1877.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMER 



55 



conditions wliicli govern and rt'iiulate tht'lr 

 in-odiK-tions, aiul which fix llicir de^iivc of 

 iiu'i-it or dcuicril. 15ut whon we cnuie down 

 to farniini,', at wliicli (■(Hintless niilHons liavc 

 tuiU'd, we ol'tontinn'S liiid that I lie divuriifncu 

 of opinions on jioints so often and so re^^nlarly 

 lironi,'lil to tlie 1'arnier's attention, i.s as wiile 

 as it well can he, and I lie real issue as unde- 

 ciih'd as when Adam delved and Eve spun. 



To one of these disputed i)oints I jiropose 

 to call attention. The question whether 

 farinevs shall plant larije or small jiotatoes is 

 an old one, and as hmi; as it is old, and will 

 no dmht continue to a.ijitatc tlie agricultural 

 mind for a long time to come. If every the- 

 orist on this queslion would convert liitnscW 

 into an experimentalist, the ease would not 

 he long in doul)t, hut nnfoitnnately, the more 

 (un- favorite theories are assailed, the more 

 we feel disposed to stick to them. Farmers 

 are |ierh.aps the most conservative jieople as a 

 rule, in the connninuty, and lids a|iplies to 

 things within (he liiK^ of their calling even 

 more than to outside maltei's. They are apt 

 to hold on to that which experience lias 

 taught them produces satisfactory results, 

 and too infrequently refu.se to better what 

 seems to them already good enough. 



Every reader knuws farmers who jilaiit only 

 small potatoes, not from necessity but from 

 choice, and others who select the choicest of 

 their crop for planting purim.ses. If the former 

 succeeds in gathering a large crop of line 

 tuhers, he is confirnu-d in his theory that .size 

 has notlnng whatever to do with the matter, 

 and if his crop i)roves short in (piantity and 

 interior in (piality, an abnndan(x> of reasons 

 drawn from the season, cfindition of the soil 

 and what not, are always at hand to sustain 

 his original view. Paradoxical as it may 

 seem, the man who has iilanted the very hest 

 article in his cellar, aiiplies this identical line 

 of argument to his own system, no matter 

 W'lu'tlier failure or success has attended it. 

 The result is nothing is proved, and each 

 party is as strongly wedded to his theory as 

 ever. 



My father invariably planted small-sized po- 

 tatoes, and was careful, when nonesuch were 

 to be had, to cut the large ones imtil no ]>iece 

 contained more than a single eye. He had a 

 neighbor, a brother, whose rule through life 

 in this matter was the exact opposite. The 

 fields adjoined, and in so far as anything 

 could be discovered, there was no difference 

 whatever in either the quality of the .soil or 

 method of cultivation. Vet tliere were fail- 

 ures and successes on both sides, as often on 

 the one as on the other, and an experience of 

 50 years' potato growing left both satisfied as 

 to the soundness of their individual views, 

 without any other perceptible difference ex- 

 cept that my father had the satisfaction of 

 eating his finest iiotatoes, while my uncle 

 dined on small ones. This is but a single in- 

 stance by way of example, and everyone will 

 remember plenty of others in his own expe- 

 rience. . 



Last year a somewhat similar experience 

 fell to my own share. I had about half an 

 acre of ground to plant. I imt down Peerless 

 and Early Rose, mostly small ones, freely cut- 

 ting the large ones. Finding several rowsun- 

 planted when night came and being anxious 

 to finish, these were planted with very large 

 Peerless, whole, for I would not lake the time 

 to cut them. The result was that this last lot 

 was the most uu.satisfactory of the whoU;, al- 

 though I atn not luepared to say this was in 

 consequence of having iilanted entire potatoes. 

 Several years ago a lot of mere parings, 

 planted in the rich, mellow soil of the gar- 

 den, gave unusually line results. 



If there remains attached to the eye, mere- 

 ly sufficient of the substance of the potato to 

 sustain its vitality until it has had time by its 

 contact with the soil to throw out rootlets, 

 which it quickly does, everything has been at- 

 tained which need be asked for; the .soil, with 

 all its component parts, must do the rest. 

