■iss 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



jAir. ae, i84i| 



»13 Mr I3i'/Ciilf,^5tU> lJ»4J,Siiii:JaJ29 



AM) IIOKTlCl'LTl'BAL RKGI3TKR. 



Boston, Wcdke80at, Jakuary 20, 1842. 



THIRD AGRICULTURAL MEETING AT TIIL 

 STATE HOUSE— JAN. 14. 

 Cultivation of the Potato. 

 Mr CdIc, EiliUir of the Fiirincis' Journal, biviiig b«cn 

 lequcsteil 111 o|)i'n tht disc ii.'ijion, stated lliat lie had not 

 prepared a •ipee.li, but woul.l make some ra:iinrks. Hf 

 WB!! unable tu dctcriiiiiiti vvbicli account wits correct, 

 that ubicb lon^iderod South Ainerirn, or that made 

 Virginia tico plai-c wiien- the potato was firnt found. 

 When fif.Hi iniroduccd inio England, it wan tnialt and 

 inferior in tiuality, hot has been improved by cultiva- 

 tion. It 19 now alinoBt every where acclimai..cl; an'l it 

 is singidar that a tropical plant should be improved and 

 should dii bi!9l in high lalitudc. 



The planting of seeds, and climate, both may hava 

 contributed to give iisi the many varieties that now ex- 

 ist. Where the climate is warm, ihey do best on n cool 

 soil; at till! North, best on lighter fiuils. He has been 

 most successful in cultivating them up.m greensward, 

 riows late in May or the firtl of June ; the sod d. com- 

 poses fast, and is srrviceable to the crop. If planted 

 very early, ihcy get ripe too early, and do not keep 

 well. Chooses to plant the last of May or first o( June. 



Fresh lioro'o or ox manure he considers betli-r than 

 that which IS rotted. Crop h(St whore manure is put in 

 the hill. Harvesting phould not be earlier than ihu last 

 of September or first ofOctober. When dug, should be 

 kept as much as possible from the action of the air and 

 sun. Close t^ins in the. cellar are good for keeping them. 

 It is well to cover Ihcm with earth, sods, houghs, or the; 

 like, and bi close t)ic cellar as soon as the polatons are 

 in. 



Is large or small seed best.' He had made an experi- 

 ment, pulling in the hill in one row K single largo pota- 

 to, and in eiiolher row two small ones. Tlie large seed 

 gave G bushels, where the small gave 5. S<inielime.s 

 the differenc: is greater than this. Murh may depcn'd' 

 on the season anl soil ; when the.se ar; dry, larjje does' 

 the best, furnishing drink lo the plant. Where birge 

 seed is selected for many succeesive years, the variety 

 is improved ; if this be not done, it delerioiates. One 

 gentleman in New York, whose experience MrC. rela- 

 ted, had caused a variety to improve by selecting larfjc 

 seed ; and so h id another man of his acijuaintance who 

 had selected for 30 year*. Some varieties at times give 

 but few balls— and is not the production of balls an indi- 

 cation of degeneracy.^ 



The taking olf thj llossomf has been I'uind to in- 

 crease the I rop ; sometimes it has nc.irly doubled llie 

 produce. Once .Mr C. collected balls wlirre they eniial 

 ed one quarter the rrop of potatoes. It i« Inciter lo get 

 seed from the South than the North. 



Some in rultivalinj make a hill ami others do not. 

 He prefers a sin.ill flat hill Once on hard and rocky 

 land whcie ho could make but little if any hill, ho ob- 

 tained 100 bushels from one eighth of an acre— the land 

 rich. Hills that are surrounded by sods do well. 



Mr riunkelt, of Pittsfield, stated that he had made 

 the following csperiment Ho planted <J rows, vach 

 sbout ir> rods long ; and put in each hill for seed in the 

 rows as follows : 



1st row, one large potato — produce, 5 1.2 bush. 



