have been reminded during the past season to 
save their seed balls, so that they might raise 
their own seedlings from year to year instead 
of importing potatoes for seed or put chasing 
new introductions at an exorbitant price. That 
this has not been the rule, instead of the rare 
exception, is a fact difficult to explain—unless 
it is that the supposed difficulty of raising 
seedlings has stood in the way. Now, there¬ 
fore, according to promise, we proceed to show 
that there is no trouble about it. 
Selection of Seeds. 
It seems hardly necessary to advise that 
balls from the best varieties 
should alone be saved—the 
best yielders, the best in 
quality, in shape ; the best 
keepers and those which are 
least liable to disease of any 
kind. If our own potato 
vines produce no balls, prob¬ 
ably they may be found in 
Pig. 407. cur neighbors' fields or r atch- 
es. If they too fail, we may write to friends 
in other States or localities or we may pur¬ 
chase them of seedsmen. We will suppose that 
our readers have neither greenhouses nor 
plant frames of any kind. We should next re¬ 
quire a sunny window facing the east or south 
or, better, southeast, and a room in which 
the temperature never falls below 35 degrees. 
Planting. 
■Provide well-drained flower pots filled 
with mellow garden soil. Press the soil firmly 
with the bottom of another flower pot. Then 
sow the seeds evenly half-an-inch apart and 
cover with one-eighth'inch of.’soil, and again 
press the soil—this time lightly. Place these 
pots in pans or buckets of water so that the 
water comes up outside the pots nearly as 
high as the surface of the soil, and leave them 
until the surface soil logins to show it is wet. 
Remove them then to the sunny window and 
cover each with glass. So treated they will 
need no more water until germination takes 
place, which will be in about a week or ten 
days at most, as we remember. The glasses 
may be removed as soon as most of the seeds 
have sprouted. It is better, however, to re¬ 
move the glass gradually, first by raising it 
an eighth of an inch, then a quarter and 
finally lifting it off entirely. We prefer this 
method of supplying water to surface water¬ 
ing for several reasons, chief among which is 
that the soil is not washed off of the seed. 
The first leaves appear as in Fig. 408 A,the later 
leaves *-<nn Fig.408 B,reproduced from our Fair 
Number. We should advise that the seeds 
be sown not until early March. The little 
plants will then be large enough to transplant 
to little pots (say three inches in diameter) by 
early April. A pocket-knife blade is as good 
as anything for the purpose of “pricking out” 
the plants, two or three of which may be 
planted in each thumb-pot. 
Care of the Plante. 
By April 20 many leaves will be found to be 
of the shape and size of Fig. 407, while the 
plants will have reached the average hightof 
four inches—some strong, some puny. The one 
thing now to be borne in mind is that these 
seedlings do not receive a check from over or 
insufficient watering, from too much or too 
little heat, or from any other cause, otherwise 
the swelling stems or little tubers will cease to 
grow or they will make a second growth. 
As soon as all danger of frost is over, we 
may now transplant our seedling vines to a 
warm, well prepaired plot. Dig little holes 
with a trowel, one foot apart in drills three 
feet apart and thump the balls of earth, 
which will be held firmly together by the 
fibrous roots of the plants, out of the pots and 
set them firmly in these holes. Thereafter 
their treatment will be the same as potato 
plants from eyes. 
The variety of which we selected seed last 
season was the English Magnum Bonum, as the 
flavor of this potato is good arid it is highly 
prized in England for its productiveness 
and disease-resisting powers. Our engraving, 
Fig. 406, page 745, which is true to life, shows 
the peculiar forms of the tubers raised as 
well as those of the largest size. 
Some of our vines from this seed died in 
August, while some of the vines were still 
green when the little crop was harvested, viz: 
September 30. Our plot consisted of three 
drills three feet apart and eight feet long, the 
plants a foot apart in the drills. We harvested, 
of large and small, 600 potatoes running from 
the size of a large pea to those shown in the 
engraving. Those smaller than a “large pea” 
were not gathered, The skins of all were 
white. The vines were cultivated flat, though, 
when the vines begin to die and to expose 
■ome of the tuberB which have grown out of 
the ground or from which the soil has been 
washed by rain, it is better to cover them some 
wbat with soil. Otherwise they will “green.*' 
Our instructions have been for those who 
have no glass structures. Those who have 
greenhouses in which the temperature can be 
regulated at all times, may begin ss early in 
the Winter as they are pleased to do so. As 
the smaller pots become filled with roots, they 
should be thumped out into larger ones and 
supplied with more soil. We have placed our 
seedling potatoes in a basket of dry sand, sup¬ 
posing this to be the safest method of pre¬ 
serving them. Next Spring we shall plant 
the small tubers whole and cut in halves the 
larger ones, and from them we shall look fora 
fair proportion of “merchantable potatoes’’ 
as to size. Thu tubers will, of course, vary as 
to shape, depth of eyes, color of skin, earliness, 
etc., and a year or so further will be required to 
separate them according to such differences. 
