368 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Agriculture is taught, in coiinection witli the com- 

 mon branches of education. We, earnestly hope 

 to he ahle to give a better account than this of 

 agricultuial schools before our legislature closes 

 another session; so far, at least, as to see some of 

 our men of practical, as well as metilal. acquire- 

 ments, in a situation to impart their iiifurmation to 

 the thousands of hungry minds waiting to be fed 

 from their fountains of knowledge. Will the edi- 

 tor of the Germantown Telegraph give us some 

 information in relation to the Mount Airy, or any 

 other school where agriculture, as a science, may 

 be learned. 



For the New England Fanner. 



THE POTATO— ITS PROCESS OF VEGE- 

 TATION. 



BY J . LEE. 



Mr Editor: — When digging my potatoes, 1 

 liave observed, with special care, the manner it) 

 which the vines, roots and tubers grow from tlu' 

 parent potato. The planted parent tuber I find. 

 has, in all cases, propagated vines, roots and t lber^ 

 from only one end, that from which the first sprouts 

 start ill our cellars, at the return of spring; and i' 

 is the end or section of the tuber opposite that to 

 wliich t!ie, oriainal stem grew, connecting the tu- 

 ber with its parent. The whcde growth from a 

 single potato I find also joined to it, sometimes on- 

 ly at one point, sometimes at two, and never ai 

 more than three, and these in close proximity. Tin 

 whole propagation has proceeded from one, two. 

 or three eyes, as tiiey are usually called. The oh' 

 tuber, in some hills, is found wholly decomposed, 

 except its pellicle, and in such instances tlie yield 

 is greatest. Some old tubers are partially rotten, 

 throiiiib natural decay, and others remain in their 

 original shape and form, but light and watery. 

 From one to three eyes only actually vegetate froiri 

 the largest potatoes 1 have thus inspected, tiie olh 

 ers reinaining inert. At these single points the pa- 

 rent tuber has expended its strength, and the sub- 

 stance of it has been exhausted, and doubtless thv 

 whole tuber has had an important office to perform 

 in the product resulting. If the parent tuber has 

 been decomposed and lost in tiie progress of vege- 

 tation, through the season, I am convinced that ii 

 has not been useless, and therefore, tliat the prac- 

 tice of cutting apart potatoes before planting is un- 

 wise and unphilosophical. And the corky, or rot- 

 ten, or watery, lifeless state of many parent tubers, 

 indicates that they must have parted with impor- 

 tant qualities in the vegetating process, necessary 

 for the healthiest and fullest production of the new 

 tubers. 



There are two kinds of roots propagated in the 

 growth of the potato. The first is fibrous, and 

 shoots downwards and laterally, and loves to find a 

 deej), friendly subsoil, allowing them to pen"tratt 

 beyond the reach of droughts. These are sustain- 

 ing, absorbent roots, essential to the life and growth 

 of both the vine-stalks and of newly fornred tubfirs. 

 The other kind of branching roots pr(qiagate tubers, 

 and shoot out from the main root, near its juuctioi. 

 with the parent tuber, and grow to different lengths 

 sometiines in good soil to the distance of tu elve and 

 even eighteen inches, and always terminating in a 

 tuber wliich they feed. Frequently, a young tuber 



.sends out a root from its extremity, and this propa- 

 gates one or mmx' tubers, or else the root protrudes 

 from the ground and forms a vine. Tiiis demon- 

 strates that /Ae <7/fer-/?rofl'wa/i^ roots arc of exactly 

 the same nature as the vines. 



Last May, I planted a potato whicli had been 

 dug in the fill of 1819, eighteen months before, 

 and which had l)een under a box during the sum- 

 mer of 1850. In that position it had propagated 

 several small branch-like vines, upon which were 

 t'ormed a large number of little tubers, of the size 

 of small peas. It had been exposed to the air of 

 the cellar, through the preceding winter, in that 

 gerirrinant state, and thus was [>lanted the parent 

 with its offshoots. The vines grew thriftily, and 

 upon digging, I found forty-two tubers had grown 

 in the hill, all small, and yet differing in size,pro- 

 |)ortionally to the size of the small tubers planted. 

 They were evidently the same tubers that I plant- 

 ed, only expanded by vegetation. Thus the sr/s- 

 pension of growth did not prevent them from re- 

 suming the original process of vegelatioir when 

 placed in the ground, and in a condition favorable 

 to the vegetating tendency, which began to be de- 

 veloped twelve months before the time of planting: 

 I infer that the principle, that the rot ()f potatoes 

 arises from the decay of vegetable life in the pa- 

 rent tubers, is groundless. I also infer that the 

 --mall growth of these tubers, was occasioned by 

 the exhaustion of the parent tuber, in its vegeta- 

 ting efforts in the cellar, during the summer of 

 1850. It had become cork like and dry when I 

 planted it, and therefore its offspring depended for 

 their aliment upon new fibrous absorbent roots, 

 shooting into the soil from the tuber roots. 



My observations upon the depth to which the ab- 

 scnbent roots of potatoes are inclined to penetrate, 

 convinces me that they demand a deep permeable 

 rich soil for their greatest productiveness. The 

 number of tubers is greatly aided by a soil best 

 suited to the extension of tuber roots, and by broad, 

 mellow hills. One peach-blow potato's tuber root 

 penetrated, in my garden, six or eight inches be- 

 low the parent, and there formed the largest tuber 

 of the whole crop. Why? On inspection, 1 found 

 a (piantity of loose limestone sand just around and 

 beneath it. A fact I hope to remember for future 

 experiment. J. L. 



Salisbury, Conn., Sept. 27, 1851.« 



Re.marks. — We bespeak the especial attention 

 of our readers to this communication, and beg of 

 our correspondent a continuance of his favors. 



2EIXTENSIVS FARMING. 



The most extensive farming operation probably 

 ever entered into in any country, has ijeen success- 

 fully carried through in California during the past 

 autumn and winter. Weallnde to the speculation 

 of Horner & Co. 



Day before yesterday the last sack of the potato 

 crop was sold, and the gross proceeds (d' tins crop 

 have amounted to $178,000 — yield of 130 acres I 

 There have been eighty hands employed on the 

 rancho, and the total expenses of carrying it on, 

 . luring the season has been $80,000. The sacks 

 (nunny bags) in which the potatoes^have been 

 .shipped cost about $8,000, while the gross receipts 

 for the total crop of the rancho have amounted to 

 $223,000— Sacramento Transcript . 



