THE CULTIVATOR. 
11 
Root Culture. 
I.-THE POTATO. 
Every farmer cultivates the potato, but few farm¬ 
ers cultivate it as profitably as they might. The 
average crop does not probably exceed one hund¬ 
red bushels an acre. It may be made to exceed 
three hundred bushels the acre, and without increas¬ 
ing, materially, the expense of culture. It is a re¬ 
proach to us, that this root is brought three thou¬ 
sand miles—from England, Ireland and Germany, 
to supply the wants of our city population. Let us 
try to do better. It is in the hope that we may con¬ 
tribute to increase our average product, so as to 
supply the demands of our market, that we give the 
following directions for its culture. 
Soil and preparation. —A mistaken notion pre¬ 
vails with many, that the best potatoes are grown 
on a warm sandy soil. The reverse of this is true. 
The best potatoes, as to quality, are believed to be 
grown in the west of England, Ireland, Nova Sco¬ 
tia, Maine, and other high latitudes, and particular¬ 
ly in humid climates. In a dry season, the quality 
and quantity are inferior with us, to what they are 
in a moist and cool one. The potato zone does not 
extend south of New-York—that is, its quality dete¬ 
riorates south of that latitude ; and it probably has 
the most congenial climate between 42° and 45°. 
If these assumptions are well founded, then it should 
be our aim to plant upon a cool and moist, though 
not wet soil, which approximates nearest to the tem¬ 
perature of the best potato-growing districts else¬ 
where. The potato will grow any where, if there 
is vegetable matter and moisture, but it will be in¬ 
ferior upon dry sands and stiff or wet clays. It does 
best in loams, or reclaimed swamps ; and it pays 
well for a good dressing of long- manure, and should, 
it practicable, be planted on the first furrow of a 
grass ley. If the sod is old and tough, plough deep 
m September, having first spread the manure, if to 
be had at the time ; but if the ley is one of clover, 
of one or two years old, the ploughing may be post¬ 
poned till spring. If ploughed in September, with¬ 
out manure, this may be spread upon the ground 
just before planting, and buried with a light furrow 
so as not to turn up the vegetable matter of the sod. 
In our practice of always sowing clover with small 
grains, we seldom fail of having a tolerable grass 
ley for the corn and potatoes which are to follow ; 
and its value to the crop doubly compensates for 
the cost of the clover seed. The potato has a sys¬ 
tem of roots which strike deep, if the soil will per¬ 
mit, to collect food for the plant. A decomposing 
sod, with the manure which should accompany it, 
turned with a deep furrow, affords the best aliment 
for the plant, and is deposited where the roots natu¬ 
rally seek it, and where it remains cool and moist. 
The stolens have a different office to perform. They 
require more air and heat, shoot horizontally, and 
if buried deep in culture by the plough will protrude 
a new set near the surface. So that a rich deep soil, 
having a good sod and a mellow surface, is best 
adapted to this plant. Harrow thoroughly before 
planting. 
Manures .—The value of manures to the potato 
crop was illustrated in the preliminary remarks in 
our last number; and indeed a large crop is seldom 
obtained without this auxiliary. Long or unfer¬ 
mented manure is preferable to that which is rotten. 
And remember, this manure does not become more 
impaired in value for the crop which is to follow the 
potatoes, than if it were summer-yarded. We pre¬ 
fer applying it broad-cast, with an unsparing hand, 
previous to the last ploughing; and we approve of 
Mr. French’s practice, of sowing plaster upon the 
manure, instead of afterwards applying it to the 
growing plants. 
Seed .—A thousand and one experiments have been 
made, and with various results, to determine the re¬ 
lative value of large, medium or small seed—of cut 
or whole tubers. We think the majority of these 
experiments is in favor of medium, or a little more 
than medium sized roots, for seed, cut into sets of 
two or three eyes. On the principle that like pro¬ 
duces like, such a seed will produce a crop of the 
most desirable size for the table. Each eye forms 
a distinct plant, like a kernel of corn, and the size 
of the tuber, andj not of the set which is taken from 
it, will give character to the product. If the varie¬ 
ty has a dwarf habit of growth, more sets may be 
put in a hill, or they may be planted nearer in the 
drill, than where the growth is tall, or where the 
tops send out many lateral shoots. Rich ground 
will also sustain a greater number of plants than 
poor ground. The Rohan, and we are told also the 
forty-fold, require thin planting. The object should 
be to give the.plants a good pasture, and not to have 
the tops so thick as to exclude the solar rays from 
the soil. 