-»*■■»- 
CROSS-BREEDING WHEAT. 
(See page 747, for Illustration.) 
The crossing of wheat and propagation of 
the resulting cross-bred varieties is a most 
captivating pursuit, and not the less so be¬ 
cause in a great majority of cases one fails to 
produce offspring as valuable as, or differing 
from, the parents. It is generally conceded 
that wheat is self-fertilizing since the pollen is 
shed before the anthers appear outside of the 
closely-fitting envelopes. Now' if we remove 
the anthers by carefully separating the palets 
and glumes before the pollen is ripe, and in¬ 
sert pollen from other kinds of wheat, and 
berries form, it would seem that these berries 
(kernels) must be cross-breeds. We do not 
dispute it. But l bis fact we have noticed viz.* 
that a very large percentage of plants from 
such seed so closely resemble the mother 
plant that the unaided eye ean detect uo dif¬ 
ferences. To illustrate this we present (p. 747) 
a true potrait of one of our eros9-breeds the 
mother of which was Hard Australian, the 
pollen being furnished from a number of 
kinds. But two or three flowers matured 
fruit and from the several grains planted all 
the heads are alike—all apparently the Hard 
Australian. In such cases we must either 
suppose that the female plant is prepotent or 
that the crossing has been imperfectly made. 
--- 
Potatoes from Sprouts.— Whoever has 
read in the Rural the reports of the propa¬ 
gation of the Beauty of Hebron and White 
Elephant potatoes, will remember that the 
largest yields were generally obtained by those 
who grew potatoes from the sprouts which 
push in a warm cellar or are produced by ar¬ 
tificial heat in the Spring. This is a common 
way of propagating rare varieties. The 
sprouts are planted and covered like a potato, 
the tops being generally just above the sur- 
faoe, and often the yield is as handsome and 
abundant as that from whole or cut tubers. 
farm cotxamij. 
THE INFLUENCE OF SEASONS ON 
EXPERIMENTAL CROPS. 
SIB J. B. LAWKS, BART. LL.D.; F.R.S. 
We learn from the official reports in the 
United States, that in 1881 the com crop was 
about 30 per cent, aud the wheat crop about 
24 per cent less than in 1880. As these figures 
are derived f rom the official returns of pro¬ 
duce, which do not take into account the in¬ 
creased area sown with the above crops in the 
latter year, it is probable that the reduction 
was even more rather than less than the 
amount I have named. The great variations 
in the productive properties of each season 
constitute one of the many difficulties that 
obstruct the path of every one who undertakes 
agricultural experiments; and as there are 
many stations established,or being established, 
in the States, it may be advisable to point out 
in what direction these variations of climate 
affect the results. 
A manure or several manures are applied 
to com in a bad year with little or no result; 
the question then comes, what is to be done?— 
is the same course to be pursued as that which 
a trader might adopt under similar circum¬ 
stances; that is to say, is the result to be 
written off as a bad debt? My answer is, 
certainly not; the manure has been applied, 
and although it will not produce as good an 
effect upon any future crops as—under favor¬ 
able circumstances—it would have produced 
upon the crop to which it had been applied, 
yet it will produce some effect. We may con. 
Bider it then as a bad debt; it must not be 
written off, but rather be treated like an 
insolvent estate, from which, sooner or later, 
some assets will be obtainable in course of time. 
In carrying out experiments, changes of 
manure should not take place except under 
special circumstances. Time alone can neu 
tralize fluctuations aud seasons; and bow long 
a time is required may be judged from the 
fact that, at Rotbamsted, we did not venture 
to form an opinion with regard to the prob¬ 
able annual decline in the produce of our 
permanent unmanured wheat, until consider¬ 
ably more than 30 crops in succession had 
been grown. 
It is evident that it instead of growing one 
crop without change the crops were varied, 
the period required to obtain a measurement 
of the decliue of produce would have to be 
greatly extended. For instance, if we take 
an ordinary four-course rotation—such as is 
common in England—we should only have 
eight wheat crops in 32 years. In our experi¬ 
mental rotation three out of the four la3t crops 
occurred in exceptionally bad seasons; if we 
accepted the average of these cropB as indicat¬ 
ing the real produce of the Boil, we should 
show a far greater decline due to exhaustion 
than is probably the truth. 
