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15G 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



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CULTURE AND USE OF THE POTATO. 



Eds. Gen. Farmf.r : — Plca^o permit me to pive yonr 

 readers a short history of this valuable root, also of 

 its culture and use. 



We are indebted to Soutli America for tliis article, 

 where it. grows wild, and whore it was cultivated 

 long before it was made known in Eiii'ope. Clusius 

 is the firsl European writer who mentions it, about 

 tiie year 1588, and from this period it spread into dif- 

 ferent parts of the Eastern Continent with greater or 

 less rapidity. The potato has been cultivated in 

 Suabia and Alsace only since 1720, and did not reach 

 Switzcrlaiid till 1730. Almost everywhere its intro- 

 duction met with a great deal of opposition. The 

 French especially vver*^ excessively prejudiced on the 

 subject, and it was not till a lime of scarcity, during 

 the revolution, had fastened it upon them, that its 

 culture became general. The potato has probably 

 added millions to the population of Europe, and for a 

 long succession of years rendered unknown those 

 distressing famines which had previously been so 

 frequent. 



In addition to the usual culinary uses of potatoes, 

 bread may be made by mixing with them nearly an 

 equal portion of wheat flour ; and also a kind of 

 cheese, by reducing them to the consistence of paste, 

 adding an equal quantity of curd, with a little salt, 

 and some other ingredients, mixing the whole togeth- 

 er and forming it into moulds. Alcohol is very ex- 

 tensively distilled from the potato in some parts of 

 Europe. Starch may be made by the simple process 

 of scraping them into water and well washing the 

 pulp, when the starch settles to the bottom in a heavy 

 and dense sediment. This starch is not only used 

 for the same purposes as that prepared from wheat, 

 but also as a size, which does not putrify like that 

 produced from animal substance, and has no disagree- 

 able smell. Yeast may also be prepared from the 

 potato, and even the seed-vessels may be made into a 

 pickle. 



As food for the cattle of the farm — horses, cows, 

 pigs, and likewise for jfoultry — potatoes are all but 

 invaluable. Every creature seems to relish tlicm, 

 particiil irly when they are steamed or carefully boiled. 



Previous to the appearance of the I'ot, and now, 

 W'here that malady does not injure the crop, potatoes 

 arc the most valuable and profitable crop a farmer 

 can raise. The manure used may be of the coarsest 

 kind, and still an amount of fruit is yielded almost 

 incredibly large. A few of these cases may be stated 

 which will at least show the capabilities of this plant 

 under circumstances the most favorable : 



Mr. Kmght, the President of the English Horti- 

 cultur;il Society, a few years since, obtained from an 

 outside row a ])roduce eqtiivalent to more than fifty- 

 eight tons per acre. He says that " single rows and 

 outside rows are usually more prolific than the inte- 

 rior rows of a plot, garden, or fielJ. Tliis depends 

 on a variety of circumstances, the chief of which is 

 tho more perfect exposure of the foliage to the agency 

 of the air and the light." 



The Banff Journal, published near Aberdeen, in 

 Scotland, mentions that a gentleman in Bauf!', in the 

 spring of 1848, received a quantity of potatoes from 

 Rotterdam. He took a small parcel and planted 

 them in his garlen. The plants vc^ry soon appeared, 

 and through the summer continued to grow most 

 luxuriintly, so that all who saw them, predicted 

 that they would be nothing but a thicket ot stems 



and leaves. The prediction however, was not ver- 

 ified ; for when the crop was dug, there were gath- 

 ered from the ground, which was 160th part of an 

 acre, four bushels and a half; being equal to 720 

 bushels to the acre. At several of the stems upward 

 of forty potatoes were found ; one had 03 full-grown 

 potatoes, and on another were counted the very ex- 

 traordinary number of 110. They were entirely free 

 fiom disea.-e. 



Mr. TiiACHER Clark, another Scotch g'entleman, 

 has raised from a plot, a crop which was equal to 

 960 bushels to the acre. And one of our own 

 countrymen, a few years since, Col. Criggs, of 

 Brighton, Mass., dug from one acre of land 800 bush- 

 els of fine English Whites, some of which weighed 

 twenty ounces, and all of an excellent quality. Tlie 

 common field crop does not rise above 2U0 bushels to 

 the acre, and oftener below that. 



I say nothing in regard to the mode of cuHivating 

 the potato, for I presume this is a matter with which 

 all are familiar. And if, among tho difl'erent modes 

 of doing it, some are preferable to others, changes 

 will be adopted by those who wish to make them, 

 according to convictions resulting from experience 

 and observation, and not from any written details in 

 agricuHural books. In this case, therefore, as in 

 others where the subject must necessarily be familiar 

 to the reader, I pass it over in silence. 



It may doubtless be expected that I shall discuss 

 the causes and the remedies of the potato disease. 

 This I can not do satisfactorily, as both are matters 

 yet to be ascertained. The sensible editor of tho 

 Agriculturist says : "We are constantly receiving 

 communications on the cause and remedy of the in- 

 explicable disease of the potato, often contradictory 

 in themselves, few if any of wliich are without ex- 

 ception. By one class the cause of the malady is 

 attributed to parasitical fungi ; by another, to insects 

 or worms ; a third, to exhausted vitality from long 

 cultivation ; a fourth, to an impropei use of ammo- 

 niacal or stimulating manures ; a fifth, to the want 

 of lime in the manure or soil ; a sixth, t« drouth ; a 

 seventh, to a superabundance of rain ; an eighth, to 

 a deficiency of electricity in the atmosphere ; a ninth, 

 to an excess of electricity ; and by a tenth class, to a 

 miasmatic or some unknown agency, the mode of ac- 

 tion of which it is beyond the liuman prcccption to 

 compreliend." 



Among the numerous remedies which have been 

 recommended, those, says Mr. Allen, that seem 

 to merit attention are, the production of new varieties 

 of seed, early planting, followed by early harvesting, 

 and securing tlie crop from the wet and frost, and, 

 lastl}', what he suggested three years ago : namely, 

 planting on moderately rich, warm land, having a 

 good sod, with no manure but plaster, charcoal-dust, 

 wood ashes, salt, or air-slacked lime. 



It seems now to be pretty well settled that early 

 planted potatoes escape tlie rot more generally than 

 late ones. Potatoes are a long while in coming 

 up, and they may as well be planted in April as at a 

 later period, for all planting can be done at once. 



Greensward is not the best kind of furrows for 

 potatoes, unless the sod was turned as early as the 

 last of Uct)ber. For when it is turned in the spring, 

 it is more subject to the dDuth than old ground, 

 or grouiid plowed early e lough last October to be par- 

 t:a!y rotted and made to bo compact enough to attract 

 m:>isture from below. 



If the sward must be turned for potatoes in the 



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