166 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
rior. Dr. Anderson found that the crop was in some measure pro¬ 
portionate to the weights of the sets ; and that it was more profita¬ 
ble to plant small potatoes than small cuttings. Others, however, 
found that the difference in acreable produce, between large and 
small, cut or uncut potatoes for sets, was quite immaterial; but that 
the saving in the quantity sown, was so much in favor of the cut¬ 
tings as to require only twenty bushels, while whole potatoes con¬ 
sumed thirty-seven bushels per acre. Yet, according to a report 
made to the Dublin Society of Agriculture, it was stated, on com¬ 
parison with sets cut from reasonably large and small tubers, that 
the produce in favor of the former was as 84 to 64; and another 
well informed gentleman states, “ he has uniformly found in all his 
experience that large sets of potatoes made a more productive re¬ 
turn than small ones. And upon trial, both in garden and field, he 
has repeatedly found that planting whole potatoes, even though 
large, very much increases the crop. In this way, however, they 
require to be planted thinner, as the stems, being stronger and more 
luxuriant, occupy more space.” 
To set this point at rest, five plots of ground of equal size, and as 
nearly as possible of equal quality, were also lately selected by the 
London Horticultural Society for the growth of five different varie¬ 
ties : one-half of which being planted with whole tubers, and the 
other with sets containing but one eye each; and, being placed at 
equal distances—eighteen inches apart—the result was as follows: 
Weight when taken up. 
Species. 
Whole 
tubers. 
Single eyes. 
tons. 
cwt. 
lb. 
tons. 
cwt 
. lb. 
Early manly,. 
...17 
10 
4 
18 
19 
82 
Shaw’s,. 
Red-nosed kidney, 
...20 
15 
26 
20 
0 
4 
...18 
7 
71 
17 
12 
49 
Pink-eyed Scotch, 
...22 
15 
83 
20 
2 
7 
Champion,. 
...23 
14 
0 
24 
9 
18 
The whole tubers appeared above ground, in each instance, three or 
four days earlier than the sets, and the haulm became somewhat 
longer; but the experiment shows that, although the total amount 
thus estimated to have been obtained is, 
tons. cwt. lb. 
From whole tubers,. 113 2 17 
-single eyes,. Ill 3 54 
thus giving an apparent difference in five acres of about two tons* 
yet it was hardly more than the difference between the weight of 
the tubers and the sets originally planted. 
These and other trials, indeed, afford presumptive evidence that 
sets cut from full grown, healthy tubers, are as productive as the 
whole root; for although it is recorded as the opinion of the Presi¬ 
dent of the Society, founded upon a great variety of experiments 
carried on during a long series of years, “that the heaviest crops of 
potatoes, and those most profitable to the grower, will in most soils 
and seasons be obtained from tubers of considerable weight, and will 
be found least subject to decay in wet and cold springs; he, how¬ 
ever, thinks it extremely probable that, when the soil is very dry, so 
as to preclude all grounds of fear of the cuttings decaying, more re¬ 
gular and better rows of plants might be obtained from single eyes 
placed at 6hort distances, with a moderately large portion of the 
matter of the tuber, than the whole tubers.” 
It may also be observed that the eyes or beads,—which appear 
like spots upon the skin of the potato—are of different kinds; those 
at one end being more prolific than the other; yet, when planted in 
sets, some farmers cut off both ends, only making use of the part in 
the middle, while others cut it longitudinally—from “ nose to tail ”— 
and set both halves indiscriminately ; and many scoop out the eyes 
and plant them singly. The stems which spring from that end of 
the potato into which the fibre which connected it with the mother 
plant, and from which the potato itself is grown, germinate but fee¬ 
bly, and do not attain the same size as those which are found upon 
the other end, which may be seen by looking at potatoes in the 
spring, when they begin to bud: those which spring from the top 
end, having far greater vigor and luxuriance than those which spring 
from the root end.* 
* The upper or nose end, although the most watery part of the potato, should 
be preferred, as the roots produced from it have been found to become sooner 
ripe, and to be of better quality than those grown from the bottom.— Farm. 
Mag. vol. xviii. p. 27. 