To produce early potatoes, or to bring a crop to 
early maturity, it is advised to gather the seed be- 
foi'e it has attained maturity, to expose it some 
days to the influence of the sun, and to select the 
top ends for the earlier crop. We have a strong 
illustration of the correctness of these conclusions, 
in Loudon’s Gardeners’ Magazine. A correspon¬ 
dent of that journal made the following experiment: 
He dug every other row of a potato patch for seed 
while the vines were fresh, and exposed them in the 
sun until they had become green. In February, he 
cut them crosswise, leaving the bottom and top in 
separate sets. He cut those which had been suffer¬ 
ed to ripen in a similar manner, and planted the 
four kinds in alternate rows. They were all planter 
on stable litter, and covered with about three inches 
of earth. A part of each kind received no subse¬ 
quent earthing. We give the result in the writer’s 
own words. 
“ The early potatoes not earthed up, grew close around 
the stock or stem, like eggs in a nest, and so near the 
ground that they might be picked off with the finger, 
leaving the stock or stem uninjured, to produce more 
potatoes from the runners. From the eye sets of the 
unripe tubers, we had a supply every day for a fortnight; 
when those of the bottom sets came into use for another 
fortnight; at that time potatoes from the eye or top 
sets from the ripe seed came into use, and were succeed 
ed by potatoes from the bottom sets of the ripe seed.— 
Those kept for seed, or the table, were earthed up as 
usual, and each row produced almost as large a crop as 
any two rows not earthed up—the luxury of an early 
potato being a greater object than the quantity.” 
Choice of sorts .—There is a difference of nearly 
one-hall in the nutricious or fattening properties of 
different varieties of the potato. Those which are 
best for table are best for market, and best for farm 
stock, though their yield is generally less than that 
oi the coarser varieties. Those in the highest es¬ 
teem are the Pink-eyes, Mercers, Sault St. Marie, 
St Helena; and almost every district has its other 
favorites. The Rohan, we think, will ultimately 
obtain the ascendancy, on account of economy in 
seed, its yield, and its intrinsic merits. 
, Mode of planting. —Three modes are practised ; in 
hills and in drills, as a distinctive crop, and in alter¬ 
nate double or threble rows with Indian corn. The 
propriety of planting in hills or drills depends upon the 
condition of the soil; if it has been thoroughly sub¬ 
dued by the plough, drills are to be preferred, as 
they are cultivated with the least expense and gene¬ 
rally give the largest product, though they in gene¬ 
ral demand the most labor in gathering the crop. 
The practice of raising potatoes with corn, by al¬ 
ternating two or three rows of each, has been emi¬ 
nently successful, where it has been conducted with 
spirit: the product of the mixed crop has been 
greater than where each has had a separate depart¬ 
ment of the field. We omit to notice the Irish 
mode of planting in beds, as involving an economy 
in land which we do not require, and an expendi¬ 
ture of labor which we cannot afford. The seed 
should not be buried more than three or four inches 
—and the covering should be least in wet ground. 
Culture. —The culture of the potato, to be profit¬ 
able, should be almost wholly performed with the 
plough, cultivator and harrow—little other labor 
being required with the hand hoe, than may be bare¬ 
ly sufficient to destroy the weeds which these im¬ 
plements do not reach. In the first place, the seed 
may be covered with the plough, whether in hills 
or in drills. In the next place, the harrow should 
be used, before the plants are above ground, to re¬ 
duce the ridges made by the plough in planting, to 
pulverize the surface, and to destroy the young 
weeds. In the third place, the cultivator, or the 
plough, turning a superficial furrow from the plants, 
may be introduced, when they are not more than 
six inches above the surface. In the fourth place, 
the plough may be used to turn a light furrow to 
the plants so as to give their stems an earthing of 
three or four inches; but the plough should run 
twice nearly in the same track, that the ridges 
upon which the crop grows may be rather flat and 
broad than pointed—rather concave than convex— 
calculated rather to retain, than to throw off water. 
Here the hand hoe may be of use in gathering around 
the stems a portion of the earth raised by the plough, 
in destroying weeds among the plants, and in per¬ 
fecting the earthing or hilling process ; for the crop 
should receive no further earthing after the plants 
are in blossom, when the stolens have shot forth, 
and the tubers began to form. Earthing after this 
time causes a new set of stolens near the surface, 
and a growth of a new set of tubers, which in a mea¬ 
sure rob the original ones of their food. We have 
seen, by the experiments quoted, in raising early 
potatoes, that the natural place for throwing out 
stolens, or roots which produce the tubers, is the 
point of the stem which first comes to the light and 
atmosphere ; that if this point is covered in due 
time with two or three inches of mould, stolens are 
protruded into it, which produce the potato; but 
that if this earth is wanting, the stolens cannot pro¬ 
trude, but that the potatoes grow at the surface, 
around the stem. After the earthing process de¬ 
scribed, no further care is required, than to destroy 
weeds, which may be done with the hoe, or, if long 
omitted, by the hand. 
