frequently raised five crops of potatoes on 
quite thin,sandy laud by planting them early, 
in hills, and just as they were coming through 
the ground, putting a forkful of manure right 
on top of the hill. The manure keeps the 
weeds down and the moisture in, and at the 
same time enriches the hill. After the pota¬ 
toes are well up through the manure, they 
were worked with a cultivator. 
I have grown the smoothest and best, pota¬ 
toes I ever grew, by dropping pieces cut. to 
one eye. about a foot apart right into the 
grass, ami then covering the whole surface 
with oat and buckwheat straw, not mixed, 
but both kinds about a foot thick. Wherever 
the grass or thistles apjieared above the straw , 
a fresh lot of straw' was put on to smother 
them out. After the potat oes came up they took 
care of themselves, and the whole surface was 
a tangle of vines. In the Pall the vines and 
rotten straw' were raked and pitched into 
heaps, leaving the potatoes in clean bunches 
of piles just as they grew. It was a perfect 
success. 
The unmerchantable potatoes are generally 
kept for seed, and one, two or three are 
dropped where the marker rows cross. They 
are then covered by a double plow w'hich 
turns two furrow's inside over the seed. 
Potatoes were dug with a fork, but many 
large growers use both a fork aud a spring- 
tooth harrow'. Some run a plow underneath 
the hills aud then go over the ground with a 
coarse barrow. Thus most of the potatoes 
are gathered with little baud labor. No pota¬ 
to-digging machine has yet been invented 
which gives entire satisfaction or which has 
come into any general use. Potatoes are 
mostly drawn directly from the field or pits 
in the field to the point of shipment. Only a 
small per cent, are stored for Winter. When 
spread out rather thinly and dusted with dry 
lime, they will best resist the rot. 
The kinds most grown and doing best are, 
Burbank, White Elephant and Beauty of 
Hebron. The Peach blows and Roses seem to 
be running out. The Peerless and Queen yield 
well, hut do not command first prices. Two 
hundred bushels j>er acre is about the average 
yield. To make the crop profitable there 
should he 800. Wet, murkj r weather is con¬ 
ducive to rot and scab. Cool, dry weather is 
the most favorable to fine tubers, but the 
dryness should not be a drought. 
Saratoga Co., N. Y. 
NOTES ON POTATOES. 
PROF. L. H. BAILEY, JR. 
The “ideal potato’’ in my judgment should 
be oblong, smooth, w'hite, with shallow eyes, 
medium in size, and uniform throughout 
the hill. Oblong and rather thin potatoes are 
usually sound, and cook more quickly and 
evenly than very thick ones. A smooth sur¬ 
face is easily cleaned, and renders the tubers 
attractive. We have many excellent sorts, 
well-nigh perfect; but wu must continually 
real’ new' ones to take their places. Probably 
varieties of no other crop run out so soon as 
those of potatoes. A series of experiments 
which were carried on through many years at 
ti e Michigan Agricultural College strongly 
illustrates this fact. The cause of this deteri¬ 
oration is apparent. The potato is propagated 
by cuttings from a variable, unstable tuber. 
Cross-pollenation has no influence upon the 
tuber, and we are constantly inbreeding. It 
is undoubtedly true that varieties of plants 
which are propagated by seeds hold their own 
longer than do those which are propagated 
exclusively from cuttings, other things being 
equal. Many wild plants propagate largely 
by stolons aud bulbs, but they also produce 
seed which probably corrects the evil tenden¬ 
cies of other methods of propagation. Our 
budded fruits do not run out, probably be¬ 
cause the stock upou which they are set is a 
seedling. I look for the most permanent im¬ 
provement in varieties of potatoes by raising 
new sorts from crossed seeds; not that 1 should 
expect crossed seeds to produce a variety in¬ 
termediate between their parents, but be¬ 
cause of the increased vigor of those seeds. 
1 should expect better results from a cross 
made by bringing together varieties long 
grown in widely separated localities than 
from one made between plants long grown 
side by side. In other words, 1 should plant 
by the side of my Early Rose which 1 had 
grown for several years in Michigan, potatoes 
of the same or other varieties which had been 
long grown in New England or in Minnesota, 
and should cross them by hand. The wonder¬ 
ful value of this crossing with foreign seed 
was clearly demonstrated by Darwin, al¬ 
though not with potatoes. 1 expect that the 
wild potatoes which are now coming in as 
curiosities, from Arizona and Mexico, will 
prove valuable as stocks for crossing. It is 
undoubtedly better to use these plants for this 
purpose than to attempt to breed up large 
tubers from them directly. To be sure we 
need to experiment with them in both direc¬ 
tions. I have no faith in the hope of some ex¬ 
perimenters who look for a rot-proof variety 
from these Mexican potatoes. If the fungus 
will attack the tomato, it will undoubtedly 
attack all kinds of potatoes. In fact, a wild 
Mexican potato which has been cultivated in 
France has suffered from the rot the same ns 
the common sorts. Our potato is losing the 
power of producing seeds; we must not let 
this tendency go too far. 
