478 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



For a cistern six feet in diameter a board 

 ten inches wide is sufficient for the longest arch 

 boards. After these arch boards are placed 

 on, we take barrel staves and nail on to them, 

 — making a roof, — leaving a man-hole. We 

 now make a frame to go around the man-hole 

 of boards about four inches wide. Place paper 

 on the roof to make it tight, so the cement 

 mortar will not get through the cracks. If it 

 is to be covered with cement we make a mor- 

 tar of gravel and cement, equal parts, and 

 cover it over an inch thick ; then mix up mor- 

 tar or grout, putting in at first twice, then 

 three, and at last four times the quantity of 

 gravel and coarse stonej and place it on with 

 a common shovel till we get the arch about 

 4 inches thick at the man-hole or top, and 

 7 or 8 at the walls of the cistern. Let this 

 remain a day or so, and then the bottom can 

 be made. 



If a brick arch is to be made, begin at the 

 walls of the cistern, and place the brick on in 

 cement mortar as common arches are made. 

 The brick should be wet before being laid 

 with cement, and cement mortar should be 

 used within fifteen or twenty minutes after it 

 is wet up, consequently the mortar should be 

 be made in small batches. 



Care should be taken that the cement used 

 in making an arch is of good quality. There 

 is much poor and worthless cement in market, 

 which will not hold in an arch, and one made 

 of such material would be a dangerous thing. 



It requires a year or so for cement to harden 

 perfectly, and a cistern made of it does not 

 become water- proof under three or four weeks. 

 When the ground is a firm loam, a good work- 

 man will require about a barrel and a half of 

 cement to make a cistern to hold forty barrels, 

 if it is covered with stone or plank. If the 

 ground is stony or of loose gravel, more 

 cement will be required. If the top is cement- 

 ed, such a cistern will require two barrels of 

 cement. 



I know of cisterns made by my father on the 

 foregoing plan over thirty years ago, which are 

 still in perfect order. 



For the New England Farmer, 

 POTATOES. 

 Their Culture in Wortliern New England. 

 I take the liberty to add through the col- 

 umns of your valuable p?per, my mite to the 

 immense (juantity of matter that has been pub- 

 lished pro and con the potato in the various 

 agricultural journals during the last few years. 

 It is probably known to all that this indis- 

 pensable article of food is a native of South 

 America. It was introduced into the British 

 Dominions in the IGth century, but it came 

 slowly into use, and at this late day it is not 

 much cultivated and used in some of the 

 countries of Europe. Yet it has proved to be, 

 in the United States, one of the greatest bless- 

 ings bestowed on man by the Creator. 



In northern New England the soil is better 

 adapted to this esculent tuber than any other 

 part of the United States. Therefore to my 

 fellow- members of the agricultural profession 

 (for I believe the farmer's vocation to be 

 something besides a merely mechanical occu- 

 pation) I will give my modus operandi in cul- 

 vating the potato — both the early and the late 

 varieties. 



I select potatoes for early planting from 

 those that arrived at maturation or ripeness 

 first the previous year — taking those of a me- 

 dium size, about the bigness of a hen's egg, 

 and after thoroughly wetting them, place in a 

 tight box near the stove, or in some warm 

 position where a tolerably even temperature 

 is maintained. Care should be taken that 

 they are wetted every few days to keep the 

 sprouts in a moist and growing condition. 



I treated the early Goodrich and Chenan- 

 goes in the above manner, putting them to 

 sprout the last of March and planting them 

 the first day of May. The ground previous 

 to harrowing was manured a little, and a half 

 of a pint of the following mixture was put in 

 the hill ; one part phosphate (Bradley's) one 

 part gypsum, and five parts leached ashes and 

 hen manure. They were hoed twice, and the 

 last of June I dug full grown but not perfectly 

 mature potatoes. By treating the Climax or 

 Early Rose in the same way they will arrive 

 at maturity from ten to fifteen days earlier. 



Another Method 



Is to mix fine horse-manure, sawdust and 

 loam together, and place alternately layers of 

 the mixture and of the potatoes. If furnished 

 with a copious supply of water, this mode will 

 give the potatoes a more rapid growth before 

 transplanting, but it requires more labor, the 

 horse manure is ofiTensive, and the difficulty of 

 transplanting without injuring the shoots and 

 fibrous roots is very great. 



The essential requisites in either of the 

 above modes are water and heat, the former 

 being the moving medium that conveys the 

 nourishment from the surrounding body of 

 the seed to the germ or embryo, and the lat- 

 ter aids germination. Hence the first condi- 

 tion of germination in any plant is an expo- 

 sure of the seed to moisture. 



General Culture of the Potato. 

 The seed should be of medium size, unde- 

 cayed and uncut. The ground should be mel- 

 low and of good fertility ; neither too rich nor 

 moist to produce good potatoes. The quality 

 is generally injured by manifring with fertiliz- 

 ers in which animal manure predominates. 

 When such manure is composted with muck, 

 and both are well decayed, the effects are 

 good. A good and cheap fertilizer is made 

 by slaking one cask of lime with water, and 

 then stirring in one bushel of fine salt ; if this 

 mixture is moist or mortar-like add loam 

 enough to make dry. Put one half pint in the 

 bill at planting. 



