220 Raising Potatoes under Straw. [May, 



If we in the West, can not obtain potash, guano, gypsum, phosphate, 

 and other mineral manures, on account of the great cost of transporta- 

 tion, much can however be done to preserve the natural fertility, by 

 steadily and judiciously applying the refuse that must necessarily accu- 

 mulate on a common sized farm, ordinarily stocked. The most profitable 

 foreign substance that we can introduce, is potash ; and the most conve- 

 nient form of applying it is in wood-ashes. Not more than one bushel, 

 however, can be obtained, where twenty can be judiciously applied. Let 

 every farmer save all his own ; house it well, that the alkaline strength 

 be not drained off by exposure to rains; and, being judiciously applied 

 to the fields, it will richly repay the farmer for his care. Our soil in 

 this region seems to be wanting particularly in the substance that the 

 ash-manure supplies. Let our western agriculturists then, look to these 

 things in time ; and if they would not have their soil become as fruitless 

 as was that of the old States they left, let them immediately adopt a 

 wiser, a more systematic, and scientific mode of farming, 



J. B. Crowly. 



Bellviev) Farm, III., Marcli, 1856. 



< • > • > 



RAISING POTATOES UNDER STRAW 



We clip the following from the " Ohio Cultivator," and deem it worthy of full 

 experiment : 



Several of our correspondents, within a year, have spoken favorably 

 of the practice of planting potatoes and covering with straw, both as a 

 less laborious and more profitable method of raising that crop. The 

 idea is not new to us. As long ago as 1824, we saw this method prac- 

 tised in Vermont, and it was reported highly successful ; but for some 

 reason it has not come into general use. The experiments we saw tried 

 were by selecting a short pasture field, dropping the seed at suitable 

 distances over the ground, and then covering the whole with a coating 

 of straw to the depth of a foot or more. In the fall the straw was raked 

 off and the potatoes picked up, all dry. In wet seasons this plan was 

 thought to be very effective. The editor of the Pike Co. (Ill) Free Press 

 has been presented with potatoes, raised the last season by a Mr. Ship- 

 man, of that vicinity, and details as fullows: 



" Mr. Shipraan informed us, that he planted them in the usual man- 

 ner, then covered them to about the depth of six inches with straw ; 

 after this no further cultivation was required — the straw kept down 



