Round, scabby, irregular and oval potatoes. The first is of ideal shape for convenient and economical handling, though the fourth is preferred in some markets. 

 Irregular potatoes are wasteful. Scabby potatoes are unsightly when baKed. You cannot raise quality potatoes without spraying with Paris green and Bordeaux mixture 



Quality Potatoes for the Home Table— By Effie m. Barron ?s 



THE BEST VARIETIES, METHODS OF CULTIVATION AND WAYS OF COOKING— THE 

 FIRST OF A SERIES OF ARTICLES ON "QUALITY VEGETABLES FOR THE HOME TABLE" 



Note. — As Mrs. Fullerton's " How to Make a Vegetable Garden " marked a new era in horticultural literature by combining kitchen recipes with 

 garden practice and by confining the subject to the home garden, so Mrs. Barron's series of articles marks a step in advance by focussing the attention upon 

 quality and how to get it. 



At last we have some articles containing a good deal about cooking which can be read by " men folks " with wakefulness and perhaps interest. For, 

 here we have no string of recipes, but reasons why one way is better than another; no tyrannical judgments on matters of taste, but a sincere effort to show the 

 latest results of science in three departments hitherto absurdly divorced — cultivation, varieties, cooking. 



Mrs. Barron was formerly cookery teacher under the London School Board. In culturalj matters she will be assisted by her husband, Mr. Leonard 

 Barron, who spent his youth in the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society at Chiswick, England, and is experienced in judging vegetables at American 

 exhibitions. Both Mr. and Mrs. Barron have for years tried the novelties by standards which mean more to us than the mere cultural tests of the experiment 

 stations, for they have raised, cooked and eaten them. Anyone who has known varieties or methods better than those here recommended is invited to send 

 proofs to the Editor of The Garden Magazine who will provide some fair way of testing and'reporting on them. 



THERE are two radically different kinds 

 of perfection in potatoes. The ideal 

 potato for baking becomes light, dry and 

 mealy; it has a floury texture. The ideal 

 potato for salads makes thin, firm slices; it 

 has a waxy texture. European varieties are 

 mostly of the latter 

 type, Americans of the 

 former. A wet, soggy 

 potato is our abomina- 

 tion; the same quality 

 is in potato salads a 

 virtue. You can make 

 a mealy variety soggy 

 by growing it on wet, 

 heavy clay; the best 

 flavored potatoes are 

 grown on light sandy 

 loam. 



While the potato is the commonest of all 

 vegetables, it is doubtless prepared with more 

 waste and less skill than any other. It is too 

 easy to raise and too easy to cook in a pass- 

 able manner. The chief vices of potato cul- 

 ture are growing them on heavy soil which 

 makes big crops and large tubers but poor 

 quality. In wet soils potatoes are imperfectly 

 ripened and therefore of poorer flavor and 



keeping quality; also they are more liable to 

 rot and scab. A scabby baked potato is not 

 a pleasant sight on the table. Heavy soils 

 tend to develop the hollow heart and black 

 spot in the centre. 



If the cultivation of potatoes on wet heavy 

 s oils is the commonest fault of the farmer, 



Dark part gluten; 

 light part starch. Save 

 the best part of the 

 tuber by thin peeling 



The right and wrong way of testing a boiled potato. 

 SKewer punctures; fork breaks 



the besetting sin of the home gardener is that 

 he does not spray his potato vines with a 

 combination of Paris green and Bordeaux 

 mixture to destroy the beetles, scab and rot. 

 Even if you have enough potatoes and do not 

 mind small ones, the chances are that thev 



will be imperfectly ripened. You cannot 

 grow high-quality potatoes unless you spray. 



THOSE WITH MOST GLUTEN ARE BEST 



Most people, I suppose, take it for granted 

 that the best potatoes are the ones that con- 

 tain the most starch. On the contrary, it is 

 the ones that contain the most gluten, be- 

 cause gluten is an albuminous food, and 

 starch is much cheaper than albumen. 



Now cut a potato open and look at the 

 small illustration and we shall learn some- 

 thing worth knowing about this gluten. 



First comes the skin of the potato. In a 

 new potato it is thin and clear; while a corky 

 skin indicates a mature potato, and one 

 more likely to be mealy. 



Second is a thin layer varying from one- 

 eighth of an inch to one-half an inch in 

 thickness. This is the gluten. 



Third comes the largest part of the potato — 

 the starch. If this is very dense the potato 

 will be mealy, but if non-uniform the potato 

 will be of poor quality. 



Fourth is the very centre of the tuber 

 which contains little starch and a great deal 

 of water. If this area branches out into the 

 starch the potato will not be a good cooker. 



Damaged and discolored potatoes are unsightly " Ricing " potatoes — one ot the easiest and most 



when ccoked whole, and wasteful, as so much has attractive of the "fancy" ways of serving. A good 

 lo be cut away. They are best used for mashing way to use spoiled potatoes 



143 



Round vs. irregular potatoes for baking. The ends 

 of oblong potatoes often soggy when the middle is 

 done 



