he appearance and quality, but
increasing the crop. The only preventive is watering regularly in a dry
time. This can be done advantageously in a garden, and on a small scale.
In field culture, when second growth occurs, dig your potatoes at once,
if they are large enough to be of much use. If not they will all be
lost.

_Propagation_ is by annually planting the tubers. No mixture of sorts
ever takes place from planting different varieties together. This can
only be done in the blossoms, and will consequently appear in young
seedlings. To raise good potatoes, always plant ripe seed, and the
largest and best, and leave them whole. Selecting small potatoes for
seed, and cutting them up, and planting mere eyes and pearings as some
do, has done much to injure the health, quality, and quantity of yield
of the potato. Selecting the poorest for seed, will run out anything we
grow in the soil. _New varieties_ have been multiplying within the past
few years from seed. Some gentlemen are raising varieties by thousands.
Not more than one out of a thousand prove truly valuable. The quality of
a new variety can not be established earlier than the fifth year. Many
that promised well at first proved worthless.

To raise from seed, gather the balls after they have matured, hang them
in a dry place till they become quite soft, when separate the seeds and
dry them as others, and plant as early as the temperature of the soil
favors vegetation. Chance varieties from seed of balls left to decay in
the fall, as tomatoes, are recorded. Probably our present best varieties
had such an origin. Raising new varieties requires much care and
patience. Keep each one separate, plant only the best, and then you
must wait four or five years to determine whether, out of a thousand,
you have one good variety.

_Varieties._--These are numerous. Those best adapted to one locality,
are often inferior in another. That excellent potato, the Carter, so
firm in New England and western New York, is ill-shapen and inferior in
many localities in Illinois. The Neshannock or common Mercer produces a
larger yield in Illinois than in the Eastern states, but of a slightly
inferior quality. Most seeds do better transported from a colder to a
warmer climate, but with the potato the reverse is true. The best
potatoes of Ireland are usually inferior in the warmer latitudes of this
country. In ordering potatoes for seed it is better to describe the
quality than to order b