324 Seedling-Potatoes. 



I wrote the above some days ago, and thought I had made out a pretty 

 good story; but I dug yesterday (Oct. 18), from tlie same lot of seedUngs, 

 one that fairly distances all the rest. I had noticed it during the season, as 

 having the strongest growth and most abundant vines and foliage of all, 

 covering an area of some four feet square, and remaining green and vigor- 

 ous till touched by frost on the i6th of October. The result, as the prod- 

 uct of a single seed planted the past spring, was astonishing beyond any 

 thing I had ever conceived. I took thirty potatoes from this hill, twenty 

 of which were of marketable size, their aggregate weight being six pounds ; 

 the remaining ten were smaller, and weighed but eight ounces ; giving si.\ 

 pounds and a half from one seed. The largest potato in the lot measured 

 six inches in length, three inches in breadth, and two inches in thickness, 

 and weighed twelve ounces. In general appearance, it is much like the 

 Early Rose ; in color rather darker skinned, but perfectly white-fleshed ; 

 cooks dry, fine grained, and mealy ; and is apparently equal to the Early 

 Rose or White Peachblow. Should it continue to produce according to its 

 promise as a seedling, it will doubtless be worthy of a name and place 

 among really valuable varieties. I may mention that these seedlings were 

 all grown in ordinarily good garden-soil, which had been cropped some five 

 or six years without manure or fertilizers of any kind, except a slight sprin- 

 kling of muriate of lime, which I put about the stem of each plant in the 

 spring, mainly for the purpose of keeping away cut-worms, which were very 

 troublesome. The same application was made to all the plants ; those 

 that produced but an ounce or so, equally with this one, producing six 

 pounds and a half. 



Now, it may be that all this is not specially remarkable, and that others 

 may have produced equal or greater results. But it is only by reporting 

 what we have done, and comparing it with the work of others, that a true 

 estimate of its value may be formed. 



Delaware, O., Oct. 19, 1869. 



