THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



owners of gardens should grow their own potatoes ; they cost the average 

 household more money than any other vegetable, and there is nothing 

 difficult in their culture which should deter anyone from planting them. 

 Fresh manure should never be used when planting potatoes; it can, how- 

 even, be worked in the soil the previous fall; the best plan is to plant 

 them to follow some crop for which the ground was heavily manured the 

 previous spring. Early planting pays the best, particularly so when we 

 get such severe droughts as in the summer of 1914. Rows three feet apart 

 and sets fifteen inches are correct distances. For a very early crop it pays 

 to sprout a few tubers in boxes containing a single thickness of each, stood 

 erect and as close as they can be packed. The general practice is to spread 

 fertilizer in the drills before planting the sets; a far better plan is to 

 broadcast it after the potatoes have been planted. Where fertilizer alone 

 is used, 600 lbs. acid phosphate, 500 lbs. kainit, and 200 lbs. nitrate of soda 

 per acre can be applied, using the nitrate of soda after the growth has 

 started. Small growers had better use some special potato fertilizer. 



Differences of opinion arise about cutting sets; we like them to have 

 two eyes each, and such sets from large potatoes are more productive 

 than if cut from small ones. Single potatoes of small size do not average 

 so well as sets cut from large potatoes. The ground should be kept con- 

 stantly stirred, both before and after the potatoes start to grow, and this 

 must be done very persistently, and particularly after each rainfall. The 

 potato beetle and blight can be controlled by spraying; for the former, 

 arsenate of lead, at the rate of four pounds to fifty gallons of water, with 

 Bordeaux mixture added as a fungicide, applied as soon as the young 

 bugs hatch out, will care for the pests if well sprayed and dried on before 

 rain. One application of poison should suffice, but a second and even a 

 third spraying with the Bordeaux mixture will ensure a healthy foliage. 

 As to varieties. Early Norwood and Aroostook Pride as earlies, and 

 Green Mountain as a main crop variety are sufficient. If restricted to one 

 variety, it should be the reliable Green Mountain. 



Miscellaneous root crops want similar soil and conditions to potatoes 

 to ensure roots free from scab; also lime should not be applied to the 

 land for the same reason. A few reliable varieties of these to grow are: 

 Early Horn and Danver's Half-long carrots. Market Model parsnips, 

 Egyptian and Edmand's Early beets. Sandwich Island salsify, and Early 

 White Egg and Budlong turnips. The turnips, and in fact all root crops, 

 do particularly well on sandy ground. These and potatoes should be 

 stored in a frost-proof cellar where no fire heat is used. Some of the 

 parsnips can be left in the ground until spring; the most severe frost will 

 not harm them, and it is surprising how small a patch of each will supply 

 a whole family for a season. 



The Brassica or cabbage family cannot be omitted from any vegetable 

 garden; all like well-manured land. Excellent cabbages for early are: 

 Copenhagen Market and Jersey Wakefield; for late, Danish Baldhead and 

 Danish Roundhead; these latter are harder and far superior to the Drum- 



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