1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



123 



ground and keep green until harvest. I have often 

 ibund some few ripe, and some in the same hill 

 Email and green, and generally very ill shaped, 

 whereas on the same ground with the same cul- 

 ture, seed high with good sized potatoes, planted 

 at the same time, they come up strong and are 

 sure to stand erect, will shoot out their young at 

 the same time, and will grow near of a size, ripen 

 altogether, one or two months earlier, and will be 

 found of suitable size for table; this is the mode 

 that I recommended to obtain the largest crop 

 and far the best potatoes. I have tried every 

 method, even the piddling method of Mr. B. as to 

 distance; it ruins them for a crop, to sow them 

 in the way he has described, and much more in 

 the size. 



I once tried an English mcde warmly recom- 

 mended to produce 900 bushels to the acre: it 

 was to prepare the ground and drill two feet apart, 

 and plant the seed lengthwise, the potatoes in con- 

 tact with each other. They were well attended; 

 the result of the crop was, as any agriculturists 

 would judge, there was after the rate of 900 bush- 

 els (bund on the acre, but the time of finding them 

 was not at harvest, it was when I planted; they 

 produced notbing worth harvesting. 



It is observable that Mr. B. speaks of the im- 

 portance of sun and air in his first mode, as de- 

 scribed, as though they were the principal causes 

 operating to produce his large crop when in his 

 latter method he produced his largest crop, though 

 he precluded sun, air and light, from entering into 

 his beds. Where they are sown but. one foot 

 apart, if they grow at all, there will be a bed 

 of vines, and if they are kept clear of weeds, 

 as they must be to produce any potatoes; and here 

 too, he omils the great essential of hilling, and yet 

 he gets the largest crop without this very essential 

 and heavy work of hilling, with at least two hun- 

 dred loads of compost manure to make his hills 

 with, did there ever before, such a wild notion en- 

 ter any man's brains as to think of hilling potatoes 

 in this way; and can any agriculturists suppose 

 there ever was a good potato produced in this un- 

 natural method? I will also notice his expressions, 

 that are still wilder: he says he did not mean to be 

 understood that 1,800 bushels could be raised by 

 field culture, but now says that eight hundred to 

 1,200 can be raised upon a single acre, easier than 

 half that crop on four acres, and with less expense. 

 This account implies that he had asserted that 

 1800 bushels could be grown on an acre, and he 

 eurely meant in his new mode of culture. Why 

 does the writer cringe and keep back what he pre- 

 tends he has done, or said? Not one bushel does 

 he assert, in positive terms, that he has ever raised 

 in any mode of culture; and there is all the reason 

 in the world to suppose that he never did raise a 

 bushel by any culture whatever. But why does 

 he hope to be spared from the shafts of the critic? 

 Because this is a dream of his and he has by re- 

 lating it in this public manner, caused the excite- 

 ment that he tells of— an excitement extending 

 even to the four corners of the world — and now 

 he is afraid that he will be questioned on the sub- 

 ject, and dreads lest he should be asked if he ever 

 raised one bushel of potatoes in his manner of cul- 

 ture. I will observe another grand mistake of 

 his, which every practical farmer will readily detect 

 him in — that potatoes planted in neighboring fields 

 of different varieties, are so fond of each other, 



male and female, and their connection is such that 

 in sending off their farina to each other, by the 

 aid of sotl breezes, they lose their caste, and be- 

 come impure — and this he states is the cause that 

 they so often degenerate. 



It is certain that every practical farmer very 

 well knows, they never degenerate by crossing in 

 the least, even if they are planted together in the 

 same hill. It must have been corn that he had 

 heard of mixing from such causes, and I appre- 

 hend, being quiet unacquainted with the potato 

 and its culture, he has confounded one plant with 

 the other. 



The gentleman to be sure, has stated some im- 

 portant tacts, with respect to the manner of har- 

 vesting potatoes so as to preserve their qualities 

 long. There is great propriety, as he says, in har- 

 vesting them with but little exposure to sun and 

 air; and his manner of binning and turfing them 

 over tight, is highly proper; but I cannot see why 

 the spade or shovel, that the turf is cut and han- 

 dled with, would not do to beat it down with, in- 

 stead of a wooden mall. I would rather and what 

 I have said heretofore on the subject, that is, that 

 the sun and air soon generate a poisonous action 

 in the potatoes; so much so, that it is well known 

 that many a noble animal fed on them have died; 

 this has taken place where potatoes have lain in 

 out buildings exposed to the air for a long time, 

 and the animals have been constantly led on them. 

 The same potatoes, if cooked and eaten by men, 

 would be sure to give them a degree of sickness, if 

 not unto death. If we determine to have good 

 potatoes and to keep them so, they should be har- 

 vested by night, or in a cool overcast damp day, 

 and [ticked up immediately after the hoe, and kept 

 close in a body, entirely excluded from air, and go 

 into the cellar as moist as they came, from the hill, 

 and the more moist dirt adhering to them the bet- 

 ter. These potatoes will not vegetate the next 

 season to injure them any before the next crop. 

 There is another remark of the writer's which haa 

 much correctness in it, that is, that the potato 

 thrives best within the latitudes described by him, 

 and that they grow to greater perfection, and are 

 there of a better quality. This, no doubt, he has 

 been well informed of. This essay would be length- 

 ened quite too long, were I to enter into a minute 

 detail of each objection I have: my desire has been 

 to correct erroneous principles so that farmersshould 

 not be misled to their injury. 



1 will only add, that the distance I have chosen 

 for my hills, is derived from my experience in the 

 culture of potatoes. At this distance, they have a 

 good share of sun, air and light; they also have 

 good space for roots, and strength of ground, so 

 that they will mature a good crop, and if seeded 

 well with whole potatoes, or good sized pieces, 

 they will be found of good and even size for ta- 

 ble use, and well ripened in good time, in ordinary 

 seasons. 



Varying from this rule, in planting the common 

 large field potato at a greater distance, it tends to 

 an inconvenience in hoeing, as to an easy way of 

 hoeing, over all the ground, and dividing and ma- 

 kins a proper light peaked hill, which renders them 

 easily harvested. If on the other hand the dis- 

 tance be reduced, an inconvenience is experienced 

 in hoeing, and shaping of the hill, and an inter- 

 ference in the growth, is very perceptible; the 

 size being reduced in proportion to the distance, 



