302 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



APRIL 3, 1933. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRILS, 1S33. 



FARMER'S AND GARDENER'S ^VORK FOR 

 APRIL.. 



Potatoes. Much has been said and written on 

 the manner of cultivating this useful crop. Still 

 hints, and statements of experiments which have 

 been or may be made relative to this important 

 product may be made useful. And if we can sug- 

 gest nothing new on this topic we may recal to 

 the minds of some of our agricultural friends some 

 facts and directions, which might not otherwise 

 have recurred. 



Soil. A light loam is most suitable for the po- 

 tato in a cool aud moist climate, but a strong and 

 heavy loam is most congenial to the growth of the 

 same root in a hot and dry climate. The best fla- 

 vored potatoes are raised from newly broken up 

 pasture ground, not manured ; or from any new 

 soil, recently cleared from its natural growth of 

 timber; the site of a hedge, an old building, &c. 



Seed. It is of great importance that your seed 

 potatoes are of a good variety. The varieties are 

 very numerous, and every year adds to them. 

 Potatoes which are excellent in Ireland, Nova 

 Scotia, and other high northern latitudes do not 

 answer a good purpose in New England. The 

 potato taken from the south prospers better. 



Among those in highest repute are the Mercer, 

 the Pink Eye, the Black rusticoat Irish whites, and 

 English whites. " Large potatoes," according to 

 Lorain, "have large eyes, and these produce large 

 vigorous stems, and roots; consequently the largest 

 should invariably be selected for seed. Such as 

 fanners commonly call seed potatoes (that is small 

 potatoes) should never be planted, but in cases of 

 absolute necessity, and then only from the growth of 

 large seed. They not onlyproduce small debilitated 

 stems and roots, but if selected for planting year 

 after year will soon degenerate the best variety. 

 Still, farmers, who really endeavor to improve 

 their breed of horses and cattle by employing the 

 best studs and bulls, yearly plant small potatoes, 

 and some even go so far as to consider them best. 

 However, practice, reason, observation, and the 

 great aflinity there is between plants and animals, 

 clearly determine that they are wrong. If the 

 largest and best formed potatoes of any variety be 

 annually selected for seed, they may improve but 

 cannot degenerate ; provided suflicient nutriment 

 and good cultivation be also employed. Unless it 

 should hereafter appear, that the duration of the 

 plant (as some say trees are,) is limited when 

 propagated from cuttings. If they should degen- 

 erate from this cause, it certainly does not happen 

 for a long time. 



Mr. Benjamin Cooper, an experienced and ob- 

 serving cultivator of New Jersey, remarks, in sub- 

 stance, that he had planted the Foxite potato 

 tvsrenty years without any change, and they have 



not deteriorated in quantity nor (|uality. But he 

 is " careful not to make use of the best for cook- 

 ing or sale aud plant from the refuse. When this 

 is done I do not marvel at the common complaint 

 of seeds degenerating. It is a good practice and 

 should be done every few years to be careful 

 when the potato crop is gathering, when a large 

 number of good sized fair potatoes are found at- 

 tached to a stalk to put them by and plant them 

 separately for seed." 



Mr. Knight, President of the London Horticul- 

 tural Society, in a communication to that body, 

 gives the following as his mode of cultivating po- 

 tatoes : 



"The soil in which I proposed to plant being 

 very shallow, and lying upon a rock, I collected 

 it with a plough into high ridges of four feet wide 

 to give an artificial depth. A deep furrow was 

 made along the centre and high parts of each ridge, 

 and in the bottom of this, whole potatoes, the light- 

 est of whicli did not weigh less than four ounces, 

 were deposited, at only six inches from the centre 

 of one to another. Manure, in the ordinary quan- 

 tity was then introduced, and mould was added 

 sufiicient to cover the potatoes more deeply than 

 is generally done. 



" The stems of potatoes, as of other plants, rise 

 perpendicularly, under the influence of their un- 

 erring guide, gravitation, so long as they continue 

 to be concealed beneath the soil, but as soon as 

 they rise above it they are to a considerable extent 

 under the influence of another agent, light. Each 

 inclines in whatever direction it receives the great- 

 est quantity of that fluid, and, consequently each 

 avoids, and appears to slum the shade of every 

 contiguous plant. The old tubers being large, and 

 under the mode of culture recommended, rather 

 deeply buried in the ground, the young plants in 

 the early part of the summer never sutler for the 

 want of moisture; and being abundantly nourished 

 they soon extend themselves in every direction till 

 they meet those of the contiguous rows, which 

 they do not overshadow on account of the width 

 of the intervals. 



