OCT.18 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
, i 
about one-half acre, to which none was applied 
last year, the tops remained green until the 
potatoes ripened naturally, while there was 
not a piece in the neighborhood, on which the 
poison was used, the tops of which did not die 
down when the tubers were about half-grown. 
There may have been some other cause for this 
difference, but it seems to me worth a trial to 
ascertain positively whether this is the effect 
of the poison. I know the advocates of its use 
will claim that it is only the result of an over- 
every year producing new varieties. These 
being given the “‘highest” kind of culture, pro¬ 
duce well, and are thrown on the market and 
sold to the farmers in small lots at exorbitant 
prices. The farmer, wishing to get all the seed 
possible from his new potatoes, again gives 
them extra garden culture and is well satisfied 
with his purchase. He now has seed with which 
to plant his fields. The next year he plants 
them, and gives them ordinary field culture; 
but when digging time comes, iu nine cases 
will take sometime to fully test its value, I 
hope that many of my brother farmers will join 
with me in carrying out some such plan by 
which varieties of potatoes may not only be 
kept from deteriorating, but may be improved. 
Perhaps all who have dug potatoes have 
noticed occasionally a hill of Large yield of 
large, uniform-sized tubers in comparison with 
those from the surrounding hills. I would 
select a half bushel, more or less, from such 
hills to commence my seed patch. I would 
keep them at such a temperature that they 
would be sure not to sprout untii I wanted to 
plant them. I believe the first sprouts have 
far the most vitality and that all others have a 
tendency to deterioration, so I would get them 
into the ground with their first sprouts perfect, 
not more than four to the hill, and not cut too 
near to the eye. I would give them good ordi¬ 
nary culture. From this patch I would again 
select from those hills that gave the best yield 
of good-sized tubers, reserving the rest for 
general planting. 
If this were done for a series of years, I 
believe the potato might be bred up to as high 
a standard as auy of our grains or even our 
farm stock. W. e. Manchester. 
Lackawana co., Pa. 
14UX, tne following were ripe:—Early Ohio, 
Bliss’s Triumph, Early Goodrich, Extra Early 
White; on August 19th, Granite State, Car¬ 
penter’s Seedling, Acme, Bulkeley’s Seedling, 
Red Jacket, Beauty of Hebron. It is fair to 
say that Alpha is very early, but was not in¬ 
cluded in the trial above. It was raised in 
another place. It is one of the very earliest. 
Other varieties rlpeued from September 1st to 
the 15lh. The most productive were Burbank’s 
Seedling, Beauty of Hebron, Mammoth Pearl, 
Garrison s Seedling and Genesee County King. 
Michigan Agricultural College, Lansing. 
BEAUTY OF HEBRON 
out of tea, he finds that he has spent his time 
and money “for that which is naught," the old 
varieties doing generally as well, aud some¬ 
times much better thau the new. 
Now, I believe we are altogether ou the 
wrong track in Ibis matter. X believe if the 
time and money spent in producing and test¬ 
ing new varieties were expended in improving 
and perfecting the old. well-established sorts, 
we should be better off ; for I think by judic¬ 
ious selection of seed and proper cultivation, 
the old varieties may not only be kept from 
14 •'Bailing out, but may be greatly improved. 
I believe the potato is as susceptible of ini- 
uuoc proves tnus injurious, but if au over¬ 
dose has this effect, is it not proof that even a 
small quantity is injurious, to some extent? 
My mode of hand-picking is to take an old 
pan aud hold it under the vines, aud, with a 
piece of shingle, give the latter a light rap, 
brushing the beetles off into the pan; then I 
kill them by pouring ou them scalding water. 
I took some pains to make au estimate of tue 
time spent iu this treatment last year. I could 
go over the whole field in two hours, and by 
doing so twice, or, at most, three times each 
week, I was successful in preventing the enemy 
from doing any injury to the crop. If possi- 
as tne Extra-Early Vermont. It is nearly two 
weeks earlier than the Early Rose, two-thirds 
more productive, dry and mealy from the first 
digging, and now—Sept. 23—as good as any 
potato I ever tasted. If it can be kept through 
the winter and spring, so as neither to freeze 
nor sprout, it might take the place of all late 
potatoes; but it is very susceptible to warmth 
aud moisture, and should therefore be dug as 
soou as the vines die in August, to prevent 
second growth, aud also be kept from sprout¬ 
ing in the spring till time for planting. Iam 
satisfied that allowing potatoes to sprout out 
of season, is the main cause of their dete¬ 
rioration. 
