CULTIVATION OF ROOTS. iRlp 



much esteemed for making warm cakes, and brings as high 

 a price as wheat. It is easily cultivated, and may be sown 

 as late as July, but the flour is not always good. 



Flax and hemp are cultivated to a very limited extent in 

 this country. For a particular description of their mode of 

 culture, the reader is referred to the agricultural publications 

 of the day. 



Rice and cotton are also cultivated in the South, but the 

 methods of culture need no description in this connection. 



Sect. 2. Cultivation of Roots. 



The cultivated roots are the beet, carrot, turnip, potato, 

 parsnip, onion, etc. From their influence upon the soil, and 

 the small quantities of alkalies they extract, they are gene- 

 rally considered ameliorating crops. As many of them are 

 provided with broad leaves, they extract most of their nour- 

 ishment from the atmosphere and from water. 



Potato. The potato is the bulb of the solanum tubero- 

 sum, and grows wild in the mountainous districts of Peru 

 and Chili. Potatoes are in almost universal use, and the most 

 valuable of root crops. In the course of cultivation, several 

 varieties have been produced by a treatment similar to that 

 pursued with corn. It is not consistent with our limits, to 

 treat of the different varieties and their comparative merits. 

 The English white, the blue, red, kidney, rohan, lady's-fin- 

 ger, long-red and chenango are names by which several va- 

 rieties are designated. As the potato is generally propagated 

 by eyes or the tubers, and not by the seeds, it has been a 

 question much discussed by farmers, whether the whole po- 

 tato should be planted, or only the cuttings. This question 

 has been very satisfactorily settled by experiment. It is 

 found that the seed end, or that opposite to the stalk, cut 

 rather deep, yields the largest and most thrifty shoots and the 

 most bountiful crop.* 



* See experiments in Buel's Cultivator, Vol. III. p. 182. 



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