The weekly north Iowa times. [volume] (McGregor, Iowa) 1857-1867, 1863-03-04
From tho Boston Cuitiyator,
Cultivation OF Potatoes


The immense losses sustained each year
throughout onr country by the destruction
81 the potato crop, have led many to inycs.
t'gate the subject with view to prevent
It's ravages, your correspondent among the
number. Notwithstanding the expe, i.ncnts
Of writers and the nostrums of quacks, we
seem as far from the cause as ever. Nv
own experience leads to belief that the dis.
ease Is produced by the same causes which
occasion rust in wheat, viz: warm, muc.y
weather, with sunshine and showers in
tcrvening. Potatoes planted under an in.
vcrted prairie sod do not rot, neither are
they SO liable to disease if planted on
sandy soil-neyer rottng, according to nv
experience, if planted very early, and dag
by the middle Of August. Neither are they
liable to be affected if planted very late
from the last of June to the first of July.
In my opinion, one reason that the Mer.
Ger or Meshannock is so much more liable
to rot than any of the later varieties, is
because, being planted at the same time
with them, its earliness brings it forward
about the time that We are apt to have
close, showery weather, while the later va
rletles have not become sufficiently grown
to be affected, except in extreme cases.
In fact have had Mcrcers escape, and later
ones badly affected, upon crop planted in
March, because the MERGERS were nearly
ripe, and the others in full growth. This
occurred about the middle of July, 1860.
the land being prairie, the third year from
breaking. My practice is to plant as early
in the spring as the ground can be worked
--o!ttn in Notwithstanding deep to keep
from frost. The present season my early
crop was IL arketed in July, perfectly sound,
and my general crop gave me about sixty
bushels Of large potatoes per acre--the
vines having been killed, and the latter
settings destroyed, leaving the first setting
and better. matured tubers in the hills, in
fact, where they remained perfectly sound
until they were dug in the fall. and SO they
still remain. These were MERGERS. Early
iorks gave me nearly double this yield,
because they ripen sooner tnan MERGERS on
u clay soil, and Uice uersa on sand. And
my advice is, in order to get fair crop
Of sound potatoes, plainly early on
sandy soil, Of early varieties, and do not
neglect to apply well rotted manure, for
fear OF losing a crop. prefer to spoil a
horn or make spoon. ltmay appear that
60 to 100 bushels Of potatoes are but a
poor crop; but in a season like the last,
when many farmers have not saved their
seed, it is not By any means to be laughed
y.
The. cultivation OF potatoes, with me, is
simple affair. After preparing the land,
mark out slight, straight burrows, drop the
sets, stepping upon each one, then cover
with a winged shovel plough by going
once through the middle between two fur,
rows, which half covers two burrows at
once; thus once through and back will
cover one row perfectly and half cover two
rows more, leaving the covered rows slight
ly ridged up, and SO on to the end Of the
piece. The after cultivation consists in
continuing to plough them with tho same
instrument until they fairly blossom, and IL
the ground should become very much
packed. afterwards subsoiler may be run
between the rows, which will lift the earth
without destroying the ridges. When ripe,
dig with potato plough, which will throw
them out as fast as two horses can walk.
Yhis, .of course, is not applicable to land
filled with stumps and stones, but of such,
We luckily have but little in the west.
riverside, H., Dec 20, 1862.