98 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
is not already in the soil. So, too, may 
charcoal, which is an excellent preventive of 
disease. Wood ashes are an excellent and 
always safe manure, and plaster is seldom 
without a beneficial effect. The phosphoric 
acid yielded by bones and superphosphate of 
lime, is thought to be needed and if not al¬ 
ready applied in some of the foregoing ma¬ 
nures, may be amply provided for from 
these fertilizers. Salt has a tendency to 
keep the land moist, and to the extent of 
three or four bushes per acre, is seldom 
without a beneficial effect. Swamp muck, 
decayed leaves and chip manure are all ex¬ 
cellent manures for potatoes. Very large 
products have been secured by applying com¬ 
post manure upon the potatoes after the first 
hoeing and before blooming. When abund¬ 
ant rains are certain after this application 
and before the ripening of the tubers, this is 
doubtless an excellent practice ; and by act¬ 
ing as a mulch and keeping the surface moist, 
a beneficial effect may follow, even without 
rains to wash the soluble fertilizers to the 
roots; for it must be remembered, that al¬ 
though a well drained soil is essential to pro¬ 
ducing healthy potatoes, yet it must be such 
as will preserve a proper moisture through¬ 
out the season, to mature potatoes to a sat¬ 
isfactory extent, and of desirable character 
and flavor. 
Preparation of ilie Ground. —Deep and 
thorough tillage is essential to the success 
of potatoes. If a sod be turned over deeply, 
it is better to let the bottom of the turf re¬ 
main undisturbed, but harrow the surface of 
the upturned earth to a fine tilth. The grad¬ 
ual decomposition of the turf will yield nu¬ 
triment to the plant during the whole sea¬ 
son. There is little choice in planting 
whether hills or drills be selected. If in 
hills, thy should be about three feet apart 
each way, and if in drills, about four feet. 
These distances may be varied according to 
the growth of the vines, some being much 
more luxuriant and consequently requiring 
larger space than others. 
Planting. —If in drills, plant about ten inch¬ 
es apart, and if in hills, place two potatoes a 
few inches apart in each hill. Medium size 
potatoes are to be prefern d. A smooth, fine 
tuber, just such a one as yon would select 
to eat, is precisely the one you should use 
for planting. Cutting the potato is objec¬ 
tionable in a dry season, or when rot pre¬ 
vails, however successful some may occa¬ 
sionally be who deviate from this practice. 
Place the seed a few inches below the sur¬ 
face, and cover lightly with the plow or hoe. 
Cultivating. —When the plants first appear, 
run a plow by the side of the rows and flirt 
the dirt up to them, and if it entirely covers 
them it? is of no consequence. This may 
soon after be done a second time with ad¬ 
vantage, and should be accomplished before 
blooming if possible. Early stirring the 
ground hastens the growth of the potatoes, 
and checks the weeds, and if planted suffi¬ 
ciently near, the vines will soon overspread 
the surface and effectually keep the weeds 
in check. Flat cultivation is always to be 
preferred, unless the ground is stiff clay or 
inclined to wet 
Digging and Storing. —For potatoes de¬ 
signed for the table, it is better to allow 
them to remain in the ground till the ap¬ 
proach of the autumnal rains, unless they 
are of the early kinds, or rot prevails. In 
the first case early digging is required to 
prevent a second growth ; and in the latter^ 
rot frequently, though not always, proceeds 
iftlius left, when in many instances it might 
be arrested by proper management. We 
know of no more appropriate machine for 
digging potatoes than some of the plows that 
have been constructed with a reference to 
this purpose. The potatoes should not be long 
exposed to the sun, but thrown into heaps 
to be lightly covered by the vines, and when 
the surface moisture is off, carry to a cool, 
dry place. If there is danger from rot, 
spread the potatoes and sprinkle them with 
lime or dry wood ashes. On the approach 
of winter, when further apprehension from 
rot is removed, the potatoes may be stored 
in dry bins containing 40 bushels each, and 
covered with straw or dry turf to exclude 
air, light and variations of temperature, which 
last should be always cool and the atmo¬ 
sphere dry. 
For Seed Potatoes, the management must 
be quite different. They should not be al¬ 
lowed to become fully ripened, and when 
dug, they may remain in the sun for three or 
four days, till they have assumed a greenish 
color, then pack away for winter as above. 
Success has in some instances followed, 
when the seed has been left in the ground 
where grown throughout the winter. 