As to soil, I prefer a well drained gravel 
which has had a recent application of vegeta¬ 
ble matter. Unctuous soil makes poor pota¬ 
toes. The typical prairie soils illustrate this 
fact. It is almost useless to plant over a high 
e nd retentive subsoil. I plautcd an acre ou 
such ground last year, and, as I expected, 
did not get a quarter of a crop, aud it was 
poor at that. It would have paid us better to 
buy potatoes. Another patch npon a freshly 
turned sod, in warm gravel, returned a heavy 
yield of most delicious, smooth tubers. A 
similar patch adjoining this, but upon which 
potatoes have been grown successively for 
five or six years, produced a scabby crop. I 
hear more complaints of scabby potatoes 
from the East than from the West. Do we 
need a rotation? 
We have not tested varieties of potatoes to 
any extent of late, but of a half dozen sorts 
which we are growing, the Pearl of Savoy 
has done the best. 
Ag’l. Coll., Lansing, Mich. 
IMPROVEMENT OF THE POTATO. 
PROF. J. L. BUDD. 
In every market of Eastern Russia. I found 
the Early Rose, introduced here by Mr. 
Chauneey Goodrich, and I was told that it w-as 
a favorite variety in Persia, Bokhara, and 
Central Asia. With the present general 
appearance of the potato rot, would it not be 
well to inquire w hether such varieties as the 
Early Rose. White Elephant, Cloud’s White 
Chief, Boston Market, Queen of the Roses, 
Pearl of Savoy, President Arthur, Charter 
Oak, and other new sorts, wh ieh at the West 
have escaped the rot the past, season, are not 
direct descendants of the varieties which Mi 1 . 
Goodrich grew from the seeds of the wild 
Peruvian and Chilian potatoes he imported in 
1849, 1850 and 18511 In Europe I fouud the 
impression general that the new era in potato 
growing commenced with the thousands of 
seedlings which Mr. Goodrich tried and sent 
out for trial, and that his views in regard to 
the causes of the rot were well founded, viz,; 
sudden changes in temperature and moisture 
of air uulike those of their native dime, ami 
consequent exhaustion of vitality. 
I am told that the rot has never appeared iu 
the cultivated potatoes of Chili, and I was 
shown ou the grounds of M. Henry Vilmorin, 
in France, rows of several varieties of Chili 
potatoes, which exhibited marks of inherent 
vigor and vitality not show-n by anything 
else in his great collect ion. Has not the time 
come when some of our enterprising origin¬ 
ators of new varieties ean profitably go back 
to the parents of the Gurnet Chili, Cuzco, 
White Chili, etc.? With a little research, we 
may be able to find better parents for new 
seedlings in Chili than those which gave such 
valuable results iu 1850. 
Ag. Coll., Ames, la. 
INSECT ENEMIES OF THE POTATO. 
PROF. A. J. COOK. 
OF course, all the noxious insects that infest 
the potato sink into insignificance in compar¬ 
ison with the Colorado Potato Beetle—Dory- 
phora decemliueatu. May. Thomas Say dis 
covered, named and described it on the 
Western Plains three-fourths of a century 
ago. For years after his discovery it was 
unknown even to our entomologists, when, all 
at once, it attracted attention in the Western 
State's by its formidable attacks in the potato 
fields. Then the late 1 B. D. Walsh described 
it anew, foretold its devastating march across 
the couutry, and made an exact prophecy as to 
just, w hen it would reach the Atlantic coast, 
os subsequent experience proved. 
REM ED IKK, 
Mr. Terry, the able writer and noted potato* 
specialist, in his admirable little work on 
“Potato Culture,” recommends hand-picking 
ns the cheapest, safest and most desirable 
method of ridding the vines of these insects. 
He employs cheap labor—usually children— 
pays according to results, and lays special 
Stress ou the irnpoitanee of “nipping the evil 
in the bud." That be is right in this last sug¬ 
gestion will appear from the fact that 1 
secured over 1,800 eggs from a siugle female 
beetle. Killing such a beetle in time w'ould 
prevent the layiug of this number of eggs and 
the consequent appearance, later, of an equal 
number of hungry grubs. If hand-picking is 
resorted to, the beetles may be put into pails 
containing a little kerosene, aud, as already 
suggested, the vines should be kept clean as 
soon ns they come; so that all increase, so 
far as possible, shall be prevented. 
