The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1881-05-14
Late and Early Varieties Of Potatoes.

Persons who raise potatoes on large
scale with the intention of supplying
the market, would do well to plant
sparingly of the varieties. The earliest
potatoes on the market come from the
Bermuda Islands, Florida. and the other
Gulf States. They are not especially
fine, but they command fancy prices as
all articles purchased out of season do.
From the middle of june till late in the
fall the market is generally glutted with
early potatoes. The first that come are
but half grown, and their skins are
easily bruised and discolored on the
slightest provocation. They are much
less desirable than old potatoes of late
varieties that were well ripened and
preserved in pits or cool cellars. They
are in no condition to ship or to keep
any considerable time. As articles Of
food they are very poor. They contain
little starch and are completely lacking
in the nutty flavor common to we'll
matured tubers. The demand for good
specimens of early potatoes is limited.
and is generally well supplied by mar
ket gardeners and small farmers who
live near large towns. who bring them
in on wagons when they come to trade.
Late potatoes, on the contrary, possess
keeping qualities. As there is always
supply of early potatoes, there is no
inducement to send late ones to market
till they are thoroughly matured and
well ripened. Their skins are then
firm and they win stand handling with
out apparent injury. A Connecticut
correspondent of an Eastern paper COM
menting on this subject writes:
For some years past producers of new
varieties of potatoes seem to have made
earliness one of the main points sought
for, and they have succeeded in bringing
out quite q number of excellent varie-
ties that are remarkably early. Early
maturity in some cases is desirable, but
for general crop, which is not to be
marketed until winter, l see nothing
gained by il, except that the bugs have
shorter time to feed on the vines.
Market gardeners want q crop that
ripens early, SO do people who live in
high northern latitudes, but for this
climate for a general crop prefer the
larger stalked, later growing varieties.
The Early Rose, Beauty of Hebron, and
quite number of other vaieties, ma
ture with us and the stalks dry up in
July, but they are seldom dug before
September Is, so that for six weeks or
more the ground lies idle and bare, un-
less, as is often the case, weeds come in
and take possession. The Late Rose,
Burbank, and similar varieties, mature
early enough for the main crop, keep
the ground shaded longer. and as o
general thing yield better than the early
varieties. OF course it costs no more
to fertilize and cultivate crop of late
potatoes Than it does crop of early
ones. Another objection to the early
varieties is the tendency to sprout and
grow in the cellar during the winter
and spring. The shorter the time in
which crop of potatoes can be matured
the better the quality viii be. 1t is
therefore not advisable to plant them
till the weather is moderately warm and
the soil in good condition to be worked.
The application of suitable lnanures is
desirable not only for increasing the
product of q field but for causing the
plants and tubers to mature as fast as
possible. Seasons of protracted drouth
are very unfavorable for the production
of potatoes, as they cause q delay in
their growth. The best potatoes found
in any market come from regions where
the seasons are short and where drouths
do not ordinarily occur. The poorest
are raised where the climate is very
changeabIe and where cold rains are
succeeded by intense heat and long
periods of dryness. The most northern
States and Territories produce the best
potatoes for the reason that the climate
isfavorable to q continuous growtl,. With
the exception of the earlier varieties
that mature before very hot and dry
weather occurs, potatoes are an unprofit-
able crop in most of the Southern
States. Chicago Times.