THE FARMEllS' REGISTE 



Vol. VII. 



JUNE 30, 1839. 



No. 6. 



EDMUND RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 



THE CULTURE OF THE POTATO. 



By Mr Towers, C. 31. II. S. 



From Ihe Quarteiiy Journal of Agriculture. 



" The subject of the potato culture is yet (|uile 

 open to the experimenter. Experiment on it by 

 all possible varieties ol" vvays is our advice; and 

 when a sufficiency oC facts have been collected, we 

 shall then, but not till then, be warranted in theori- 

 ■i^ing on the nafeure of the potato plant." It is neither 

 loss of time, nor useless repetition, to copy verba- 

 tim the closing paragraph of the editorial note, p. 

 110 of the last number, 41,; lor, by so doing, at- 

 tention may be rivetted to a very grave subject, 

 and also lo the other papers, in the same number, 

 to which the note refers. 



Considering the admonition to experimentize in 

 all possible varieties of ways as most sound advice, I 

 believe that 1 shall be acting in accordance with it, 

 by entermg into a detail of the various methods 

 of culture which I have pursued during a period 

 of eight or more years, and noting down, as lar 

 as existing documents permit, the corresponding 

 results. 1 will premise that, previous to 1830, my 

 practice was regulated by that of ordinary culti- 

 vators in the west of Wiltshire, where I then re- 

 sided ; but that subsequently, in consequence of 

 the frequent intercourse by letters with the vene- 

 rable (late) President of the London Horticultural 

 Society, and of receiving numerous varieties of 

 potato from that gentleman, the product of his 

 own unremitting experiments, I altered my prac- 

 tice, and have met with great success. At the 

 period when the public press was burdened with 

 alarming notices of "failure," I never saw an un- 

 healthy plant, with one most singular exception, 

 which i will, in its place, adduce as such. If this 

 article fail to announce, or give weight to any 

 new and important facts, it will, at the'least, offer 

 a pledge of what has been, and may again be 

 successfully attempted. The opinions and'' theorv 

 ol the lamented president shall be referred to, and 

 thus the reader will be placed in possession of 

 some valuable extracts from original letters, which 

 are by me esteemed very precious relics, for they 

 are now all that remain of one of the most candid, 

 liberal, unselfish minds that ever adorned the worki 

 of science. 



In the cultivation of the potato, t!ie chief object 

 ought to be the production of the utmost quantity 

 of that mealy subsiance which constitutes the nu- 

 tritive property of the root. This substance was 

 lormerly called the farina, a term which, if refer- 

 red to qualities resembling those of meal or flour, 

 can by no means be admitted, because of the total 

 absence of that peculiar g/«ie/), which distinguishes 

 the flour of grain, and qualifies it to unde7go the 

 panary fermentation, and become bread, j/myliim 

 and starch, on the contrary, are correct terms ; and 

 with this remarkable substance the potato abounds, 

 but to a greater or less extent, according to the 

 J?round in which it grows, and to the routine of cul- 

 ture to which it is subjected. 



By the analysis of EiahofT, referred to by Sir 

 V OL. VU— 41 



H. Davy, in his agricultural lectures, the follow- 

 ing results were obtained : — 



From 7680 parts of potato — 

 Of starch (amylam) - - . J 153 

 Fibrous matter, analogous to starch 540 



Albumen - - . . . 107 



Mucilage, in a state of saturated solu- 

 tion - u - _ . 312 



2112 



Residue, or loss, must have been worthless 



fluid== ----- 5568 



Thus the starch, to the extent of about 1700 parts 

 in 7680, constitutes the chief material of (bod, be- 

 cause the mucilage in solution, represents only 

 just so much gum-water, and the vegetable albu- 

 men can hardly be admitted to be equal to a like 

 quantity of the •' white of '^.gs,,'-'' animal albumen. 

 My own more simple and familiar analysis, de- 

 scribed in the ' Domesiic Gardener's Manual,' 

 under the article " The Potato,''' gives, from eight 

 pounds of washed, but unpeeled potatoes, finely 

 rasped, — 



ib. oz. 

 1 6 



1 It 



4 15 



Of amylum or starch - 



01' pnip) after pressure by hand 



Loss in water, or soluble matters 



The amylum, whether it exist in the slate of 

 powder, or in the form of ''fibrous matter is the 

 substance which conliirs excellence upon the ve- 

 getable. Potatoes will grow in any soil, li'om that 

 of the loosest sand, if it be united with isome re- 

 duced vegetable matters, to the strongest clays of 

 agriculture ; but what is of slill greater moment 

 to the subject under consideration — the produce in 

 amount or quality appears to be materially influ- 

 enced by local agencies, even in soils of the same 

 constitution. Thus the sands which bring fine 

 mealy tubers in Somersetshire, fail in othei°quar- 

 ters of t!ie kingdom. On this gnujiid only can 

 we account for the discrepancyVhich we "meet 

 with in the papers of the many cultivators who 

 have given publicity to their practice and opinions^ 

 one asseriing that the light and dry lands bear the 

 best crops, while another maintains, that stiff and 

 clayey soils are most congenial. The operations 

 of soils, therefore, are contingent; and it is proved 

 almost to a demonstation, that potatoes which are 

 excellent in West Wiltshire, as (or «>.^ample, the 

 varieties there termed the "early purple-eyed," 

 and the "Princes beauty," became deteriorated in 

 Berkshire, treat them how you may. Lancashire 

 is famed lor its varieties which boil lo a meaJ that; 

 crumbles under the fork, and is neariy as white as 

 flour, but the varieties change in the midland and 

 southern counties. That soil, and routine of cul- 

 ture, which produces the strongest haulm, and 

 most expansive system of foliage, will yield the 

 greatest bulk of tubers; hence the o|)inion which 

 we constantly hear expressed, ''that the potatoes 

 run away tnto haulm,^' is a fallacy, because expe- 

 rience proves, what physiology teaches, that the- 

 tuber is the product of the Ipliage, by the quality 

 and breadth of which its comparative substaace i* 