In harvesting the crop, although we have made 
much progress in improvement, much remains to 
be done. The hoe, the dung-fork, the spade, the 
potato hook, and the plough, followed by the harrow, 
have each their several advocates. From our ex¬ 
perience, we should choose the last first, and the 
first last, where the crop is in drills ; and we should 
prefer the hook where it is in hills. With the potato 
hook, when the crop has been in hills, we have thrown 
out 14 bushels of pink-eyes in an hour, and 27 bushels 
of the Rohan, though in neither case, did we gather 
the potatoes—but in both cases, the digging pro¬ 
cess was thoroughly done. Lawson & Son’s potato 
lifter, figured and described in the August number 
of our last volume, very much on the model of one 
before introduced by Capt. Joab Center, seems to 
be calculated to abridge the harvest labor of this 
crop. But of this we hope to be able to speak more 
understanding^ another year. 
Sorting the crop. —This is an economical process, 
though little attended to, and may be more profita¬ 
bly done before the crop is housed, or pitted, than 
afterwards. There is a portion of the crop, often a 
fourth or a third, which is small, and unfit for the 
table, for market, or for seed, but which is as good 
as the large size lor farm stock, and which can be 
economically used lor this purpose, in fattening hogs 
and beef cattle, in autumn and winter. If they are 
separated at the harvest, they are always in readi¬ 
ness ; if not, the sorting is tedious, or is neglected, 
and the small potatoes are the last that remain, ei¬ 
ther for the table or for seed. With us the work is 
a trifling affair. We have a wire sieve, or riddle, 
the meshes of which are of a size to admit those of 
a given size, appropriated to swine or cattle, to pass 
through. As the crop is brought home, a peck is 
thrown into this riddle, and by shaking it half a mi¬ 
nute, the sorting is completed. 
Wintering the crop. —The best mode of preserv¬ 
ing potatoes in perfection through the winter, is 
to bury them in shallow pits, in a dry and porous 
soil—a side hill is the best—where they will be free 
from water, and to cover them first with straw, and 
then with earth, and if convenient, coarse manure 
over the earth, so that they shall be secure from 
frost. When put in pit or cellar, they should be dry, 
that is, free from external moisture. Potatoes put 
into the cellar should be kept as cool as possible 
without freezing, and air should be excluded by a 
light covering ot mould or sand. A dry warm at¬ 
mosphere will speedily impair their good properties. 
In using potatoes, they are improved by boiling, 
especially for pigs. The potato belongs to a family 
of poisonous plants, the solanum , the boiling or 
steaming of which is believed to expel the deleteri¬ 
ous, and to improve its nutricious properties. To 
neat cattle and horses they may be fed raw with 
manifest advantage. In cooking them for the table, 
it is preferable to do itbysteam. The mode ofdoinfi 
it is simple. Get a piece of sheet iron of the size of the 
filge of your pot or kettle, perforate it with half 
inch holes, then clip off two parallel sides so as to 
admit it into the mouth of the vessel; put it in ; put 
some water under, and some potatoes over, this per¬ 
forated iron; and when the water boils, the pota¬ 
toes will be steamed and prepared for the table: or, 
if to be boiled, put them in the vessel while the wa¬ 
ter is cold, that they may heat through as the tem¬ 
perature of the liquid increases—that the inside may 
;ook as well as the outside—and when they are near 
being done, turn off the water, remove the cover, 
and leave them to dry over a moderate heat. 
We will close this article, already longer than we 
intended it should be, by giving the culture, expense, 
product and estimated profit, of two crops raised by 
ourselves, in different years, upon the Albany bar¬ 
rens, the soil a sand loam. 
Culture .—The field was in clover. We applied 
twenty-five loads of long manure, in May, to an acre, 
and dropped it at suitable distances for spreading; 
marked out two lands of equal breadth, twenty feet; 
and having the seed prepared, proceeded to plant¬ 
ing, which occupied three men, a boy and team 
three half days. One man took charge of the team ; 
a second raked the manure into the furrow, and trod 
it down as he went on; and a third spread the ma¬ 
nure, and with the boy dropped the seed. The rake 
followed the first furrow, and the manure from two 
and a half feet surface was drawn into it, and the 
sets, or seed, dropped at eight inches distance on 
the manure. The plough followed and turned three 
fut rows, or made three bouts. In the mean time the 
manure and seed were deposited in the first furrow 
ol the second land, to which the plough followed, 
and in this way they alternated till the planting was 
completed. The ground was then rolled, harrowed 
as the plants began to break the surface, and subse- 
