266 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



It is the proper time to begin cutting, which is three years 

 after it is planted, not before. Those people who have made 

 the most success out of asparagus have made it a rule not to 

 cut any until three years after it was planted. Do not plant 

 anything over two years old. I prefer good, strong one year 

 old plants. 



A FEW HINTS ON POTATO CULTURE AND SELECTION OF 



THE SOIL. 



BY S. FROGNEB, HERMAN. 



The potato, like all robust growing vegetables, can be grown with va- 

 rying success on soils of all kinds and in all conditions of fertility, but 

 the soil best suited to it is a rich sandy loam, with good and clean culti- 

 vation and a liberal dressing of thoroughly decomposed manure. Good 

 pasture land broken up early in the season, and plowed and harrowed the 

 following spring, will produce a sound crop and often a very large one. 

 Clover sod for this purpose is excellent and furnishes the soil a large 

 amount of vegetable substance; when turned under in August it will rot 

 by the following spring and a top dressing of good decomposed manure 

 plowed under in the spring and well cultivated will give a large and fine 

 crop. Wet lands produce a coarse, unpalatable potato, and one of little 

 value even as food for cattle. Ground should never be plowed while wet 

 or heavy, it injures the soil and does more harm than the manure can 

 offset; the ground should be prepared as carefully and thoroughly for pota- 

 toes as for any other vegetable crop. Attention in this particular well 

 repays the farmer. 



If the soil is good but little manure is required. In highly enriched 

 soil the plants are more liable to disease than when grown in soils that 

 are naturally good. I plow the ground as early in the spring as it can be 

 had in good working order, and then leave it till planting time— about 

 two weeks later, then harrow the ground two or three times, till all the 

 small weeds are destroyed, and the field is ready for planting. I use the 

 trench system, three feet apart, five inches deep, plant one foot apart in 

 the trench, covering the potatoes about three inches with a cultivator; 

 one week later go over the field with a smoothing harrow twice and the 

 trench will be filled and the small weeds again destroyed. When the 

 vines are three to four inches high take the cultivator and give it a good 

 cultivation once a week for three weeks and the field will be clean and 

 free from weeds. 



If you wish large, well-formed potatoes select medium good size tubers, 

 cut them into four or six pieces according to size, preserving as many eyes 

 on each as possible; you will then have strong, healthy vines and roots. 

 If small tubers are planted whole the result in general is a quantity of 

 small vines followed with an over proportion of small potatoes. The se- 

 cret in producing a good crop of potatoes is, first, good seeds and rich soils, 

 and good cultivation is the other. 



VARIETIES. 



Of late years no vegetable has been improved as much as the potato. 

 Since the introduction in 1869 of the valuable Early Rose. New varieties 



