152 



Raising Potatoes. — Hints to lovers of Floivers. 



70L. IX. 



Raising Potatoes. 



The editor of the Farmer's Monthly Vis- 

 itor has this season raised between twelve 

 and thirteen hundred bushels of potatoes on 

 about six acres of sward land. The ground 

 was prepared in the following manner : — 

 After the corn planting had been finished, 

 about the 25th of May, manure, on about 

 one acre compost, and upon the other five 

 acres clear manure from a stable, made 

 during- the preceding summer and winter, 

 was laid out in piles and spread over the 

 grass which had then already started green 

 from the ground. In furrows of about 12 

 inches in width, the whole flat was com- 

 pletely turned over, these shutting into 

 each other so close as to leave no vacuum 

 between. With the sod thus inverted and 

 the manure all covered to the depth of 

 about six inches, the potatoes were planted 

 between every third furrow, at the distance 

 in the rows of about three feet from each 

 other. A hole or crevice was made from 

 two to three inches below the surface, with 

 a sharpened stick, and at the distance of 

 eighteen inches a single potatoe of the com- 

 mon size placed in it and covered up with a 

 kick of the heel, generally, where the soil 

 would admit of it. Care was taken that the 

 seed potatoe should not enter so deep as to 

 go below the upturned sward. In this way 

 the potatoes grew above the sod, while the 

 roots drew sufiicient sustenance from the 

 decomposed manure and decaying turf at 

 the bottom. During the whole season there 

 was no difficulty from weeds: the witch- 

 grass in some parts of the field where it had 

 taken root, did, indeed, late in the summer, 

 spring through the inverted turf The 

 whole process of hoeing the si.x acres twice, 

 cost only twenty-two days' work of one man ; 



The crop of potatoes was probably not quite 

 as large as it n)ight have been, if the same 

 manure had been mixed in the same depth 

 of soil actually pulverized; neither was the 

 labour of making the crop more than half 

 as much; but the manure is left in the 

 [ground to do much the most efiective ser- 

 [vice hereafter. On a diligent inquiry of 

 lOur potatoe diggers, we have not been able 

 to learn that any of the r,ew potatoes were 

 infected with the rot. The earliest kind 

 were taken from the field before the warm 

 weather of September, and those laid in the 

 common cellar, have as yet discovered none 

 of those ofitnsive qualities which have been 

 so much a matter of complaint. One hun- 

 dred and fifty barrels of the first dug were 

 sent and sold in the Boston market, aver- 

 aging, after paying the price of transport, 

 twenty-five cents the bushel. Of the Jong- 

 reds, we have between five and six hundred 

 bushels in the ground tinder a hemlock 

 cover, which in the market next spring, 

 may be worth fifty cents the bushel : at half 

 that price, after paying all expenses of cul- 

 tivation and manure, this crop will give us 

 a clear gain of about twenty dollars to the 

 acre. 



On about one acre of the potatoe ground 

 manured with the stable dung, after the 

 first hoeing, was placed some eight hundred 

 pounds of ground plaster. Where this was 

 applii^d the tops of the potatoe were more 

 hjxuriant — the potatoes seemed to be fewer 

 in number, but all of a larger size. The 

 effect of the plaster was to make the crop 

 at least one-fourth better. — Farmers' 31onlh- 

 hj Visitor. 



Htnts to Lovers of Flowers. — A most 

 beautiful and easily attained show of ever- 

 the planting w'as done"" with great expedi- |?''^ens in winter may be had by a very sim- 

 tion. In twice hoeing and going over with P'^ P'^"' '^^'I'^h has been found to answer 

 - ■ ■ "^ remarkably well on a small scale. If gera- 



nium branches taken from healthy and luxu- 



the cultivator and the subsequenf digging of 

 the potatoes, neither the bottom turf nor the 

 manure overlaid by it has as yet been dis- 

 turbed. The crop of Indian c-orn intended 

 for the same land next year, according to 

 our present year's experience of a field'^last 

 year cultivated in the same way, will derive 

 a greater advantage from the manure than 

 the potatoe crop of the present year. 



One advantage of raising potatoes in this 

 manner, we believe to have been the entire 

 freedom of the crop from the disease and 

 rot which have been so generally complained 

 of. The ground was the ordinary intervale 

 of Merrimack river, which had laid so long 

 to grass, as to give not much over half a ton 

 of hay to the acre — it was good land, but 

 was much in want of stimulating manure. 



rioHs trees just before the winter sets in, 

 cut as for slips, and immersed in soap and 

 water, they will, after drooping for a few 

 days, shed their leaves, put forth fresh ones, 

 and continue in the finest vigor all the win- 

 ter. By placing a number of bottles filled 

 in flower baskets, with moss to conceal the 

 bottles, a show of evergreens is easily in- 

 sured for a whole season. They require no 

 fresh water. — Dollar Farmer. 



The true way of enriching ourselves is 

 by cutting oft' our wants. 



It is better to fill our barns than our 

 chests» 



