POTATO COMPETITION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume VIII, Issue 1373, 31 July 1886, Page 2

POTATO COMPETITION.

To the Editor of the Star.

Sik, — Believing that I am in possession of some valuable facts 1 elating to the above, wishing to do good m my day and generation, ami, further, knowing the following to have beeu proved true to the letter, kindly at first opportuuity insert tho enclosed. — I am, &c, Irish Cups.

" A French agricultural journal, called tlio Basse Cour, describes the result of some experiments iv potato growing recently conducted by scientific meu iv Germany. The principal conclusions to which these savants have come seem to be two in number. The first of them is thut the vigor of the potato plant is always iv direct proportion to the weight of the 'über used for set* ; the second, that there is a great variety in the productive power, not only of different tubers, but also of different ' eyes' iv the same potato. It is found that the eyes at the top of the potato produce a much more vigorous offspring thau those in the lower part : and the corjr.equence is that those agriculturists who cut tbeir potatoes in half before planting them are not well advised in cutting them vertically, but should always divide them horizontally, planting the upp r half, and using the other as food for cattle. But the best plan of all is to plant the tuber whole, cutting out, nevertheless, all the ' eyes ' except those in the top part. Such being the principles laid down, we cotue now to the experiments on which they are based. These were conducted in a garden soil by Professor Gantz, the amount of crop produced by several different settings of potatoes being accurately estimated in statistical tables. It appeared that from tubers divided vertically only five tons were produoed per acre; and from whole potatoes, 7| tons. The third sort were

potatoss horizontally dirfcUd, #hufti «re v set down as baring produead dfftiO. In this particular, however, nini of the oth^r professors do not agr»f with Herr Oaotz, but maintain (hat, othar thing* being eqaai, tho whole potatoes wilt always produce more than halves, bowever cut. On the fourth result, however, all agree, and that is that the whole potatoes, from wbich tbe lower ' eyes ' have been cut out, produce 11| tons per acre, or more than doable the result shown by the sets first mentioned."