Storing in the Fields is a good way for 
keeping winter potatoes. Select a porous, 
sandy or gravelly bottom, if possible, from 
which the surface water runs ; then exca¬ 
vate to a moderate depth, place the potatoes 
on the ground, straw, or boards, as you pre¬ 
fer, and make oblong or conical heaps, ac¬ 
cording to your taste, the nature of the 
ground and the quantity to be stored. They 
require but slight covering till the approach 
of frost, when they should be thatched with 
straw, then cover deeply enough with earth 
to exclude frost. Small appertures at the 
top are required to let off the gas generated 
by the heap. These must be protected 
against frost by loose wisps of straw.- 
Varieties of Potatoes. —These have now 
become almost innumerable. The resort to 
planting the balls or seeds for the production 
of new kinds, induced by the recent rot, has 
originated many new varieties of considera¬ 
ble value. We forbear any enumeration, as 
we should omit some of the most valuable 
for certain localities. The best for any par- 
ticular section may be easily known, if in an 
intelligent farming community, and if not, 
choice kinds may be procured from the large 
markets on the seaboard, where the bestseek 
a market. Such should be used as combine 
in the highest degree the requisites of good 
quality, good keepers, prolific and hardy. 
In addition to some extracts in our last 
paper from the Mark-Lane Express, we sub¬ 
join one or two further instances of great 
success, following the application of mineral 
manures. One correspondent says : 
“ This year I planted about five acres of 
potatoes. The soil was dry, and the land in 
good condition, and has been in pasture for 
several years. I manured with salt and 
lime, in the proportion of about one bushel 
of the former to two of the latter, and at the 
rate of perhaps twenty bushels to the acre. 
In preparing this mineral manure, I dissolved 
a portion of the salt in water and slacked the 
lime with it, and then mixed up the powder, 
and dried it with soot and coal ashes (well 
screened). The sets were dried by expo¬ 
sure in a warm place for some time before 
planting. I had an excellent crop—the po¬ 
tatoes were fine and mealy, and much supe¬ 
rior to my neighbors’. I should inform you 
that I applied the compost to the land some 
little time before I planted the potatoes.” 
Another correspondent, after trying sev¬ 
eral experiments, gives much fuller details, 
as follows : 
“ I divided the land into a dozen different 
plots of nearly equal size. The first of 
these, which I will call No. 1, I manured 
with salt and lime only—two bushels of the 
latter to one of the former, about twenty 
bushels to the acre. No. 2 plot 1 top-dressed 
with salt and lime, mixed with soot. No. 3 
1 manured with farm-yard manure, first giv¬ 
ing it a top-dressing of salt and lime. No. 
4 was prepared with a compost of 30 parts 
ashes, 15 bone dust, 10 gypsum, 20 common 
salt, 30 air-slacked lime, and 7 nitrate of 
soda. No. 5 w'as prepared in the same way, 
but was also treated with dung. Jn all 
these, the tubers were first dried by expos¬ 
ing them on the boards in a warm room for 
some time before planting. Nos. 6,7, 8, 9, 
10, and 11 plots were manured in exactly the 
same manner, but the tubers were prepared 
by first immersing them for a longer or 
shorter period of time, in sulphate of copper 
of various strengths, and then planting them 
as before. Jn plot No. 12, the potatoes were 
treated in the ordinary mode, that is to say, 
were manured with farmyard manure only. 
My results may be thus briefly stated : In 
No. 12 the potatoes were diseased both tuber 
and haulm, and did not keep w'ell or turn 
out well in cooking. Those, on the contra¬ 
ry, that were manured with the mineral 
compost, and with the compost and yard- 
manuie, were excellent (Nos. 2, 3, and 5, I 
think, were the best) : a few were diseased, 
but I never tasted better or more mealy po¬ 
tatoes. In the case of the otlu r plots—I 
mean those in which the roots were first 
steeped—I think the best crop was obtained 
from the one in which the tubers were 
steeped for only about an hour in a solution 
of about one ounce to the gallon of water. 
In the others, the plants, 1 thought, were 
not so strong and healthy. Whether this 
was owing to the dry weather we had sever¬ 
al weeks about the time of planting, 1 can 
not say ; but I think you will find a weak 
solution of about this strength will give the 
best results. Neither do I think it necessa¬ 
ry or advantageous to keep them in the cop¬ 
per solution longer than half an hour, or an 
hour. In fact, merely dipping them into it 
will, I think, answer quite as well, and save 
time.” 
New-Jersey State Agricultural Society. 
—A meeting of the Executive Committee 
was held at New-Brunswiek, on the 6th inst., 
and Camden fixed upon as the sight for the 
fair; the schedule adopted will contain pre¬ 
miums amounting to $5,000. Arrangements 
for transmitting produce, stock, &c., will be 
made with the railroad companies by a spe¬ 
cial committee. The Executive Commute 
will hold another meeting on the 8th of May, 
at the Park House, Newark city. 
