Clarksville chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 186?-1872, 1869-01-15
From Colman's Rural world.1
EXPERIMENT WITH POTATOES.
QUITTING OFF THE BLossoMs.

CUTTING OFF THE BLOSSOMS.
Several years ago I had a young
German working for me, who called
my attention, at the time of the
towering Of the potatoes, to the great
number of blossoms, and told me
that | would have light crop Of po-
tatoes Upon my asking him for his
reasons, he said that he had heard
old folks say, that "many flowers
Few potates." only remembered it
as singular remark, concluding it
was one of the many wise old saws
which "people say"
We have not, as yet, any of the
new-fangled, ten-leggcd Colorado po-
tato-bugs; but we have an old fash
ioned sort---a Kind Of blister beetle
| haven't time to hunt up the scien-
tific namc), that feeds on the potato
plant in quiet sort of q way with
out usually doing much HARM
This year they were just about nu-
mcrous enough to cut the blossoms
as fast as they appeared, seemingly
thinking them the choice part, and
attacking them first, so that but very
few blossoms could be observed in
the fields at any given time.
We had an unusually good yield of
potatoes, but whether this destruc-
ton Of blossoms had anything to do
with producing the result, will
leave each one to judge for himself
OF course any differences drawn from
such facts as these, by themselves,
must be only guesscs and conjectures.
But there is something which seems
to be more definite. Translate from
the French, the substance of some
experiments made by some one---a
Frenchman, l presume-and pub
lishedin French paper, in Louisiana:
''T had, at one time, cut, here and
there, the flowers of some potato
stalks, and found at digging time an
increased product Of tubers, when
compared with stalks not cut.
This result was in accordance with
my reasoning, for the object of ma
ture is sole the reproduction of seed.
If the flower be cut, and of course
the sced.balls prevented from form.
ing, the strength of the plant will GO
to the forming of tubers, augment
ing the size, or increasing the num-
Der.
my first success encouraged me
to try again, selected piece OF
ground Of uniform richness, and OF
sufficient size TO make q fair trial
This l planted with one variety, "a
long potato with a reddish skin, and
yellow inside. Zone would infer
from the description that it was o
coarse kind of potato, and, which ]
think, are more disposed to produce
seed-balls than the finer sorts Al
the time of blowing, I cut the stalk
three or four inches below the bios
som, leaving, here and there, two
stalks in each of the rows with the
stalks not cut.
Early in October the plants which
had had the flowers removed, were
Of bright green, whilst the Others
were yellow and dying.
"As the digging time, the hills
where the flowers had been cut, gave
much greater yield than those
which had not been so treated, ant
also were noticeably of larger size
The same experiment was continued
the next year, and with like result.
This is remarkable enough t,
make it worth while for those VIII,
have leisure, to pursue the investga
ton, and see if the same effects car
be uniformly attained. Probabl,
The difference would be more notice
able in some varieties than in others
JOSEPH WooD.