At the present time the produce of our con¬ 
tinuous wheat—which has received no manure 
for 40year-—is from 10 to 13 bushels per acre; 
and we have estimated that the average 
minimi decline has amounted to about one- 
quarter of a bushel, or about 15 pounds of 
grain and 25 pounds of straw to the acre. In 
the future, however, the decline will not con¬ 
tinue at the same ratio, but, on the contrary, 
it will be far less rapid, as the supply of 
nitrogen iu the rainfall and the very seed 
which we sow will bear with each decline an 
increased proportion to the whole crop grown. 
It will be interesting now to turn to another 
crop, and compare what is to be learnt upon 
the subject from the continuous growth of 
barley. This crop has not been under experi¬ 
ment for so long a period as the wheat, but 
still our measuring line extends over 30 years. 
Looking at the character of the seasons, as 
also at the general character of the crops 
grown, I do not think that we shall be very 
far wrong in placing the unmanured produce, 
when the experiment was commenced in 1852, 
at from 27 to 28 bushels per acre; but when 
we come to the other end of the period, it is 
not so easy to fix upon a precise figure in 
consequence of the seasons having varied very 
much in their character. 
In 1878 the produce of the unmanured land 
was not quite 10 bushels per acre; and in 1879 
itr was only seven bushels per acre; but in 
1880 and 1SS1 it was respectively 19}.4 and 
16% bushels per acre. I may mention that 
the season of 1880 was one of great abundance, 
so far as the barley crop was concerned; one 
of our experiments, indeed, gave the very 
large produce of 65 bushels to the acre. 
It is, of course, of great advantage having 
a large number of experiments with various 
manures which are never changed, as it en¬ 
ables us to form a better judgment with re¬ 
gard to the general character of each season. 
The mean produce of the last four years of 
the unmanured barley gives 13 bushels to the 
acre; and I am disposed to adopt this amount 
as the probable yield of the land at the present 
time. This, it will be observed, is about the 
same produce as that grown upon the con¬ 
tinuously unmanured wheat land; but at the 
same time, the reduction in the yield has 
been considerably more rapid than in the 
case of the wheat, as in the course of 30 
years, the decline from the original produce 
of 1S52 amounts to one-half. That barley 
grown continuously without manure should 
decline in produce more rapidly than wheat, is 
exactly what we should expect when we con¬ 
sider the different character,of the two plants 
In this country wheat is sown in the Au¬ 
tumn and barley in the Spring; the wheat, 
therefore, has several more months than the 
barley, during which it can collect its food; 
and the tendency of the wheat plant, more¬ 
over, is to send its roots into the subsoil, while 
the barley feeds very close to the surface. 
Tbe best proof we have of the distinction be¬ 
tween the two plants is to be found in the re¬ 
spective action of phosphate upon each of 
them. The average increase of barley by the 
application of superphosphate, has been six 
bushels per acre over 30 years; while upon 
the wheat its action has been very slight—a 
fact which proves that the latter plant could 
find a sufficient supply in the deeper layers 
of the soil. 
A few days ago a gentleman who had spent 
a long life in South Australia, while looking 
over my experiments, seemed more interested 
in these unmanured crops than in any of the 
others. South Australia yields wheat of the 
very finest quality, but the produce is not 
more than from eight to ten bushels per acre. 
My visitor had been dreading the exhaustion 
of their soils, but af ter what he saw at Rotham- 
sted, said that he should return to the Colony 
reassured on this point, especially when he 
found that, after all our efforts to exhaust the 
soil, it still retained the greater bulk of its 
fertilizing ingredients. 
Rothainsted, England. 
♦ 4-f-- 
FARM ECONOMY. 
CLEM AULDON. 
There is such a thing in this worldas mod¬ 
esty, and such a thing as false modesty. There 
is also such a thing as economy aDd false 
economy. Now I have made the discovery 
that there isa seedling or an improved variety 
of the latter plant, which may be termed 
“farm economy.” 
I am an old, gray-haired man—the son of a 
venerable farmer who was himself the son of 
a farmer’s son, and before I pass off the busy 
stage of action to join that “innumerable 
throng,” I wish to give the rising generation 
the benefit of my experience. I think I am 
entitled to a respectful audience because I am 
descended from several generations of farmers. 
My father aud bis father’s father tilled the 
soil on the same old place without making any 
improvements, and straddled over the same 
old rail in going to the barn for 40 years. 
They had no gate, because they put in all of 
their time farmlug. You have all heard 
about living within your income, and 
have all v been lectured about economizing 
in order to get rich, but this applies to the 
professions and mercantile pursuits which 
Fruit Balls of Wall’s Orange Potato. — Fio. 409. 