" The stems being abundantly fed, owing to the 

 size of the old tubers, rise from the ground with 

 great strength and luxuriance, support well their 

 foliage, and larger breadth of this is thus, I think, 

 exposed to the light during the whole season, than 

 under any other mode of culture which I have 

 seen ; aud the plants acquire a very large size 

 early in the summer, the tubers of even very large 

 varieties arrive at a state of perfect maturity early 

 in autumn." 



Coarse manure answers best for potatoes. Fal- 

 len leaves taken from the woods are recommended 

 as giving a fine flavor to potatoes. Yard manure 

 is very useful, if laid over the potatoes in each hill, 

 after about an inch of soil has been laid on them, 

 aud then the hill covered as deep as usual. But 

 if the manure be laid directly upon or under the 

 seed the crop will be apt to suffer by drought. If 



potatoes are planted in a sandy or loamy toil they 

 will yield much more if a table .spoonful of plaster 

 be thrown over the naked potatoes in each hill 

 before it is covered. If the land on which pota- 

 toes are planted is infested with grubs, or wire 

 worms it iriay be well to strew (piick lime over it, 

 at the rate of about two bushels to the acre, imme- 

 diately after planting, or a small quantity of lime 

 or unleachod ashes strewed over the hills as soon 

 as the potatoes are covered. 



Although the time to plant potatoes for feeding 

 stock, for family use in autumn and winter, is the 

 latter part of May or the beginning of June, it may 

 he well 10 plant an early kind on a liglit soil well 

 manured to make eaihfood for swine, as soon in 

 the spring as the ground will admit of tillage. 



Potatoes may be forwarded for early crops by a 

 variety of methods of forcing, which are given in 

 detail in Loudon's Eneyelopalia of Gardening. 

 The same work contains the following method of 

 "Forwarding to raise a crop in the open garden. 

 For this purpose spread a layer of sets on hot 

 dung, or in boxes placed in any warm situation, 

 whether in the light or the dark. After they have 

 sprung three or four inches they are to he trans- 

 planted into the open ground, which should not be 

 sooner than May, unless they have some protection 

 at nights, such as fern, spruce, fir branches, &c. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS, 



We liave sundry favors from Correspondents, for which we 

 have not, at present, time nor room for suitable acknowledg- 

 ments. We shall give place to each as soon as possible. A 

 pamphlet from Judge Bucl, relative to proceedings for the en- 

 couragement of Agriculture in New York Legislature we intend 

 to give, probably at large, as it affords precedents as respects 

 matter aud manner which must be useful. The Prospectus of 

 the Middlesex County Cattle Show, &.c. is received and shall 

 not pass without either an abstract or entire insertion. 



ITEMS OP INTELLIGENCE. 



RfpreserUatire to Congress. The whole number of voles 

 in this city for a Representative to Congress was 3G78 — neces- 

 sary to a choice 1810. Mr. Gray, the National Republican 

 candidate, had 1G57 J Mr. Green, the Jackson candidate, had 

 iitO; Mr. Lymau, 819; Mr. Odiorne, 332, and there were 

 '■11 scattering. Of course there was no choice. 



The Northampton Courier says a wild Turkey, weighing 

 25 lbs. was shot recently near the foot of Mount Tom ; and 

 iliinks it good evidence against the opinion of some naturalists 

 that the wild turkey has been extirpated from these parts. We 

 can give another evidence. On Thursday last, the" sportsmen 

 of Springficld"^w iUi a few invited guests, enjoyed a supper 

 entirely of game, the fruit of their own skill and exertion. The 

 supper was composed of Wild Turkies, Wild Ducks, Wild 

 Pigeons, Partridges, Rabbits, Squirrels, Trout and Pickerel, 

 and an abundance too — served up at the Hampden Coffee 

 House, in a style that we have never seen surpassed. — Journal 



A very singular fact has been noticed in relation to the 

 Cholera in England. This disease has not visited a single 

 place where mineral waters abound. Bath, Cheltenham, Hot- 

 wells, Tuubridge, Harrowgate, Mattack, Buxton aud Leam- 

 inton, have entirely escaped. This may be said o our own 

 country. 



The vintage at Madeira has this season been so extraordina- 

 ry, especially in the north part, that for llie want of casks it 

 has been necessary to put some of the new wine into boxes well 

 caulked. 