 The old potato furinshes sustenance merely 

 until the growing eye makes arrangements, 

 so to speak, to find other and more substan- 



tial nourishment to support its growth. 

 What is drawn from the potato is at most 

 only a matter of a few days, while on what 

 is taken up out of the soil, and that oidy, de- 

 pend our ex|)ectations of a vigorous growth 

 and a prolilahlc crop. 



Is not this view, in all its bearings, abun- 

 dantly confirmed l)y thi; inamier of planting 

 resorted to by those who have planted small 

 lots of potatoes in conqietitiou tor iirizes. If 

 Mr. II. (J. Pearson had |)lanled his single 

 jMiund of the '"Alpha" variety, without cut- 

 ting the tubers, how nnuiy would he have 

 obtained by the experiment V Most likely his 

 crop would have lieen 17 pounds instead of 

 171)7, and his lilW jiounds from a single pound 

 of " Huby" would, in all probability, have 

 dwindled down to a figure which half a dozen 

 hungry farm hands could have demoli.shed at 

 a single meal. When a single eye of a potato 

 can he divided and subdivided until ten or 

 more parts have been obtained, and these 

 ]ilaided and cultivated until the result is ai\ 

 increase of nearly •iOOl) per cent., I aiiprehend 

 the advocates of whole i)otato planting have 

 very little ground left in the way of argument, 

 to stand upon. 



Instead of being beneficial, planting whole 

 potatoes can hardly fiul to result in direct 

 injin-y. Some potatoes have more eyes, some 

 less, but the avei-age is anywhere from six to 

 a dozen. Were all these to grow and thrive, it 

 would of itself elfectually demolish the 

 " whole" planting theory ; for that number of 

 plants or shoots, all drawing nourishment 

 from so limited and eircuinscribed a space, 

 would literally star\'fc and the expected crop 

 prove a failure. 



There can bo little room for doubt but that 

 sound healthy potatoes;, when iirojierly cut 

 into pieces and planted, will yield the best 

 results. That being done, other most essen- 

 tial factors step into the foreground, and con- 

 trol the size of the croj), and its quality. The 

 soil must be rich, light and jiroductive : 

 thorough and constant cultivation nnist be 

 liracti<'ed, and when all this has been done, 

 one thing more remains to do, and unless.that 

 is done in season, and elfectually, neither rich 

 soil, careful cultivation, whole potatoes, or 

 anything else will liring good results — you 

 must exercise eternal vigilance against the as- 

 saults of the Colorado beetle, for at that price 

 the potato croi> nuist now be purchased. — F. 

 It. I)., Lancaster, Pa. 



^ 



ESSAY * 



The year just closed ended the first century 

 since the indeiiendence of the country, ami 

 the second, since the first settlers landed on 

 the banks of the Delaware, for the purpose of 

 making this State tlieir home. 



They found the valleys of Eastern Penn- 

 sylvania wooded, and the hills clear of timber. 



These they called barren, and considered 

 them unfit for cultivation. 



Their rude houses were built by springs 

 and running streams, everywhere found in 

 abundance, and the work of opening farms in 

 the wooded timber connnenccd. 



Those who have no exiierience in clearing 

 land for cultivation, have but little idea of 

 the labor re([uired. But the early settlers had 

 been inured to toil, and year after year saw 

 the tindier disappear and fresh acres of thi' 

 virgin soil added to their farms, to take the 

 place of those that ha<l become exhausted by 

 continued croi>ping. During this time the 

 old Indian custom of hiniting the scanty veg- 

 etation on the hills had been di.scontinu<'d, 

 and they had grown up with a vigorous 

 growth of yoimg timber ; and when the cen- 

 tury closed the order was reverse<l. The 

 valleys were cleared and the hills were 

 wooded. 



At the opening of the second century there 

 were causes oiierating to, in a nu^asure, 

 change the habits of the lieople, which led to 

 .some improvement in their agriculture. Many 

 of the first settlers, in all our new Slates, 



* lEead before the ** T.snca8ter County Agricultural ftud 

 Horticultural Society," Murcli 26, 1877, by Levi Powuall. 



have been nomadic in character, and those of 

 the* old were no exceptitm to this rule. 

