286 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



March 28, IgQS. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



BOSTON, FRIDAY, MARCH 28, 1S28. 



POTATO. 



Sir Joseph Banks (Hort. Trans. 1, 8,) considers 

 that the potato was brought to Spain from the 

 moijnl.iinoiis parts of South Aniprica. in the neigh- 

 borliood of Quito. To Eng'and, however, this 

 root found its way by a different route, being 

 bro'iL'ht from Virginia by the colonists sent out 

 by Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1,586. 



Varieties. These are very nunifrons, not only 

 from the facility of pr>)curing new sorts by rais- 

 ing them from seed, but because any variety cul- 

 tivated for a few years, in the same soil and situ- 

 ation, as in the same garden or farm, acquires a 

 peculiarity uf character and habit, which distin- 

 guishes it from the samp variety in a different soil 

 and situatioii. Dr. Hunter, in his Gtorgical Es- 

 se ys, has supposed the duration of a variety is lim- 

 ited to fourteen years ; au'l Knight concurs with 

 him in opinion. Potatos, which are excellent in 

 Ireland, Nova Scotia, and other high northern lat- i 

 jtiide.s, do not answer a good purpose in New Enc- ' 

 land. The potato taken from the Soutii, prospers 

 better, such as the River Plate, or red potato — 

 which has succeeded well in .Massachusetts. Lou- \ 

 don a.sserts that the best mode to order potatos 

 for seed, is, to give a general description of the 

 size, color, form, and quality wanted, and whether \ 

 for an early or late crop, without being guided by ■ 

 the names attached to any varieties. 



Propagation. The potato may be propagated , 

 from see I, cuttings, or layers of the green shoots, 

 sprouts from the eyes of the tubers, [roots] or por 

 tions of the tnhers containing a hud or eye. or by 

 planting the tubers whole. The object of the first 

 method, IS to procure a new or improved variety ; 

 of the second, little more than curiosity, or to 

 multiply as quickly as possible a rare sort; and of 

 the third, to save tlie tubers for food. The meth- 

 ods by portions of the tubers, [the roots cut in 

 pieces] or whole potatos, is the best, and almost 

 universally practised, for the general purposes of 

 field and garden culture. 



By seed. — "Take the apples in the beginning of 

 October, [or whenever they are ripe] before the 

 frost has hurt them, hang them up by the foot 

 stalks in a dry closet, where they will not freeze ; 

 let them hang till March, or April ; then mash 

 the apples, wash the seeds from the pulp, and dry 

 them in a sunny window. Sow the seeds in a bed 

 about the first of May. Wlien the plants are four 

 or five inches high, transplant them into ?round 

 well prepared, one or two plants in a h\]\."(Denn) 

 Seeds from the same ball will produce a great va- 

 riety of kinds, some of which may be of little val- 

 ue ; and in order to make the most of such ex- 

 periments, it will be well to proceed accordin? to 

 the followintr directions, e.xtracted from some re 

 marks by Col. Pickering, contained in a pamphlet 

 published by the Esfe.x Agricultural Society; this 

 Society having awarded premiums for the best 

 po'atos raisfMl from the seed, 



1 "SecinL' the seeds in the same ball will pro- 

 duce various sorts of potatos, it will bo indispen- 

 sably necessary, that each young plant grows at 

 the distance of eight or ten inches apart, 



2 "In autumn, or as soon as the vines, or stems 

 of the plants die, and the young potatos are dug 

 up, those of each plant are to be saved by them- 

 selves, and it will be easy to put each sort in a 



eparate paper bag. Those potatos will be very 



small, perhaps from the size of a pigeon's down to 

 a sparrow's egg. | 



•3 "In the ensuing spring, the potatos of each [ 

 sort, that is, the potatos of each bag, must be 

 planted by themselves; and if not in distinct lows, 

 then stakes driven into the ground, should murk i 

 the divisions of the several sorts in the same rows, 

 leaving a space of about two feet between one 

 sort and another, to guard against any mixture. \ 

 4 " In the time for harvesting them in the se- 

 cond year, the potatos. [if grown in a good soil] 

 will be large enough to be boiled to ascertain their 

 quality. Each sort must be tried by itself. Such 

 as are watery, and ill flavored, may be at once 

 thrown aside, for the use of live stock. Every 

 other sort, so valuable as to be thought worth cul- 

 tivating, must be kept unmixed, by putting each' 

 kind in a separate bag or cask." 



The modes of propagating by layers, cuttings, 

 suckers, sprouts, &c. are rather curious than use- 

 ful, and are therefore here omitted, but may be 

 seen in detail in the Encyc. of Card, page GiiO. 



By portions of the tuheis, [or cuttings of the po- 

 tato]. "In making the sets or sections, reject the 

 extreme or watery end of the tuber, as apt to run: 

 too much to haulm, [vine] and having the eyes 

 small, and in a cluster; reject als) tlie root, or 

 dry end, as more likely to be tardy in growth, and 

 produce the curl. Then divide the middle of the 

 potato, so as to have not more than one good eye 

 in each set. When the potato scoop, [an instru- 

 ment for digging out the eye of potatos] is used, 

 take care to apply it so as the eye or bud may be 

 in the centre of each set, which this instrument 

 produces, of a semi-globular form. The larger 

 the portion of tuber left to each eye, so much the 

 greater will be the progress of the young plants" 

 By some experiments which were made by J. 

