318 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



selecting stock, with as much faith as a Churchman has in the 

 thirty-nine articles of his creed ; and we propose to name a few 

 characteristics of a good potato. In the first place, it should be 

 healthy. As a good constitution is the first requisite of a good 

 animal, so vigor is the leading quality of a potato. No other 

 quality and no combination of qualities will compensate for the 

 want of this. We have never seen a potato that, for table use, 

 came up to the Carter ; but still few venture to plant this vari- 

 ety, as its constitution is so impaired, either by age or abuse, 

 that it cannot resist disease except under the most favorable cir- 

 cumstances. Planted on a fresh sod of an old dry pasture, and 

 in a dry summer, it may make a good return ; and some are so 

 fond of this favorite that they continue to plant it, knowing 

 that they run more than an even chance of losing their labor. 

 The same objection, though in an inferior degree, lies against 

 the Mercer, and indeed against many of the otherwise excellent 

 table potatoes. We remember once hearing a cautious old 

 bachelor say, that in selecting a wife he should consider health 

 as the prime quality. We were inclined to smile at his placing 

 the physical above the mental and moral in a wife ; but, as 

 a potato has no mental nor moral quality, we shall certainly 

 place health as first among the characteristics of a good variety. 

 Next to health we rank good flavor. Some may sneer at the 

 idea of flavor in a potato ; but every variety has a taste peculiar 

 to itself, as marked as is the flavor of the different varieties of 

 apples. That potato is most universally liked, which, like pure 

 water, has little taste. Some varieties are bitter, like the waters 

 of Marah ; and it is a little singular that those who are addicted 

 to the use of strong potatoes prefer them to the milder kinds ; 

 much as those who are accustomed to drink the muddy water of 

 the Missouri complain of the pure spring water of New England 

 as having no body to it. There is no accounting for tastes ; but 

 there can be no doubt that an unvitiated taste prefers a mild 

 potato as it does pure water. The flavor depends partly upon 

 the soil where the potato is grown and the material with which 

 the soil is enriched. We have known the same variety, grown 

 in sandy loam, lightened with muck or leaf mould, mild and 

 agreeable, while grown in clay, enriched by fresh manure, it 

 became strong and even bitter. The Carter is the standard 

 potato for a mild, pleasant flavor ; the Jackson White, a seed- 



