Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1825-07-21
gaiuRglDAY N1DRMlsa, JULY @ao 1885,

'ofstock without giving, as the turnip
does, any unpleasant favour to their
milk or meat, satisfies me, when | con-.
slider its great fecundity and its apti-
tude to all our varieties of soil, that it is
among the choicest blessings which a
bountifal Providence has conferred up
on the tillers of the EARTH"
The potatoe will grow in almost any
soil, even in that of the most Indifferent
quality; but that in which it thrives
best, and where potatoes OF the best
quality are produced, isa light loan,
neither too dry nor too moist; and 1t
rich, so much the better "The land
should be ploughed deep for this crop;
because roots will commonly grow as
low as the soil is stirred, and no deep
err; and the more the ground is pull
verified before planting, the better will
be the crop.
Perhaps green sward may be men
toned as an exception. "I have had
the largest crops on SUCH land" says
DR.. Deane, I" even with one ploughing,
and that Just before planting. l account
for it thus: potatoes want air; such land
affords it from the hollows under the
burrows, in no small quantity, both
fixed, and putrid, and in the greatest
abundance towards the end Of summer,
when they require the greatest guam
tity of nourishment.
The fashionable way ofplanting po-
tatoes in hills, may be as good as any
in rough ground, or that which is not
well subdued. But in rich, mellow
soil, well puIverized, the drill method
is to be preferred. The sets may be
either in single rows, three feet, or
double one foot apart, and from seven
to nine inches asunder in the rows"
1t is very little more labour to lay the
manure in drills than in hills; and the
labour Of hoeing is not. much increas-
ed, while the produce will be increased
at least one half.
The manure may be Of the coarsest
kind, such as straw, damaged hay, po-
tatoe vines, leaves Of trees, and brakes
moved in pastures; these, if collected
in the fall and deposited in the barn
yard, there to be impregnated with the
juices of the yard, will prove very ex-
cellent manure for potatoes in the
spring. In sandy or loamy soil, the
yield, tits said, will be one third more,
ia table spoonful ofplaster be thrown
upon the naked potatoes in each hill
after they are dropped and before they
are covered.
Some farmers select the smallest po-
tasoes for planting: some cut their po-
tatoes into slices, leaving one or more
eyes to each slice; others pare their'po-
tatoes, planting only the skins. "These
practices cannot be too much censured,
or too soon abandoned, because directly
opposed both by reason and experience.
In other cases we take great pains
and sometimes incur great expense,'to
obtain the best seed. In the cultivation
of wheat we reject all small, prema-
ture worm-eaten, or otherwise imper-
feet grains; in preparing for crop OF
Indian corn, we select the best ears, and
even strip from those the small or ill
shaped grains at the end Of the cob; SO
also in planting beets, carrots, parsnips
and turnips, the largest and finest are
selected for seed.
The reason of all this is obvious
Plants, like animals, are rendered most
perfect by selecting the finest indivldu-
ais Of the species from which to breed.
Away then with such miserable econo-
my, and instead Of planting skin, or
slices, or dwarfs, take for seed good
sizeable potatoes.
The Hon, Josiah Quincy, in let
ter to the Corresponding Secretary OF
the Massachusetts Agricultural Socie-
ty, observes: 81 had directed my far
mer to plant a field Of about six acres,
with the large red potatoe, called the
River Plate potatoe. Being not pre-
sent when he began the labour, he had
planted part oftwo rows with the po-
fatoe ,ohole. Coming upon the field, l
objected to the practice as wasteful,
and directed him to cut the residue OF
the potatoes, and to put mark SO as
the place where the whole potatoes
were planted might be known.
In the whole course Of vegetation, the
whole potatoes had decided superior
ity over every other part Of the field
in the vigour and size Of the tops; and
at harvest, in comparing the rows with
the adjoining rows, the product OF the
rows planted whole exceeded an equal
extent of the adjoining rows, planted
with cut potatoes more than one third.
There was nothing in the cultivation
or state Of the. land, which could pro-
duce this difference, except the circum-
stance of the one having been planted
whole and the other cut.
There have been many complaints
u