Potato field

“ But, though my sunflowers and my tomato vines suffered as I have narrated, my potatoes were doing finely. The potato patch is located in the back yard, near the poplar trees; it is in the shape of the Big Dipper, and I took the precaution to plant the potatoes in the new of the moon. The first planting never amounted to anything, for the reason that I peeled them and cut out the eyes before putting them in their hills. I learned subsequently that this was as fatal a course as it were possible to pursue. You must never peel potatoes or cut out their eyes if you want them to grow. ”

“ The potato endures some frost, but one has, for an early crop, to guard against the locations subject to hard freezing. Most of our potatoes are grown without irrigation because, on uplands, winter temperatures favor their growing during the rainy season. The middle-season and late potatoes are grown on moist lowlands where irrigation is not necessary. In proper situations, much of the land which is used for potatoes has at some time produced wheat or barley, corn or sorghum, and other field crops. ”

“ The part of the Potato employed for planting is not a matter of indifference. It was found, by an experiment made in the garden of the Horticultural Society, that sets taken from the points of the tubers, and planted early in the season, yielded at the rate of upwards of three tons per acre more produce than was obtained from employing the opposite end of the tubers. ”

“ Where corn is followed by sweet potatoes in the rotation, stable manure should be applied while fitting the land for the corn, and commercial fertilizers should be applied with the sweet potato crop.
The usual depth of plowing in preparing land for corn will prove satisfactory for sweet potatoes. The fact that sweet potatoes are not planted in the field until quite late in the spring makes it possible for the grower to select a time when conditions are favorable for the preparation of the land. Plowing may be deferred until the soil has become sufficiently dry to break up fine and mellow. ”

“ Soil.—The soils best suited to the Potato are of the dryer and lighter descriptions; pasture lands, or new land, with the turf freshly turned, producing the most abundant as well as the most certain crops. On land of a stiff, clayey texture, or in wet soils, they are not only extremely liable to disease, but the quality is usually very inferior. "On soils which have been long cropped and heavily manured, they rarely succeed well; and hence garden ground, in most cases, does not produce tubers of so good quality as those obtained from the fields." ”

“ Drying has a bad effect on the skin of the Potato; for, if subjected to this, the skin and part of the epidermis are made to part with their natural juices, which ever afterwards renders them incapable of absorbing moisture, even if presented to them. Fermentation is also an important evil to be guarded against, as it changes the whole substance of the Potato, and, so far as seed potatoes are concerned, destroys their vegetative principle. ”

“ So we have been unconsciously harbouring the potato disease in permitting the haulm and foliage to decay on the field or in dungheaps, which left the undecaying oospores behind ready to start into life when the proper conditions were present. ”

“ If this produce be eaten by hogs, or cows, or sheep, for all are equally fond of potatoes, I entertain no doubt whatever that it will afford twenty times as much animal food as the same extent of the same ground would have yielded in permanent pasture; and I am perfectly satisfied, upon the evidence of facts which I have recently ascertained, that, if the whole of the manure afforded by the crops of potatoes above-mentioned be returned to the field, it will be capable of affording as good, and even a better, crop in the present year than it did in the last ”

“ In my opinion, in about six or eight years they will be as bad as the Rocks are now. The soil was kindly and dry, the field well ventilated, and we used farm-yard manure, sowed the seed in beginning of April; but weather turned in dry and cold, and it did not braird till the rain came, which was about a month after. I sowed the seed like turnip, in drills with deep track in centre ”

“ It is traceable mainly to poverty of the soil in certain ingredients imperatively needed by the crop for its best development, and to the pernicious effect of enriching with nitrogenous manures. Any one who will plant on suitably dry soil, enriched only with forest-leaves, sea-weeds, or [Pg 4] by plowing under green crops until the whole soil to a proper depth is completely filled with vegetable matter, will find to his satisfaction that the potato can yet be grown in all its pristine vigor and productiveness. ”

“ Before inquiring whether the liberal covenant, in conjunction with the Auchness husbandry, will meet the emergency, we must look a little at your further illustrations of high farming. You seem, now, not so very confident of the propriety and prudence of devoting such a disproportionate extent to the culture of potatoes. It is notorious that the potato has been for many years the most uncertain and precarious of all crops; that again and again, in all kinds of soil, and under all kinds of treatment, it has utterly perished in the earth, and entailed a grievous loss upon the farmer. ”

“ It is best to prepare the land deeply, to plant deep, and then to practice nearly or quite level culture. The practice of hilling up potatoes, so common in most parts of the country, is to be discouraged, usually, because it is wasteful of moisture and the tubers do not grow in the coolest part of the soil. For very early potatoes, hilling-up may be allowable. Till the soil very often to save the moisture. For the philosophy of this, see Leaflet No. IX.
Not infrequently the potato is seriously injured by blights which attack the leaves. ”

“ The tops contain a great deal of potash, and should always be plowed in and decay in the soil where they grow, otherwise they will rapidly exhaust the land. It is supposed that nothing will do more to restore the former vigor and health of the potato than a liberal [Pg 364] application of potash in the soil in which they grow. The crop will be much increased in a dry season by manuring in the hill, dropping the potato first and putting the manure on the top of it. ”

“ On rather poor, sandy soil, manured in the hill with wood-ashes, common salt, and plaster only, it will produce in ordinary seasons two hundred bushels per acre of sound, merchantable tubers, that will always command the highest market price. Any potato cultivated for a long series of years will gradually become finer in texture and better in quality; but its liability to disease will also be greatly increased. ”

