, sometimes a mass of 
them, each of the size of a pea and upwards. 
A specimen from Isaac Hagaman, Esq., New 
Haven Co., Conn., in July last, is of more 
than usual interest, as it clearly shows 
the real character of this unusual de¬ 
velopment. For an old potato to bear 
new ones upon its exterior is a rather 
common occurrence ; it is their pro¬ 
duction within the substance of the 
tuber that attracts the attention of 
those who meet with them. In order 
to understand the nature of this 
phenomenon, we must see that the 
potato, the tuber, though often regard¬ 
ed as a root, is really a stem developed 
in a peculiar manner, to serve a par¬ 
ticular purpose. When a potato is 
exposed to the proper temperature, 
the buds or “eyes” start into life, 
and produce stems or “sprouts.” If 
this takes place in partial darkness, 
the shoots will often grow to the 
length of several feet, while the 
tuber, having given up its contents 
to support this growth, will be shrivel¬ 
led and exhausted. If this growth 
takes place in contact with the soil, 
roots are formed at the base of the 
shoots, and each one becomes an inde¬ 
pendent plant. In this case it is plain that 
the contents of the tuber, the starch,etc., have 
been transformed into stems, often with im¬ 
perfect leaves upon them. By proper man¬ 
agement, the growth, instead of appearing 
as long, weak sprouts, may be made to de¬ 
velop as tubers or small potatoes, a method 
sometimes resorted to by gardeners to pro¬ 
duce new potatoes in winter. Potatoes of 
the previous year’s growth are kept through 
the summer in a cool cellar, all shoots being 
removed as they appear. In autumn, the 
potatoes are placed in boxes in layers, alter¬ 
nating with five or six inches of garden soil. 
The boxes are closed, and placed where the 
temperature averages 60°. In about three 
months, the old potatoes thus treated will be 
found to have formed a crop of new ones, 
NEW POTATOES WITHIN AN OLD ONE. 
their contents being transferred to the young 
tubers without the aid of leaves. This me¬ 
thod was formerly employed in England for 
producing new potatoes in winter, but they 
are so much inferior to those raised in forc¬ 
ing-houses, that it is but little followed at 
present. The production of new potatoes on 
the outside of the old ones is easily under¬ 
stood, but when they make their appearance 
on the interior of the old tuber, it naturally 
causes surprise. The engraving shows one- 
half of the specimen referred to, the new 
tuber having broken through the skin of the 
old one, was partly exposed, and thus at¬ 
tracted attention. In all the specimens we 
have seen, the skin of the old potato was 
very dry and tough. When the conditions 
are such as to excite vegetation, and the eye 
begins to form a new tuber, the young 
growth finds less resistance from the soft, 
starchy mass of the interior of the old one, 
and being unable to break through the 
toughened dry skin, naturally pushed in¬ 
wards instead of outwards. In the specimen 
a very small tuber, just forming and push¬ 
ing inward, was discovered, and is shown 
at the right hand of the larger young tuber. 
As the buds on a stem are the points of 
growth, each bud being the seat of a special 
vitality, the same may be said of the “ eyes ” 
of the potato; they are really buds, and the 
points at which growth is active, while the 
rest of the tuber is essentially a mere mass 
of material to be used by these buds ; under 
some conditions this nutriment is built up 
into stems and leaves ; but when the sur¬ 
roundings are not favorable for this, then 
the growth expends itself in forming other 
and smaller tubers. If possible, these small 
tubers are found on the surface of the old 
one ; but if the skin of that is hard and dry, 
the young tuber grows in the direction of 
the least resistance, which in the cases cited 
is towards the interior of the old potato. 
Living- Succolaiih.— “A. W.” writes 
us that his Lima Beans being planted near 
some tall Sweet Corn, the vines seemed to 
prefer the corn-stalks, and would run upon 
them in preference to the poles that had been 
provided. He asks if it would not be a good 
plan to plant the two together, and allow 
the vines to run upon the corn-stalks in place 
of poles. There are several objections to do¬ 
ing this, and nothing in its favor. Lima 
Beans are usually perverse in their ways, and 
if corn-stalks were provided as supports, 
would no doubt avoid them, as they often 
do the poles, and in any case they would 
at first need to be trained to their support. 
Japanese Horticultural Devices. 
A most interesting corner in that wonder¬ 
ful Centennial Exhibition, was the Japanese 
Garden. One who had lived many years in 
Japan, informed us that this was an exact 
reproduction of the gardens to be seen in the 
towns and cities of that country, where the 
prevailing style is to produce as great a va¬ 
riety as possible, in a small space. In this 
little garden there was a “lake,” that must 
have held at least a barrel or two of water, 
with various aquatic plants. A rock-work 
was near by, the whole of which could have 
been taken off in a wheelbarrow. Then 
there were forest trees, three or four of them, 
some said to be a century or more old, but 
they had been dwarfed to bring their roots 
within the compass of a good sized pot. 
There were curious sculptures in stone, and 
various other matters peculiar to the orna¬ 
mentation of Japanese gardens. Last spring 
a Japanese friend made us acquainted with 
a horticultural device of the gardeners of his 
country, which we did not see at the Centen¬ 
nial. A very pretty Japanese fern, Davallia 
bullata, has slender, scaly, root-stocks, the 
size of a goose-quill or smaller, and two feet 
or more long. These long slender stems the 
Japanese gardeners make up in a great vari¬ 
ety of forms, putting with them moss, fine 
roots, or other material that will hold mois¬ 
ture. Wreaths, squares, diamonds, and other 
shapes are made up of these stems, and some 
moisture retaining material, and are hungup 
in the houses, or in shady places in their little 
i gardens. If kept properly moistened, these 
stems soon produce fronds, very beautifully 
cut “ fern-leaves,” three to five inches high, 
and soon form a beautiful living wreath. 
Some of the devices brought by our friend 
are rather grotesque. Tortoises are made 
of a frame-work of the same stems, with a 
filling of the material to hold moisture. 
There are besides figures of large lizards, buf¬ 
faloes, deer, horses, etc. While these at¬ 
tempts to represent animal forms may meet 
the Japanese taste, we do not regard them as 
pleasing as the wreaths, and other shapes. 
When the fern fronds have grown abundant¬ 
ly, the form of the animal, which is sufficient¬ 
ly plain when represented by the naked stems 
only, is not very distinct, indeed nearly lost. 
A FERN TURTLE—INTRODUCED FROM JAPAN. 
