80 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2. 



Dressing, hoeing etc. 



When the plant makes its appearance above the 

 surface, the following mixture may he used: For 

 each acre, take one bushel of plaster and two 

 bushels good ashes and sow it broad cast as even 

 as possible. A moist day is preferable ior this op- 

 eration — for want of it a still evening will do. 



I consider this mixture decidedly more benefi- 

 cial and much safer than plaster or ashes alone. 

 The alkali and nitre contained in the ashes lose 

 none of their fertilizing qualities in a moist season, 

 and the invaluable properties of \heplaster are fully 

 developed in a dry one, by decomposing the at- 

 mosphere and retaining to a much later period in 

 the morning the moisture of the evening dews. 

 There are but lew plants in our country that re- 

 ceive so great a share of their nourishment from 

 the atmosphere as the potato. The time for dress- 

 ing or hoeing will be found difficult to describe and 

 must be left to the judgement of the cultivator; it 

 should however, in all climates be done as early 

 as the first buds for blossoms make their appear- 

 ance. 



The operation of hilling should be performed 

 once and once only during the season, if repeated 

 alter the potato is formed it will cause young shoots 

 to spring up, which retards the growth of the po- 

 tato and diminishes its size. If weeds spring up 

 at any time, they should be kept down by the hand 

 or hoe, which can be done without disturbing the 

 growing stalk. 



My manner of hoeing or hilling is not to haul 

 in the earth from the spaces between the hills or 

 rows, but to bring on fresh earth sufficient to raise 

 the hill around the plant 1| or 2 inches. In a wet 

 season, the lesser quantity will be sufficient; in a 

 dry one the larger will not be found too much. 

 The substance for this purpose may consist of the 

 scrapings of ditches or filthy streets, the earth 

 from a barn-yard that requires levelling, where 

 convenient it may be taken from swamps, marshes, 

 the beds and banks of rivers or small sluggish 

 streams at low water. If planted on a clay soil, 

 fresh loam taken at any depth from the surface, 

 even if it partakes largely of fine sand, will be 

 found an excellent top dressing. If planted on a 

 loamy soil, the earth taken from clay-pits, clay or 

 slaty soil will answer a valuable purpose; in fact, 

 there are but few farms in the country but what 

 may be furnished with some suitable substance 

 for top dressing if sought for. The hoeing and 

 hilling may be performed with facility by the aid 

 of a horse and cart, the horse travelling in the 

 centre of the space between the drills, the cart 

 wheels occupying the two adjoining ones, thereby 

 avoiding any disturbance or injury to the growing 

 plants. The time for collecting the top dressing 

 may be regulated by the farmer's own convenience; 

 the earlier the better. Deposited in large piles in 

 or near the potato field, is the most suitable place 

 for distribution. 



I have frequently tried bed-planting, (or plant- 

 ing in beds) with uniform success. On moist lands 

 in a stiff or heavy soil, I consider it preferable to 

 any other mode; to do it properly lay your land in 

 beds of from 10 to 20 feet in width, raised in the 

 centre with a plough by back furrowing, after the 

 last harrowing which should be thoroughly done 

 is performed and left crowning with a gradual de- 

 Bcent from the centre to the alleys; the proper width 



and heigth of the beds must depend on the situ- 

 ation of the land and may be regulated by the 

 judgement of the cultivator. In clearing the al- 

 leys, which need not exceed 16 or 18 inches in 

 width, the laborer should stretch two lines the 

 proper distance on each side the alley and throw 

 upon the beds with a shovel the earth necessary to 

 be removed. 



The use of lines may be by some considered a 

 useless expenditure of labor — not so — the regu- 

 larity and neatness of appearance will be an abun- 

 dant remuneration for the trifling time occupied in 

 stretching the lines. 



After the land is prepared for planting, strike it 

 out in drills or trenches as before directed; 12 inch- 

 es asunder, in these drills, drop the potatoes 12 

 inches a part (diagonally,) to be covered, hoed, 

 dressed and managed in the same manner as in 

 field culture, with the exception of making an un- 

 drain in the spaces between the drills, which is 

 unnecessary and should be avoided. In filling 

 the trenches, dressing, &c. the horse-cart must be 

 dispensed with and a hand-cart or wheelbarrow 

 substituted. 



In recommending the drills north and south in 

 field planting, I did not wish to be understood that 

 other more valuable considerations should be aban- 

 doned for this practice: it is desirable it should be 

 so wliere the level or moderate descent of the land 

 will admit of it, but if too steep and liable to wash, 

 care should be taken to avoid this evil by running 

 the drills in such direction as may be required to 

 maintain a proper descent, even if it should be ne- 

 cessary to run them in curved lines, or wind around 

 a steep hill to preserve the required descent to ad- 

 mit the surplus water to pass off/ 



In communicating my experiments to some of 

 my neighboring farmers who are always in a hur- 

 ry and run over with the plough two acres of land 

 in half the time required to do justice to one; their 

 reply generally is, that my tedious mode of" culti- 

 vation has too much piddling and small labor for 

 patience, and persist in their accustomed manner 

 of half ploughing, half planting and half hoeing 

 five acres of good land and not obtain more po- 

 tatoes than one, properly cultivated, would pro- 

 duce, thereby losing half their labor and seed, be- 

 sides the use of four acres of their best land, 

 which might be converted to other valuable pur- 

 poses. 



I should think that intelligent farmers by a lit- 

 tle reflection would perceive the folly of pursuing 

 the usual wasteful practice of planting potatoes in 

 rows and hills four feet asunder, having four- fifths 

 of their land unimproved and subject to a rapid 

 waste of its most fertilizing qualities by being na- 

 kedly exposed to the washing of drenching rains 

 and the evaporation of the atmosphere; and after 

 all their labor, may consider themselves fortunate 

 if they obtain 200 bushels to the acre, which ex- 

 ceeds the average yield in this section of country. 

 By pursuing the course I have recommended, in 

 ordinary seasons on a good soil you may rational- 

 ly calculate on a crop of from 800 to 1200 bushels 

 to the acre. 



To such farmers as complain of my tedious and 

 piddling mode of culture I have only to remark, if 

 they will piddle their land in the same manner, 

 even if they waste half their crop, they will find 

 themselves richly rewarded for their whole labor, 

 in the benefits they derive by this preparation in 



