1862, 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER, 



251 



For the New England Fanner. 

 POTATO BEMIWISCENCES. 



Messrs. Editors : — Notwithstanding the pre- 

 judice of Cobbet, potatoes, if not a luxuiy, are con- 

 sidered by most people as an indispensable article 

 of food, I believe, by general consent, they are 

 considered tlie king of roots, and that it could 

 have no substitute to make its place good upon 

 the table. Since my remembrance, a great many 

 varieties have succeeded each other, losing their 

 popularity as better varieties made their appear- 

 ance. Like men, and manj' other things, they 

 have their day, and are forgotten. In the latter 

 part of the last centurj', very few potatoes, com- 

 paratively, were used ; aged people at that time 

 preferred turnips to potatoes. A visitor at ray 

 father's was asked, at dinner, if he would be helped 

 .to a potato? He said, "No, I thank you, we have 

 enough of them at home." One of the first varie- 

 ties, I recollect, made a stroncf impression upon 

 my mind, as well as m}' stomach ; by some means 

 or other, it was introduced extensively in this 

 State, and it was cultivated in the State of Maine 

 in large crops as late as 1808. This variety was 

 called the Spanish potato, and what quality it had 

 to commend it, unless its prolific propensity, is 

 beyond my feeble comprehension. I got humbuged 

 by planting potatoes of that variety. They were 

 so strong that they were unfit for the table, and I 

 believe animals ate them out of a sense of duty, 

 rather than love. The man that fed my cattle with 

 them, said that they produced a drooling and dis- 

 charge of tears from their eyes, if I am correct. 



Improved varieties soon followed. The English 

 White — an excellent potato, but soon run out — 

 had its day like a politician, and was gone. Then 

 the purple varieties, the Orange potato. Long 

 John, or Long Red, and numerous other varieties 

 followed in succession, and among the rest a pota- 

 to of formidable dimensions, called the "Negro po- 

 tato," was introduced. The Rohans, Jenny Linds 

 and "Contrabands" would rank well together, as 

 a coarse, unpalatable vegetable production, unfit 

 for human food, where better varieties can be ob- 

 tained. The Chenango came into notice here 

 more than thiity years ago, an excellent variety ; 

 it had its day, like all sublunary things ; old age 

 and the rot has nearly exterminated it from this 

 neighborhood, and so of the Long Red. The Ri- 

 ley potato was a fine-flavored, mealy potato ; but 

 two or three objections were sufficient to hurt its 

 character, viz., its sunken eyes, smallness of size, 

 running like beads upon its roots, and its liability 

 to rot. The Danvers Red, a fine looking potato, 

 but, like other potatoes that are yellow inside, are 

 hard and heavy when boiled. 



I have been experimenting upon the different 

 varieties of potatoes for the last few years, plant- 

 ing only those least liable to rot. 1 repeatedly 

 lost my crops while trusting to the Chenangoes, 

 Long Reds and several other kinds, by almost a 

 total rot. The last few years I have planted the 

 Davis seedlings, the Cracker or Jackson, and a 

 kind resembling the old Kidney potato, I believe 

 by some called the St. Helena. The Davis seed- 

 lings have grown a good size, very fair, handsome 

 potatoes ; a few of them have rotted. The Crack- 

 ers are early to ripen, and of the finest grain, and 

 best mealy potatoes I have seen. They require 

 rich land, to get large ones. Their fault is sunk- 



en eyes and an unequal surface. I have planted 

 the Kidneys six or seven years past. They grow 

 upon almost any kind of soil to a good size, are 

 fair, and easy to peel ; they are excellent potatoes, 

 although not so mealy as the Crackers. For the 

 number of years I have raised them, I have not 

 lost a half-bushel by the rot in that variety ; they 

 held out sound when Chenangoes and Long Reds 

 nearly all rotted in the same field. I have told 

 some of my experiences at potato raising. I can 

 well remember the progress of potato agriculture 

 for the last seventy years ; they were much more 

 easily raised then, than of later years. We do not 

 get more than one-half or a third so many to the 

 acre, as we did from fifty to seventy years ago. I 

 think, by a careful selection, the quality may have 

 been improved, but they have fallen off in quanti- 

 ty more than they have gained in quality since 

 that time. Potatoes are the most important of 

 our root crops, they rank number one as a vege- 

 table for culinary purposes ; they are cultivated at 

 less expense than many other roots, and they are 

 among the best roots for cattle and swine, when 

 they can be afforded. Silas Brown. 



North Wilmington, March, 1862. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 ANCIENT AND MODERN LUXUBIES. 



Mr. Editor : — We often descant upon the 

 progress Ave are making in agriculture during the 

 present century. We are apt to imagine that, m 

 olden times, men had but few luxuries. Especial- 

 ly is this true when we listen to the story of the 

 pioneers of our own country. But it so happens 

 that a certain man lived well nigh three thousand 

 years ago by the name of Homer. He was a per- 

 son on whom as much wise nonsense and as much 

 real learning have been displayed, and yet of whom 

 as little is really known as of any other man. This 

 much, however, we can say of him : that he had a 

 way of his own in descrfting matters in his day. 



Now this man gives us a description of the pal- 

 ace and gai'den of Alcinous, King of the Phaea- 

 cians, which equals any in modern times. Per- 

 haps your Hon. M. P. Wilder may show a gi'eater 

 variety of pears. Aside from this, we must give 

 the palm to Alcinous, unless the contrary can be 

 shown. 



After describing his palace made of brazen 

 walls, his doors of gold, the posts as well as the 

 beam over the door of silver, with images of gold 

 and silver, dogs wrought by Vulcan as guards to 

 his threshold, and so made as to be imperishable, 

 he then gives us an insight of its interior, with its 

 couches around the walls supplied with well 

 wrought coverings, the handiwork of women. On 

 these reclined the nobles, M'ho enjoyed a perpetual 

 feast in its halls. Golden candlesticks wrought in 

 the form of fair youths, stood above the altars to 

 give light to the guests. Fifty female servants are 

 employed ; 'some to grind the apple-red colored 

 Avheat, and others to spin and weave a cloth so 

 close that oil running down Avill not peneti'ate it. 

 The poet even boasts that as the Pha^acians excel 

 other nations in guiding the ship over the stormy 

 sea, so do their women excel all others in weaving. 

 Next comes the description of his garden. 



Outside the hall, and near the gates, is a large 

 garden of four acres. Around it on all sides is a 



