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218 . [ ASSEMBLY 
The question of synonyms in the potato is so large a subject that 
we have not as yet found time to consider it. | 
EXPERIMENT. 
As was noted in the report of the director last season, me results of 
certain experiments in cutting the potato tuber in different ways 
seemed to indicate that each eye of the tuber corresponds to the ter- 
minal bud of a branch, and that all of the eyes are vitally connected 
to a common central axis, which extends through the tuber from the 
stem to the terminal eye (the center of the seed-end, so-called), The 
hypothesis was therefore taken that the vigor of the eye is in a degree, 
at least, dependent upon the depth that the section containing it ex- 
: AA 
tended inwards towards the center of the tuber, provided that the as- _ 
sumed vital connection between the eye and the central axis is not 
severed. ‘The results of experiments conducted last season seemed to 
substantiate the hypothesis. 
In order to make a. thorough test of these experiments, one tuber 
each of eighty-nine of the ninety-two so-called varieties of potato 
named in the foregoing table, was cut .to single eyes, after the ideal - 
method, that is, cutting each section to the center of the tuber, but 
slanting the line of the cut toward the stem end at an angle of about 
forty-five degrees. Another tuber of each variety was cut in the same 
manner, except that the tuber was inverted so that the line of cut, in- 
stead of slanting toward the stem end of the tuber, slanted toward 
the opposite end. A moment’s thought will make it evident that 
while the cuttings of both tubers have the same form and about the 
same weight, those from the first tuber preserve the entire length of 
the theoretical branch while those from the second sever this branch 
at a point shortly beneath the eye. 
In treating of the two methods of cutting, we shall designate the 
tuber cut according to the hypothesis as the direct cut, and the one 
cut in the opposite direction, the reverse cut. 
» Eleven eyes of each tuber, that: is, eleven eyes of the direct and 
eleven of the reverse cut of each of the eighty-nine varieties, were 
planted side by side, so that there were two short rows of each variety, 
each of which contained eleven eyes. 
During the growth of the plants we frequently noted differences in 
the two cuttings. ‘Thus, in the vegetation, the direct cut was first in 
nineteen cases, the reverse in seventeen, and in the remainder both 
cuts vegetated on the same day. In blooming the direct cut was first 
in twen ty -four cases and the reverse in nineteen. In a few cases also, 
a slight difference was noted in the time that the tops were dead. 
But the more important question is the comparative yield of the 
two cuttings. ‘The direct cut yielded best in forty-eight cases, and 
the reverse in forty-one. ‘The actual difference in the aggregate yields, 
as calculated on the basis of one hundred hills, retaining fractions, 
was twenty-nine and three-fourths pounds in favor of the direct cut, 
or, on the average, about one-third of a pound to each variety. | 
Bighty- nine hundred hills is almost three-fourths of an acre. A 
difference in yield of twenty-nine and three-fourths pounds on three- 
fourths of an acre is as little as could be expected in duplicate plant- 
ings, and hence we decide that the hypothesis taken last season, so far 
as it relates to the importance of cutting the sections in a particular 
direction, is untenable. 
