128 - [AssEMBLY 
Single eyes used as -seed yielded satisfactory crop per hill, and more 
uniform crop per hill than whole potatoes or ordinary cuts. 
Single eyes yielded a smaller percentage of small potatoes than did 
ordinary cuts or whole potatoes used as seed. 
Ordinary cuts, upon the whole, yielded more favorable results than 
whole potatoes, markedly so when the seed used is subtracted from the 
crop gained. 
Single eyes cut deeply so as to contain some substance gave far supe- 
rior yield to eyes cut shallow. 
The small seed-end eyes gave results by no means inferior, but rather 
superior, to those gained from central and butt-end larger eyes. 
Early planting showed far more favorably in crop than later plant- 
ing, not alone in quality, but in total yield. 
oo close planting diminished the yield of good potatoes, and in- 
creased the yield of small potatoes, by measure. 
Fertilizer left over from last year’s application exercised a marked 
influence upon the crop. 
How to Cut Potators To SINGLE EYES. 
On account of the great saving of seed from the use of single eyes, 
and the certainty that single eyes yield satisfactory crop, it seems de- 
sirable to offer directions by which such seed may be the most con- 
veniently cut. ; 
If a potato be examined closely, the eyes will be seen to be so arranged 
that a line drawn circling from eye to eye wi]l form a spiral, as each 
eye is a little above and further around the side than the one next ~ 
below it. If, now, the potato be taken in the left hand, the stem-end 
down, and kept in a perpendicular position, it is ready for cutting. 
Now take a knife, and placing the blade above the first eye, cut down 
to the stem, thus removing one eye; rotate the potato to the left until 
the second eye comes under the knife blade, and remove this eye in 
the same manner, the knife retaining the same slope as before, and so 
continue until the seed-end isreached. The seed-end eyes can be cut into 
separate eyes according to the plan which at the time seems most con- 
venient. 
This method was brought to the attention of the public in'B. K. 
Bliss & Son’s pamphlet, entitled “The Potato, How to Cultivate, 1882,” 
and perhaps in previous editions. It has been adopted by many of our 
best potato growers, and has been found to give satisfaction. It is 
well worthy the attention of farmers to practice this method until 
familiarized with its convenience and great saving of seed. 
The potato tuber is a swollen stem, bearing upon its surface eyes or 
buds, each of which occupies the axil of an abortive leaf. 
The tubers are borne normally upon an underground stem, usually 
upon the extremity, but occasionally beaded along its course. These 
stems are often very short, at other times quite long, and in either 
case a variety characteristic. Since the general use of machinery for 
harvesting, those varieties which have short underground stems, and 
hence bear their tnbers compactly in the hill, are, other things being 
equal, to be preferred. 
These underground stems appear above the roots from the lower part 
of the stem, usually from the region lying close to the eye, but in 
