PREPARATION FOR WINTER. 



Messrs. Editors : — Having received so much bene- 

 fit myself, by being' reminded in the Genesee Farmer, 

 occasionally, of the importance of preparing for win- 

 ter, I may be pardoned foj" endeavoring to do to others 

 the same kindness I have so freely received, I al- 

 ways intended, as of course others do, to be fully 

 prepared for every emergency, as much as possible ; 

 but, somehow or other, always happened to be a little 

 behind, and had to do work in very unpleasant weath- 

 •er, which witii a little forethought might have been 

 done easier and better a little before. Then, often 

 on account of the unpleasantness of doing out-door 

 work, many things remained entirely undone, and 

 much loss was the consequence, and perhaps suffer- 

 ing to animals from cold and storm. One cold, 

 stormy day in the winter of 1848-9, I sat by a warm 

 fire, feeling rather uncomfortable as I thought of a 

 barn that needed a little repairing, that I intended 

 some time ago should have been done on the first fine 

 day ; but it had not been done, and the snow was 

 covering my hay mow, and the barn looked like a 

 snow palace inside — the stable that was not quite 

 as tight as I knew it ought to be, and might very 

 well have been. As I observed, I felt rather uncom- 

 fortable at these thoughts, and took up the Genesee 

 Farmer to read a little and forget my bad feelings, 

 when the first thing that attracted my attention was 

 an article headed '^Prepare for Winter.^' I laid 

 down the paper and really felt cross at being reproved 

 in that way, and said something about its being very 

 easy to write, but those that wrote such fine things 

 didn't do any better than those of whom they were 

 finding fault, with many more Uiings of this charac- 

 ter that I am not now foolish enough to repeat. But, 

 after a time my good sense began to show me the 

 truth of the matter, and in a little while I thought it 

 was about right. In about an hour I had resolved to 

 go to work at the stable at once, in spite of the wind 

 and the snow. So I put on my thick coat and mit- 

 tens, called the boys to my assistance, (who won- 

 dered what new streak had taken me,) got hammer 

 and nails and boards, and fixed up the stable in pretty 

 good order in about two or three hours. Next day 

 went at the barn, repaired it in every place where 

 repairs were needed, or where an improvement could 

 be made, shoveled out the snow, and then sat aown 

 to enjoy my reading, feeling, I can assure you, more 

 like a man than I had felt before in many a day, com- 

 fortable in body and mind. I have endeavored since 

 to keep a little ahead of the times and seasons, and 

 find great benefit from the practice. Now, brother 

 farmers, if you profit by my example, it will add to 

 your honor and happiness. H. 



SELECT SOUND POTATOES FOR SEED. 



Messrs. Editors: — For several years I noticed 

 among my potato vines when hoeing, some hills of 

 small sickly vines, and always observed that such 

 vines died out prematurely and never yielded any 

 tubers worth harvesting. When hoeing last sum- 

 mer, I noticed the same proportion of sickly vines and 

 determined to search for the cause. On opening a 

 hill I found that the seed potato had been deeply cut 

 by the hoe, in digging the preceding f II. Not yet 

 satisfied that this was the only cause of the dwartish 

 appearance of the vines, I continuol the search, dig- 

 ging up every hill of sickly vines on a patch of half 



an acre. I found, to my surprise, that in every in- 

 stance the seed potato had been cut with the hoe, or 

 pricked with the potato hook, in digging, and the in- 

 cisions thus made were covered with a black mildew, 

 and premature decay had commenced. I therefore 

 conclude that a diseased potato is unfit for seed. 



Permit me to add a word on the cultivation of the 

 potato generally, as I have been very successful in 

 raising that useful plant for the last twenty years. 

 I plant on a loamy soil, plow deep, and plant early 

 and deep, by which the plants get an early and vigo- 

 rous growth, and very seldom suffer with the drouth 

 during the whole season. They also arrive at matu- 

 rity early, in time to be harvested while the weather 

 is fine, before the heavy fall rains sot in, which I con- 

 sider essential to their flavor and preservation through 

 winter. I have noticed that some farmers let the 

 potatoes and weeds grow together until the vines are 

 large enough to be hilled up. This I consider bad 

 economy, as the weeds rob the vines of moisture and 

 nourishment, and require much more labor to subdue 

 them than if taken in season. My practice is to go 

 through them both ways with a one horse harrow, or 

 cultivator, as soon after they come up as practicable, 

 and then leave ihom without hoeing unti"l the vines 

 are large enough to receive a suflicient hill for the 

 season. I then plow them out both ways and dress 

 them with the hoe, which is all the care they need 

 until ready to harvest. In harvesting, I dig them 

 out of the ground and let them lie in the sun until 

 the latter part of the day. The dirt will then mostly 

 fall from them and leave them in fine order for use. 

 I usually plant large potatoes and plant them whole. 

 I have tried planting small potatoes, and also large 

 ones cut in pieces, but I have uniformly found that 

 they yielded less in quantity, and a greater propor- 

 tion of small ones, than when I have planted large 

 ones uncut. D. 



SUB-SOILINa FOR POTATOES. 



Messrs. Editors : — Last spring I broke up a piece 

 of pasture for corn and potatoes ; soil, sand and gra- 

 vel — plowed seven inches deep. Through the cen- 

 ter of the lot, I subsoiled a piece of land seven paces 

 wide — subsoiled with the common plow : i. e. throw- 

 ing the plow into the furrow and plowing five inches 

 deeper than the bottom of the first. That raised the 

 subsoil on the top of the first furrow, to the depth of 

 three inches. I planted four rows of potatoes and 

 three of corn on this subsoil. On one side corn was 

 planted ; on the other, potatoes and corn — the pota- 

 toes divided from the subsoiled ones by the three 

 rows of corn. The corn wh(ni harvested was not as 

 good — stalk small, and not well eared. The pota- 

 toes were large, on the subsoiled, and no rotten ones 

 were dug ; whereas, the others were diseased and 

 many of them rotten. They were placed in separate 

 pilea in the cellar, and when assorted in the fall, ono 

 quarter of those planted on the sod were diseased or 

 rotten ; of the subsoiled, only two potatoes showed 

 any indication of disease. The seed was the same, 

 (round pink eye) planted the same day, the same care 

 in cultivating, and dug at the same time. 



I am not prepared to give any reasons for the dif- 

 ference, otlier than the dryness of the aubsoil when 

 laid on the surface. I plowed the land, not knowing 

 or expecting that it would make any difference, but 

 I shall give it a fair trial, as many others will who 

 have seen the tvro crops. A. Todo, Jr. 



