1858. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
53 
Successful Culture of the Potato. 
Messrs. Editors —Having this year sent to our 
State Agricultural Society a specimen of our potatoes, 
in competition for their prize for the best acre of pota¬ 
toes, I send you a copy of the statement which 1 send 
to them. It will be seen that I have grown them this 
year on quite a different system to what I did last year, 
(although on the one eye system.) My object in grow¬ 
ing them in this way, was to prove that potatoes plant¬ 
ed with one eye, do not require careful culture, nor 
careful handling, as some may suppose. All that I 
have grown in the kitchen garden and on the farm, 
have been treated alike. That my system or treatment 
will prevent disease, is a thing I never pretended; 
what I advocate for this system is, that it takes less 
potatoes to plant an acre, and the potatoes are of abet¬ 
ter size. Also, that it will not cost half the expense to 
cultivate them. It may be said that our ground is 
superior, which is not the case. 
I will state the highest that has been raised to the 
acre of potatoes here, by any farmer, (and on this farm 
only 60 bushels,) is 75 bushels to the acre, and the far¬ 
mers say if they got that thejr would consider them¬ 
selves well paid. Our farmers around here have lost 
all their potatoes this j r ear by disease, and those far¬ 
mers have told me I had a secret to grow and keep 
disease off, and telling them to the contrary is no use. 
All I can say is, I wish that I had a remedy for it, and 
I should consider myself an independent man. We 
have no cure for it as yet; preventives there may be, 
and all who think they have one, are justified in fol¬ 
lowing it out; but all that has been said, only reminds 
me of the story of the chameleon’s color and the three 
travellers, where all were right, and all were wrong. 
I am not at all prejuiced in any of my opinions. If 
any one can show me that I can raise a large crop with 
less expense than 1 raise mine, I shall certainly try it, 
and if it succeeds I shall be the first to follow it. 
My culture and expense is given on affidavits of 
myself and the men who worked them, measured, &c. 
I noticed the past season, a statement that lime 
sown on the leaves of the potato, would prevent and 
cure disease. This is not the ease, and I think I can 
explain how this theory may have originated. Potato 
growers will sometimes see their vines covered with a 
black fly, which eats the leaves through, and sometimes 
will destroy the whole plant by stripping it of its leaves, 
and when withered it has the appearance of a diseased 
stem, and in fact is considered such; they infest the 
plant sometimes so badly that in two or three days 
your stems are gone. By applying slacked lime to 
them when you notice it, you immediately kill them, 
and your vines resume their former color and will 
thrive, which may lead some to suppose that they have 
stopped the disease. 
Another dissase (from animal life,) proceeds from 
heavy sod ground, when broken and planted with po¬ 
tatoes. It is a grub with a long white body (one to 
two inches) and black head. Those grubs will get on 
the surface and eat the stems through, or eat them 
round, the result of which is that the stems die and 
look like diseased stems. By applying slacked lime in 
the same manner as applied for the fly, you kill them, 
as the moment the lime touches them they are killed. 
I had a field of potatoes this season, planted on sod 
ground turned in the spring. In the summer they 
were infested with the fly on the leaves and the grub 
at the stems. They made such havoc before I noticed 
them, that I was told they were all diseased and that 
the crop was gone. I applied the lime on the leaves 
and ground, and killed the whole of them. My plants 
then flourished and looked as green as ever, and I have 
had no disease in them and a good crop. 
Another correspondent says potato disease is conta¬ 
gious. I must certainly differ with him in that which 
my experience this season will prove. I got some Gib¬ 
son's Seedling potato, which were said to be very fine 
both in size and quality, but with me it has proved 
perfectly worthless in everything as a potato, it being 
the only potato I had that was diseased, and three parts 
of them were so when I dug them. When I planted 
them I had not sufficient of them to plant out the 
ground; the balance of the ground I planted with 
Prince Alberts, 30 inches from Gibson’s Seedling. In 
digging this lot of Prince Alberts I had not a diseased 
one, which to me is conclusive evidence that the disease 
is not contagious. Further, if contagious, how did 
mine escape, when all around me had it badly ? 
If we were to have more lime applied to dur potato 
ground, we should hear less of bad potatoes. Lime is 
an essential manure for the potato, to those who wish a 
good mealy one, and for any land that is infested with 
grubs and worms, salt is also essential, as it will kill 
them, and of course prevent their destroying the tu¬ 
bers. I have experimented with salt as a cure and 
preventive, but I could not see its effect, and growing 
potatoes on a large scale it would be an expensive ma¬ 
nure. * 
Another correspondent states that leaving them ex¬ 
posed to sun and air will disease them. Such is not 
my experience, which will be seen in my practice. 
Further, I expose all my potatoes-intended for early 
growing to the sun until they are perfectly green. 
This season I have done the same and no disease. 
STATEMENT. 
The Prince Albert potatoes shown, are a sample of 
one acre, which I enter for competition for the best acre. 
They were grown by me the past season on a yellow 
sandy,or rather gravelly loam soil, without any manure. 
The land was manured in the spring of 1856, with 
barn-yard manure and black muck, for parsnips, car¬ 
rots, cabbages, &c. This season I have given those 
potatoes no manure. My yield this year was not as 
large as 1856, which I attribute to our short season, as 
last year they had a month’s longer growth. 
My system of growing them has been altogether dif¬ 
ferent to what it was last year. I plant my potatoes 
with one eye to each set, which system it has been said 
was only applicable to garden culture. I grew them 
this year (one eye) with quite different treatment, so 
as to convince all it was as applicacle to the farm as 
the garden. I also grew them on sod ground plowed 
this spring, in the same manner and treatment. My 
yield this year was 238 bushels to the acre, and no dis¬ 
ease. I have kept an accurate account of the expense 
in my daily journal, which I give, also the time of 
working and harvesting them: 
April 20—Prince Albert potatoes cut—one eye left 
to each set. 
April 21—Mixed with slacked lime and well turned 
over—five and a half bushels to the acre. 
