News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1888-04-19
Potato Culture,

Not great many years ago 1t was the
practice to plant whole potatoes in such
quantities as to form quite a large per-
centage of the expected yield, which has
been succeeded at the present time by the
opposite extreme of planting single eyes,
leaving ample room between the two
methods for cultivatOrs to experiment as
to the amount of seed and the methods
of cultivation from which the best results
may be obtained. Owing to the short
crop OF last year, seed will be high and
1t will be a good time to plant whole
small potatoes, such as have been given
to the pigs in plentiful years and many
even now prefer them to cuttings, but
planting Irish and Scotch grown seed is
entirely unsafe, for the experience of
those who have experimental with them
has shown them unsuIted to our climate.
There is a general agreement on rows
about three aud half feet apart, with
hills twelve inches apart In the rows and
seed cut to one or two eyes in a hill,
while at the same time occasional trials
with whole seed have yielded larger
crops. Cutting the seed, however re-
quires a much less amount, and so long
as it proves satisfactory will doubtless
continue in a majority of cases. 1t is of
no use to plant potatoes on wet, heavy,
sour soils; the ground should be not too
rich, but clean, warm, dry and mellow,
and be well fertilized either with well
rotted barnyard manure, which is prefer
able to the same in its green state, the
latter often causing scabby tubers, and
when this manure is not plentiful those
made by reliable fertilizer companies are
by many preferred to the domestic ar
ticle. Another quite coed plan is to
spread the barnyard manure broadcast
and plOw it under, and at planting drill
the commercial kind moderately in the
rows, a method quite often followed in
Nova Scotia, where potatoes are largely
raised for expectation, and by which the
tubers get the advantages to be derived
from both kinds Of fertilizers, first, from
the concentrated and later from the nat
ural one, moderate application Of both
beng deemed better than to rely wholly
on one.
No potato manure can be called COM
plete that does not contain in its compo-
sitiOn, along with other constituents, due
proportions of nitrogen, potash and
phosphoric acid A succe- sful potato
grower in Union County, n. j., saws his
practice for several years has been to
plant only one eye to a hill, cut from the
butts of large 20 atOes, the other end
with its more numerous eyes not being
used for seed; and he used six hundred
pounds to the acre of some well known
brand of commercial manure, without
any other kind. and always got good
crops, even including last year; and this
gentleman believes he can proftably use
a ton to the acre when the average price
of potatoes in this section can be obtained
for his crop. Repeated experiments
will, however, be necessary to settle the .
question of discardiug any portion of the
potato as seed. The potato has the
habit OF degeneTating to a degree that
has caused the best and faYorite varieties
of former times TO become obsolete, so
that even their names are scarcely re-
membered, and some of the more recent
ones, such as the Peachblow and Early
Rose are giving place to newer Seeding .
varieties, TO lie themselves displaced
hereafter in the same way. If we were
dependent on the tubers alone for tue
propagation of the potato, this would be
an alarming fact: bat fortunately we
have in the seed the ready means of re-
juvenating the species, and the more
than five hundred new varieties, many of
them surprising the former excellencies
of the parent stock, attest the success Of
potato specialists il this direction.
In States, when the crop can be har-
vested in May or June and sometimes a.
late as July, it is becoming somewhat
common 10 raise a second crop by expos
ing the small potatoes to the air but OF
to the sun for a couple Of weeks or longer, (
until they become dry and green in color. !
when they are planted whole and are dug
in the fall, producing seed for the next /
year, which has not the same tendency 10 .
sprout in the winter from warm cellar. F..
as IS generally found in those fully ma
trred. As these partly grown potatoes ,
are slow in terminating soon after being .
dug it Is well to start them to sprouting, ,
which is done by putting them in bar !
rel placed III a cool spot and sprinkling
them every day, and covering with a
damp cloth until they show signs of ger /
mination, when they may be planted.
Flat and hill culture each has its advo-
Gates, and persons are more competent to
determine their own soils, than from any
advice that can DC given, aud for the
same reason no particular varieties will
be recommended for seed, except to say
that for the general crop select the one
which from your own experience and
that of your neighbors you know 10 be
well adapted to your soil and your mar
ket. This, however, is not to be under
stood as discouraging any one from test
ing in a moderate way the new varieties
recommended by we'll
known specialists, as it is only in this
manner that the best ran find their way
into general use.-New YGrk World.
Ennun and Cnudn,, Nntns