THE BUBAL WEW-Y@BKEB 
9 
that the seed-pieces may start vigorously, and 
the roots be able to sustaiu the plant, when the 
starch food of the seed potato is exhansted. 
Here is believed to be the true secret of suc¬ 
cess. If the soil is lumpy, raw, as when fresh¬ 
ly turned, the rootlets find little sustenance 
to sustain the young plant. A feeble plant 
insures a small yield with few marketable 
potatoes. After a thorough preparation, the 
grouud is marked out from three feet to three 
feet two inches apart each way. The three 
feet two inches are to allow more latitudo for 
working the crop with a two-horse cultivator. 
The question as to the amount of seed per hill 
has been largely discussed and many experi¬ 
ments have been made to determine the matter. 
One of the largest growers informs me that 
he cuts his potatoes in pieces of nearly uni¬ 
form size, haviug from one to two eyes 
on a piece, and puts but one piece 
in a hill. One eye is sufficient if the piece 
is large enough, as small pieces with many 
eyes make poor seed. One eye will often 
make two or more stalks, If the sets which 
form on the roots of one vigorous stalk, all 
make large potatoes, the yield of marketable 
potatoes will be much larger than a numerous 
progeny of equal bulk. Soil of a given qual¬ 
ity will grow about so much bulk of tuber. 
If an attempt is made to induce a large yield 
by too large a quantity of seed, the result must 
be many small potatoes. In other words, if 
eight potatoes are grown to the hill, none of 
which are under four ounces in weight, every 
potato null be marketable, while if 16 are 
formed in the same hill many of these must be 
too small for table. In a field marked three 
feet each way, eight potatoes to the lull, of 
only four ounces in weight each, will give a 
yield of 161 bushels of marketable potatoes 
to the acre. This is a moderate estimate 
when it is considered that a potato of four 
ounces, is about as small as will answer for 
market or table. 
The potatoes used for seed are of moderate 
size, small potatoes giving too small a bulk to 
the eye to be. profitable or suitable for seed. 
The Burbank is now the standard relied upon 
for market. It is of good shape and color; its 
season of growth about the right length to 
perfect the crop, and give time for the harvest 
and marketing before f^pstj 7 weather begins, 
and,- above all, it stands up better under 
storage and shipment than most other sorts. 
Early Rose is liable to be streaked with red 
through the flesh, and shippers and consumers 
are very chary about handling stock that may 
rot down on their hands. 
The crop ranges from 125 to 200 bushels per 
acre, and for the past 10 years has been the 
best paying crop grown on the farms. The 
crop this year has brought about 34 cents net, 
where the grower has shipped or cousigued on 
his own account, which, for the labor required 
to produce, is as good as any of the farm crops 
have done. It does not pay to attempt to 
grow potatoes following corn, or on stubble 
ground, unless the soil is exceptionally good. 
They need the first and best nourishment which 
a well-prepared soil can furnish. This is a fact 
which half the farmers in almost every agri¬ 
cultural community need to learn. The family 
potato patch is usually the last location to be 
decided upon in the annual planning for the 
farm crops, and it usually occupies some neg- 
lectod corner, foul with weeds, and is ill-fitted 
for the seed. Many farmers still believe that 
it injures the crop to stir the ground after sets 
are formed. This is one of the many delusions 
which have no excuse for existence, except that 
dignity which age imparts. This loyalty to 
ancestral ideas often prevents us from destroy¬ 
ing the autumnal crop of weeds; and from giv¬ 
ing that stirring of the ground, which keeps 
it fresh and lively. Such a state is very essen¬ 
tial to perfect and mature a crop, when the 
hot sun and rank weeds are likely to rob the 
soil of every vestige of moisture, and rain the 
crop prematurely. Every principle which is 
applicable to the successful growth of large 
fields of potatoes, applies with equal force to 
the family patch; but to the large growers we 
must look for advancement in the ways and 
means of successful potato gi'owing. 
Paw Paw, Mich. 
CULTURE OF IRISH POTATOES.-HOW 
BEST YIELDS ARE SECURED. 
B. F. JOHNSON. 
The best varieties for Central Illinois are 
at present confined to two; the Early Ohio and 
Late Peachblow. In my experience the Bur¬ 
bank, the Chicago Market, the White Star, 
and a dozen others, are none of them either 
early or late, and none of them better than 
second-rate. The Early Rose was the earliest 
and best lor ten years or more, theu followed 
the Late Rose; but now the first has degener¬ 
ated to the eye, and is of the shape of a man’s lin¬ 
ger, and the Late has been merged into other 
kinds till its distinctive features have been lost. 
