St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1902-03-15
FARMER AND PLANTER.
ABOUT LATE IRISH POTATOES.
The Advantages of the Tubers as =
Southern Farm Crop Are Not
to BE Overestimated.

Southern Farm Crop Are Not
to Be Overestimated.
The many and great advantages OF
the late Irish potato crop south can
hardly be over-estimated. In the first
place potatoes dug in November will
keep perfectly all winter in barrels
or boxes in a closed house. The tenn
perature may go down to freezing,
but if the barrels are covered there
will be little if any danger of injury.
In fact Irish potatoes need to be kept
cool. We have kept them perfectly
piled up under a shed and covered
with only about one foot of pine
straw.
This wonderful keeping quality OF
the late Irish potato enables the
grower to market them to advantage.
There is at least six months in which
to dispose of the crop, and the grow
er can watch the market and place
them when the price is good. Another
advantage of this crop is that our
southern home market throughout
the winter is the best in the country
for Irish potatoes. The price last
winter in Atlanta ranged from IS
cents to 81 per bushel, while at pres
ent, owing to the short crop north,
they are bringing $1.40 per bushel.
The south is large consumer of
this vegetable, and throughout the
winter the supply has come principal
ly from the north and west. The city
of Atlanta alone consumes between
two and three carloads day during
this period.
Outside of the market and keeping
qualities, we have the further ad-
vantage of being able to grow these
potatoes on land which has already
made crop of something else. This
year we planted them after early
cabbage and turnips. The land for
these crops has been heavily ma
nured with heterogeneous fertilizers,
and after the cabbages were off we
replowed and worked the land down
fine. 1t was not necessary here to
use ammonia on the potatoes, there
being already an abundance of this
element in the soil. The land was of
sandy character, and on such land
potash always shows a marked ef-
feet, especially on a root crop like
potatoes. We therefore only used
acid phosphate and muriate of pot
ash in preparing our fertilizer, and
applied it at the rate of eight hun
dred pounds per acre. A fertilizer
for this crop on such land should
analyze about ten per cent. phos-
phoric acid and eight per cent. pot
ash. For the early potato crop the
fertilizer should contain ammonia
also, about three or four per cent,
and for the late crop, where the land
is deficient in this element.
There are thousands of acres of
sandy loan land all over the south
on which these late potatoes can be
grown to perfection with proper at
tention and fertilizer. I am firmly
convinced that the time is not far
distant when the south will grow all
of her Irish potatoes, both early and
late, as well.
The potato referred to in this in
stance is not the late potato usually
known as the second crop, but late
variety called the Lookout Mountain,
which produces but one crop in a
season, the seed being kept over and
planted between the Goth of July and
the 18th of August. The second crop
of such varieties as Early Rose, Bliss
Triumph, Early Ohio and others can
also be made very remunerative, and
deserves more attention from our
southern farmers, especially for seed
purposes, for the next spring plant
ing. This second crop seed is much
superior to the northern-grown
stock, in that they produce fewer
small potatoes, are earlier, and the
vines are much more thrifty.
Side by side in the same field this
year the northern and southern
grown seed produced potatoes which
looked like different varieties al
though they were of the same sort.
Altogether, the late Irish potato at
the south furnishes field for enter
prise worthy of the earnest atten-
ton of our farmers.-F. j. Merriam,
in Southern Cu1tiyat0r