The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1908-12-31
Aroostook Potato Raising.

AN>A~AHAA
with no lime rock in the soil, and conse-
uuently sour soil, bearing weeds and
grasses of the reddish Towering varle-
ties, and but few or no blue Towering
plants. The soil requires barn dressing
and lime to make it bear clover, unless
the soil has some lime rock in it and con-
sequent blue clay, which is ideal for
clover, but not for potatoes.
Potatoes are extremely sensitive, both
to the kind of soil they are grown in and
the kind of fertilizer used. Phosphates
of lime, bone or phosphate rock, are all
good and similar in nature, but when
dissolved with sulphuric acid, and thus
changed to superphosphate, they are
then ideal potato fertilizer. In short,
acid in the soil or in the fertilizer, or both,
is very important to potato growth.
But this may be easily overdone, because
it is the acid, or tendencv to acid, in the
sap of the vine and in the potato that is
evidently the prime cause OF rot. In
short, it is over culture. After carefully
watching the rust on potato vines, and
the resulting rot in the potato that fol-
lows in about ten days after the rust
strikes. am led to the conclusion that rust
is due mainly to oveheating the vine ut
occurs first in the hottest places thus
causing the sap to ferment and sour,
and the fermented sap goes Immediately
in hn11t fpn n9VS de-
velops a ferment rot in the potato,
whether the potato is dug or not, after
5he rust strikes the vine. The potato
resists the rot best when undisturbed.
4 similar rot may be produced by hur-
riedlv filling a cellar with newly dug
potatoes and shutting the cellar up
before they have had chance to dry out
and throw off the heat caused by the
first storing.
Once the potatoes are dried out and
cooled then the cellar should be closed up,
practically tight, and especially should
all light be shut off if you would keep
out the strong bitter favor and greenlsh
brown color that exposure to light pro-
duces.
But word more in regard to rot.
Some of the farmers up this way have
used a bordeaux mixture made OF salt
and lime. instead of vitirol and lime, and
claim that it IS better because the salt is
more cooling than vitirol. Lime tends to
sweeten and THIS resist the tendency to
ferment. have not yet tried the salt,
but the idea strikes me well.
Potatoes are extremely prone to breed
freaks: in other words, prone to varia-
ton. This fact makes any variety easy to
run out, and equally easy to improve by
careful selection of seed, soil or fertiliz-
er: but most readily with seed. | raise
the Green Mountains, and four years ago,
when cutting my seed in May, | noticed
that there had been remarkable differ
ence in the way different potatoes had
kept. Some We're bright, tender and
mealy, yet firm and unsprouted; others
badly sprouted and soft; some even
wrinkly, while others were hard, wat
cry, bpttle and cold, as though they were
dead. These last | think generally fail
30 terminate. l noticed few potatoes
in the lot that were beautiful creamy
color. with velvety skins, and eyes near
the surface, so that they could be peeled
without waste, and in shape fattened and
obong, thus readily cooked through before
breaking up. They felt firm and alive,
with sign Of sprouting. They struck
me as ideal potatoes, and planted them
by themselves for choice seed, and at
least one third of the yield was true to
the seeding, but the other two thirds
We're off in color, shape, texture, etc.
Then ! sampled these choice ones on the
liable, fall and spring, and there they
showed up equally well, and planted by
themselves all | had that next spring,
and larger percentage bred true to the
seeding. Last spring planted nothing
else, and when marketed my crop in
November think my potatoes We're the
handsomest lot in town. The largest
shipper in town handled them and he
li4Siil VIC lulS 10
what one can do in four years. or he can
let his crop practically run out in that
time; if, like the slovenly farmer, he first
sells all he can spare, then lives out of
the balance all winter and uses what he
has left for seed.
AS for seed the medium size is best.
The biggest potato in hill is biggest
because it is earliest, and if continuously
replanted breeds very early potato,
early to sprout and poor keeper. The
smallest potato is smallest because it is
latest. 1t is an excellent keeper and late
ssprouter, but if continuously replanted it
will make such a slow growing late po-
tato that the season is not long enough
to grew it. Therefore, to best preserve
a given variety you should use the me-
dunn size for seed.
This year dug my crop by hand, and
every hill | found that had ten good po-
tatoes or more in hill | laid out to
select my next years seed from. ] got
only four barrels in this way and hope
they will prove more prolific than the