d^TRY \\o*A 
NEW YOKE, MARCH 27, 1886 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
$2.00 PER YEAR. 
Entered according to Act of Congress, la the year 1836, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 
the potato—though it is grown under very 
different conditions in regard to the supply of 
mineral food—is yet very uniform in its com¬ 
position, and although the ash does not equal 
in uniformity that of the cereal grains—when 
grown under similar variations iu regard to 
manures—still it is evident that the composi¬ 
tion of the minerals of the potato, does not in- 
being too great to be furnished by the resour¬ 
ces of the soil. 
Rothamsted, England. 
POTATO EXPERIMENT IN NEW YORK. 
PROF. I. P. ROBERTS. 
On May 1(5, 1885, we planted sixteen rows of 
ondly, to get some potatoes, and, thirdly, to 
make 9ome simple experiments, In early 
IS inter about ten bins per acre of manure 
were spread upon the grass. During the last 
days of April the land was plowed and well 
prepared and planted about the middle of 
May. Altout two weeks after planting, the 
land was treated to a dressing of 200 pounds of 
German potash salts per acre. Plot one re¬ 
ceived a mulch of cut straw, as recommended 
by the Rural, and plot four a mulch of man¬ 
ure of nearly the same thickness. They were 
cultivated five times and the weeds were hoed 
out twice, and late iu the Fall a few that had 
escaped were pulled. Flat culture was given 
iu all cases. 
Pounds 
Yield 
per 
mot. 
Bush. 
Yield 
per 
Acre. 
How 
Treated. 
Variety. 
1215 
1260 
12051 
1155 
1156 
1164 
1194 
1186 
All rotted. 
Straw mulch. Dakota Red 
•*74*04 Manure mulch. “ 
446.42 No mulch. 
Mam’th Pearl 
>R.y 
The labor account of raising these potatoes 
and the mangolds was kept under the gener.'- 
bead of 'Toot field,’ I am therefore unable to 
give the cost of raising them, and 
it would be of 
* .;3 - £ * V 
m any case 
uo value to the public. One 
man may get. 16 hours' labor for 75 cents, while 
another will have to pay *1,50 for ten hours. 
One man pays #4 a cord for manure; an¬ 
other gets for nothing all he can ha uL It ap¬ 
pears to me that it is far better to tell just 
what is done, and leave the reader to figure 
* out what it will cost him to perform the same 
labor. It is evident that it would not have 
paid us this year to have mulched with straw, 
and the -is bushels extra yield of the plot mulch¬ 
ed with manure, over the umnamired plots, 
would hardly pay for the extra expenditure. 
The potatoes mulched with manure were very 
“scabby,” while those from all the other plots 
were almost entirely free from that disease. 
Cornell University. Ithaca, N. Y. 
uur system of growing crops without 
change of manure for a great number of 
years, is well adapted to bring out the proper¬ 
ties of the various plants, as regards their 
capability of substituting one substance for 
another. For instance, if we apply nit rate of 
soda alone as a manure for a long period of 
time—say SO years—we drain the soil to a 
great extent of its available potash. Under 
such circumstam os the ash of hay grown in 
a pasture, instead of containing, as it would 
in its natural state, between 40 and 50 jxsr 
cent, of potash, might contain not more than 
14 or 15 per cent,, and soda might be in larger 
quantities than the potash. The mangel is 
another of the plants which, when manured 
with nitrate of soda, will take up a large 
amount of soda. 
Let us see what capacity a potato tuber 
has of making use of soda In the absence of pot¬ 
ash, upon land which has been manured with 
nitrate of soda and has received no potash 
for about 50 years. This potato ash contains 
52.61 per cent, of potash and less than three 
per cent, of soda. The ash of the potato 
which receives 14 tons of farm-yard manure 
every year-, and that which receives 500 
Pounds of sulphate of potash per acre every 
year, contain, respectively, 57.47 and 57.58 of 
potash; that is to say, only five per cent 
HBE 
MURRAY’S GOLD FLAKE 
From Nature. Fig. 120. (See p. 205— Supplement.) 
dieate the character of the manure applied, as 
is the case with some plants. 
The extreme difference in the percentage of 
ash iu the dry matter of our potatoes is from 
5.52 to 4.72, while the nitrogen varies from 
0.755 to 1.525. Where nitrogen is applied 
every year without minerals, the potato con¬ 
tains twice as much as when it is grown everv 
Dakota Red and two rows of Mammoth 
Pearl Potatoes. The rows were meant to be 
30 inches apart, but proved to be a shade less 
when the whole area was measured; they were 
24 rods long, and two rows constituted a plot. 
The seed consisted of pieces cut bo two eyes, 
and was planted 18 inches apart in the row. 
The laud was fairly well drained, cluyey, aud 
POTATOES IN THE POTATO DISTRICTS. 
—CULTURE, CARE AND KINDS. 
COL. F. D. CURTIS. 
Potatoes are a leading farm crop in the 
pait of New York where I live. Washington 
t ounty, which is adjacent to Saratoga, pro¬ 
duces yearly between four and five million 
bushels. It has a larger Crop than any other 
county in the State. The farmers all follow 
about the same system of routine and culture. 
The potatoes are planted on com stubble or a 
clover sod. These are considered the most 
favorable conditions. The corn land is usu¬ 
ally manured for the crop of corn and is in 
good heart for jotatoes, with the desired mel¬ 
low condition. The clover sod gives to the 
laud the advantages of the decay of the roots, 
and the humus arising from the stems and 
leaves, and from these materials the potatoes 
derive a supply of the constituents required. 
Barnyard manure is relied upon by the large 
growers of potatoes as the best fertilizer, and 
the rotation of crops is so conducted that a 
good coat is giveu to the land for each crop of 
potatoes. A grain crop succeeds the potatoes, 
and with it the land is seeded down. Rye is 
the best to follow potatoes, but when the crop 
cannot be taken off in time, oats or barley 
are put on the following Spriug and the land 
is seeded. When lands are very fertile an 
unwise farmer will sometimes raise several 
crops of potatoes on the same field. Potatoes 
are naturally a very exhaustive crop in vx)t- 
ROSE’S BEAUTY OF BEAUTIES 
From Nature, 
year with mineral manures, but without nitro¬ 
gen. A deficiency of minerals therefore causes 
a great waste of nitrogen. 
1 he amount of potash taken up by a potato 
crop is very large; some of our crops indeed 
carry off considerably more than 100 pounds 
per acre ot that substance. In Great Brit¬ 
ain potatoes are rarely grown as a farm pro- 
