The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1888-04-05
Different Modes of Potato Cultnre.


Not great many years ago it was the
practice to plant whole potatoes in such
quantities as to form quite 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 it
will he 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, as those who have
experimental with them generally repre-
sent them as unsuited to our climate.
There is general agreement on rows
about three and u half feet apart, with
hills twelve inches apart in the rows, and
one or two eyes in a hill, while at the
same time occasional trials with whole
seed have yielded larger crops but so
long as 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 generously fer
tilted Where barn yard manure is
used which contains all the necessary
elements, it should be well rotted and
decomposed, as in it's green state it is liable
to cause scabby potatoes; where this is
not plentiful some reliable commercial ar
ticle 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 practced 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, 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
eye to 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 900 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 untayorable
year, and believes he can proftably use Il
ton to the acre of commercial fertilizers
whenever the average price of potatoes in
this section can be obtained for ms crop
The potato has the habit OF degeherat-
ing to degree that has caused the best
aud favorite varieties of former times to
become obsolete, so that even Their names
are scarcely remembered, and some OF TIE
more recent ones, such as the Peach BLOW
and Early Rose, are giving place 10 newer
Seeding varieties, to be themselves dis
placed hereafter in the same way; IL we
were dependent on the tuoers alone Tor
the propagation OF the potato TINS would
be an alarming fact but fortunately we
have in the seed the ready means OF re-
| juvenating the species, and the more than
800 new varieties, many Oh taem surpass-
ing the former exceilencies OF the parent
stock, attest the success OF potato special
lists in this direction;
In states where the crop can can DC pei, mar "