124 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



[No. 2. 



In seeding the potatoes, they should be placed 

 close together in the hills, by which means they 

 are easier worked, give more room for sun and air 

 between the hills, and are more readily gathered 

 when ripe in the fail. 



ABKD.\EGO ROBINSON, 



of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 



P. S. I will further observe, that although the 

 potato of different varieties are so near alike, yet it 

 is a (act that the sun and atmosphere vary in their 

 effects upon different varieties; proving poisonous 

 to many kinds, the white, most of all of them; yet 

 there are some of the colored varieties that those 

 elements have a salubrious effect upon; the [ong 

 red potato is much improved by spreading them 

 open to sun and air for a i'ew days, especially in 

 the spring. They will become a little willed and 

 dried, but are nevertheless rendered very pure lor 

 eating, and in my humble opinion far preferable to 

 any within my knowledge. There are some other 

 colored ones that will bear sun, but will not improve 

 like those named. 



While on this subject, it will be but justice to the 

 etate of Maine to remark, that while I have been vi- 

 sitingthe middle and southernstatesjl have observed 

 that all the principal cities, and villages, seem to be 

 almost wholly supplied with the best large potatoes 

 from that quarter. Those most highly esteem ed are 

 called here the Mercer, in New Hampshire they 

 call them Shenangoes. This variety sells uni- 

 formly lor 25 cents a bushel above all other vari- 

 eties. Notwithstanding the abundance exported 

 from Maine during and since the last fall, her sup- 

 ply seems still unexhausted; which circumstance 

 alone must satisfy every one of the adaptation of 

 that state to the culture of this greatest vegetable 

 friend of man, and of the productive quality of her 

 lands. I must be indulged in the remark, that it 

 is enough to astonish any person to behold the 

 quantity, size, and beauty, of the potatoes, which 

 we see daily carted and drayed through the streets 

 of the southern cities — and which readily find a 

 market at from a dollar to a dollar and a quarter 

 per bushel.* 



From the Edinburgh Quarterly Journal of Agriculture. 

 ON THE PRESERVATION OF POTATOES OVER 

 THE YEAR. 



[In the 1st vol. of the Farmers' Register, (p. 213) 

 we gave a particular account (translated from the 

 Journal d'Jlgriculture etc. des Pays-Bas,) of a mode of 

 preserving potatoes for several years, the principle of 

 which is like that of the following, the exclusion of 

 heat. It is strange that so simple a process has not 

 been more extensively used in places where potatoes 

 form an important article of culture and of food. 



As the best mode of preserving potatoes until 

 the produce of the next 3'ear's crop should be 



*This estimate of value, is entirely too high — the 

 wholesale price of eastern potatoes, during the fall, 

 when they are brought to market, ranges, as in qual- 

 ity, from forty to sixty cents per bushel. We pre- 

 sume our correspondent must have allusion to the re- 

 tail price in the markets, and not to any sales in quan- 

 tity. Mercers in the early part of the spring were 

 high, and probably by retail, in the markets, brought 

 the maximum price as named. — Ed. Farm, and 

 Gard. 



brought into use, is a matter of considerable im- 

 portance, I beg to refer to vol. XXIf. p. 135, of 

 the Transactions of the Society for the Encourage- 

 ment of Arts, &c. where is detailed the following 

 method adopted with success by M. J. De Lan- 

 cey, Guernsey. 



M. De Lancey says: "early in March, 1S03, 

 I observed my winter's stock of potatoes, which 

 I had dug in October, 1802, sprouted from the 

 mildness of the weather in this island. 1 accord- 

 ingly took indiscriminately from my pile about 

 ihrce dozen, and in my court-yard dug a hole two 

 feet and a half deep, under the protection of a 

 south-west wall, where the rays of the sun pre- 

 vail for a iew minutes only during the day, at any 

 season of the year. Then, with three pantiles, 

 one at bottom, I laid most of my potatoes in the 

 hole, and placed the other two tiles over them in 

 form of the roof of a house. They not containing 

 all, I threw the remainder carelessly into the hole, 

 (having no great confidence in my experiment,) 

 covering the place over to its usual level. Busi- 

 ness calling roe home during part of the summer, 

 1 neglected looking after my small deposite; but, 

 on the 21st January, 1804, nearly 11 months after 

 covering them, I had the curiosity to examine 

 them, when, to my astonishment, I found them, 

 (two or three excepted, which were perforated by 

 the ground worm, though firm,) all perfectly sound, 

 without having in the least vegetated in any re- 

 spect, fit for the purpose of sets and the use of the 

 table, as I have boiled a few, and found them sim- 

 ilar in taste and flavor to new potatoes. 1 iurther 

 pledge myself that they were perfectly firm. I 

 have still some of them by me for the inspection 

 of my friends, who all agree that they are so." 



In another letter, dated 17th May, 1804, M. De 

 Lancey says: "I avail myself of the opportunity 

 of a friend going to London, to send three of the 

 potatoes, as a confirmation of their being fit for 

 sets, as they are actually sprouting. The pota- 

 toes I send I pledge myself are of the growth of 

 1802." Then follows the certification of the Se- 

 cretary to the Society of Arts: "the above potatoes 

 were examined before a committee of the Society 

 on the 30th of July, 1804, and found to be in a 

 state fit for vegetation." 



From the above experiment, it is evident that 

 vaults or deep trenches, out of the reach of atmos- 

 pheric influence, would effectually retard the 

 growth or sprouting of the potatoes during the pe- 

 riod of about twenty-one months; that is, from the 

 time of taking up in October, till the 30th of July 

 in the second year, or say at least eighteen months 

 — and we have here a period of time three times 

 longer than would be sufficient to fill up the inter- 

 val betwixt the old and the new crop of pota- 

 toes. 



It. is probable, that potatoes for deferred use, say 

 from April to October, would be more safely de- 

 posited in January or February than at an earlier 

 period; for it cannot be doubted that when just 

 taken from the field, they possess a succulence and 

 moisture rather inimical to sound storing in large 

 quantities, besides which the examination and re- 

 moval of damaged sets would contribute much 

 to the security of the deposited heaps. If we can 

 preserve ice from melting, we can surely keep po- 

 tatoes Irom sprouting; and the latter is undoubted- 

 ly an object of mucb greater importance than the 

 former. Trenches or vaults would probably re- 



