Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1874-02-13
Potatoes and Potato Culture.

A FEW weeks hence our farmers must
commence planting potatoes for this
years crop. Perhaps all have their own
settled opinions in regard to the best va
rieties and system of culture, which no
words of ours can change. But it may
not be amiss for farmers to consider why
changes both in varieties and culture
have been made during the past few
years; also, whether we are really making
progress or merely repeating what has
been done many times before. AS Is we'll
known, the potato is native of cool
climates, although not what we would
term cold ones, being found growing
wild in high mountain ranges in tropical
countries; hence we find that it succeeds
far better in the extreme northern part of
the Union than in the Middle or Southern
States. Vermont can beat Virginia any
time in grow ing our common potato
simply because the climate is more con-
genial to its growth. Sell certainly has
some effect upon the quality of the tuber
as well as upon it's size, but Vermont
soils are no richer or better adapted to
the growth of potatoes than much which
can be found in regions where this plant
does not thrive; therefore we must attrib-
ute more to the effect of climate in the
production of the best potatoes which
come to market than to soils. There was
also a time when a majority of farmers
thought 1t necessary to plant whole tubers
for seed in order to obtain large Weld,
although there were a few equally sue
cessful who always persisted in cutting
up the tubers for planting.
The thousands of experiments made in
the past ten years to ascertain the truth in
n q hn old
potato culture have proved conclus1velv
that moderate sized section of large
tuber was as good if not better for plant
ing than whole one. The largest yield
of potatoes on record was produced from
planting single eyes Of a tuber, and only
one in hill.
Science, the handmade of all progress
i've movements in agriculture as we'll as
in other departments of labor, has also
fully demonstrated that potato tuber is
not an individual seed any more than an
ear OF corn is one, but that each bud is
| really seed as much as kernel of corn,
| and as capable of producing as strong
| and vigorous individual plants when
separated from the parent tuber as corn is
when taken from the cob. If tuber is
| planted entire, only a small number of
| the buds terminate; the others perish or
are suppressed through an overgrowth of
their fellows.
Now these facts are patent to every
man who has given the subject careful
consideration, either theoretically or
| practically; and no matter who or how
many may decry them, they will remain
facts as firmly established as the Atlantic
cable, the Pacific Railroad, or any of the
numerous other great achievements
which were for years pronounced
impossible. We know that there are
few farmers who still adhere
to the old plan of planting whole
potatoes, and claim that cutting the
tubers is an unnatural process, which is
likely to cause degeneration and disease;
but we would remind them that cultivat-
ing plants at all is in itself an unnatural
process. though by its aid we have been
able to surround ourselves with nearly all
the comforts of civilized life. We have
no more desire to see our cultivated fruits,
flowers, and vegetables go back to their
wild condition than to see civilized
nations relapse into barbarism We have
claimed, and still hold to the opinion,
that thousands of bushels are wasted
every year by planting whole tubers.
This waste will probably continue until
all learn, not economy merely, but the
utter folly of planting whole tubers for
seed. 8
1t is true that instances are not wanting
where whole tubers have produced more
than pieces, but these are only exceptions
to the general rule, just as small, inferior
tubers have occasionally produced as
much as the large and perfect ones; but
no good farmer would at the present daf
advocate the continued use of small half
matured potatoes for seed. We would
not, however, use the very large, over