THE SECRETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 3S1 



I pliint potatoes in drills four feet apart, with pieces containing but one eye 

 each, ten inches apart in the drill. A one-horse bar-share plow covers them 

 perfectly by passing once on each side of the drill and throwing the earth to 

 its center. 



I recently saw it stated that potatoes kept in a cellar would lose twenty per 

 cent of their weight by evaporation, but would lose nothing in that way if 

 pitted in the open field. That statement, I have no doubt, is true, and will also 

 apply to apples, turnips, beets, etc., and I am also positive that the flavor of 

 potatoes and apples buried in the open ground is much better than when stored 

 in a cellar. 



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Enough attention is not given, in the selection of potatoes for planting, the 

 origin of the parent plant. The indiscriminate clioice of seed potatoes from 

 the bin or barrel, or from that part of the previous crop left over from the 

 previous year, is not correct in principle nor is it justified by experience. 



An unhealthy peach tree may put out a single shoot that looks vigorous ; but 

 what nurseryman would think of picking buds from such a branch for the 

 propagation of peach trees? The same kind of care that the intelligent grafter 

 employs in the selection of his cions, or the budder in the choice of his buds, 

 should be exercised by the potato grower in preparing for his crop. 



The fact is we are away behind in our average yield of potatoes and ought to 

 do something to ensure better results. The maximum wheat crop is perhaps 

 fifty bushels per acre; the average possibly eighteen bushels per acre. Occa- 

 sionally we learn of a potato crop at the rate of seven hundred bushels per acre ; 

 one-half the average falls below sixty. It will be readily seen by these statistical 

 jottings that we are not living as nearly up to our possibilities in potato culture 

 as in wheat culture. May not the explanation be largely in our neglect about 

 what we plant ? 



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A correspondent of the Country Gentleman says that boxes are a great con- 

 venience and save a good deal of labor. The size we use is 13 by IG inches, and 

 13^ inches deep, all inside measures. The ends are made of three-quarter and 

 sides and bottom of half inch light wood, such as bass or whitewood, planed on 

 both sides. The corners are bound with galvanized hoop iron and hand-holes 

 are in each end. They hold a bushel level full, and it cost me $25 a 100 to get 

 them made at a box factory. 



For marketing early in the season, while the skins slip, the potatoes are care- 

 fully laid into the boxes, and the boxes put on a spring wagon and covered from 

 the sun. Arriving at the grocer's the potatoes are left in the boxes until sold. 

 In this way they get to the consumer almost as nice and fresh as though dug 

 out of his own garden. We have a spring wagon (box 3 feet by 13), on which 

 •we carry forty boxes, twenty in the Avagon box and twenty on top. Every box 

 is open to the air, and the potatoes cannot get bruised in the least. Few dealers 

 want a whole load at once early in the season ; they prefer to have them fresh 

 every day. By marketing in boxes it is easy to set off a few boxes in a place 

 and to retail a good many single boxes along the road. You will seldom find 

 a grocer who is not pleased to get his potatoes in such nice shape and willing 

 to pay twice what the extra cost is. And then it is a satisfaction to one's self 

 to get an article to market in good condition and to be able to sell quickly, 

 even on a dull market. There is a growing demand for nice things, and we 

 farmers must keep up with the times if we want to make money. 



