Potato Culture. 



have the poor dumb beasts toil and 

 sweat, cultivating thirty acres for the 

 amount of produce that should grow, 

 may grow, can grow, and has grown 

 on ten acres ? 



The poorest, most forsaken side- 

 hills, cobble-hills, and knolls, if the 

 sand or gravel be of moderate depth, 

 underlaid by a subsoil rather retentive, 

 by turning under green crops grow 

 potatoes of the first quality. If land 

 be so poor that clover will not take, 

 as is sometimes the case, seed to 

 clover with millet very early in the 

 spring, and harrow in with the millet 

 thirty bushels of wood-ashes, or two 

 hundred pounds of guano per acre; 

 then sow the clover-seed one peck 

 per acre ; brush it in. 



If neither ashes nor guano can be 

 obtained at a reasonable price, sow 

 two hundred pounds of gypsum per 

 acre as soon 'as the bushing is com- 

 pleted. This will not fail in giving 

 the clover a fair foothold on the soil. 



Before the millet blossoms, cut and 

 cure it for hay. Keep all stock off 

 the clover, plaster it the" following 

 spring, plow it under when in full 

 bloom ; sow buckwheat immediately ; 

 when up, sow plaster; when in full 

 bloom, plow under and sow the 

 ground immediately with rye, to be 

 plowed under the next May. Thus 

 three crops are put under within a 

 year, the ground is left strong, light, 

 porous, free from weeds, ready to 

 grow a large crop of potatoes, or al- 

 most any thing else. 



Much is gained every way by hav- 

 ing and keeping land in a high state 

 of fertility. Some crops require so 

 long a season for growth, that high 

 condition of soil is absolutely neces- 

 sary to carry them through to matu- 

 rity in time to escape autumnal frosts. 

 In the Western States manure has 

 hitherto been considered of but little 

 > value. The soil of these States was 

 originally very rich in humus. For a 



time wheat was produced at the rate 

 of forty bushels per acre ; but accord- 

 ing to the statistics given by the Agri- 

 culcural Department at Washington, 

 for the year 1866, the average yield 

 in some of these States was but four 

 and -a half bushels per acre. It is 

 evident from this that Mr. Skinflint 

 has had things pretty much his own 

 way. His land now produces four and 

 a half bushels per acre ; what time 

 shall elapse when it shall be four and 

 one half acres per bushel ? Who dare 

 predict that manure will not at some 

 day be of value west of the Allegha- 

 nies ? New-Jersey, with a soil natu- 

 rally inferior to that of Illinois, con- 

 tains extensive tracts that yearly yield' 

 over one hundred bushels of Indian 

 corn per acre, while the average of 

 the State is over forty-three ; and the 

 average yield of ihe same cereal in 

 Illinois is but little over thirty-one 

 bushels per acre. In the Western 

 States, where potatoes are grown ex- 

 tensively for Southern markets, the 

 average yield is about eighty bushels 

 per acre ; while in old Pennsylvania 

 could be shown the last year potatoes 

 yielding at the rate of six hundred and 

 forty bushels per acre. There are 

 those who argue that manure is 

 never necessary that plant-food is 

 .supplied in abundance by the atmo- 

 sphere ; it was also once said a certain 

 man had taught his horse to live 

 without eating; but it so happened 

 that just as he got the animal per- 

 fectly schooled, it died. 



Good, thorough cultivation and 

 aeration of the soil undoubtedly do 

 much toward the production of crops ; 

 but mere manipulation is not all that 

 is needed. 



That growing plants draw much 

 nourishment from the atmosphere, 

 and appropriate largely of its consti- 

 tuents in building up their tissue, is 

 certainly true ; it is also certainly true 

 that they require something of the 



