
159 
support of this view may be added the fact that when pota- 
toes are planted on poor dry soil, where the tops make but 
a feeble growth, the seed tuber is frequently found to be 
quite sound, even when the tops are nearly or quite dead. 
The yields of the plants that were permitted to mature, 
as given in the table, are too few in number to have much 
value, but they do not show that any material loss followed 
the removal of the seed tubers. This corresponds with the 
results secured in 1885. 
From these results we may infer : 
1st. That although the stored nutriment of the planted 
tuber or cutting is nearly or quite all consumed by the 
growing plant, the experiment does not show that this nu- 
triment is more available than any other equal quantity of 
fertility in the soil. Otherwise, the tubers planted in the 
poor soil would hardly have yielded up their nutriment less 
rapidly than those in the rich soil, because we may fairly 
assume that there was a greater demand for this nutriment 
in the poor soil. 
2nd. The stronger the growth of the plant, the more 
rapidly does the tuber yield up its nutriment. 
3rd. On poor, dry, or badly prepared soil, the nutriment 
2 the tuber cannot recompense for the unfavorable con- 
ditions. 
If these inferences are correct, it would appear that the 
chief value of large tubers or cuttings for seed, as contrasted 
with small ones, lies in the greater vigor that they give to 
the starting shoot. 
OBSERVATIONS ON ROOT GROWTH. 
From the botanists’ standpoint, roots, like all other parts 
of the plant, have been quite thoroughly studied. But the 
subject of the relations of root growth to the processes of 
agriculture and tillage has received less attention than its 
importance would seem‘to merit. It is on the agricultural | 
side only, that the work upon the examination of roots fol- 
lowed at the Station during the past three seasons can claim 
novelty. 
The roots of seven species of gardeu plants not heretofore 
examined at the station have been washed out in 1886 for 
the purpose of making the descriptive notes begun in 1884, 
and continued in 1885, more nearly complete.? In addition, 


1See report of N. Y. Agricultural Experiment Station, 1885, p. 209. 
2See report of N. Y. Agricultural Experiment Station, 1884, pp. 305-315, 
and 1885, pp. 234-239. 