“ In every field of potatoes which I have ever seen, where the cuttings for 
seed were taken from both ends indiscriminately, some of the stems grow with 
It is indeed a point which deserves very serious attention; and 
as the other portions of the potato Can always be used for other pur¬ 
poses, it should never be neglected. Instead, however, of sowing 
single eyes, we should rather recommend the use of the entire clus¬ 
ter of buds which will be found on the top-efid, or nose, of the tu¬ 
ber.— Library of Useful Knotoledge, Farmers' Series. 
MAKING AND PRESERVING CHEESE. 
1. The goodness of cheese, as well as of butter, depends much on 
the quality of the milk. The season, and particular way of making 
it, also have a very considerable influence upon it in this respect—■ 
more perhaps than the material ot which it is prepared. We shall, 
therefore, briefly notice these circumstances. 
2. The best season for this purpose is frotr the commencement of 
June till the close of September. There is no doubt, however, but 
that good cheese may be made throughout the year, provided the 
cows be well fed in the winter. It is also worthy of attention, that 
milk abounds most in caseous matter during the spring, and with the 
butyraceous in summer and autumn. 
3. The Cheshire cheese, made in England, is celebrated for its 
excellence, and we shall give the mode of making it adopted by the 
Cheshire dairy-men. 
4. The thermometer of a Cheshire dairy-woman is constantly at 
her fingers’ ends. The heat of the milk when set, is regulated by 
the warmth of the room and the heat of the external air; so that the 
milk may be the proper length of time in sufficiently coagulating. 
The time is generally thought to be about an hour and a half. 
5. The evening’s milk—of suppose twenty cows—having stood all 
night in the cooler and brass pans, the cheese-maker, (in summer,) 
about six o’clock in the morning, carefully skims off the cream, 
which is put into a brass pan. While the dairy-woman is thus em¬ 
ployed, the servants are milking the cows, having previously lighted 
a fire under the furnace, which is half full of water. 
6. As soon as the night’s milk is skimmed, it is all carried into the 
cheese tub, except about three-fourths of a brass pan full, (three to 
four gallons,) which is immediately placed in the furnace of hot wa¬ 
ter, in the pan, and is made scalding hot; then half of the milk thus 
heated is poured to the cream, which, as before observed, had been 
already skimmed into another pan. 
7. By this means all the cream is liquified and dissolved, so as ap¬ 
parently to form one homogeneous or uniform liquid, and in that 
state it is poured into the cheese-tub. But before this is done, seve¬ 
ral bowls or vessels full of new milk, or perhaps the whole morning’s 
milk, will generally have been poured into the cheese-tub. 
8. In some celebrated dairies, however, they do not, during the 
whole summer, heat a drop of the night’s milk; only dissolve the 
cream in a brass pan, floated or suspended in a furnace of hot wa¬ 
ter. In other dairies, they heat one-third, one-half, or even more 
than that of the previous night’s milk. But in all, they are careful 
to liquify or melt the cream well before it is mixed with the milk in 
the tub. 
9. Whatever may be the general custom in any given dairy re¬ 
specting the heating of the milk, the practice varies according to the 
weather. It is generally on poor clay lands that the milk most re¬ 
quires warming. On good rich soils, it will not bear much heating; 
at least, by so doing, the process of cheese-making is rendered more 
difficult. 
10. The process of making cheese is much more difficult than that 
of making butter. The quality depends more on the mode of per¬ 
forming that operation than on the richness of the milk. The tem¬ 
perature at which the milk is kept before it is formed into cheese, 
and that at which it is coagulated, or turned into curds, are objects 
of the greatest importance in the management of a cheese dairy. 
The temperature of the milk ought not to exceed 55, nor to be un¬ 
der 50 degrees of Fahrenheit’s thermometer. For coagulating, it 
should be at 90 to 95. 
11. If the milk is kept warmer than 55, it will not throw up the 
cream so well as at the lower degree. It is also subject to get sour 
and give a bad taste to the cheese. If it be allowed to be much 
colder than that, it becomes difficult to separate the curd from the 
whey, and the cheese made from it will be soft and insipid. 
much more vigor than others ; which proceeds, I believe, in nine cases out of 
ten, from planting weak sets cut from the rool end of (he potato.”— Ayton s 
Surv. of Ayrsh. p. 280. Mr. Knight says that “ the buds which vegetate from 
the lower sides of the tubers produoe feeble stems.”— Trans, of Hort. Cult. 
Society. 
