Potato Culture. 



little before they have time to rot, 

 thus clearing the ground for later- 

 growing vegetables. Thus grown, 

 potatoes are of inferior quality, and 

 the yield is not always satisfactory. 

 Flavor, however, is seldom thought 

 of by the hungry denizens of our 

 cities, in their eagerness to get a taste 

 of something fresh. 



Market gardeners will find great 

 benefit from the use of wood-ashes, 

 lime, and the phosphates. Sprinkle 

 superphosphate in the hill at the rate 

 of two hundred pounds per acre ; 

 mix it slightly in the soil with an iron 

 rake or potato-hook, then plant the 

 seed. Just before the last hoeing, 

 sprinkle on and around the hill a 

 large handful of wood-ashes, or an 

 equal quantity of lime slacked in brine 

 as strong as salt will make it. 



But for the generality of farmers, 

 those who grow only their own sup- 

 ply, or those who produce largely for 

 market, no other method of preparing 

 the soil is so good, so easy, and so 

 cheap as the following; it requires 

 time, but pays a big interest : Seed 

 down the ground to clover with wheat 

 or oats. As soon as the grain is off, 

 sow one hundred and fifty pounds of 

 plaster (gypsum) per acre, and keep 

 off all stock. The next spring, when 

 the clover has made a growth of two 

 inches, sow the same quantity of plaster 

 again. About the tenth of July, harrow 

 down the clover, driving the same di- 

 rection and on the same sized lands you 

 wish to plow ; then plow the clover 

 neatly under about seven inches deep. 

 Harrow down the same way it was 

 plowed, and immediately sow and 

 harrow in two bushels of buckwheat 

 per acre. When it has grown two 

 inches, sow plaster as before ; and 

 when the buckwheat has grown as 

 large as it will, harrow down and 

 plow under about five inches deep. 

 This, when cross-plowed in the spring 

 sufficiently deep to bring up the 



clover-sod, is potato ground first-class 

 in all respects. 



It is hardly supposable that this 

 mode of preparation of soil would 

 meet with favor among all farmers. 

 There is a parsimonious class of culti- 

 vators who would consider it a down- 

 right loss of time, seed, and labor; 

 but any one who will take the trou- 

 ble to investigate, will find that these 

 same parsimonious men never produ- 

 ced four hundred bushels of potatoes 

 per acre ; and that the few bushels of 

 small tubers that they do dig from 

 an acre, are produced at considerable 

 loss. " Men do not gather grapes 

 from thorns, nor figs from thistles." 



To make potato-growing profitable 

 in these times of high prices of land 

 and labor, it is absolutely necessary 

 that the soil be in every way fitted 

 to meet any and all demands of the 

 crop. 



It is said that in the State of Maine, 

 previous to the appearance of the 

 potato disease, and before the soil had 

 become exhausted by continued crop- 

 ping, potatoes yielded an average of 

 four hundred bushels per acre. Now, 

 every observer is aware that the 

 present average yield of the same 

 vegetable is much less than half what 

 it was formerly. This great deterio- 

 ration in yield can not be attributed 

 to " running out " of varieties ; for va- 

 rieties are extant which have not yet 

 passed their prime. It can not be 

 wholly due to disease; for disease does 

 not occur in every season and in 

 every place. True, we have more in- 

 sects than formerly, but they can not 

 be responsible for all the great falling 

 off. It is traceable mainly to poverty 

 of the soil in certain ingredients im- 

 peratively needed by the crop for its 

 best development, and to the perni- 

 cious effect of enriching with nitroge- 

 nous manures. Any one who will 

 plant on suitably dry soil, enriched 

 only with forest-leaves, sea-weeds, or 