“ To make potato-growing profitable in these times of high prices of land and labor, it is absolutely necessary that the soil be in every way fitted to meet any and all demands of the crop.
It is said that in the State of Maine, previous to the appearance of the potato disease, and before the soil had become exhausted by continued cropping, potatoes yielded an average of four hundred bushels per acre. Now, every observer is aware that the present average yield of the same vegetable is much less than half what it was formerly. ”

“ Potatoes are a laborious crop, requiring constant care, manuring, cutting the seed eyes (on which there is much uncertain lore) , hilling up or down according to drainage and rainfall, spraying with Pyrox or dusting with Paris green, and, neither least nor last, bug hunting.
The seed is expensive, but for your own use you may plant from whatever seed, otherwise wasted, may grow on the potato vine, on the tops of the plants. The crop will be small potatoes and all kinds of varieties, which won't sell in the market but which make each dinner a surprise party. ”

“ They are known by different names, and are not equally good in all localities. And all varieties are scattered over the whole country, very soon, by dealers, and through the agency of agricultural societies and periodicals. Different varieties should be kept separate, as they look better for market, and no two will cook in precisely the same time.
Plant the large potatoes and plant them whole. From a small eye or a small potato to the largest they will vegetate equally well. And in a wet, cool season, the small seed will produce nearly as good a crop as the large. ”

“ Propagation is by annually planting the tubers. No mixture of sorts ever takes place from planting different varieties together. This can only be done in the blossoms, and will consequently appear in young seedlings. To raise good potatoes, always plant ripe seed, and the largest and best, and leave them whole. Selecting small potatoes for seed, and cutting them up, and planting mere eyes and pearings as some do, has done much to injure the health, quality, and quantity of yield of the potato. Selecting the poorest for seed, will run out anything we grow in the soil. ”

“ The intelligent farmer, who grows large crops for market, will always so arrange as to have a clover-sod on dry land in high condition each year for potatoes. It is said by many, in regard to swine, that "the breed is in the trough;" though this is certainly untrue to a certain extent, yet it is undeniable that in potato-growing success or failure is in the character of soil chosen for their production. ”

“ Many growers argue that potatoes should be planted whole. The only plausible theory in support of whole seed is, that the few eyes that do start have a greater supply of starch available from which to obtain nutriment until the plant can draw support from the soil and atmosphere. But experiments also demonstrate that if all the eyes except one or two near the middle be cut out of the seed-potato, such seed will push with the greatest possible vigor. ”

“ Four months of mild weather, months free from frost and cold winds, are necessary for the growing of sweet potatoes. In a mild climate almost any loose, well-drained soil will produce them. A light, sandy loam, however, gives a cleaner potato and one, therefore, that sells better.
The sweet potato draws potash, nitrogen, and phosphoric acid from the soil, but in applying these as fertilizers the grower must study and know his own soil. If he does not he may waste both money and plant food by the addition of elements already present in sufficient quantity in the soil. ”

“ The planting is accomplished in the early spring after a thorough preparation of the seed bed by plowing to the usual depth, often subsoiling and reducing the surface of the soil to the proper tilth. The cuttings of potatoes or the whole potatoes are planted in rows to a depth of two or three inches, where they may sprout and even reach the surface at [289] a temperature which at times may fall below the frost point on the surface of the soil. The leaf of the potato, when it has once appeared above the surface of the soil, is very susceptible to the action of frost. ”

“ The potato should have the best soil on the farm, since it is more exacting in this respect than the other staple crops and since the product of an acre is generally of greater value. The success of the potato is largely dependent on the crops preceding it in the rotation. If clover, cowpeas, or other leguminous plant is grown just preceding potatoes, its stubble furnishes organic matter and adds to the store of available nitrogen in the soil. ”

“ There is no line of farming in the irrigated districts that gives such marvelous profits as that of scientific potato production. With scientific knowledge which can certainly be acquired by experiments in supplying perfectly balanced plant food and maintaining soil fertility, the scientific principles of which are similar to those used by every successful breeder in feeding and fitting prize-winning stock; and with the proper proportions of plant foods—phosphates, nitrogen, and potash—in the soil as found in many parts of the West ”

“ Some of them grow as much as 200 acres each season; some of them agree with me that a branch of a plant is only a branch of an individual life, whether it be separated from the original stem or not;—almost all of them think that the potato in time "deteriorates," "degenerates," "wears out;" and they are unanimous in believing that new "varieties" should now be obtained from the seed. ”

“ It is a strong, vigorous grower; and one peculiarity of it is, that insects will not attack vines of this variety if other kinds are within reach.
Planted on extremely poor ground, it will, perhaps, yield more bushels of tubers, and those of better quality, than any other variety that could be planted on the same soil. Among all the old or new sorts, perhaps, no potato can be found that deteriorates so little in quality from maturity to maturity again. And, in fine, where only high quality with moderate yield are desired, it has few if any superiors. ”

“ All the women seem to be out of doors and sunburnt, toil-worn looking creatures they are, though they wear an expression of contentment, or rather resignation. The potato crop, on which these rural populations so largely depend for winter food, is fortunately good and abundant, and little else but potato and maize seem to be grown here. ”

“ I have also succeeded in obtaining varieties which do not vegetate till late in the spring, and which, nevertheless, acquire perfect or rather early maturity in autumn, and there are probably climates in which such varieties would be peculiarly valuable; and the ductility and obedience of this species of plant to human will is so great, that I doubt whether, by the Creation and selection of proper varieties, as abundant a produce might not be obtained within the limits of the frigid zone as in the torrid zone, of which the potato is a native. ”