POTATO CULTURE. 43 Y 



down. This is a question of vital importance to this section of the 

 State, where we raise so many potatoes for market. If it is going 

 to use up our farms in a few years, we want to know it. 



Hon. Hannibal Hamlin. I have raised all the potatoes for my 

 family for the last thirty years, and have never raised a single 

 tuber that I have not tried to watch very carefully its progress 

 from planting to maturity; and, so far as I could, the effect of dif- 

 ferent soils, although I have been confined almost wholly to a clay 

 loam. I listened with great pleasure to the lecture on the potato 

 given us by Mr. Gilbert, and I think that, in the main, his expe- 

 rience is my own. In some particulars, however, I certainly disa- 

 gree with him. I have finally, from experimenting in all ways that 

 I could, come to adopt this system, and I stick to it, because it is 

 a practical one, and profitable. I plant my potatoes upon a green- 

 sward. I spread a moderate dressing of stable manure upon it, 

 and turn the furrow over. I then thoroughly harrow it with a 

 very heavy harrow. I then plant very nearly upon the top of the 

 ground. In digging potatoes, I have found that wherever the hills 

 were sunken, so that the water could not drain away from them, if 

 they rot at all, they always rot excessively. I have therefore come 

 to the conclusion that it is better to have the hills so that thf 

 water will drain away from them in wet seasons. I am very sure 

 that this has pi-eserved my potatoes when some of my neighbors 

 have lost theirs. 



I believe in cutting potatoes, having tested that for more than 

 ten years. I do not believe that the nutriment in a full-sized tuber 

 is worth one fig for the nourishment of the plant. I do not believe 

 it, because when we find a tuber which has not decayed, we always 

 find a host of little potatoes in the hill. 



I run my horse-hoe at intervals of three and a half feet, as 

 lightly as possible, and put the rows three feet apart. Then I 

 apply one part gypsum, one part air-slacked lime, and three parts 

 wood ashes. Or, in other words, to about one acre of land, I 

 apply two bushels of gypsum, two bushels of air-slacked lime, 

 and six bushels of ashes. That gives me a moderate handful to 

 throw in with the seed. I never plant in hills. I cut my potatoes 

 so that in no case shall a piece have more than two eyes, — one is 

 better, — and plant them from eight to ten inches apart, in drills. 

 The yield averages about five to a stalk, and they are all of a size. 

 I raised at the rate of nearly 400 bushels to the acre by this 

 method. 



