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during the same year, a tree should make a stout growth of new wood 
and also of fruit. Unquestionably, the stripping off of the very young 
balls, or, better, of the flowers would add, in the case of varieties given 
to bearing heavy crops of balls, to the crop of tubers. But whether this 
labor would prove profitable in the end is a question not readily settled, 
depending on the price of labor, &c. May it not be suggested as probable, 
that, in the native land of the potato, where the season of vegetable growth 
never ceases, the seed-balls and tubers are matured successively V* 
There is no question but what there is a ratio of perfection—a recipro¬ 
cal ratio of some kind—between the seed-balls and tubers of the potato^ 
The fact is quite susceptible of demonstration. For, by carefully remov¬ 
ing the earth from the roots of a hill of potatoes and separating the 
tuber-bearing fibres from the stems without molesting the roots of the 
plant, thus preventing the production of tubers, you will have a heavy 
and vigorous crop of seed-balls. And it is altogether probable, that by 
reversing the process, and preventing the production of seed-balls, you 
will enhance the crop of tubers. The same fact is demonstrable with a 
great variety of bulbous and tuberous plants. Take the case of the com¬ 
mon onion, which is a biennial, and incapable of producing seed the first 
year. If it be allowed the second year to shoot up into a stock-flower, 
and ripen its seed, the bulb will almost entirely disappear ; whereas, if the 
flowering stem be cut down so as to prevent the plant from perfecting its 
seed, its productive energy will be directed entirely to the bulb, and the 
result will be a perfectly sound and healthy bottom for the second year. 
The same is true in regard to all bulbous and tuberous biennials. Eradicate 
their flower-stems the second year, so as to prevent a propagation by seed, 
and they will direct their elaborating energies to the bulbs and tubers. 
This ratio of perfection between the roots and the seed is beautifully 
illustrated in the case of the Orchis morio, which very rarely ripens its 
seed. By destroying the new bulb, the plant will make a vigorous and 
successful effort at propagation by seed. So, also, with the convellaria; 
by crowding their roots into flower-pots, so as to prevent the production 
of bulbs, you will get an increased amount of seed. These are results 
experimentally known to all practical botanists. 
The practice of decortication, or ringing, fruit trees, very clearly estab¬ 
lishes the same fact. It impedes the progress of the descending sap 