For a late potato, I know nothing 
better than the White Peachblow. To 
insure good tubers, plant in good, dry 
\ soil; cultivate once a week till blossom- 
:« in g» dig as soon as the vines die; store 
SB, lu a perfectly dark place, and prevent 
i»,i,i sprouting till time to plant. I believe 
|H this programme will suit the world over. 
ISy Fop Potatoes. 
W There are few natural soils which >re 
7 just right for a potato patch, but auy soil 
may be made right, even upon the worst 
material for a foundation. The field 
should be high enough to be entirely free 
from standing water at all times, and may 
then be made perfect at little expense. 
If it is a heavy clay, it will be naturally 
cold and in suitable condition late, be¬ 
sides being cloddy and lumpy. To such a 
soil apply chips from the wood-yard, short 
straw, bottoms ot old hay or straw stacks or 
auy half-rotted, coarse manure. These have 
the effect to keep the soil open mechanically, 
to allow warmth and moisture from above to 
euter, to prevent baking in a drought and 
packing by heavy rains. If the soil is too 
sandy, work in muck, old, dense, well-rotted 
manure, light clay soil, or auy friable mater¬ 
ial at hand. Any intelligent man can make a 
soil for potatoes, by giving it the following 
essential properties, usiug any artificial 
means he may have at command:—It must be 
medium between light and heavy; rich, but 
not with green manure; warm by a uatural ex¬ 
posure to the east, northeast or south, but not 
towards the west, as it would then be too hot i 
moist by such openness and such friability o* 
thesoil as will enable it to extract its main sup¬ 
ply of moisture from the atmosphere. 
After giving the soil the additions which 
will produce this condition, it must he thor¬ 
oughly worked once a week from the time the 
plauts show through till they blossom. 
A tight, hide-bound soil, makes small pota¬ 
toes, poor seed aud short crops; au opeu, loose 
soil allows the tubers to grow and crack the 
earth around the hill, to attain full size and 
to ripen well. To keep up the quality of pota¬ 
toes. always save for seed the finest in shape, 
size, aud maturity or ripeness. Cut to two eyes, 
with as much of the body of the potato to each 
piece as possible. In planting, put two pieces 
iu each hill. 
Dodge Co., Neb. 
NOTES ON POTATO CULTURE 
K. J. BROWNELL 
Since the Colorado beetle became so trouble¬ 
some, I have attempted to grow only potatoes 
enough to make sure of a family supply, for a 
small patch thoroughly cultivated and well 
taken care of, is more profitable than a large 
piece, half-cultivated, the vines in w hich when 
about half-grown, are abandoned to the ravages 
ol the beetle, as I have seen to be the case with 
many pieces during the past two years. But, 
if a small piece can be grown with profit, so 
can a larger piece, if given the same care and 
attention, aud an observation of a number of 
years, proves conclusively to my mind that, 
taken for a series of years iu succession, there 
is no single crop that will afford, or at least 
has in this locality afforded better profits thau 
potatoes. 
In Selecting Ground for this crop 1 should 
look first to the quality of the soil, and, after 
that, to ease of cultivating it, but between two 
pieces, one of which was wet aud heavy, and 
the other dry aud favorable, except being stony 
aud somewhat harder of cultivation, I should 
give the latter the preference, as the difference 
in the quality of the product, even though the 
quantity might be the same, would be enough 
to more than compensate for the difference in 
the trouble of cultivation. Of late years I make 
it a rule to plant ou land that is iu a couditiou 
of sufficient fertility to produce a good crop 
without manuring for the current year. I be¬ 
lieve the application of barnyard manure 
directly to this crop, has a tendency to cause 
the potatoes to rot: aud, moreover, I think 
they are coarser iu quality. Perhaps this ob¬ 
jection would not apply to the use of super- 
3T. PATRICK, 
ble, I shall hereafter plant potatoes where I 
can give the hens the range of the field, and. 
