336 TIIE AMERICAN FARMER. 



Potash in the soil is not only essential to the vine growth of the potato, but to its quality, 

 since the mealiness so much sought after results from the presence of starch in the tuber, 

 not a grain of which can be formed in the absence of this salt. In cool climates, the growth 

 and ripening of the potato extend over some months, and the processes of the elaboration of 

 starch occupy many weeks; hence it will be found that a poor soil, in a high northern lati 

 tude, will grow better potatoes and more of them than a richer one farther south. When 

 potatoes are grown on the worn, sandy first and second bottoms of the Mississippi River, 

 north of Cairo and as far north as St. Louis, the crops are not unfrequently tolerably large 

 ones; but the tubers are apt to be soft, watery, and waxy, showing that while there is still 

 enough potash present in the soil to answer the purpose of vine and tuber growth, there is 

 not enough to admit of the changing of the cellulose into starch, in the brief space of the 

 intensely hot summer season allowed for this process. But the growers for the St. Louis 

 market manure highly with material obtained in the city stables, and the crop, though never 

 comparable to northern-grown tubers in quality, is a fairly good one. Probably the extraor 

 dinary fine quality of Peerless potatoes I have eaten, grown for the northern spring market in 

 the winter vegetable gardens in the vicinity of New Orleans, owed that excellence to the very 

 liberal use of cotton-seed meal and ash, in connection with stable manure, as in the case of 

 those in. the suburbs of Mobile. 



Probably the best form of potash for potatoes is in that of wood-ashes, leached or 

 unleached, the former being of more than half the value of the latter, while soft coal-ashes 

 are by no means to be despised, especially in the western country, where more or less wood 

 is burned in connection with coal. Indeed, for vegetables of any kind, coal-ashes, whether 

 hard or soft, are to be sought after, since they are always valuable as an amendment to the 

 soil, and possibly though they may contain no plant-food, they do contain ingredients which 

 render certain forms of insohible plant-food soluble. 



The lesson to be learned is that potash, and an abundance of it, is essential to successful 

 potato-growing; that its best form is wood-ashes, not forgetting soft coal-ashes and well- 

 rotted stable manure, and that as one goes south he must increase the quantity of potash and 

 other inorganic elements of plant-food, in order that the starch in the tuber may be quickly 

 elaborated.&quot; 



Virgin soil with little or no manure will produce the bast quality of potatoes, as a gen 

 eral rule. 



Whatever the character of the soil, it should be plowed deeply, and thoroughly pulver 

 ized with the harrow before planting. A deep, mellow soil is, according to the best author 

 ity, better adapted to resist the extremes of moisture and drought than any other. 



&quot;When barn -yard manure is used, it should be well decomposed, or composted, fresh 

 manure being objectionable for potatoes, as it causes them to grow ill-shaped, with deep eyes, 

 and gives them a strong, unpleasant flavor. 



Poultry manure, wood-ashes, and plaster, mixed in equal proportions, make an excellent 

 fertilizer for this crop. Superphosphate of lime also gives very good results, as well as marl, 

 bone-dust, guano, and similar fertilizers, and on wet soils are very beneficial in rendering 

 them more dry, as they are of an absorbent nature. 



As has been previously stated, potash is highly beneficial to this crop, and may be applied 

 in the form of wood-ashes, which should be placed in the hill in planting. 



As a general rule, fall plowing is to be preferred, unless the soil is very friable. When 

 sod is used for the crop, or heavy land with a hard-pan or clayey subsoil, it should be plowed 

 rather deep in the fall, and harrowed and plowed again in the spring as soon as it is dry 

 enough to be friable. 



If the manure is of a fine texture, it should be spread on and harrowed in, but if coarse 

 manure is used, it can be spread on before the spring plowing or put in the hill or furrow. 



