Be careful not to plant frost-bitten seed 
potatoes. 
* * * 
Avoid plowing potato land when it is not 
dry enough to crumble as it is plowed. 
* * * 
It is a good plan for late potatoes, to sow 
blood, nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia, 
not until the sprouts show themselves above 
ground. 
* * * 
Cultivate shallow if you would avoid the 
worst effects of dry weather. 
* * * 
We find that there are 673 potatoes of aver¬ 
age size in a barrel. If the potato pieces are 
planted in drills one foot apart, the drills being 
three feet apart, 14,3*30 will be required for an 
acre, or about 4!< barrels, if we make five 
pieces of each potato. 
* * * 
Where are the old favorite potatoes of 50 
years ago? 
* * * 
The Rural’s experiments with 32 different 
kinds of fertilizers upon a worn-out soil show 
When all danger of frost is over, the little 
vines may be transplanted to a warm, well- 
prepared plot. They may be set in little holes 
dug with a trowel, one foot apart in drills 
three feet apart. The little balls of earth 
clinging to the roots of the plants should be 
thumped out of the pots and placed firmly in 
the holes. Thereafter, their treatment will be 
the same as potatoes planted from eyes. 
Fig. 20 shows the exact size of a number of 
tubers raised from seeds at the Rural Grounds 
in this way. This illustration is taken from 
an old number of the Ru ral. In the Spring 
following the digging, these seedlings can he 
planted, the smaller ones whole and the larger 
ones cut into two pieces. The tubers will 
vary as to size, quality, shape, etc., and a year 
or so of careful cultivating will be necessary 
to properly sort them. 
* * * 
A mellow soil, a moist soil well drained; 
plenty of potash, nitrogen, phosphoric acid, 
lime, and possibly magnesia, sulphur and salt, 
for mechanical effect, or for an effect not un¬ 
derstood. Give the seed pieces enough flesh to 
bly producing a seedling that will sell for a 
fine price. 
Potato balls should be taken from the best 
and strongest tubers. “Like produces like,” 
and if we wish to develop extra seedlings we 
naturally select seed from those tubers noted 
for quality, good shape and keeping. Most 
farmers understand how surely animals stamp 
their good and had qualities upon their off¬ 
spring. Why does not the same rule hold true 
of plant life? If there are any potato balls 
produced in your township, out - advice is to 
procure them and experiment. We take it for 
granted that most of our readers have no 
greenhouse in which to start the seeds. That 
fact should not deter them from experiment¬ 
ing. With well-drained flower pots filled with 
mellow garden soil, satisfactory results can be 
obtained. Press the soil firmly into the pot. 
Sow the seeds half-au-ineh apart, covering 
with one-eighth inch of soil, pressing soil 
lightly upon them. Place the pots in pans of 
water so deep that the water comes nearly to 
the surface of the soil, and let them remain 
until the surface soil becomes damn. Place 
POTATO 
SPECIAL 
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 45, 
SEEDLING POTATOES. 
The Rural has frequently urged its read¬ 
ers to experiment with seedling potatoes, 
grown from the seed-ball or real potato fruit. 
We are no less anxious to urge upon our read¬ 
ers the importance of the work at the present 
time. New varieties of potatoes are absolutely 
necessary from time to time. All varieties, 
n timp degenerate or “run out ” Thous- 
TUBERS FROM SEED THE FIRST YEAR. 
(Showing various shapes and sizes.") Fig. 20. 
ands of dollars have been spent by farmers for the pots before a sunny window and cover 
new potato “seed,” that might just as well each with glass. They will need no more 
have been kept at homo. Wo fail to see why water until the seeds germinate—about a week 
farmers cannot produce new and valuable or ton duys. Remove the glasses when most 
varieties for their own using. Thou, again, of the seeds have sprouted. It will be well to 
the work wall lead to further experimental raise the glass gradually, first an eighth-of-an- 
work, which cannot fail to he beneficial. inch, then a quarter, and then remove it cn- 
Thore is no great skill required ui producing tirely. The great reasou fur watering the 
seedling potatoes. As before stated, the pota- seeds in this way is that the soil is not washed 
to ball, corresponding to the tomato, is the away. The early part of March will be soon 
real fruit, the tuber being simply an enlarged, enough to plant. Ihe plants will then be 
underground stem, lu producing seedlings large enough to transplant to little pots by 
the ball "is kept until it begins to wither, when early April. The little plants should be 
the flesh is washed away from the seeds and the “pricked out and planted one, two or three in 
latter are preserved dry, as other seeds, are -v each thumb-pot, By April 
kept. The potato fruit is much less common /A-'luV ' <l ILUU D r ot the leaves will 
now than it was some years ngo. This is not /vv'.Hjr b® f° UIU l °f 'be shape and 
surprising when we consider the fact that po- ['■/. \]\ s ' 1£0 shown at F ig. It*, while 
tatoes have been cultivated for tha tubers alone, W Yl 'n 1 ' 10 Pitots will average four 
and no dependence has been placed upon the real linclios high. The great 
seed for continuing the species. There seems UyC;M''point now will tie to see that 
to be uo good reason why each reader of the those seedlings do not re. 
Rural should not devote a small space each y ceive a check from over or 
year to seedling potatoes, thus supplying him- till insufficient watering, from 
self with strong tubers for planting, and possi- Fig. 19. too much or too little heat. 
support them until the shoots can be supported 
by their own roots. Plant them in depth 
according to the soil, whether inclining to clay 
or sand, from three inches to five inches. The 
distance of the liills or drills and of the pieces 
in them, should be regulated by the vigor and 
size of the varieties planted. Rank-growing 
varieties, the same as tall-growing corn, will 
not yield well if planted too closely together. 
Hilling-up on well-drained land never increases 
the crop. The fibrous roots extend from hill 
to hill, from row to row, and the soil should 
not he taken from thorn to heap it up about 
the stems where it is uot ueeded. lu hill 
culture, where the tubers crowd each other out 
of the ground, hflliug-up is necessary only to 
protect the potatoes from air and light. Broad¬ 
cast manuring is better than manuring in the 
hill, for the reasou that it is the fibrous roots 
that need The food—no? the tubers which are 
fed by the fibrous roots. Kill the potato 
beetles before they have injured t he foliage. 
Any iujury to the foliage will impair the vigor 
of the plant, and less vigor in the plant means 
I less crop. 
that the potatoes need a complete fertilizer 
i. e.. potash, phosphoric acid and nitx-ogen, 
with most of the first. 
* * * 
The result of 70 analyses of the tuber, by 
various chemists, embracing a great many 
varieties and modes of culture, are summed up 
in the following table: 
As the result of 53 analyses of the ash of 
the tuber, we have the following: 
Minimum. Maximum. Average. 
Potash. 4S.9? 7S.fi! 60.S7 
Soda. 0.00 16.98 2.(52 
Lime. 0.51 6.28 2.57 
Magnesia. 1.82 18.58 4.60 
Feme oxide. 0.04 7.18 1.1S 
Phosphoric acid. 8.39 27.14 17.88 
Sulphuric acid. 0.44 14.851 6.49 
Silica. 0.00 8.11 2.17 
Chlorine . 0.85 10.75 8.11 