 From 1725 to the close of llie century, Vir- 

 ginia and North ('arolina fin-iiishcd an out- 

 let to the wanderers from this State. When 

 the hmds in those Slates were occupied, their 

 attention was turned to the Northwest Terri- 

 tory; hut the Indians had beconur jealous of 

 the encroachments of the pale-faces, and dis- 

 posed to dispute their right to extend their 

 .settlements. 



This, for a time, checked cinigralion, and 

 turned tlu; attention of the peoph' to the im- 

 jirovement of their buildings and the land 

 already occupied and under cultivation. 



In making thesi' improvements, the people 

 for the first time discovered their mistake in 

 destroying their hest timlMjr. To remedy 

 their error the land covered by the growing 

 timber on the hills was taken up and added 

 to tlieii' farms, and from this time till the in- 

 troduction of coal, the tindx r was carefully 

 pre.servetl. After th(' introduction of coal a 

 large ixirtion of the remaining timber land 

 was cleared and brought under cultivation, 

 llow far this action was wise, this and future 

 generations will have to settle. Independent 

 of the <iuestions of rain fall and the failure of 

 springs now being di.scus.sed, there are othera 

 that in the end may prove of greater import- 

 ance : Timber belts for .screens or wind 

 brakes, their infiueuce in regulating the tem- 

 ])erature of our climate, and their elfect on 

 the cultivation of fruit. Their attention was 

 also directi;d to the use of water for the pur- 

 poses of irrigation. They had depended on 

 the grass growing on the meadow land, for 

 hay and pa.-ture. To enlarge the area and 

 increa.se the supply, ditches were made to 

 convey the water from a higher level, and the 

 marks indicating th(^ lines of those oldditches 

 still remaining on our farms, attest the indus- 

 try and perseverance of our ancestors to ac- 

 complish their purpose. Farms with water 

 rights for purposes of irrigation were in de- 

 mand at a premium, while those without were 

 a drug in the market. In 17ilS cloverseed 

 was introduced and .sown in this section of 

 the State. 



Greeley's Saying, "that the man who makes 

 two blades of grow where one grew before, is 

 a public benefactor" if true, would entitle 

 the man who first introduced cloverseedin a ten- 

 fold sense, to til IS appellation. At the lime of its 

 introduction the farm land had gradually de- 

 teriorated. The cultivation of many acres 

 that had once been fiatileaiul productive, had 

 been abandoned. The growing of this plant, 

 and the practice commenced near the same 

 time, of using lime, made the turning ))oint 

 in our agriculture. Clover, in connection 

 with timothy, grew so well on our uplands 

 that they took the place of the meadow grass 

 fiir hay, anil the ditches that were dug with 

 so much lalior and expense, were in a few 

 years abandoned. 



After the defeat of the Indians in 1794, the 

 Xorthwest Territory was open for settlement; 

 the (ioverninenl («fferiug inducements, not 

 only to our own citizens, but also to those 

 of Europe, to occupy the laud at a nominal 

 price. 



The i)opulation rapidly increa.sed, and the 

 surplus lu-oducts harvested fnmi the fertile 

 soil of the Mississippi Valley waited for the 

 means of transportatitm to a distant market. 



The eastern cities siiw the importance of 

 this trade, and their capital and energies 

 were directed to secure it. But the distance 

 was great. The ways and means of over- 

 coming the ditliculties to be encountered were 

 not yet devised. 



In those days civilization and settlement 

 were in advance of the means of transi)orta- 

 lion. In the meantime the now crude |)ro- 

 ilucts of the vegetable kingdom walked to 

 our eastern markets in the shape of cattle 

 and swine, and for the first time wo had a 

 competitor from a distance in our markets for 

 those liroducts. I need not enumerate the 

 different enterprises contemplated by our 

 commercial cities of the cast to control and 

 direct the course of the internal commerce 



