Question. Do you consider the scab caused by insect or fungus growth?

Mr. HERSEY. I believe that it has been decided it is fungus growth, and that the insect comes as a consequence afterwards.

Question. Do you think the result would have been the same had you allowed all the eyes to remain?

Mr. HERSEY. No, sir, I do not think it would. There would have been more of them; there would have been more of the larger ones and rather more of the small ones.

Question. I would like to inquire whether it is presumed that all of the eyes in the large potatoes grow?

Mr. HERSEY. No, sir, it is a fact that it is only the very strongest ones, as a rule, that grow. A potato in growing, when a single eye starts, grows up like a tree almost, and when it comes out of the ground perhaps from one single eye there will be a dozen branches, where if you plant three or four eyes they are not branched so much and the result is that from the whole potatoes the size of the stalks is larger than the stalks that come from a single eye.

Question. I understood you that by cutting the potatoes it reduced its vitality: does it not equally reduce the vitality to remove the eyes? Mr. HERSEY. Certainly; that is one of the points.

Question. Do you advise putting in two large potatoes in a hill, right along in a row?

Mr. HERSEY. I do not advise anything, only try them. I advise you to do that.

Question. Have you ever tried thinning out where you have seeded heavily?

Mr. HERSEY. I have not, because I do not think it quite practicable in field culture.

Question. I would ask whether you would put two whole potatoes in a hill, or one?

Mr. HERSEY. That would depend upon how I was going to plant. In raising potatoes of course I should put whole potatoes, and I think about fourteen inches apart.

Question. How far apart would you put the rows?

Mr. HERSEY. About three feet apart. I should pick out potatoes that were not quite large enough for sale, simply because it would be economical. Perhaps the difference is not so great, and yet the difference between the single eye and a ton of whole potatoes was four hundred and seventy-five bushels to the acre.

Question. Have you ever tried the comparative merits of smallsized potatoes and large ones?

Mr. HERSEY. Not side by side. I now have an experiment under way trying the difference between a small potato and a large one, and I am not satisfied with the result. I do not believe it. The result was largely in favor of the small potato, but I don't believe the small potato is any better than the large one, but if it follows for six or seven years I shall have to give it up.

Question. I notice that you want the potato to sprout before you plant them to see that they are good. Would you have these sprouted in the cellar or taken out to the air and exposed?

Mr. HERSEY. I would have the potato sprouted only just enough to see its vitality. A potato that has a long sprout on it is very likely to get injured and if you injure the sprout it weakens the power of the potato. It should be sprouted only enough to show that the eye is alive and in good condition; that is what we ought to try to do, select the seed and take proper care of it.

Question. If you plant in the years to come will you use whole small potatoes or whole large ones?

Mr. HERSEY. In order to save the large ones for sale I should take those that are just below that, but from the experiments that I am trying I am not sure but that I am doing wrong.

Question. Do you think it makes any difference about the shape of the potato?

Mr. HERSEY. In a trial of seven years in the selection of long potatoes and the selection of a particular shape, as you speak of, it has made no difference at all. The shape is in the variety, not in the selection. I was told you could get a potato any shape you pleased simply by selection. I am satisfied that it would not make any more difference about the shape of a potato than it would the shape of a squash you would plant.

Question. Do you consider the potato an especially exhaustive crop to the soil?

Mr. HERSEY. The potato is especially exhaustive in potash, but I do not see that the potato is exhaustive to the soil only in certain directions. The time is coming when farmers are going to be intelligent enough to feed their land according to what it wants. Now it is said that if you plant a piece of potatoes three or four years in succession your land runs out. Why? The cause is this. The barn manure which you apply has not its proper proportion of potash,

therefore you exhaust your soil in potash and you overload with phosphates. Now, suppose you want to balance them. You go into a rotation of crops; you plant grain and then you begin to balance up your ground by taking out a larger proportion of phosphates. Suppose you plant wheat there; you take out the nitrogen and so you even up your ground; put on a crop of grass afterwards and then you go on and raise potatoes again. Suppose, instead of doing that, you put on enough potash to balance your manure; you put potash on and that balances it and you go on. I have got land that I have raised potatoes on ten or twelve years, raising at the rate of six hundred and sixty-six bushels to the acre in potatoes for ten or twelve years. Why? Simply because I balance that land up with potash. That is the whole story. If you are going to plant potatoes year after year, as you exhaust that land in the partially decomposed vegetable substances the land will become hard in time, if you confine yourself to commercial fertilizers. You can put on a proper balance so that there will be enough potash, nitrogen and phosphates, and yet the land becomes exhausted of that material which lightens it up and loosens it. You must raise a grain crop and plow it in.

Question. Are you any more liable to raise scabby potatoes from scabby seed?

Mr. HERSEY. I do not know about scabby potatoes; my experience is that it makes no difference.

Question. About this small potato business. I wish to ask you, do those potatoes ripen as early as they did when you first commenced? Mr. HERSEY. Yes, they do just as early; it don't make any dif ference at all; you always get them early because they start off early.

Question. Would you recommend in the selection of commercial fertilizers the ordinary combination found in our fertilizers, or would you select one made especially for the crop?

Mr. HERSEY. I cannot say that I have had any experience in buying special fertilizers for special crops. I do not know what I should do. I suppose I should try some experiments first before I settled down to anything. I make my own fertilizers; there are seven of us join together and put in machinery so that we buy the bone and reduce it and grind it, and then buy our chemicals and make whatever we want. We make about fifty tons a year, so that really I have not had very much experience in buying commercial fertilizers.