830 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



Miiy 8, 1829. 



Is the circulation of sap permanent during the 

 warm season or not ? 



Doctor Waterhouse asserts that for a fortnight 

 about inidsuinuier, vegetation in trees is at a stand. 

 Is this true ? If so, what is the cause .' Why does 

 the wind have so much influence on the running 



of sap ? 



Why is it necessary that it should thaw in the 

 day and freeze in the night, in order that maple 

 Bap shouhi run well ? 



Why do those plants called evergreens, remain 

 gresn through the winter.' 



Is there a difference between the power of con- 

 ducting heat possessed by different trees ? If so, 

 which are the best conductors ? Is there any 

 correspondence between the solidity of the wood 

 and the conducting power ? Does this affect the 

 running of the sap ? 



We should be glad to see an answer to any or 

 nil of these questions. They have given rise to 

 several theories widely different from each other, 

 and in regard to some of them we can hardly 

 find data, on which to form a theory. 

 Respectfully yours, 



R. A. COFFIN, Secretary. 



Jishjield, Jpril 23, 1829. 



FOR THE SEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



POTATOES. 

 Mr Fessenden — I often see much in your 

 very useful paper on potatoes. I will add a few 

 remark?, after more than twenty years experience 

 in farming, having cultivated, some seasons, more 

 than a dozen sorts, and never less than five or 

 eix. I fully agree with Mr Lowell on the subject 

 of the sorts never mixing, from being planted near 

 each other. I have occasionally seen red and 

 white potatoes in the same hill, but perfectly dis- 

 tinct ; having accidentally planted a set of each, 

 always having intended, however, to plant by 

 themselves, but carelessness sometimes tal.es place. 

 New sorts or mixtures, I presume, are never pro- 

 duced, only by sowing the seeds contained in the 

 apple and in the blossom. 



As to planting whole potatoes, or cutting in 

 halves, or quarters, if large, I have not perceived 

 any difference in the crop. I rather imagiiu that 

 too much seed may be planted, as often as too little. 

 Why do we want more stocks fi)r a hill than we 

 do of corn, say four or five ? I believe beyond that 

 number is unnecessary and prejudicial. In Ire- 

 land it is often practised by the lower class of 

 fanners, and mnre especially in scarce seasons, 

 during the winter to scoop out the eyes (as they 

 inform me about ibree-fburths of an inch in di- 

 ameter, and one-eighth thick) every day before 

 cooking the rest of the roots. These pieces are 

 saved till ))!anting, the outsides become dry and do 

 not rot as soon as planled, as many pieces do when 

 planted immediateUj after being cut. I think it al- 

 ways well, two or three weeks before planting to 

 cut the pntatORS intended for seeil, that they may 

 get dry — or if put off until the day of planting, I 

 would then rccomtiiend, that plasttr of Paris, or 

 lime, shoulil he sprinkled over them so as to cover 

 and dry up the moisture before drojiping in the 

 hills or rows. 



I have sometimes, to obtain early potatoes, 

 adopted the plan recommended by Mr Derby, of 

 Salem, of putting whole potatoes close together in 

 a hotbed, and covering them, say one or two 

 inches, when the sprouts get five or six inches 



above ground, take up the roots and break off the 

 sprouts close to the potato. These shoots, have 

 roots like a cabbage plant, and may be planted 

 three or four in a hill, or if in rows nine to twelve 

 inches apart — they produced potatoes very equal 

 in size, and generally large. I think this proves 

 they do not require any further nonrishincnt from 

 the old potato, as Mr Derby has returned the same 

 potatoes to the hotbed, and taken fresh shoots 

 from them four, and I believe, five times. 



Yom's, &c. 

 NORFOLK. 



Remarks by the Editor.— The following obser- 

 vations on some controverted points connected 

 with the best mode of projjagating potatoes, are 

 from writers of high authority, and appear to us 

 to be such as the exercise of our reasoning fac- 

 idties would lead us to assent to, if they had been 

 derived from sources of less respectability. They 

 may, perhaps, serve as an useful appendix to the 

 remarks of our correspondent above. 



Potatoes may be propagated from sprouts or shoots. 

 Loudon says " In default of genuine early sorts ; 

 or, to save the tubers for use in seasons of scarci- 

 ty, the sprouts which are generally found on store 

 potatoes in spring, and |)icked off and thrown 

 away as useless, will, when carefully planted in 

 loose well prepared soil, yield a crop, and this 

 crop loill he ft for use a little sooner than tubers, in 

 which the buds are not advanced. Almost every- 

 thing, however, depends on the fine tilth, and good 

 state of the ground." 



Potatoes may be propagated hy sets, sections or 

 cuttings of the roots. Mr Loudon asserts that this 

 is the only method fit for general purposes. "In 

 making the sets or sections, reject the extreme or 

 watery end of the tuber, as apt to run too nioch 

 to haulm, and having the eyes small, and in a 

 cluster ; reject also the root or dry end, as more 

 likely to be \..n\y in growth, and produce the carl. 