The Peachblow is fast going where all vari- 
eties go, and will disappear fi*om cultivation 
in a few years. The two varieties named are 
the most profitable for cultivation, because 
they yield large crops of good table potatoes, 
which consumers have come to know and ap¬ 
preciate. 
The best soil is a Timothy, or Blue Grass sod, 
broken in the Autumn. The next best is com¬ 
mon black soil corn land, reinforced by old 
stable manure and coal and wood ashes, 
have grown potatoes on the same land for 
years, and the crops have increased rather 
than diminished iiz quality and quantity, 
though varying, of course, with the season- 
heavy crops in cool, moist Summers, light, in 
hot and tliy. The implements used are, for 
small patches, the plow, the cultivator, and 
the hoe; for large, common corn crop tools. 
They are commonly planted in rows from 
three to three-and-a-half feet apart, one piece 
of one or two eyes, being dropped every 15 to 
18 iuches. Time of planting from the middle of 
April to middle of May. Some practice cut 
ting the seed iu March, allowing the raw sur¬ 
face “to heal,” then the sets to sprout, and 
plant after sprouting, taking care, in handling, 
not to break the sprouts. The preferable tub- 
era for seed are found to be those of good size, 
cut to not more than three, nor less than two 
eyes to the set. 
The common fertilizer is barn-yard manure, 
a very few only using fertilizers, and these the 
potash in preference to the phosphate. Potash 
fertilizer seems to increase size, favors good 
tortn,deepens color,enlarges yield and higlztens 
quality, by producing a large relative amount 
of starch. • 
Hilling up is almost universally practiced, be¬ 
cause it is difficult to subdue the weeds in any 
other way; besides, it assists in carrying off the 
heavy rains from the hills, on the occasions, not 
infrequent, when three or four inches fall 
in as many bom's. 
Blight or mildew (Peronospora) appears 
more or less on the vines every year, but there 
has been no general or widespread potato rot 
since 1865—a Summer remarkable for its exces¬ 
sive i-ain, heat and humidity. To be sure we 
occasionally hear of potato rot; but it is con¬ 
fined to narrow areas, where low, moist land 
and heavy green mauui'ing have been the ex¬ 
citing causes. It is a common experience 
where crops, have been grown year after 
year on the same laud, aud the Colorado 
Beetle has been fought for several seasons 
with Paris-green, that z'ot rarely makes 
its appearance in the tubers, though the pres¬ 
ence of moi*e or less mildew on the vines is 
usual. 
It is my belief that copper in the soil, derived 
from the previous liberal use of Pztris-green to 
kill the potato beetle, destroys the germs that 
cause the potato rot; iu the same way, a one- 
pei'-eent. solution of sulphate of copper in wa¬ 
ter (four pounds to the 50 gallons) has been 
found effective to arrest the progi'ess of mildew 
on the foliage aud to prevent the rot of the 
fruit in the wane districts of Continental Eu¬ 
rope. 
Last year I had a small patch of Early 
Ohios exposed to conditions of soil aud 
weather thought to favor mildew and rot 
both, but there was absolutely none of the 
latter, and only enough of the former to be 
able to say it was there. The land is common, 
deep, black soil 25 years in cultivation, and at 
least a dozen crops of potatoes had been grown 
on it, and four previously iu succession. Pre¬ 
vious to the crops of the last two years, the 
land had been treated to fully four inches of 
strawy stable manure spread over the surface 
and plowed in. A potash and phosphate fer¬ 
tilizer had been applied the year before and a 
pint of ashes given each hill. The piece was 
planted about the middle of April, with Early 
Ohio. The stand proved good and the gi'owth 
was favorable. About the middle of July the 
weather became tropical, the rains were ex¬ 
cessive, the thunder storms nearly continuous 
and the heat night and day was fearful. Tins 
lasted for more than two weeks and potato rot 
was much talked of and feared. And yet, 
under all these adverse conditions I never 
raised better potatoes. They were sound, 
smooth and large, solid, well colored aud 
starchy, and the total crop was remarkable 
for the limited number of small potatoes. This 
exemption from rot I attribute largely to the 
amount of copper in the soil, the pre vioizs dozen 
crops or more having been treated to at least 
three dustings of Paris-green extended iu plas¬ 
ter, each Summer, I conclude the soil of this 
piece for the first foot down from the surface, 
contains at least the fourth of an ounce of the 
salt of copper, aud possibly twice as much. 
