Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1875 — Planting Potato Sprouts. [ARTICLE]

Planting Potato Sprouts.

Potatoes of large size are said to be produced by a monk in France by cutting two side-shoots from each stalk when it is five to seven inches high and setting them in good, rich, mellow garden soil. In a few days they send out roots and form tubers about as early and in as large quantities as the original stalk, while the latter does not seem to be injured by the moderate pruning. Our monkish friend has discovered nothing new, but it may be worth remembering when one has a rare kind that he wishes to make the most of. Many of our nurserymen practice the same way with new potatoes. When the Early Goodrich and the Early Rose were first introduced some of the New England nurserymen propagated potatoes from the tops to such an extent that several hundreds of bushels were raised in a single season from a few original potatoes. One grower raised the plants under glass all winter. Every time a new growth appeared it was taken off as a cutting and soon made a plant. He had thus thousands of plants by the spring, each in a small pot, and these set out in the open ground planted an enormous tract of land. We do not remember exactly, but we believe as much as a hundred bushels of potatoes came in this way from half a dozen potatoes inside of twelve months. — Forney's Weekly Press.