HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 223 



The potato crop in Minnesota has become a crop of great value, 

 and the starch manufacturing interest is centering now in the 

 northwest. I have been out of the line of direct production for 

 some little time, although last season I raised something over one 

 thousand bushels in a small way, but to produce them successfully 

 we must bring to our aid such intelligence as we use in producing 

 other things tbat are not indigenous to our climate. We must use 

 soil adapted to their cultivation, we must give it the best attention, 

 we must plow deeply, we must plant properly, we must cultivate 

 thoroughly, we must market judiciously, and then we are assured 

 of profit, a profit to our pocket which contributes to the pleasure 

 of our agricultural success. The first thing necessary, in the cul- 

 tivation of potatoes successsully, is to have a moist, heavy soil, as 

 we term it in this state. Our dry climate somewhat affects the pro- 

 duction. This soil should be cultivated deeply, cultivated thor- 

 oughly, in furrows about three and a half feet apart, and planted 

 about a foot apart in the rows, and covered; and do it as we can 

 cheapest and best. The best way to do this, is to have a potato 

 planter, because it is the use of machinery that makes successful 

 agriculture available. A potato planter will plant for about a dol- 

 lar and a half per acre. 



I wish to speak a little of the marketing because the marketing 

 of potatoes I am familiar with, having had a good deal of experi- 

 ence. The markets of our eastern cities to-day are receiving — I wilf 

 not say the main part of their supplies, — but a large part of their 

 supplies from Scotland, Ireland and Germany. I was in New York 

 six weeks this fall, and found that the imports of Scottish potatoes 

 were affecting the market materially, and that too, after paying the 

 duty of fifteen cents a bushel. 



In shipping to the eastern markets, there is one thing that should 

 be impressed upon the farmers of this state. I have seen in New York 

 this fall a thousand cars of potatoes waiting to be put upon the 

 market, mostly from the Northwest, Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas and 

 Nebraska, and I regret to say that hundreds of those cars would 

 not have brought enough in the market to pay the freight and com- 

 mission. Why? Because the shippers neglected to put them up 

 in the way that the maket demanded. In shipping to the eastern 

 market we must sort closely, send nothing but perfect tubers that 

 will command a good price and equal if not surpass the Scottish 

 potatoes sent to those markets. That is the first thing and only 

 thing necessary to ship to the eastern markets for profit. 



The second great marketing place for this product of the North- 

 west that, with all things considered, perhaps will pay more than 

 any other point, is the starch factories. The starch producing 

 centres of New England have gone to decay, and the reason is that 

 the potato crop there is proving a failure. Potatoes can be pro- 

 duced here in Minnesota at one-third the cost of producing them 

 among the hills and swamps of Vermont, and starch which is ne- 

 eessary for certain lines of manufacture, and which is one of the 

 prime articles of commerce of our country, must be manufactured 

 in that portion of our country where the raw material — the tuber — 



