1847. 



GENESEE FARMER. 



107 



The Culture of Potatoes. 



Potatoes are now worth some fifty or sixty 

 cents a bushel in this city. If one could be sure 

 of a good crop of sound potatoes, their culture 

 would yield a large profit. As an article of hu- 

 man food, it will be extremely difficult, if not 

 impossible, to find a perfect substitute for this 

 tuber. We are not of the number that regard 

 this plant as likely soon to become extinct ; al- 

 though we confess our inability to explain the 

 occult causes which gave rise to the wide spread 

 potato malady. Whatever may be the pestilent 

 agent, experience has shown that much may be 

 done to avert its destroying powers. The most 

 successful preventives hitherto tried, have been 

 founded on this principle in organic life : All 

 living beings, whether animal or vegetable, can 

 best withstand any epidemic, or other poison that 

 excites the morbid action, and dissolution of or 

 ganized bodies, by supplying the vital principle 

 in the animal or plant with every element in due 

 proportion, used by nature in the constant suste- 

 nance of life. Other things being equal, a very 

 weak, debilitated plant or anitnal, will sooner die 

 and rot, through the influence of any poison 

 common alike to all, than strong and healthy 

 systems, wherein vitality possesses its highest 

 powers of resistance. 



If this doctrine be true to nature, it becomes 

 a question of the highest moment to learn what 

 are the elements and circumstances most favora- 

 ble to the perfect development of the potato plant. 

 We have devoted a good deal of time to the prac- 

 tice and scientificinvestigationof this very inter- 

 esting subject. 



Early planting is one of the most important 

 preventives of the blight and rot. But early 

 planting alone is not sufficient. Thorough til- 

 lage, the removal of all excess of moisture, and 

 the application to the soil of any ingredients it 

 may lack to form large, healthy tubers, stems, 

 and leaves of plants, must not be omitted. What 

 these lacking ingredients are, can only be rigid- 

 ly determined by a critical analysis of the soil 

 and of ripe potato plants, including every por- 

 tion of the same. Different varieties of potatoes, 

 as well as the same varieties grown in different 

 soils, give unlike results as to the quantity of 

 starch, water, ash, and mineral constituents of 

 the ash of the tubers, stems, and leaves of the 

 plant. As an animal may be very lean or fat, 

 according to its keep — may have 2.5 or 50 per 

 cent of bones in its system — so cultivated plants 

 may be poor in starch, sugar, gum, legumen, or 

 any other organized or earthy substance, or 

 abound in the same. We find in 100 lbs. of ro- 

 han potatoes, 80 lbs. of water. In the same 

 weight of Mercers, only 74.50 lbs. 



In 1000 grains of perfectly dry potatoes, we 

 usually find about 40 grains of ash, when thor- 

 oughly burnt. 100 grains of the ash of potatoes 



( tubers, ) yield the following constituents : — 



Carbonic acid,-- - 13.4 



Sulphuric acid, - -- 7.1 



I'hosplioric acid, 11.3 



Chlorine, .--- - 2.7 



Lime, - 1.3 



Magnesia, - 5.4 



Potash -.- SI..") 



Soda, --- - --. traces 



Silica, ._. - 5.6 



Oxide of Iron nnd Alumina, - -. 0.5 



Charcoal and loss, 0.7 



lOU.O 



The above figures are interesting, because 

 they show that 5H per cent, of the ash of pota- 

 toes is pure potash. More than 11 per cent, in 

 phoshoric acid, an element that exists largely in 

 bones. To determine the practical value of pot- 

 ash in the culture of potatoes, we have planted 

 them in an artificial soil in which that alkali was 

 wholly left out. A healthy crop cannot thus be 

 grown, unless perhaps soda or lime may serve 

 as a substitute. How far soda may supply the 

 place of potash, or potash of soda, or lime of 

 either, in the organization of starch, oil, sugar, 

 and of other vegetable substances, no one has 

 tried sufficient experiments to determine. Jn 

 the present state of agricultural science, the only- 

 safe course is to make and apply to the soil, a 

 compound that contains all the elements found in 

 the crop. 



In addition to stable manure, the use of wood 

 ashes is of great service in growing potatoes. — 

 Manure contains the same mineral elements found 

 in the plants on which domestic animals are fed. 

 The ashes derived from timothy and clover hay, 

 cornstalks, wheal and oat straw, oats and wheat 

 bran — the usual food of domestic animal.s — con- 

 tain a great deal less potash than the ash of po- 

 tatoes. Hence, it is found by experience that 

 stable and common barn-yard manure will go 

 three times farther in growing potatoes, if wood 

 ashes be used at the same time. Common salt, 

 bone dust, lime, and gypsum, are valuable aux- 

 iliaries. We prefer to mix these fertilizers with 

 ashes, either leached or unleached, before their 

 application. They should be spread over each 

 hill immediately after the seed is covered. 



Running into Debt. 



No farmer, who hrmestly mteiids to pay, need to fear to Sf- 

 cnre his creditor by mortgage. Some must ever be in debt, 

 otherwise none could have money at interest — none coul^ 

 live on an income. Farmers can give the very best securi- 

 ty for loans and thus allure capital to th ' aid of agriculture. 

 The multitude of mortgag'^s on (arms proves that capital ta 

 a large amount his been thus allured. — Mass. Plmighmmt. 



The Editor of the Ploughman enjoys a high 

 reputation as a man of sound judgment ; but we 

 greatly misjudge in the matter of borrowing 

 money and mortgaging one's farm to secure prin- 

 cipal and interest, at some future day, if the 

 practice be not alike unsafe and unwise, as tl 

 general rule. According to our observation for 

 the last 25 years — and we claim to have been a 

 pretty close observer of men and things — nine- 



