Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1869-01-28

Z
is no habit of the plant, whether natural
to it, or produced by culture, which is
more fatal to its productiveness. An ex-
animation of the roots of the plants will
show that the tuber grows upon the ex-
tremity of a root that the only way in
which nourishment reaches it, is from the
downward movement of the sap from the
stem. It would seem that this downward
moving sap is INSTRUCTED when the stem
is long, and especially when, by falling
upon the ground, in the concavity be-
tween the hills or rows, the sap is forced
to move upwards in a certain part of its
course.
There is a tendency also,in long stems,
bending down in an early part Of their
growth to send out new roots at the
I axillae, and thus produce second settings
/ to in terfere with the growth of those first
sets, or else to exhaust the sap in the pro-
ductiou of small tubcrs in the axill@
| themselves.
For these reasons in my judgment,
those varieties which tend to grow with
t long. trailing stems, should be discarded
unless they have some quality, like the
peach-b low, which render them desirable
in the fl .ce of this great objection.
/ The 70 lowing discussion ensued upon
the 1st point of the Presidents treatise ::
Mr.. La ndon thought that sometimes
long vines produced a large number OF
potatoes; bat as general thing, in his
opinion, / ,ngthy vines are detrimental to
the size of POTATOES.
Col. Me ri tt, gave, an account OF eXper-
iments VIII icl he made during the past
summer, and which were substantially as
follows: On t he Goth OF April, 1868, he
planted two re VS. Of the Early Rose, two
rows Of the Ia rly Goodrich, TWO rows OF
the Jackson WI ites, two rows Of the Chili
and tw o rows of the Peach-blows, one eye
in thc-hiu, and three feet apart. THIS
test was for the purpose of seeing the
re lative Weld fro II a small quantity OF
seed. When the Early Rose was of the
! size OF an egg, he punctured a hin Of the
Early Goodrich, mi found them no larger
than pea. The Early Rose had an erect
gre with Of fifteen inches in height, branch
inge out like the Ii nbs Of tree. very firm
an 4 stout at the paee. and yielded at the
rs IT, Of j4t bushels to the acre Tho Early
Goodrich had long trailing vine, having
The appearance of windfail between the
+ hills and rows the stems were very small
/ at the base, not hay ing strength enough
to hold the stalk erect the yield was at
the rate of PIP bush els Ia the acre, and
very poor at that, The Jackson White
had the same general appearance a. the
Early Goodrich, and yielded ii the rate Of
from 1870 to 40 bushels 10 the acre. The
Chill had q stem more erect than either
the Early Rose or Early Goodrich, but
not as much as the Early Rose and yield
ed at the rate Of l6Q bushels 10 the acre
The Pclch-blow WAS a confused mass Of
vines, and looked rs though whirlwiui
had been over the field. they laying in
every direction and were not worth the
digging for marketable potatoes. Col
MerrittS opinion was tnat short stout
STEM with an erect growth, seemed TO be
a direct concomitlut of It. large yield.
Mr. Hubbard thought that short.
stout. stubbed growth was preferred, and
that a large running vine was Is poor
bearer.
Mr. Everts said that he had never i'll
vestigated the subject in reference to the
productivcncs- Of long and short vines.
/ The next great quality is freedom from
rot 1t Is the tendency ,o the rot that has
substantially driven the Garter" from
general cultivation. The President said
This tendency seems to Toe inherent i'll
some varieties from the very beginning
This tendency, again, seems to superyeno
more orlcs upon all kinds of too long Gull
tivation i'll one place This supervening
tendency i. but the special expression Of
the general tendency III this direction, a.
our lands are cropped. year after year,with
this plant. 1t is Il deterioration which
attaches 20 all plants. People talk Of the
great crops they used To raise in olden
times. ana of the utter absence of any
thing like rot but they forget that at
that time their lands were virgin lands
A. to the pDtato. The same deterioration
has taken place ~ TO wheat, both i'll guam
ity and III diseases
1t is probable. if not indeed ""rtai". +.
hat the relative quantities Of the nutri-
tive elements of the plant vary III the
several varieties, i. e.; that one variety eX-
haust~ the soil more rapidly OF its lime, or .
! potash, or 1nagnesia. than others; and that
I hus one variety planted too long upon
t he same land. ro0S it Of the just proper
I ion of some one of the elements of plant
growth, and thus renders the soil barren
rs to the one variety, as well Is makes
that variety, as III the particular locality.
more subject to disease. For it Is a well
known and general law, that whatever
disturbs the ust proportion of the nutri-
tive elements Of plant or animal growth
affects that growth auantitatively and
qualitatively as we'll Now this relation of
food elements to particular varieties may
exist originally in the soil, or be produced
by cropping. Thus IL is that certain
varieties rot in one soil, other things
being equal, and not in another
and thus Il sort, free from rot at first,
comes, eventually, to be SO subject to dis
ease as to be discarded. Hence the wis
dom of frequent changing of seed or varie-
ties
1t is known also that tendency to rot is (
increased by overlooking the plants with
fresh or ammoniacal manures; and that in
respect to this influence there is differ
cnce in varieties or, in other words, it is
known that some varieties may be highly {
MANFRED without danger of the rot, while {
others, if MANFRED at all, with fresh dung,
or highly with old dung will rot badly.