AGRICULTURAL, nil 



To Keep Well, he dried them by spreading upon boards a few days in 

 the sun as you would apples. [The great apple raiser. Pell, on the Hudson, 

 ■who ships largely to England, "sweats" his apples two or three days, in his 

 apple house, three feet thick, then takes to an upper room and spreads out to 

 dry before packing ] "Whether this would do as well for sweet potatoes I am 

 not certain. Test, only, can settle that. There must be no bruising of either, 

 if expected to keep long. 



I. POTATO CULTIVATJON.— Soil Needed, Seed to Select, 

 etc. — L Soil Needed.— Perhaps no plant appreciates a good, rich soil more 

 nor pays for it better, than the "Irish," or common potato. Then take your 

 best soil and make it as rich as you can, if not already so. 



II. Selecting the Seed. — Although in the United States it is gener- 

 ally understood that the "crown," or seed end eyes, are the best, yet there 

 has been a controversy in England upon the subject of seed, some claiming 

 for a number of years, that the stem end only should be planted ; and that 

 these furnished a larger, and consequently a better potato. I think I can 

 explain this difference of opinion readily, although I have but little experience 

 in raising them. It is well known that the eyes on the seed end are much 

 more nmnerous than on the stem end. It has been the custom generally, until 

 recently, and is still the custom except by a few, to cut off the seed end and 

 to put two or even three of these pieces to each hill. This, of course, gives 

 a large number of stalks to each hill, while the stem end, having not half as 

 many eyes, has only had two or three pieces to the hill, the stalk, of course, 

 being equally less in number. And now, of late years, a few persons have 

 found out that the hill of potatoes with only two or three stalks gives a larger, 

 and consequently a better potato than the hills having many stalks. There- 

 fore, the stem end men have got the largest and best potatoes, because they 

 have less stalks in the hills, as they have less eyes. The authoi is willing tc 

 stand or fall by a fair test of this opinion. 



III. Potatoes. How Many to the Hill, Etc.— It is claimed, of 

 late years, by those who have tested it, that large potatoes only, should be 

 selected for seed, and that only one eye should be kept on each piece, and only 

 two pieces for a hill, if you want large marketable potatoes. Henry Ivss, of 

 Genesee Co., N. Y., says : "That cut seed from large potatoes yield S to 10 

 per cent, better than small ones planted whole." Another writer says : " You 

 always find your largest potatoes when there is only one large vine." A writer 

 in the American Cultivator reports he has thinned his potato vines, when they 

 exceed this number, to two in a hill, and that his father did the same for fifty 

 years before him. Pulling up the weaker ones as he would weeds from the 

 hill." A writer in the Indiana Farmer says: "One great secret in potato 

 cultivation, is, not to have too many eyes in one piece, and cut large ones for 

 seed." 



i?ewi<irA:s.— Differences op Opinion Balanced by Common Sense.— 

 The author has observed for over fifty years, being at this writing November 

 1884, nearly 68 years old, that in almost eveiy attempted improvement, the «x> 



