FARMERS' REGISTER. 



591 



POTATO GROtJVD FOR ^EXT SEASOS. 



From the Cultivator. 

 The potato has become an indiepeneable article 



were once taught to dig our potaloeis in the morn- ! Mr. F. concluded to lake that course, and he 

 ing, throw them between the rows, and let them , began to hnrvest hie wheat by mowing it with a 

 dry liirough most of the day — then to tilt them | common scythe. Afterwards he engaged a man 

 from the cart into the door yard to beat off all the j to cut it with a grain cradle — it was thus laid in 

 dirt that might adhere to them. But experience : Mvels like rye or oats — without euHering ii to lie 

 has taught us that this is a branch of fancy farm- j long in the gavel, he raked it into heaps of the 

 ing. and will never answer for practical men. ■ size of common bundles, and then — without bind- 



When we lived on the Kennebec river and sent , ing — he set these bundles on end to let the tops 

 up loads of potatoes to the Boston market, we of I dry, and the beards of the grain held the whole 

 ten wondered that our Boston friends were not as ] bundle together sufllciendy strong to keep the 

 fond of the Kennebec potato as ourselves — but on ; grain from the eround. 



attempting to eat in Boston some of the same po- i It was Mr. Freeman's calculation to let these 

 tatoes we had sent there we soon perceived the bundles stand two or three days, then cart them 

 great difference between a Kennebec potato in and thrash out the grain immediately, before it 

 Boston and a Kennebec potato at fiome. Our po- ; should gather any moisture from the straw. And 

 tatoes had been loo much exposed to the air, and j we are inclined to think this is the best mode of 

 though '.hey had not turned green, as they will do j harvesting this valuable grain. If we mow it 

 when exposed in the sun, they were spoiled by {with a common scythe, we must rake over the 

 exposure. | whole ground, and the grain shells out so easily, 



Our Kennebec and Penobscot friends should ' we lose some every time we siir it — these bundles 

 pack up in tight casks ail potatoes sent off to cus- [stand up so well they need not be moved or stirred 

 tomers whom they expect to trade with a second \ umil they are dry enough to be carted, and they 

 time — and if perfectly tight casks cannot be ob- ' need to be moved but once. No binding or un- 

 lained, loam or sand may be filled into flour bar- binding is necessary, and the expense of harvest- 

 rels with the potatoes, and the cot of iransporta- ing is not half so great as the harvesting of com- 

 tion to Boston by water will not be increeised by mon wheat. Mr. Freeman will probably have 

 the filling. I thirty bushels of buckwheat to the acre. 



A part of the labor of harvesting potatoes is 



severe and requires a strong arm ; the soil lies 



heavy about them and the hand hoe must be used 

 with much more vigor than is required in tillinsj 

 the ground, in order to disengage them fro.m their I 

 bed. A plough, constructed in such a manner as I 

 not to cut ttte potato would save a great deal of: 



hard labor. The plough should have a dull coul- , for the table, and no pains should be spared to 

 ler which should slope back at an angle of forty- j grow the article in the best manner, and at as lit- 

 five degrees ; and it might also have a double tic cost as may be. And the very unequal quan- 

 mould board. This plough would loosen up all j titles which we often see harvested in fields that 

 the earth about the potatoes, in land free from | are to all appearance equally rich, demands sonre 

 stones and stumps, and mcst of the potatoes of our attention to inquire into the cause of this 

 would lie on the surface— the remainder would difference. All will agree that soils naturally 

 soon be discovered by the prong hoe. j light, or made so by means of manures, furnish 



Some ploughs of this description — or near it — I the best bed for the growth of the potato. Culti- 

 were here exhibited at the fair last season. We I vators take different methods to produce this light- 

 hope some of our ingenious farmers who raise ness in the soil, but most of them who have no 

 many potatoes for market will try a plough of this \ new ground, (which always lies lighter than old.) 

 description and let us know how it works. to plant wiih potatoes, place a shovel full or a fork 



I full of manure in the liill with the seed potatoes, 



j and in case of a dry summer the harvest will of- 



I ten prove less than if no manure were used ! And 

 jiODE OF HARVESTING RUCKWHEAT. then the land is scarcely any belter by the appli- 



cation, for the next season, 

 from the Cultivator, j You may generally have vines in abundance 

 Mr. E. Freeman, of Framingham, has raised , by placing manure in the hill, but good bottoms 

 a beautiful field of buckwheat on some of his are more important than large tops, and our cal- 

 lightest, poorest land. In April he sowed this culations should be made accordingly. Now we 

 land with a bushel of rye to the acre, and in the find that no soil will lie so light through the sum- 

 last of June he buried all this rye with his plough, mer as green sward will — but if the sward is 

 using a foot in the beam, and a cross bar at the turned in the spring, and is then planted with po- 

 bottom of the loot to lay the rye straw fiat, so that tatoes, it does not become mellow in se&son to 

 it might be buried in the furrow. He sowed buck- give them a good bed — it is also in most cases 

 wheat, one bushel to the acre, and it was his in- ; more dry than it should be for this article. "We 

 tention to plough in the buckwheat straw in Au- i propose to our friends who never tried the experi- 

 gust as he had done the rye, but when he saw ment, to turn over some green sward in October, 

 what a harvest of buckwheat he might have, he before ail the grass is fed off, and see if they will 

 hesitated about turning it into manure. On see- not have a better bed for their potatoes than they 

 ing it, our advice was to save the grain, and keep can otherwise make — if straw or old meadow hay 

 the same field for buckwheat for next summer, as | is ploughed in, it will not viiiaie the soil, and it 

 the land is not suitable lor large crops of grass, may help the crops. We once tried this experi- 

 being too light and porous to hold either moisture j ment— we ploughed our ground about the middle 

 or manure. I of October, and in the spring wc did nothing but 



