The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-02-13
TIE irish" POTATO.
A Good Money Crop Under Favor
able Conditions.

Gooo money crop Under FaVor-
able Conditions.
A great many persons in the south are
very favorably situated for making the
growing Of Irish potatoes very profitable
business. Those who have good land close
to the railroad are the ones who can make
this business the most profitable Of course.
1t was never intended that every farmer
should engage in a like business There
must be diversity on the farm. One farmer
must make a speciality of one thing and
another farmer must make a speciality of
another. 1t will not do for every farmer
to gro " the same products. Over produc-
ton would Immediately result. 1t is fort
innate thing that every farmers taste does
not lie in the same direction.
With the rapid growth of this country,
however, and the constantly increasing
number of n-producers-thati is, non-pro-
ducers from the soil, there is no great dan
ger of f1rst-class food products being pro-
duced beyond the demand for them. There
is no reason for believing that first-class
food crops that are produced in good
merchantable condltion-that is of good
quality and good size-will fail to sell at
remunerative prices in this steadily grow
ing country.
1t is quite true that farmer land by the
term farmer" we mean every man who
desires an income. a support from the Guilt
walton of the soil, may in his effort to find
more profitable crops than cotton and
corn and wheat and oats and the like fail
to grow the new crops that ne ventures
upon to that merchantable size and quality
that would insure the ready sale and profits
able prices that he counted on. II this
should happen to be the case ne must &C
cept his failure as his misfortune and seek
to apply the only remedy applicable to the
case He must acquire the necessary iu-
formation as to how to produce merchant
able crops.
He must prepare his land better. He
must use more manure. He must cultivate
more scientifically. he must make his
crops merchantable.
Hundreds Of TRUCKERS" in the south have
made money by raising fiTst-quslity Irish
potatoes, and in the coming time there are
hundreds and thousands more who will find
it doubtless one of the most profitable
features of their field culture.
We know of many who have undertaken
to grow Irish potatoes for northern mar
kets who did not make a success of IL for
the simple reason that they did not grow a
merchanLable quality of potatoes we're not
business men enough to ship and sell them
TO advantage even when they bad made good
crops. 1t is one thing to make good crop
and altogether another thing to market it
to advantage.
Vulnerable that are making good hvings
out of very small areas of land, in many in
stances out of not more than one acre. and
from this up TO ten or twenty. They are
experts in their special line Of work, and
every man must become an expert before
he can make the best of his business.
An acre Of ground that produces bale of
cotton without manure, can be made to
produce readily 300 bushels OF merchantable
Irish potatoes with the use OF $l5 or $50 of
good fertilizers. At the present prices of
cotton bale Of cotton to the acre does not
represent al the best q clear profit OF more
than $50 or S25 per acre. with the best sys-
tenn of cultivation possible. The majoritg
of farmers will not clear that much even ia
such land. Now even 800 bushel crop of
potatoes ought to clear the grower at the
lowest calculation $3.50. Oftentimes it will
do better than this, but we do not desire to
exaggerRte the result.
Cotton requires the land all the year, the
potatoes less than six months, and fine
crop of something else can be grown as a
second crop on the land.
In the south the first crop of potatoes is
planted either in January or February. In
Southern Georgia and Florida January is
the month, but north of the 32d degree Feb.
] 70 Feb. Is is the most suitable period for
planting the first crop, until the 35th or Both
parallel is reached. Above that line March
planting is more appropriate.
The writer of this article has grown many
thousands of bushels of Irish potatoes in the
past twenty years either as first or Sec
ond crop, and about the first thing he
learned in reference to the crop was the
utter uselessness Of attempting TO grow it
without adequate preparation Of the soil
and judiclous manuring OF it. There is
very little land In the south naturally rich
enough to grow large crops Of potatoes,