 Whitlaw, Esq. and given in detail, in the N. E. 

 Farmer, Vol. i, page 53, and Vol. iv. page 314 — 

 these two important facts were made apparent : 

 1st. Large potatos are much belter for seed than 

 small ones. 2d. It is best to cut off the butt and 

 top ends from each potato, and cut the middle 

 pieces into quarters, before planting. Knight, the 

 famous English horticulturist, has found that for 

 a late crop small sets [seed potatos] may be used ; 

 because the plants of the l.ate varieties always ac- 

 quire considerable age before they begin to gene- 

 rate tubers ; but for an early crop, ho recommends 

 the largest tubers ; and he has found that these 

 not only afl'ord very strong plants, but also such 

 as readily recover when injured by frost ; for, be- 

 ing fed by a copious reservoir beneath the soil, a 

 reproduction of vigorous stems and foliage soon 

 takes place, when those first produced are de- 

 stroyed by frost or other cause. He adds, "when 

 the planter is anxious to obtain a crop within the 

 least possible time, he will find the position in 

 which the tubers are placed to vegetate, by no 

 means a point of indifference ; for these being 

 shoots or branches, which have grown thick in- 

 stead of elongating, retain the disposition of bran- 

 ches to propel the sap to their leading buds, or 

 points most distint from the stems of the plants 

 of which they once formed parts. If the tubers 

 be placed with their leading buds upwards, a few 

 very strong and very early shoots will spring from 

 them ; but if their position be reversed, many 

 weaker and later shoots will be produced ; and 

 not only the earlincss, but the quality of the pro- 

 duce, in size, will be much affected." 

 M'Mahon advises to cut seed potatos "a week 



before planting, in order that the wounds should 

 have time to form a dry crust ; for if planted im- 

 mediately after being cui, they imbibe too much 

 moisture, many of them rot, and the rest are great- 

 ly weakened thereby." Some advise to wet seed 

 potatos, and roll them in pulverized plaster cf Pa- 

 ris, immediately before planting. 



From an e.xperiment made by a person in the 

 employ of the Hon. Jusiih Quincy, the particulars 

 of which are given in Mass. Agr. Repos Vol. v. 

 p. 64, it appears that the product of certain rows, 

 planted with toliole potatos, exceeded an equal 

 extent of adjoining rows more than one third. A 

 writer for the N, E. Farmer Vol. i, p. 330, gives 

 an experiment, which tends to the conclusion that 

 potatos, planted whole produce more than those 

 which are cut. The experiments of most cultiva- 

 tors, however, are in favor of cutting. Dr. Coop- 

 er in the last Philadelphia edition of Willich's 

 Domestic Encyclopedia, says, " The best mode 

 [with regard to seed potatos,] appears to be this ; 

 choose your potatos for planting of a moderate 

 si/e rather larwe than small, for there is no good 

 reason to be as.signed for breeding from diminu- 

 tive parents, cut your potatos into sets, two eyes 

 to a set ; throw away uithout hesitation into the 

 hog trough all the inferior and diminutive eyes, 

 choo.sing your sets from the middle of the potato, 

 do not cut the potato down the middle. Loudon 

 observes " In preparing the sets of potatos some 

 cultivators recommend large sets, other smj!! po- 

 tatos entire. Others, on the ground of experi- 

 ence are equally strenuous in support of small 

 cuttings, sprouts, shoots, or even only the eyes or 

 buds. With all these different sorts of sets, good 

 crops are stated to have been raised, though tol- 

 erable sized cuttings of pretty large potatos, with 

 two or three good eyes or buds in each, are pro- 

 bably to be preferred. A very slight exercise of 

 common sense might have saved the advocates of 

 shoots, scooped out eyes, &c. their experiments, 

 and arguments; it being evident, as Brown has 

 observed, to every one that has any practical 

 knowledge of the nature of vegetables that the 

 strength of the stem in the outset, depends in di- 

 rect proportion upon the viyor and power of the 

 set. The set, therefore, ouaht to be large, rarely 

 smaller than the fourth part of the potato ; and if 

 the root is of small size, one half of the potato 

 may be profitably used. At all events, rather err 

 in giving over large sets, than in making them too 

 small ; because, by the first error, no great loss 

 can be sustained ; whereas, by the other, a feeble 

 and late crop may be the consequence." Dean 

 says, "the shooting parts exist in a potato, in the 

 form of a tree, of which the stork is at the butt or 

 root end. I therefore take care to cut athvvart 

 those parts as little as possible : though they will 

 grow any way, the greater length of shooting 

 stem there is in a set, the more strong and vigor- 

 ous will be its growth at first." 



QuantHy of sets. Aberorouibie directs, "for a 

 plot of the earl;/ and serondary crops, eight feet 

 wide by sixteen in lengtli, planted in rows, fifteen 

 inches asunder by nine inches in the row, a quar- 

 ter of a peck of roots or cuttings. For full timed 

 and main crops, a compartment, twelve feet wide 

 by thirty-two in lengh, planted in rows, two feet 

 distant, half a peck. For field cultivation, Eng- 

 lish writers say tl-.at it requires twenty bushels and 

 a half to plant an acre with cut potatos ; and thirty 

 seven bushels and a quarter of whole potatos. 

 (To be continued.) 



