The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1888-04-05

Not Il great many years ago it was the
practice to plant whole potatoes in such
quantities rs to form quite Il 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 tthe best results
may be obtained. Owing to the short
crop of last year, seed will be high, and it
will be Il good time to plant whole small
potatoes, such as have been given to the
pigs in plentiful years, and with many
persons they have all along been preferred
TO cut seeds Planting Irish and Scotch
grown seeds is unsafe, rs those who have
experimental with them generally repre-
sent them as unsuitcd to our climate.
There is general agreement on rows
about three and half feet apart, with
hills twelve inches apart in the rows, and
one or two eyes in n hill, while at the
same time occasional trials with whole
seed have yielded larger crops; but so
long rs cut seed proves satisfactory ma
jority will no doubt continue its use. 1t
is of no use to plant potatoes on wet,
heavy soil; while the ground should not
be excessively rich, it should be clean,
dry and mellow, and gen rCusly fer
tilted. Where barn yard manure is
used. which contains all the necessary
elements, it should be well rOtted and
decompOscd rs in its green state it is liable
to cause sclbby potatoes; where this is
not plentiful some reliable commercial ar
ticlp should take its place. Another quite
good plan is to spread the barn yard ma
nure and plough it under, and at planting,
drill the commercial kind moderately in
the rows. This method is practiCed in
many sections and by it the tubers get the
advantages of both kinds of fertilizers,
first from the quicker action of the highly
concentrated one, and later on from that
of the barn yard, II moderate application
of both being thought better than the use
of either one by itself.
A successful potato grower in Union
county, New Jersey, says his practice for
several years has been to plant only one
eve to Il hill cut from the butts Of large
potatoes, not using the other end with its
more numerous eyes at all. He puts in
the rows 600 pounds Of some well
known brand of commercial manure to
the acre, mixes it with the dirt in the
rows by drawing chain through before
dropping the seed, and using no other
kind He has always had good crops,
even including the present untavorable
year, and believes he can prolitably use Il
ton to the acre of commercial fertilizers
whenever the average price of potatoes in
this section can be obtained for his crop.
The potato has the habit of degenerate
ing to degree that has caused the best
and fnyOrite varieties of former times to
become obsolete so that even their names
are scarcely remembered, and some of tie
more recent ones, such rs the Peach Blow
and Early Rose, are giving place to newer
Seeding varieties, to be themselves dis
placed hereafter in the same way. If we
were dependent on the tubers alone for
the propagation of the potato this would
be an alarming fact, but fortunately we
have in the seed the ready means of re-
juveuatng the species, and the more than
800 new varieties. many of them Surpass-
ing the former eNceilelcies of the parent
stock. attest the success of potato special
lists in this direction.
In states where the crop can be har-
vested in May or June, and sometimes rs
late rs July. il is becoming somewhat
common to raise a second crop by expos
ing the small potatoes to the air-but not
70 the suu--for a couple of weeks or
longer. until they become dry and green
In color These are then planted whole,
and are dug I'm the fall for seeds the neNt
year. This seed hasno the same tendency
10 sproui through hewinter from warm