58 
Packard Frotncher’s Almanac and Garden Manual 
POTATOES 
Pomme de Terre (Fr.), Kartoffel (Ger.). 
Early Rose. 
Breese’s Peerless. 
Russets. 
Extra Early Vermont. 
Snowflake. 
Beauty of Hebron. 
White Elephant. 
Potatoes thrive and produce best in a light, dry but rich soil. 
Well decomposed stable manure is the best, but if it cannot be had, 
cotton seed meal, bone dust, or any other fertilizer should be used to 
make the ground rich enough. If the ground was planted the fall 
previous with Cow Peas, which were plowed under, it will be in good 
condition for Potatoes. Good sized tubers should bo selected for 
planting, which can be cut in pieces not too small; each piece ought 
to contain at least three eyes. Plant in drills from two to three feet 
apart, according to the space and how to be cultivated afterwards. 
For field culture two and a half to three feet apart; for garden, two 
feet will answer. We plant potatoes here from end of December to 
end of March, but the surest time is about the first of February. If 
planted early they should be planted deeper than if planted late, and 
hilled up as they grow. If potatoes are planted shallow and not hilled 
soon, they will suffer more, if caught by a late frost, than if planted 
deep and hilled up well. Early potatoes have not the same value here 
as in the North, as the time of planting is so long, and very often the 
first planting gets cut down by a frost, and a later planting, which may 
just be peeping through the ground, will escape and produce in ad¬ 
vance of the first planted. A fair crop of potatoes can be raised here, 
if planted in August; if the autumn is not too dry they will bring nice 
tubers by end of November. They should not be cut if planted at this 
time of the year, but planted whole. They should be put in a moist 
place before planting, so they may sprout. The early varieties are 
preferable for this time of planting. 
I have been handling several thousand barrels of potatoes every 
season for planting, and make Seed-Potatoes a specialty. The potatoes 
I sell are Eastern grown, which, as every one interested in potato 
culture knows, are superior and preferable to Western grown. 
I have tried and introduced all new kinds here; but of late so 
many have come out that it is almost impossible to keep up with 
them. New varieties of potatoes come out with fancy prices, but these 
prices for new potatoes do not pay here, as we can keep none over for 
seed, and any person raising for the market would not realize a cent 
more for a new fancy variety per barrel, than for a barrel of good 
Peerless or Early Rose. Earliness is no consideration, as we plant 
from December to end of March. Somebody may plant Early Rose 
in December and another in February, and those planted in February 
come to the market first; it depends entirely upon the season. If 
late frosts set in, early planted potatoes will be cut down, and those 
just coming out of the ground will not be hurt. The Jackson White 
has given but little satisfaction the last three years, except in cases 