by scattering corn among the vines, shall try 
to get the fowls to work there, as I am. satisfied 
that they will pick off a good many of the bee¬ 
tles; aud if there are fowls enough in propor¬ 
tion to size of field, they will keep the pests 
off entirely, for on a piece I planted last sea¬ 
son, for early use, where the hens ran a good 
deal through the season, they kept the vines 
entirely clear of bugs. 
proveuieut as auy of the grains. What farmer 
would go to his corn crib aud select his seed 
promiscuously therefrom, and if corn hap¬ 
pened to be a little higher-priced than usual, 
select the nubbius and pig corn, reserving the 
best to sell, aud not expect his corn to “ run 
out’? And yet that is the way very many 
farmers manage with their potatoes, and then 
have to keep changing their 6eed because 
their varieties *• run out.” 
There are perhaps but few of the older farm¬ 
ers who do not recollect the old Long Pinky 
potato, one of the best potatoes ever raised in 
this country, a potato of medium 6ize, with 
now and then oue quite largo. Some forty 
years ago, when I was but a boy, I recollect a 
neighbor of ours, long since passed away. 
HOW TO KEEP POTATOES FROM DETERI¬ 
ORATING. 
The potato will be acknowledged by all to 
be one of the most important crops that the 
in flanting, if the ground is sufficiently 
mellow—and ou this account 1 prefer a piece 
that has beeu cultivated the previous year, 
usually either in corn or buckwheat—after 
thoroughly dragging it, I plow a light furrow 
in which I drop the seed, aud throw another 
furrow over it. Then, when the tubers begin 
to appear above the surface, I go over it once 
with a drag lengthwise of the rows, which 
levels it down and destroys the weeds leaviug 
it clean, without injury to the crop. 
In Selecting Seel*, I pick out the medium- 
sized potatoes and cut them so as to leave 
three or four eyes to each pieee, and plaut one 
piece iu a hill, the hills bciug about eighteen 
aches apart, in rows about three and one-half 
feet apart. 
In Varieties 1 have found nothiug yet that, 
tor all purposes, suits me better than the Early 
Rose, though the Late Rose yields somewhat 
better, and is of fair cooking quality; and the 
Snowflake, though not yieldiug quite as well, 
eauuot be excelled in quulity. 
Fighting the Colorado Beetle.—N ow, I 
have the potatoes planted and the vines above 
ground, aud here comes the trying time; for 
the potato beetle has been watching for their 
appearance, and is in readiness for operation. 
At the risk of being called “old-fogyish, ” 1 
shall venture the opinion that It Is preferable 
to hand-pick the pests rather than to use Paris- 
green, as Is commonly done. In my field of 
FIRST-CLASS POTATOES. 
It is surprising, almost incredible, that such 
a large proportion of the potatoes grown for 
home table use, and those which find their way 
to market, are not of the first quality. To 
grow fine-flavored, good-cooking, mealv pota¬ 
toes for the table requires a soil and culture 
peculiarly adapted thereto, us well as a favor¬ 
able season and weather. Just what the essen¬ 
tials may be will vary In different localities. 
Although the tastes of different individuals may 
EXTRA EARLY VERMONT 
farmer raises, ranking next, at least, to the 
great bread staples, wheat and corn, lu fact 
I hardly think that an entire failure of the 
com crop would bo felt more thau an entire 
tailure of the potato. And yet, as ordinarily 
cultivated, we find the potato constantly de¬ 
teriorating, “ running out" as we say. To 
remedy this, men all over the country are 
always selected the largest potatoes of that 
variety for seed, aud iu a few years his Pinkies 
had improved iu size until a load of them was 
a beautiful sight, always meeting with quick 
sales and good prices, for the times. 
Now I will give my theory in regard to the 
improvement of the potato, a theory which 
I Intend to put into practice in the future As it 