8d " two small do. " 4 1-4 '■ 



3d " one small do. " 2 3.4 <• 



4lh " one seed end, " 3 a 



3 



4 1-2 



5lh row, one butt end — produce, 

 6ih " J -2 of one potato, " 

 7lh " two laige potatoes, ■' 

 81I1 " one (pinkeye) " 



9th " on* (black kidney) " 



Siie ol the produce was prevailingly like that of the 

 seed, e^cepting where he put two large | olatoes, and in 

 that case there were too many sin.ill ones. And this 

 shows that while large seed is bes', that you may orer 

 seal. That liirgc |iarenls will jirodiicc large offspring, 

 is a law of nature, and holds true as well in vegetables 

 as in animals. 



Covcrino; deep always has injurious efrerls upon this 

 crop. Where the seeil is placed deep in the ground, the 

 roots strike out from the stem near the surface, and dis- 

 tant from the parent seed. Dr. Campbell, of Pittsfield- 

 has made many experiments, and finds that wilted pota- 

 toes will come up the quickest, ond aic best fir un earhj 

 ctftp. The climate must determine which is I he best 

 soil for this crop. Warmer I.inds at the North than at 

 the South, arc most adapted to its growth. 



The kidney-shaped and flgj-shapid potatoes never do 

 well on a dry soil. They require ground that is damp 

 and not cold. Round potatoes and round ohiong, will 

 often do well on dry soils. 



The shape is of value in determining the quality of 

 the potato. The round oblong (Merino, Long Red, &c ) 

 are the coarsest. Next, the rt.und, (English Whites, 

 Round Blues, &e.,) — then the fiat kidney-shaped, (Che- V' 

 nangos, and others like them in shape,) and lastly the 

 egg-shaped. The first kind give very liitle starch per 

 bushel ; the second give G lbs. : the third, give G 3-4 to 

 7 1-4 Ills. ; the fourth give 8 or 8 1-2 lbs. Where tha 

 productiveness is great, the quality generally is not good. 

 Where the qunlily is good, the yield is not great 



4 1-2 bu. (good.) first yo.irafier obtaining it, in a warm moist soil, and | 

 4 1-2" produii.' wao yood — very good; but has since been grol 



C '• I in,> it upon dry soil, and it has been doing very pooiT 



He pi.-ftrs ihe Long Red potato to any other. This! 



been rai.-iid on bis (iirm for many years, and has bi 



improving in quantity and quality. It stands drou| 



well. 



Some persons arc of opinion that the potato croi 

 one ofihe most pri>fitable, and if it be so, it is desiri 

 that laiiiicrsgeiierally should be made acquainied 

 the fact One •.cntluman of his acquaintance in 

 Newbury, raises largely for shipping, sometimes I 

 sands of bushels annually, and thinks it his besl c 

 This man plants in drills. 



Mr Stone, of Uevcrly, stated, that the question, 

 what means the greatest amount of this crop can be 

 tained from a given soil, is an impoitant one. Is 

 one kind of manure or mode of culture to be prefei 

 1.1 all others .' A iMr Barnum, of Vcrgennes, Vt , sti 

 that he has producid 1000, 1200, and even l.'iOO bu: 

 per iicre [See article headed '.Gen. itarnum's Pol 

 Crop," on pnge 235, of this paper.] He is in a coli 

 climate than ours, and is c>n a clay soil. He plan 

 drills running North and South: the drills 20 jm 

 apart and G deep; manure in the bottom. Seeds 6 

 10 inches apart. Soon attcr the potatoes are up, 

 the ground between them, but does not hoe. Tl 

 carts on rubbish of all kinds that he can get, and cO' 



und over. He says if you hoe, you make 

 and after rnin there will be a crust. If you hill,droU| 

 may piiicli. His application of a coating of old tnj, 

 straw, brush, &c., is more expensive than hoeing, buti 

 more profitable. Mr S. then asUcd, can such a courw 

 of culture bo adopted here .' 



Col. Newell, of West Newbury, staled that in Ei 



Mr Dodge, of Kamilion, stated that some farmers put 

 the manure above the seed in the hills, and inquired | *^''""')' "'' S^' "'"■'"'*' 1'"""° "^^ops upon peat meadol 

 whether any one present had tried this method and could 



give the results. 