 Then divide the middle of the potato, so as nut 

 to have more than one good eye in each set. — 

 Where the potato scoop is used take care to apply 

 it .so as the eye or bud may be in the centre of 

 each set which this instrument produces of a 

 semi-globulat form. The larger the portion of tu- 

 ber left to each eye, so much the greater tvill be the 

 progress of the young plant. The scoop is only to 

 be used in seasons of scarcity, when the portion of 

 tuber saved by it may be used for soups for the 

 poor, or for feeding cattle. 



" iSize of the sets or cuttings. Knight has found 

 that for a late crop small sets may be used be- 

 cause Ihe plants of late varieties always acquire a 

 considerable age before they begin to generate 

 tubers ; but for an early crop he recommends the 

 largest tubers and he has found that these not oidy 

 uniformly afford very str(mg plants, but also such 

 as reailily recover when injured hy frost : for be- 

 ing fed liy a copious reservoir beneath the soil, a 

 reproduction of vigorous stems and fdiage, soon 

 takes place when those first produced are des- 

 troyed by frost, or other cause." 



The apparent clashing of authorities and opin- 

 ions, wirh regard to this sidiject, may, perhaps, in 

 some measure, be reconciled by taking into con- 

 sideration the following circumstances. 



1. The poorer the soil the greater the quantity 

 of seed necessary, because the seed serves as nour- 

 ishment or a sid)stitiite for manui'e for the young 

 plants in a poor soil. 



2. The earlier the variety the larger should be 



the seed potatoes, for the reasons assigned above 

 by Mr Knight, and because early varieties have 

 less time to obtain nourislmieiu from the soil than 

 those which come to maturity late in the season. 



3. Sprouts, shoots, or )portions scooi)eil out to- 

 gether with the eyes of potatoes, will answer ih 

 times of scarcity, but require a riclier soil and a 

 lunger time to grow in than if whole potatoes or 

 large cuttings were used. 



4. If uiuipe potjitoes are best for seed, as some 

 a?sprt, the smallness of such potatoes can be no 

 objection to their use. 



As respects cutting seed potatoes, or planting 

 them whole, we have conflicting authorities enough 

 to fill a volume. But we are inclined to the opin- 

 ion of Mr Loudon, who says " tolerable sized cut- 

 tings of pretty large j)otatoes with two or three 

 good eyes or buds in each are probably to be pre- 

 ferred. Indepen<lent of the increased expense of 

 the seed, it is never a good ])ractice to make use 

 of whole potatoes as set.s. The best cultivators in 

 Ireland and Scotland invariably cut the largest 

 and best potatoes into sets, rejecting in the case 

 of kidney potatoes the root or mealy end as hav- 

 ing no bud, and the top or watery end as having 

 tto many. No objection is made to two or even 

 th'-ee bulls on each set, though one is considered as 

 sufficient." There are, however, very respectable 

 authorities hi favor of whole potatoes besides that 

 ofthe Mctnoirsof the N.Y. Board of Agric. quoted p. 

 318 ofthe current vol. of the N. E. Farmer. The 

 Hon. Josiah Qnincy, in a letter to the Correspond- 

 ing Secretary ofthe Mass. Agr. Soc. pid)lished in 

 tlieir Repository, vol. v. p. 64, mentions a field, 

 •.vhich, by accident, was planted in part with cut 

 potatoes, and in part with whole potatoes. The 

 result was, that " in the wliole coiuse of vegeta- 

 tion, the whole potatoes had a decided superiority 

 over every other |Kirt of the field, in the vigor and 

 size of the tops ; and, at harvest, in comparing 

 those rows with the adjoining rows, the product of 

 the rows planted whole exceeded an equal extent 

 of the adjoining rows, planted with cut potatoes, 

 more than one third. There was nothing in the 

 cultivation, or state of the land, which could pro- 

 duce this difference, except the circumstance of 

 the one having been planted whole and the other 

 cut." 



We might quote many authorities on the other 

 side of the question, but we shall refer to but one 

 at present. A c<iiniuuTiication on this subject was 

 piddished in the New England Farmer, vol. iv. p. 

 314, with the signatiue .1. W. The writer of this 

 we know to be an upright, inlelhgent, and scien- 

 tific cultivator. He stated that " On the 3d of 

 May, 182.5, I selected twenty good handsome po- 

 tatoes, as near of a size as |iossihle, ten of which I 

 planted whole in ten hills — the other ten I cut into 

 4 pieces each and planted in ten hills, in a parallel 

 row with the other, fiiiir pieces in each hill. On the 

 2Sih of September 1 dug the potatoes and weighed 

 the produce of each row by itself. The row in 

 which the ten whole potatoes were planted weigh- 

 ed 46 pounds 12 ounces — ami the row that was 

 cut into quarters produced 77 pounds 4 oz. The 

 rows were contiguous to each other, and the soil 

 exactly the same. No inamire was used. The 

 diversity ofthe rcsuh of other experiments for the 

 purpose of ascertaining ^^hether cut or whole po- 

 tatoes should be preferred in planting has been 

 nearly as remarkalile as in those above related.— 

 We shoulil be nni<h !;r:itified if some of<Mir cor- 

 respondents woulil give us their sentiments on the 



