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Page 55
We all know how numerous have been the varieties of potato
introduced into this country of late years--many kinds sent out at
first at the rate of one or more dollars per pound. I amuse myself
by trying several of these novelties (after they become cheap)
every year, and one season raised very early crops of excellent
potatoes from the Vanguard and Pearl of Savoy. The Early Rose and
Early Vermont have long been favorites. They resemble each other
very closely. I have had excellent success with the Beauty of
Hebron. It is a good plan to learn what varieties succeed well in
our own neighborhood, and then to plant chiefly of such kinds; we
may then add to our zest by trying a few novelties.
Not only much reading on the subject, but also my own observation,
and the general law that "like produces like," lead me to indorse
the practice of planting large tubers cut into sets containing one
or more eyes, or buds. The eye of a potato is a bud from which the
plant grows; and the stronger backing it has, the stronger and
more able is the plant to evolve new fine tubers through the
action of its roots and foliage. A small potato has many immature
buds, which as a rule produce feeble plants.
The potato will grow on almost any soil; but a dry, rich, sandy
loam gives the best, if not the largest, yield. I do not think the
potato can be planted too early after the ground is fit to work.
One spring I was able to get in several rows the 15th of March,
and I never had a finer yield. I observe that Mr. Harris strongly
indorses this plan.
Nearly every one has his system of planting. There is no necessity
for explaining these methods. I will briefly give mine, for what
it is worth. I prefer warm, well-drained soils. Plow deeply in
autumn, also in spring; harrow and pulverize the ground as
completely as possible; then open the furrows with the same heavy
plow, sinking it to the beam, and going twice in the furrow. This,
of course, would make too deep a trench in which to place the
sets, but the soil has been deepened and pulverized at least
fourteen inches. A man next goes along with a cart or barrow of
well-decayed compost (not very raw manure), which is scattered
freely in the deep furrows; then through these a corn-plow is run,
to mingle the fertilizer with the soil. By this course the furrows
are partially filled with loose, friable soil and manure, and they
average four or five inches in depth. The sets are planted at once
eight inches apart, the eye turned upward, and the cut part down.
The sets are then covered with three or four inches of fine soil,
not with sods and stones. When the plants are two or three inches
high, they receive their first hoeing, which merely levels the
ground evenly. The next cultivation is performed by both corn-plow
and hoe. In the final working I do not permit a sharp-slanting
slope from the plants downward, so that the rain is kept from
reaching the roots. There is a broad hilling up, so as to have a
slope inward toward the plants, as well as away from them. This
method, with the deep, loosened soil beneath the plants, secures
against drought, while the decayed fertilizers give a strong and
immediate growth.
Of course we have to fight the potato, or Colorado, beetle during
the growing season. This we do with Paris green applied in liquid
form, a heaping teaspoonful to a pail of water.
In taking up and storing potatoes a very common error is fallen
into. Sometimes even growing tubers are so exposed to sun and
light that they become green. In this condition they are not only
worthless, but poisonous. If long exposed to light after being
dug, the solanine principle, which exists chiefly in the stems and
leaves, is developed in the tubers. The more they are in the
light, the less value they possess, until they become worse than
worthless. They should be dug, if possible, on a dry day, picked
up promptly and carried to a dry, cool, DARK cellar. If stored on
floors of outbuldings, the light should be excluded. Potatoes that
are long exposed to light before the shops of dealers are injured.
Barrels, etc., containing them should be covered; if spread on the
barn-floor, or in places which can not be darkened, throw straw or
some other litter over them.
There is no occasion to say much about lettuce. It is a vegetable
which any one can raise who will sow the seed a quarter of an inch
deep. I have sowed the seed in September, wintered the plants over
in cold-frames, and by giving a little heat, I had an abundance of
heads to sell in February and March. For ordinary home uses it is
necessary only to sow the seed on a warm, rich spot as soon as the
frost is out, and you will quickly have plenty of tender foliage.
This we may begin to thin out as soon as the plants are three or
four inches high, until a foot of space is left between the
plants, which, if of a cabbage variety, will speedily make a
large, crisp head. To maintain a supply, sowings can be made every
two weeks till the middle of August. Hardy plants, which may be
set out like cabbages, are to be obtained in March and April from
nurserymen. Henderson recommends the following varieties:
Henderson's New York, Black-seeded Simpson, Salamander, and All
the Year Round. I would also add the Black-seeded Butter Lettuce.
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