242 



NEW ENGLAND FAllMER, 



Feb. 20, isag. 



the buddeis or grafters in nurseries. Sometimes 

 from tlie mn-serynian himself liaving been de- 

 ceived by those from whom lie has imported his 

 trees, and sometimes from tht. ignorance we are 

 inider as to the real and proper names of fruits 

 that we see. In different places the same fruit is 

 called by different names, and even gardeners and 

 nurserymen who have been for years engaged in 

 their vocations, and who ought to possess a cor- 

 rect nomenclature, frequently confound all distinc- 

 tions, by adopting any name that is popular, or 

 which may have been giveu to a particular fruit 

 by the person from whom tliey receive it. When, 

 therefore, you want to be sure that you have a 

 good fruit, take the scions from a bearing tree, the 

 fruit of which is known to you, and do n't trust to 

 the reports of others any further than necessity 

 prescribes. By this means you may save much 

 time and avoid much vexation and disappoint- 

 ment^ 



I will state a fact which will show how much 

 we are exposed to this evil when we depend on 

 the reports and representations of others. A 

 gri^ftsman who had worked for me several years, 

 brought with him in the spring some scions of 

 pears which he wished to insert into one of my 

 trees. I could find no name for tl em that he 

 knew of, but the American St Michael I told him 

 I had St 3I)chael pears in abundance, and did not 

 want any more. But sir, said he, these are difl'er- 

 ent from yours. They never bias;. They are 

 very high flavored — are great hearers, and vastly 

 superior in all respects to any StMicliael you ever 

 saw. They are a seedling of this country. A 

 natural fruit of our own land, amfcommand a great 

 price in the market. Have you seen them on the 

 tree, and eaten them yourself that makes you so 

 sure of these facts ? Certainly, 1 have, was the 

 answer, and can assure you that what I say is 

 truth. I had heard of a seedling pear raised in 

 Salem, that resembles the St Michael, and is said 

 to he very good. I of course concluded it was 

 this fruit, and I permitted hi!'.i to insert them into 

 the tree. After waititlg three years I got fruit, 

 which proved to he a variety that I had myself in- 

 troduced into the country 15 years before, and of 

 which I had more than I wanted. Times of ripen- 

 ing depend on climate, and the variety of fruits. — 

 The same thing may he said as to their preserva- 

 tion. 



I have extended this article beyond propriety, 

 but there is still much omitted that might be said. 

 You can curtail it as you may deem proper, or 

 omit it altogether if you tliink it inapplicable to 

 the inquiries of your Bucksport correspondent. 

 A SUBSCRIBER. 

 Feh. 10, 1829. 



by my errors as by any successful method I may 



signs. My anticipations in this ease were not dis- 



lOK THE NEW ENGLAND FARM^B. 



MR TIDD'S NEW VARIETIES OF PO- 

 TATOES. 



Mr Editor — As my name has found its way 

 into some of the papers of the day, in relation to 

 raising from the seed a large variety of potatoes, 

 I thought it might not be unacceptable to your 

 readers for me to give a description of the pota- 

 toes and my method of raising them. In doing 

 this, I shall endeavor to relate the experiment in 

 as intelligible a manner as possible, in order that 

 if any other person, into whose hands your useful 

 paper may fall, .should be desirous to repeat the 

 experiment, they may be able to profit as much 



ave adopted 

 A year ago, last fall, I collected, principally, I 

 believe from the Early Whites, and the calicoes, 

 a quantity of potato lialls, and laid them by, in a 

 room, exposed to all the inclemencies of the sea- 

 son until the next .'spring, about the last of March 

 or first of April, the exact time not known. When 

 I came to examine them, preparatory to planting, I 

 found them dried so hard, and shrivelled, that I 

 was afraid they were entirely spoiled. I, how- 

 ever, selected some of the best of the balls, and 

 after much labor, in soaking them in warm water, 

 &c, succeeded in extracting a few seeds, and plant- 

 ed them in my green house. The rest of the 

 balls I kept in water a week or more, without its 

 appearing to have much effect on them. As it 

 did not appear to me practicable to separate these 

 seeds from the balls, I began almost to despair of 

 being able to proceed witii my experiment to the 

 extent I had proposed. The thought occuiTed to 

 me that if I separated these balls into small pieces, 

 and planted them, some uf the seed might possibly 

 come up. I resolved to try the experiment, which 

 succeeded beyond my most sanguine expectations. 

 In every place where I put a piece of one of these 

 balls, the plants came up very thick, 

 of, perhaps, a half inch in diamete 

 from twenty to fifty plants, so that I soon found 

 that I had abundance of them. As soon as these 

 plants were well up, and while they were yet in 

 the seed leaf, I took them up, carefully, and plant- 

 ed them out about three inches apart, as I did 

 also others, which I had previously sowed, 

 after they had gained more strength. I found 

 that they bore tran.splanting remarkably well, as 

 almost every plant lived, and that without any 

 particular care of shading, &c, though I generally 

 chose a cloudy day to tran.splant them. I found 

 by computation, after I had pricked them out in 

 rows, that I had about two thousand plants, which 

 occupied about one fourth part of my green house. 

