CULTURE OF POTATO. 



271 



manure to this plant is the superior quality of the tubers 

 produced. Liebig first remarked that ammoniacal manures 

 injure the quality of the potato, though they increase the 

 size and quantity. If manured with strong animal manure 

 the tubers are moist and waxy, while if grown upon a soil 

 manured with ashes, lime, and an abundant supply of car- 

 bonaceous manures, such as decaying vegetable matter, 

 the produce is far more starchy and nutritive. This is 

 reasonable, for starch and the woody fibre of decompos- 

 ing vegetable matter are very similar in chemical composi- 

 tion. Apply strong dung, if you like waxy potatoes. I 

 believe some really prefer them. Indeed an excellent old 

 lady with whom I boarded was one. We had been using 

 for some weeks from her garden some of the most waxy 

 and indifferent potatoes I ever tasted, the product of a soil 

 altogether too rich in ammoniacal matter for this plant. 

 One day at the dinner table, a dish of dry white farina- 

 ceous tubers made their appearance, whose jackets bursting 

 with mealiness would have made an Irishman's eyes 

 water. It was a change, and Ave were quietly enjoying it, 

 when our good hostess broke the silence with the remark : 

 " These potatoes are not so good to-day as we have been 

 having from our own garden ; somehow they don't seem to 

 be as juicy /" — the last characteristic to be thought of in 

 a good potato. 



Peabody's mode of raising Irish potatoes in this climate, 

 cannot be improved. " As soon after Christmas as possi- 

 ble, plow or spade up the piece of ground designed for 

 the potato patch, and lay it off in furrows two feet wide, 

 and eight or ten inches deep ; now fill the furrow with 

 decomposed straw or leaves (wheat or pine straw will an- 

 swer J, cut the potatoes once in two, and place them six 

 inches apart cut side downwards upon the straw ; now 