1 have experimented quite thoroughly, and 
have found that w hen the insects are at all 
common or numerous, it is much better to 
destroy them by the use of Paris-green or 
London-purple. I have known beetles to come 
to my garden each successive day for a week 
at a time, in numbers varying from a score to 
hundreds. To hand-pick under such circum¬ 
stances is a tusk not to be coveted. To kill by 
the use of the arsenites is safe, quick, easy. 
One application just as the plants come up, 
kills all the beetles, prevents increase, and 
saves a great amount of w-ork. Most fail 
right here—they wait till eggs are laid ami 
hatched, when the vines are much larger and 
have been already seriously injured. Auy 
one who uses the arsenites in time will never 
complain of the labor, efficiency and satisfac¬ 
tory character of the method. As all know-, 
there are two ways of applying the arsenites— 
either dry or iu a liquid mixture with water. 
For young potato vines (and it is ou these it 
should always be applied), I have found the 
dry method the better. I prefer one part of the 
poison to HI or 12 of Horn', and then only put 
on just the slightest amount possible. The 
flour holds the poison even in heavy rains, 
and the strong mixture makes the poison fatal 
to the lieetles, even though the slightest 
amount be used. It is desirable to use a 
slight amount, as the plants do better. To 
apply this, nothing is better than a muslin bag 
tied to the end of a cane or other sticx. I 
have used all the various sieves and shakers, 
and prefer the simple bag to any and all. We 
have only to shake the bag slightly over each 
vine. 
When the vines get large—time of the 
second brood—they nearly cover the ground, 
and then I would use the liquid mixture. If 
the first beetles are well attended to, there 
will lie little to do in fighting the second 
brood, unless we have near neighbors, who 
cultivate the potato, aud are heedless as to 
protecting against its chief eucmies. 
The enemies of the pitato beetle, parasitic 
and predaceous, are becoming very numerous 
and efficient, so much so that, some are hailing 
with joy the day of liberation. I fear such re¬ 
joicing is premature. True, these helpful in¬ 
sects, birds, etc., are doiug us much good, but 
to say they will he sufficient protectors in fu¬ 
ture is, I fear, to reckon without our host. 
Lust- year some regions were almost free from 
the ravages of tlie beetles, w'hile iu other places 
they were never so bad. 
OTHER ENEMIES. 
The Cucumber Flea-beetle—Haltica cucum- 
eris, Harr.—is also an enemy of the potato, 
as it is of all our garden vegetables. These 
little jumping beetles which are often the 
source of so much annoyance in the early 
spring, when our little plants need all their 
vitality, quickly succumb to the arsenites, aud 
also to gas lime, either dry or iu water, sifted 
or sprinkled ou to the plants, and with care 
the plants will suffer no injury. 
ATTACKING THE TUBER. 
The wire-worm grubs, or larvae of Elater 
beetles, arc the only insect enemies so far as 
I have observed, that injure the potatoes. 
These eat into the growiug tubers and often 
bore through them. They are especially liable 
to attack potatoes planted on rich, deep soil 
the second or third year after plowing green¬ 
sward. As is well kuown, the Elater or 
spring beetles, the parents of these wire-worms, 
lay their eggs on the stems or roots of grass. 
If such grass is plowed, the decaying roots 
seem to satisfy them the first season, while the 
two succeeding seasons the corn, wheat, pota¬ 
toes, etc., are often injured seriously. It is 
said t hat beaus, peas and buckwheat will not be 
attacked by them. Upon making this statement 
at one of our Farmers’ Institutes in Sanilac 
Co., where these wire-worms arc almost as 
destructive as were the forest fires which de¬ 
vastated the same region, a fanner said, 
“They killed my beaus. What do you say to 
that?” 1 replied, “1 can only say that in your 
region they probably don’t ‘know beans.’ ” 
On my own farm the past season T bud u 
rich, deep creek bottom, t horoughly drained 
two years ugo, and plowed one year ago, 
planted this season to potatoes. The crop was 
splendid and the potatoes sui>erb, except that 
the scab ami these same wire-worms hail done 
then-worst work; most of the potatoes were 
more or less tunneled ami were only tit to feed 
the stock. The remedy here is obvious:—If 
these wire-worms are prevalent, plant potatoes 
the first year after plowing green-sward, and 
not the second or third, as these long, slender, 
wire-like, six-legged grubs live nearly three 
years as larvie. 
THE SCAB. 