 I let those plants remain in the green house, till 

 all danger of frost was jiast, or about the middle 

 of Blay, when 1 re-transplanted them into a well 

 prepared spot in my garden, about 6 by 8 inches 

 ajiart. Here, I found afterwards I had commit 

 ted a great error in planting them too close ; for 

 the vines by their luxuriant growth soon covered 

 the ground. Notwithstanding they were planted 

 so thick they bore bulbs, and oven ripened their 

 seeds ; and grew as stout anil as stocky, as any I 

 ever saw, even from the long red potatoes ; and 

 the yield of.soine of the plants would cover nearly 

 double the space of ground allotted to them. 

 Hilling was entirely out of the question, and some 

 of them were destroyed in attempting to eradicate 

 the weeds, although the operation was peribrmed 

 by a very faithful man, with a strong yijunctiun 

 to he careful. I was led into this error by sup- 

 posing as I had both read and heard, that (he 

 yield, the first year would be very small, not more 

 than two or three potatoes, about as big as a 

 common walnut. This I found by experience, 

 which is the best schoolmaster, to be a mistake ; 

 for I had, on a considerable number of my vines, 

 some fair sized potatoes, and a few larger than 

 the average growth of early whites. 



The most interesting. part to mc, and that which 

 I had been anticipating all summer, was the riig- 

 gingoftheni. It is a matter of great interest fo 

 nie, to see with what small beginuings, and 

 pareutly weak means nature acliieves her great 



appointed. I dug them principally myself, and 

 mostly with my hands, for the double purpose of 

 not injuring, and keeping the potatoes from each 

 plant separate. L found them of all colors from 

 black to white, besides a great number that were 

 variegated, and of all sizes from that of a pea to a 

 full grown potato ; and of all forms fiom a round 

 to a long red, including some handsome ovals ; and 

 in all numbers from one to several hundred ine 

 liill, if I may be allowed the term. The greatest 

 yield was frop a vine, which produced fifty two, 

 nineteen of which were tolerably fair sized pota- 

 toes. There was a great difl'erence in the grow^ 

 of the vines, both in the green house and in ^e 

 garden. In transplanting them from the green 

 house into the garden, I discovered on some of the 

 small vines, a few small potatoes about the sizeiof 

 peas, while on those, which were much larger, 

 and looked more thrifty, I could not discovii 

 any. And so it was in the measure in the fall, 

 when I dug them. Some of the largest sized 

 vines had no sign of a potatoe on them ; but then 

 again, some of the largest vines bore the greatest 

 crops of potatoes. I ibund that the size of the 

 vine was no criterion by which I could judge of 

 In patches the proliable crop of potatoes. There were a 

 there were good manj' varieties, which I think worthy of 

 notice, a few of which I will name, and attempt 

 to describe. 



There was one vine, which had, I should think, 

 several hundred, all about the size of a pea; 

 they hung in clusters, something similar to grapes. 

 Another kind resembled iji some measme, in 

 form, the sweet potatoe. Another bore all the 

 potatoes on the stem above ground. They were 

 black, and in considerable numbers, and would 

 average about half size. They did not hang in 

 clusters, but were distributed along the main 

 stem to the distance of about two feet, and bore 

 it, by their weighj, down to the ground. In an- 

 other the potatoes all grew in one clump, so much 

 so as to be indented one into the other ; and pres.«- 

 ed into all kinds of shapes, with obtuse edges. 

 There did not appear to be any .soil to s])eak of 

 between them. In some of the hills, the potatoes 

 were all small ; in others there were no small ones, 

 but all middling sized. In olhers all large, and iji 

 some mixt, large, small, &c. There were some 

 round, some oval, some long, some very smooth, 

 shining delicate skuis, and some remarkably 

 rough. I have alt colors in all shapes, and am 

 doubtful if there ever was before so great a va- 

 riety of potatoes seen together. 



There seems to me to be considerable difiicnity, 

 Mr Editor, in regard to what will be the best 

 course for me to pursue, in order to secure the 

 greatest benefit with the least expense, from my 

 experiment. The first question is to know if it is 

 necessary to jjlant all the potatoes from each plant, 

 in order to obtain all the varieties ; or in other 

 words, will all the potatoes, produced from the 

 same vine, jhe first year from the seed, yield po- 

 tatoes i>ossessing the same qualhies .' If I could 

 be well assured that all the potatoes produced 

 from any single seed would yield potatoes possess- 

 ing precisely the same qualities, then, instead of 

 having twelve or fifteen thousand potatoes to 

 plant, I should not be under the necessity of plant- 

 ing more than about fifteen hundred ; or for fear 

 of accident, say three thousand. I lost in those 

 vines, which bore no potatoes, which died in 

 transplanting, or were destroyed in weeding, about 



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