Disputes continue as ever before about the relative advantages of large or small potatoes for seed, or of whole or cut potatoes. At the outset it is apparent that a very small potato - the size of a pea for instance - would produce so weak a plant that it would take all summer to get strong enough to make a plant fit to bear tubers.., Therefore, the strength of the eye that is to produce the plant must be a matter of some consideration. The good, strong eye will surely make the strongest plant in the shortest space of time; and one good sprout will as surely be better than a dozen poor ones. All this is in favor of a moderately large potato, or at least a potato with strong eyes and cut sets. The soil, manner of treatment and other conditions, however, have often much to do with success. A weak sprout well treated will do better than a strong one badly treated. But the sprout, not the size of the potato, is certainly of some consequence. As soon as it begins to grow the sprout sends out roots of its own. The potato is not of much account.

We know one who grows as fine potatoes as any one needs, from sprouts alone.