I still think this disease, as seen in Michigan, 
must result from fungus attack. This year I 
frequently examined potatoes on some sandy 
ground, which became very scabby, and I 
could find no myriapods—thousand-legged 
worms—anywhere in the soil. I know our 
friend, the Editor of the Rural (and he is a 
close observer) thinks the myriapods the cause 
of the scab. It seems to me that either there 
arc two kinds of scab, differing in their cause 
and character, or else in the cases mentioned 
by him, the scab was already present aud fur¬ 
nished a good place for the jaws of the hungry 
lulus which was iu the soil. Iu this case, the 
lulus would not be the cause of the scab; but 
being potato-hungry, would eat this diseased 
portion, thus doing the least possible harm 
to the tubers. Surely if the myriapods are 
thus kind and thoughtful, they deserve a well- 
earned vote of thanks. It has always seemed 
to me that scab was most to be dreaded iu soils 
that were very rich, abounding in vegetable 
matter. I shall continue my study of this 
subject, and iutend to settle it conclusively 
the coming Summer. 
Ag’l Coll., Lansing, Mich. 
[We hope that Professor Cook will be suc¬ 
cessful. We can give some forcible testimony 
that the scab which often injures our potatoes 
at the Rural Grounds and some other places, is 
caused by the lulus. But so many have writ¬ 
ten us that scab prevails where wire-worms 
are not seen or known, that we are obliged to 
conclude that there is another cause or, as 
Prof. C. says, that there are two kinds of scab. 
—Ens.J 
THE RURAL’S TRENCH-MULCH SYSTEM 
MODIFIED. 
LEVEL VS. HILL CULTURE FOR POTATOES. 
E. J. BROWNELL. 
I have long been an advocate of level cul¬ 
ture for corn and for most garden crops, 
though, like many others, I had become so 
wedded to the hill system of culture for the 
potato, that I had come to think that no other 
could be correct for growing that crop, and 
as 1 have been much troubled with suuburned 
potatoes, especially with such varieties as 
Early Rose and Beauty of Hebron, I had got 
into a habit of making very large and high 
hills in the effort to cover the tubers sufficient¬ 
ly to prevent this trouble; but still a great 
many of them would reach the surface and be¬ 
come burned. Seeing such favorable reports 
of the Rural’s trench-mulch method of cul¬ 
tivation. I resolved, the past season, to try a 
modification of thatplau, not with the idea of 
avoiding the sunburn, but because it could 
hurdly be worse with this system, which 
might lie advantageous in some other respects. 
Accordingly, on a small garden plot of the 
same kind of soil in which 1 bad previously 
grown potatoes for a number of years by the 
hill system, I planted about 20 square rods, as 
follows: 
With a spade, I opened a trench about six 
inches iu depth, in the bottom of whieh seed- 
pieces, cut from medium-sized potatoes with 
three or four eyes to a piece,were droppedand 
covered tliree or four inches iu depth, a slight 
depression being left along each row until the 
first hoeing, when the dirt was hauled iu to 
nearly a level. Clean, thorough culture was 
given aud the ground was kept entirely level 
as far as possible, uud after the last hoeing, a 
good coat of partially rotted horse and cow 
manure mixed, was \i heeled on and spread over 
the entire surface. Now for the result: The 
season was very dry and unfavorable; but 
this plot seemed to withstand the drought 
much better than potato ground ou adjoining 
farms treated iu the ordinary way, aud, 
much to my surprise, when 1 came to harvest 
the crop scarcely a sunburned tuber was to lie 
found; iu fact, the fewest 1 have ever had. I 
did not measure tile yield, as a considerable 
portion were dug for family use before the 
time for harvesting the crop; but it was much 
greater than the ordinary yield this season ou 
similar soil, and fully double that ou a small 
plot iu the same soil, which I cultivated iu 
lulls. 1 am so well pleased with the result 
thut hereafter I shall admit of no hilling for 
potatoes on my grounds, unless further ex¬ 
perience should change my opinion. I can 
see no philosophical reason for striving to 
raise the roots of any crop above the surface 
under ordinary circumstances, and certainly 
my experience with all garden crops is opposed 
to the practice. 
Delaware Co., N. Y. 
MARL— FERTILIZERS rs. FARM MAN¬ 
URES—APPLICATION, ETC. 
TJntii. within the lost 10 years the only 
fertilizers used in this section in the growing 
of the potato, were farm manure and marl. 
Of the lost there are inexhaustible beds fouud 
everywhere throughout our country. In cer¬ 
tain parts these are near the surface and under¬ 
lie whole farms; iu others they are deeper 
down aud can be reached only at points where 