A gentleman (name nofttnowu,) replied that wheth- 

 er it was a good course, depended lipon i\ie soil. Where 

 • hat is dry, he was understood to prefer the manure on 

 top — but where wet, the rniiiture should bo below vfie 

 seed 



Mr Putnam (Editor,) then •talodthat his experiences 

 were not worth much, for ho had not been very suecoss- 

 ful with this crop. He however had studied it some 

 during the past year, and would give an opinion. 



Bulbous roots do best where there there is n mixture 

 ofsand in the soil. This probably, in part, because the 

 •arid fits the soil to give place or yield easily as the bulb 

 Ipxna' ds He had noticed too, that where sods surround 

 a hill of potatoes, or stones of such slinpe as to ad- 

 mit a free eirculntion of air in the hill, that the pota- 

 toes grdw large. He inferred that in order to have the 

 tubers of potatoes do well, they should be in a soil or 

 manure that will yield easily 10' their pr«8SI>ro while 

 they arc enlarging, and in one also that admits of a free 

 circulation of air. But the [>otalo, besides having a 

 hulb or tuber, has also fibrous roots, and these fibrous 

 roots, like a fine or pulverized soil and manure ; there- 

 fore it may he desirous to put o lililo fine manure in the 

 bottom of the hill for the roots, and then above, put 

 butt stalks, hoy, brakes, lonves, brush and the like, to 

 furnish a bed in wliiih the tubers can expand ersily .nnd 

 brcathcTreely. He gave this merely as a iheary. (Hiid 

 he been willing to consume the time, he thinks he could 

 have adduced fads, from which those viovrs would have 

 been no forred inferences.) 



Mr Dodge, of Hamilton, as evidence that MrPlnnkcil 

 was right in thinking that the egg-shaped potato likes a 

 moist soil, slated that ho planted the St. Helena, the 



anb I 

 s.if 



ititl^ 



loilb 

 mi 



u4| 

 uiM 



that liave been well drained; and thai this fact, sil 

 those lands ar« very light and porous, may favor 

 Putnam's view as to the benefits of air. Ho ra 

 clioscs to raise upon old ground, and after the pla 

 are up to harrow the rows, (the to/JS of the rows, if 

 wo understood him, and this harrowing is a siibstiti 

 for a first hoemg,) and subsequently he gives one hoeil 

 He thinks some other kinds belter than the Long 



Mr Putnam. The foots that Mr Dod^e, whose suilii 

 mostly light, prclers the Long Red, or La Plato , ui 

 that Col. Newell, whose soil is clayey, does not pfi 

 this, but rather the flat poliitoes, go to favor .Mr Plui 

 ctt's view, that round and oblong round , ore belter sui 

 to dry land than arc the flat, kidney, or cgg-sliaped 



Mr Alger, of Chelsea, stnlcd that on lands where li 

 was told tfiat if he did not put a spoonful of lime in tkl 

 lull, the worms would spoil his crop, he ajiplied tkl 

 lime, excepting to a small part. Where there nasM 

 lime, Ihe worms Iroubli-d him, but did tioi whore hi 

 limed. He inquired whether it is best to cut the see4. 



Mr Stone, of Beverly, suffered from worms where hi 

 used barn manure, but not where ho applied muck « 

 sca-wecd. 



Mr Lathrop.orSouth Hadlev, staled that for this crop, 

 he plows well, turns the furrow flat, spreads Ii,ng ma- 

 nure, and harrows it in. Cuts his seed, if large. Mak« 

 no furrow or hole : pats the seed on tho surface, ni 

 barely covers it. In this way he gets his largest croW 

 If, howevei, he had but little manure, ho nii°lil patfl 

 in the hill ; but if so, be would keep ihe manure npM 

 the surface. He wishes to cblain qnantitij, and, exc«|i 

 ing a lew for tuble use, plants the kinds that prove iHI 

 him most productive, wliirh are the llobanK and M4P 

 nos. [Wo think the Merinos ol the f.iriiiers fiom A( 

 western part of the State, are the Long Reds of iM 



