The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-06-28
AGRICULTURE.
Something about Potatoes.

where it is perennial. In its wild stale
the Uubers are about an inch in diane
ter, and not very Palatable. Next to
maize, the potato is the greatest cOntri-
button America has made to the Tege-
tables of the world. Some may place
tobacco before either. If any think so,
let them think. The history of the po-
tato is fuH of interest. 1t was first in
troduced into Spain about the middle
ofthe sixteenth century, but was not
known in England till 1886, when Sir
Walter Raleigh brought home few
the botanic gardens and planted some
on his own estate near Cork. Half a
century elapsed before they were found
in the London markets, and in books
of gardening published hundred
years after their Introduction they are
spoken of slightingly, as fit only for
swine. They seem to have been culti-
waited much as many of us now culti-
vate artichokes, with utter neglect.
Evelyn, writing in 1899, says: "Plant
potatoes in your worst ground. Take
them up in November for winter spend
ing. Enough will remain for stocking
though ever so exactly gathered" No
wonder, with such cultivation, they
were considered inferior to radishes. 1t
was near the middle of the eighteenth
century before they were generally
known and cultivated throughout
England. The Royal society tirstawoke
to the importance of potatoes as an ar
ticle of food, and took measures for en-
couraging their cultivation. What the
poor Scotch:aud Irish lived on before
their introduction is a puzzle.
For the last century the potato has
risen steadily in favor. The poor Irish
no longer have the monopoly of its use,
for so generally is it relished, that no
dinner in any part of Christendom, at
any season of the year, is considered
complete without the potato accom-
plishment. Meat and potato are about
as inseparableass substance and shadow.
Other vegetables we like in their sea-
son, but potatoes we relish and require
at all seasons, and Providence has
kindly ordered that they will grow over
greater extent of latitude than any
other cultivated plant, and furnished
them with a skin as impervious to
water as cork, so that the tubers do not
dry up till new potatoes are ready for
Use. They are not only palatable but
highly nutritious, containing % per
cent of dry food, while carrots contain
Is and turnips only 10, the balance be-
ing water. The dried potato contains s
per cent of gluten and 92 of starch, and
is consequently more nutritious than
rice. We would not recommend living
on potatoes alone, nor rice alone, but
potatoes, have given more muscle to the
Irishman, than rice has to the Hinu0o.
The teachings of science and the in
instincts of our nature both commend
the potato as an accompaniment to
meat.
The raising of potatoes is now con-
sidered the business Of the farm, rather
than the garden. but they still deserve
and should hold corner in every gar
den for early summer use. For the
original Introduction of the early va
rieties we are indebted to the market
gardeners around Manchester, Eng
land, who were stimulated to their cul-
tiyation by the great demand for them
among the operatives of that mHnutac-
turing city. The gardeners noted those
plants that flowered early, saved them
and sowed their seeds. BY selecting
the earliest of the new varieties, they
finally succeeded in securing new pO-
tatoes tit for the table in two months
after planting. Potatoes may be for
warded, by starting them in hotbed,
or more simply in what the Scotch call
"laZy beds" In constructing these the
manure is merely laid on the surface of
the ground, sets OF potatoes are placed
thickly upon it, and the whole covered
with IL slight sprinkling OF soil. In
transplanting care must be taken not
TO break the tender shoots.
Potatoes will grow in wide range OF
climate and soil, but it must not be
supposed they have not their favorite
homes. In a cool, moist climate and a
warm, dry soil they attain their great
est perfection. No vegetable is more
influenced by the soil. The same vari-
ETY. will be found watery in heavy
clay soil and mealy in light and dry
one. A freshly turned sod is more con-
genial to the potato than soil long
cultivated. Fresh manure increases
the amount OF the crop, but diminishes
the quality and increases the tendency
to disease. An old pasture, with firm
sod, and a naturally rich and dry soil
ity, Without any manure. We cannot
have fresh sod in our gardens, but we
can do the next best thing by rejuve-
Mating the old soil with turf from the
road side, or better still with leaf mould
from the forest. Muck from the swamp
will also give new life to the old gar
dens and grow excellent potatoes. Plas-
ter, ashes and lime are safe manures,
and they may be applied either at the
time of planting. in the hill or as n top
dressing after the leaves show them
selves. If the potatoes are cut we have
found it an excellent practice to put
them in "a barrel and sprinkle over them
two or three quarts of plaster. Shake
the barrel little and nearly every cut
surface Will DC IOuHu COuIeu WIN plhS-
ter, which will prevent the evaporation
of the Juices, and at the same time serve
as a fetilizer to the young plant.
Some maintain that small potatoes
answer for seed as we'll As large ones,
and experiments of one year have Oc-
cssionally favored this idea; but let
small potatoes be planted for success
sion of years; and small potatoes and
few in the hill has been and Will be the
result. Whether to plant whole or di-
vided tubers has not been SO decidedly
determined, but we are inclined TO
think the balance of testimony is in IA
vor of planting medium sized potatoes
uncut. This was the result of expert
-ment continued through series of
years at the Chiswick gardens in Eng
land. The yo1ng shoots must draw
their support from the old potato, and
1t is reasonable to conclude that's whole
potato must furnish more nourishment
than a part. On this principle we
might conclude also that large potato
will give stronger shoots than the me-
dium-sized, and this is the result, as
experiment proves, but IL does not fol-
low that large potatoes are best
for seed. We may get product
of large potatoes, and lose in quality
what we gain in quantity. The OBJ
lection to planting whole potatoes is,
that we may get too many stalks in a
hill, and it requires more seed. This
matter of seed deserves more careful
attention. We are too much in the
habit of planting large and small, the
we'll and the ill-favored indiscriminate-
Iy, and the product has been as promis-
cuous as the seed. The ugly, deep
eyed, hunchbacked, warty pota oes
should not be allowed to propagate
their detormities.
Summer potatoes must be harvested
only as required for use. The cork like
skin is not then mature and the pota-
toes consequently dry up rapidly. The