I dwell on this point because I think a pre¬ 
ventive of potato mildew aud rot and grape 
mildew and rot is to bo found in sprinkling foli¬ 
age and fruit with a one-per-cent, solution of 
sulphate of copper (bluestoae) in water early in 
June, and again once or twice during the grow¬ 
ing season. I am quite confident too, potato rot ; 
will not be found to be common where Paris- 
green has been used for two or three years in 
succession, and also that the treatment of the 
vines of a given crop with Paris-gi'een two or 
three times in the growing season will prove 
a preventive to a measurable extent. 
I have given so much space to mildew and 
rot, I have little space for other sides of the 
subject. As to harvesting, for small patches, 
the spading fork is used, and for large, a 
potato plow of which there are several forms. 
After 25 years’ experience, I am in favor of 
leaving potatoes in the ground to the latest 
safe hour, say the first week iu November, and 
this eveu for those maturing early in July. The 
average yield for the country is not above 100 
bushels, though iu favorable years 200 bushels 
are sometimes made. For an early potato, 
the Early Ohio comes very near the ideal of a 
perfect potato; and for a late one, the Jersey 
Peachblow 7 , if it could get a new lease of life, 
and bring its eyes to the surface like the Rose. 
Champaign, Ills. 
POTATOES. 
T. B. TERRY. 
What improvement thei’e has been in pota¬ 
to planting since I first began farming; 16 
years ago! Then we marked out with a plow, 
dropped four times as much seed as was neces¬ 
sary, and did it by band. The covering also was 
done by hand; with a hoe, at first, although we 
soon learned to cover by horse-powei'. There 
was a good deal of hard work connected with 
potato culture iu those days; but now one can 
avaid most of this. Where the growiug of 
potatoes is made a specialty, they can be 
raised for half the price pei* bushel that it cost 
15 years ago. if one is fully supplied with all 
the labor-saving tools aud equipments. 
Last year, aud the year before, 1 sat on my 
Aspinwall planter aud put in my entire crop 
(24 acres one year, and 18 the other), without 
any help, at the rate of an acre in two hours. 
The seed was cut to one ej 7 e, and put in the 
hopper, after which the machine did all the 
work of opening a furrow, dropping the seed 
and covering, while passing over the ground 
once. It fails to drop once in 30 or 40 times, 
and a little oftenor drops two eyes instead of 
one; but where the seed is drilled in, an eye 
once in about 12 inches, the loss from fail¬ 
ure to drop is very slight. The dropping of 
two eyes instead of one, is a slight loss of seed, 
but hardly worth speaking about. The mark¬ 
ing out and covering are perfect. The rows 
can be made almost perfectly straight, which 
is of great importance when you come to use 
cultivator and horse hoe, as you can ruu close 
to the plauts, ou both sides at once, izzstead of 
having to go through twice, as we did years 
ago. 
Of course, when seed is cut to one eye, the 
tubers should be of fair size; and they should 
have been so wintered as to be in good condi¬ 
tion, with no eyes any more than just started. 
(If you break off the first sprout, the next one 
will be weaker.) Then the soil should be fer¬ 
tile, and the seed-bed finely pulverized, aud the 
planting done as soon as possible after the seed 
is cut. Treated in this way, one eye dropped 
once in 12 or 13 inches in drill, gives better re¬ 
sults, with me, than two or three. The crop 
is of more uniform marketable size, and when¬ 
ever I have experimented, the rows planted 
with one eye sets have yielded the most dollars 
to the acre, although not tho most tubers in 
number; but we want to raise dollars, not. little 
potatoes for the pigs. When many acres are 
plan ted, the saving of seed is quite an important 
matter. With me it takes about eight bvzsbels 
of good-sized potatoes to plant an acre. The 
drills are made 32 inches apart, for such vari¬ 
eties as wo raise, Beauty of Hebron, Clark’s 
No. 1, etc. 
We like to have them close enough so the 
ground will be entirely covered aud shaded 
from the sun during the last part of their 
growth. The depth of planting must, of 
course, be governed by the depth of the soil, 
whether drained or not, whether it is vez-y 
dry or moist, etc., etc. Our rule is to plant 
about half as deep as we plow. Our drained 
potato land has been plowed deeper and deep¬ 
er, gradually, until the plow often runs now 
between nine and ten inches deep. Then we 
plant about inches below the surface, aud 
then do not hill up much. With us the great¬ 
est enemy of the crop has been ill-ought, aud a 
deep, mellow soil with the seed planted mod¬ 
erately deep and the surface kept constantly 
stirred after planting, helps us very much iu 
weirding off the attacks of this enemy. 
