The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1896-10-10
THE QUEEN STATE
vi the Great Southwest, Arkansas
a Chapter on Its Resources.
DeFeiopment of Potato Growlng--Its Pork
ffoduetion-The Effect of the Drouth
OF 1904 Splendid Field for
Taper Man ufactoress

OF 1864 Splendid Field for
Paper Man ufactories
As the tourist travels up the valley of
the Arkansas, from Little Rock toward
toft smith, he passes by easy gradients
from the nearly level al1uvial plains.
inc cotton growing regions of eastern
Arkansas, to the foot hills of the Bos-
ton mountains, nearly thousand feet
ABOVE the point from which he started;
and, then if he takes horse and rides
north or south 20 miles, away from the
river, he goes up 400 or 500 feet more,
TO the tops of the plateaus of the Bos-
ton mountains on the one side or the
Petlt Jean mountains on the other.
lie has passed into the fruit regions,
the land of apples and peaches, and, in
addition to fruit, he finds here a re-
markably healthful climate, pietur-
esque scenery, pure water, fine building
stone, brick clays, and a wealth of tim
Der unsurpassed by any in the United
States.
When the writer came into this state
20 years ago, it was said that the
only kind of potatoes excepting sweet
potatoes) that could be raised here
were the very early ones. "Plant them
In February, and sell or eat them Just
as soon as they are ripe, - said the know
ing ones, for they won't keep"
Now. few facts: Not taking now
the experience of such men as Mr.. A.
". Poole, of Ozark, who raises each
year late Irish potatoes to the tune of
some 10000 to 10000 bushels; but, stop
ping off the train at GAINESVILLE, in
johnson county, we will interview Mr..
George Payne, who lives back ION the
mountain" north of town about ~ miles,
and learn from him what a poor man
can do in the way of raising potatoes
upon one of these mountain farms
He SAYS: 81 planted last year 1888,
seven acres of Irish potatoes of the
Peerless variety. l got them in by the
10th OF June, myself and boy IA years
old doing all the work of blowing,
planting and cultivating them.
Il used no manure or other fertilizer
whateYer-have never used any ON nay
land-but worked them as well as l
could among the old stumps and roots
in the field, and they were good ripe
before frost.
Il then hired two men eight days
each, and we dug and put in my cellar
and in pits $40 bushels of fine large
merehantable potatoes. My way of
digging them was to first take bull
tongue pillow and run each side, and
then a shovel pillow down the center of
the rows, turning them out, l sold
them at an average price of so cents a
bushel.
"Myself and boy also raised IS acres
of corn, which was good full crop"
Mr.. Schultz, a merchant of Clarks-
Vile, who used also to live "on the
mountain" and was successful farmer
there, told me that Mr.. Payne has been
raising like crops of potatoes on the
same land for the past eight years, get
ting an average of 100 bushels per acre,
by rotating his crops, SO as not to grow
potatoes ON the same ground oftener
than once in three or four years; and
others have raised like crops of Peer
less, of the round, red Triumph, and of
the Victor, large, strong growing
blue-eoated potato, of which Mr.. Schultz
showed me in his store a sample lot of
10 bushels, which he had just bought.
Nearer the river MIR. Treimer raised
last year, on bottom chocolate sandy
land" 400 bushels of good merchant
able potatoes from one acre. He got
this yield by planting two crops on the
same ground the same season, getting
225 bushels the first crop, and 175 the
second, and here, also, no manure or
fertilizer had ever been used.
The moral of this story is, that such
land as this which can now be bought
at from IS. so to S. per acre in johnson,
or any of the neighboring counties in
the upper valley of the Arkansas, will
produce oodlc- Of superb late Irish po-
tatoes; and it is found that by putting
them into potato houses, or cellars with
double walls, where they can be kept
at an even cool temperature above the
freezing point, they can be, and are
kept for from six to twelve months in
prime condition, and that they are bet
ter for seed the next year than north
crn grown potatoes.