The Wilmingtonian, and Delaware advertiser., 1826-01-05
The Practical E0plAer
From the Democratic Press.
POTATOES.

1t is sometime since we have called the
attention of our country friends to the cult-
vation of this most valuable of all vegetables.
Last year We had great abundance OF po
tatees.--The consequence was that they fell
in price then we were stunned with COM
plants verbally, and by letter, on account OF
the reduction in price. These complaints
stopped our pen, and we are sorry for it.
After diligent enquiry we are satisfied that
last year, az we'll as every year, for the last
five and twenty years, Potatoes paid the
farmer better than any other crop he raised.
Those who kept their potatoes until the
spring, obtained high prices and upon the
whole they paid very well.
This year, our potatoe crop is not an ave-
rage crop, and the potatoes, generally speak
ing, are not of good quality. They now
fetch scventy-hve cents a bushel in our mar
ket, and are but an indifferent potatoe. If
our farmers had but planted few thousand
more bushels of potatoes, we should have
had abundance of them, and they would
have received more money than they will
now get for the productions which have been
raised in the place of potatoes. Again, if
more attention had been paid to the selection
of good seed and the cultivation of the crop,
we should not now have had our potatoes
not only scarce, but indifferent i'll quality
Potatoes are neglected more than any other
vegetable.--Sufhcen care is not taken to
select good seed, to prepare the ground, and
tend them after they are planted; and
when the Farmer has done these, not one in
twenty of our housewives pay proper attcn-
tion to the cooking of them. Under all the sc
discouraging circumstances it is not to be
wondered at, that our potatoes arc neither
good nor plenty.
For some time orr wharves have present
ed large quantities of fNova Scotia Potatoes, for
sale; this was endurable-but when we see
fsYo thousand three hundred and thirty .fre
hampers of potatoes advertised as having ar
rived in one vessel, from England, we cannot
but complain to our farmers that they
are inattentive to their own, and to their
country's interest They should more care
fully md more extensively cultivate Pota-
toes.
We do not pretend to understand great
deal about farming, but we defy human in.
genuity to satisfy men of plain, common un-
derstandings, that it is proper or right in oui
farmers, to drive US to the necessity of i'm.
porting potatoes from England. That we
can grow them infinitely cheaper than they
can is perfectly clear. The Tythes ant
Taxes annually paid by the English farmer
is equal to what our farmers pay for the pur
chase of their land, in Fee simple. In Penn
aylvania we pay no tythes or taxes, and W.
can work our farms as cheap AS English
farmers can work theirs. Yet for ali this
the English are able to pack up therp potatoe
an hampers, ship and transport them thre,
thousand miles, pay duty of fifteen pc
cent to our Government, and then sci
them as fast as they are landed upon on
wharves.
We pl.te the facts before our farmers am
agricultural societies, and we beseech then
TO take such order on them, as their own in
interest and that OF the country requires.
We cannot prevail upon ourselves I
close this article, without saying that til
cultivation of Hemh and FLAG is nearly a
much neglected as that of Potatoes. If thes
things were attended to, and our Iron O,
and Coal brought together by skilful artist
our State would, in ten years, be the mo
wealthy and the most populous in the |
nion.
PROSPECTS, for Farmers in ls26.-It is pail
full to learn, by gentlemen arriving he
from different parts of the State 10 after
the Convention, that the prospects for
grain crop this year are more gloomy th
they were almost ever known to be at I'll
season. Fields, which it has been bcfo
necessary to check by feeding down, pr
sent scarcely sign ofvegctation; so inten
and long continued have been the droug
and drying winds Of autumn and winter
inner. Farm.
THE BALD EAGLE.
From Wilson's OyniMoiogy.