If we plant at different times, we never can 
tell beforehand, to a certainty, which piece 
will yield best, as the weather has so much to 
do with the result. Some years early planting 
pays best, and again, late planting comes out 
ahead. After long experience, I prefer to take 
the chances of early planting; that is, of 
planting as soon as the ground is dry enough 
to be worked without injury. Once or twice 
I have missed it by so doing; but, then, again, 
I have cleared over 81(K> an aci'e. One thing 
do by all means: when you have decided on a 
course, stick to it through thick and thin. Do 
not change. If you lost by early printing last 
year, “look for your money whei-e you lost it.” 
If you print rite next year, you may change 
just in time to lose again. It is but little use 
for us in Northern Ohio to try to get potatoes 
ready for the early market, when they bring a 
high price, as our markets, as a general rale, 
are filled with potatoes from the South long 
before we can get any ready to Jig. Ten 
years ago we used to get a large price for the 
first dug, but we can seldom do so now. 
This planting by machinery hzis more advan¬ 
tages than one would think of at first. When 
potatoes are grown laz'gely, of course it is 
money that would have to be paid for extra 
help to do the dropping. You do not have to 
run after help. You are quite independent. 
In a catching time you can rash in a large 
quantity in a day. The machine never gets 
the back-ache. It makes your house more of a 
home and less of a boarding house, by enab¬ 
ling you to get along without extra hired help 
for your family to Wait on. For this last rea¬ 
son alone 1 would pay the interest on the cost 
of plautei'. The farmer’s home should be made 
as pleasant, and the good wife saved as much 
labor as possible. 
Summit Co., Ohio 
POTATOES. 
Only the early lands of potatoes are certain 
to yield a crop in this section. Our Summers 
are too dry and hot for the late kinds, though 
they do well about once in five years. I have tided 
several kinds, and have finally settled on Early 
Ohio and Beauty of Hebron as the best yieldera, 
best keepers aud best iu quality. Of the two. 
Early Ohio yields somewhat the larger crop, 
but is the most liable to rot. We have grown 
some large crops of both kinds on corn rind 
that was manured with fine farm-yard manure 
the previous Autumn. Large crops are also 
grown on clover sod, but a large percentage 
of the tubers will be scabby. We plant in fur¬ 
rows two to three iuches deep, as early in the 
Spring as the rind can bo ptriperly worked, aud 
cover with two or three inches of soil. Har¬ 
row just before the prints appear, cultivate 
two or three times with a corn cultivator, 
working the earth toward the plants, and hoe 
once or twice. Kill beetles with London-pur¬ 
ple in water. 
The potatoes arc allowed to remain in the 
ground until cool weather sets in, unless we 
have a wet Fall. Iu that case we are obliged 
to dig them to prevent a second growth. They 
are stored in a cool, dry price until Winter, 
when they are priced in a cellar or pits. In 
cellara the bins should not be over six inches 
deep. Pits are best 15 to 25 inches wide, six 
inches deep, and as long as needed. They must 
be in a dry location. Potatoes in pits are cov¬ 
ered with about four inches of straw and 12 to 
15 inches of earth. 
When stored as above indicated, we have 
lost very few 7 by rot. I know of no way of en¬ 
tirely preventing scab. It seems to be caused 
by worms supplemented by a fuugus. Potato 
beetles have done but little injury the past 
five or six years. They arc easily kept in sub¬ 
jection by the use of arsenites if promptly ap¬ 
plied. FRED GRUNDY. 
Christian Co., Ills. 
MR. ALFRED ROSE’S VIEWS. 
My mode of culture for potatoes is in sub¬ 
stance, as follows: For the best results, a rich, 
sandy-loam soil is needed with a clover sod, 
turned under, ten iuches iu the Fall, with ten 
cords of rotted stable manure spread evenly on 
each acre. In the Spring it is plowed as deep 
as possible and harrowed deeply and thoroughly 
both ways; rows arc marked three feet apart 
for large-growing vines; for small vines, 34 
inches apart. Trenches are then ojicned with 
a one-horse plow, eight inches deep, going 
through twice with the plow in each row. 
Then 1 pass through with a hoe and grade the 
trenches to about 6)$ inches deep. It is now 7 
ready for printing, except manuring in the 
trenches at the time of planting. The best 
early potatoes for the table are, first., Rocky 
Mountain Rose, Early Sunrise aud Early 
Electric aud with me those are ripe for the 
table from the first to the tenth of July. 
Second come Early Vanguard, Early Ohio 
and Early Prolific and Rose’s Beauty of 
Beauties. 
As for seed for planting, my choice is the 
size of u hen’s egg or four tubers to the 
pound, and all should be of fine shape, and 
be selected when first dug, put iu barrels 
and stored in the cellar. Ill-shaped tubers 
never should be planted, for often "like begets 
like.” My seed is cut to single eyes with a con¬ 
cave and curved knife. If too many eyes are 
