1853. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
Intoxicating drinks. If our farmers would con¬ 
vert their coarse grains into mutton, pork and 
beef, I believe, they would find it more to their 
profit than selling them. 
I notice by papers recently received, that Eng¬ 
land imported less guano by 100,000 tons, in 1852 
than in 1851. It appears to me that it cannot be 
very profitable, as it only iifcreases the crop for 
one year, and that barely enough to pay the cost, 
whereas, barn-yard manure will enlarge the crop 
for many years. John Johnston. Near Geneva, 
N. F. —♦— 
Shall I Cut my Seed Potatoes? 
Mr. Tucker —I have never found time to inves- 
gate this subject until during the last summer. I 
wish now to give you some of the results of these 
investigations, and the reasoning connected with 
them. 
1. The difference between a proper seed and a 
potato tuber, (and many other tubers also) is this: 
A seed has one vital point whence the plant must 
start. A tuber has as many vital points as buds 
or eyes, and may be cut into as many parts, each 
of which may be made to grow. The vital energy 
located about the eye, and the storehouse of nu¬ 
triment, usually in the shape of starch, treasured 
up in the pulp, being sufficient for this purpose. 
2. Nature does not seem to have intended, or¬ 
dinarily, that all these eyes should grow. _ The 
number seems to be a provision against accident, 
just as in the case of fruit trees. If a part of the 
buds or eyes of either are destroyed, the others 
are forced into growth. A potato is in its most 
perfect condition when a single eye grows and re¬ 
ceives the support of the whole tuber. The vines, 
in the end, will be as numerous and wide-spread 
as though more had grown. Usually, however, 
a large proportion of the eyes do grow, especially 
under generous culture. 
3. The eye of the potato, just like a true seed, 
depends upon the nutriment stored about the vital 
point for the impulse that throws out the plant— 
the sprout upward, the root downward. In the 
case of a proper seed, water must be absorbed 
first; in the case of the potato that water is already 
in the tuber, and can not be absorbed through its 
skin, which is as impervious to water as India 
rubber. 
4. Now, if we cut potatoes for seed, particular¬ 
ly if we cut them very small, say into single eyes, 
then we subdivide the whole nutriment of the tu¬ 
ber into as many portions as the tuber has eyes. 
Instead, therefore, of each bud that grows having 
the nutriment that belonged to two or three, as 
is often the case when whole tubers, or the half of 
very large tubers are planted, it is stinted to its 
own individual proportion of the whole tuber. 
The same reasoning applies to the use of very 
small potatoes for seed. 
In strict accordance with this reasoning, every 
observant cultivator of potatoes has noticed that 
in the use of seed cut very small, or of very-small 
whole tubers, the early growth of his plants was 
slow, and for a time spindling. In such cases a 
good soil, careful culture, and a long season, may 
bring up the plant to a sturdy growth and a large 
yield. It cannot but be seen, however, that in 
case the season is short, or otherwise bad, or the 
variety planted a late one, and especially if the 
culture be careless, the crop is greatly jeopard¬ 
ised. 
5. Still more does this reasoning find enhance¬ 
ment in the fact that by this use of cut or small 
seed, the season of tubering is made from one to 
three weeks later than it otherwise would be, and 
thus the health and yield of the crop, and often 
the table quality of the tuber is endangered. 
G. It is obvious to every cultivator, that cut 
seed is exposed to danger in cold and wet springs, 
it being"well ascertained that the cut surface of a 
potato withstands the action of cold and wet much 
less perfectly than the natural skin of the potato. 
In good weather I have not found cut potatoes 
rot, since not more than one in two hundred has 
failed to grow. 
The conclusion of the whole matter then 
seems to be this. If you cannot get the desirable 
quantity of seed, or if you have a very choice va¬ 
riety which you wish to increase as fast as possi¬ 
ble, cut your seed, and also plant the very small 
ones. If the variety planted matures early, you 
have also the more hope of success. So, also, if 
it be a very hardy sort, success will be the more 
probable. It will well pay cost, if, in planting 
such cut or small seed, you have a little rich com¬ 
post at hand, to put around the seed when plant¬ 
ed. This will in some degree make good the fee¬ 
bleness of the mother tuber. 
It seems to me that facts, and the foregoing 
course of reasoning, settles the whole question 
beyond a doubt. Should other cultivators have 
come to a different conclusion, I hope they will 
enlighten agriculturists with their reasons. C. E. 
G. Utica, March 11, 1853. 
Osier Willow.—Its Preparation for Market. 
BY C. N. BEMENT. 
In a former communication in the 5th No. of 
the Country Gentleman, on the cultivation of the 
Osier Willow, I omitted giving the method of pre¬ 
paring them for market. 
The best time for cutting is in the spring, just 
as the sap begins to run. When wanted for bas¬ 
kets only, they should be cut every spring. After 
a new bed is planted, the first years’ growth will 
be small, but will increase in number and size the 
following years, as the stumps grow larger. 
Where large willows are wanted for making the 
frames of cradles, wagon bodies, &c., they should 
be cut only every second year. 
After cutting they should be bound in conveni¬ 
ent size bundles, with some of the small sprouts, 
and the butt ends set in a wet place, to prevent the 
bark from tightening before it is convenient to strip 
or peel them. 
The process of stripping off the bark is very 
simple, and may be performed by a boy ten years 
ol(r All children are fond of this work, and often 
make quite a frolic where there are several em¬ 
ployed on as many benches, striving who can 
peel the greatest number in a given time. 
The machine for stripping is also quite simple, 
being nothing more than two pieces of tough, 
sound wood, forming two parts of a triangle, open¬ 
ing about one inch at the top, and coming close 
together at the bottom, like the letter Y. Inside 
of each prong must be inserted a small piece of* 
round iron, or large size wire, leaving about one- 
half of its diameter projecting from the wood; the 
irons coming close together at the bottom of Jhe 
crotch. This machine should be firmly fixed in 
the end of a strong wooden bench, something si¬ 
milar to that used by coopers for shaving hoops. 
