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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of
+the Potato; and How to Cook the Potato, by D. H. Compton and Pierre Blot
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato; and How to Cook the Potato
+
+
+Author: D. H. Compton and Pierre Blot
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 26, 2008  [eBook #25905]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE $100 PRIZE ESSAY ON THE
+CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO; AND HOW TO COOK THE POTATO***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Steven Giacomelli, Jeannie Howse, Irma Spehar, Janet
+Blenkinship, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
+Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA), Albert R. Mann Library,
+Cornell University (http://chla.library.cornell.edu/)
+
+
+
+http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=2923510
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed between tilde characters was in bold face in
+      the original (~bold face~).
+
+      [oe] represents the oe-ligature.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE $100. PRIZE ESSAY ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO.
+
+Prize offered by W. T. WYLIE and awarded to D. H. COMPTON.
+
+HOW TO COOK THE POTATO,
+
+_Furnished by Prof. BLOT._
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED. PRICE, 25 CENTS.
+
+New-York:
+ORANGE JUDD CO.,
+No. 751 BROADWAY.
+
+
+
+
+PRIZE ESSAY ON THE POTATO AND ITS CULTIVATION.
+
+$100.
+
+
+In the fall of 1868, I offered $100 as a prize for the best Essay on the
+Cultivation of the Potato, under conditions then published; the prize to
+be awarded by a committee composed of the following gentlemen, well
+known in agricultural circles:
+
+Colonel MASON C. WELD, Associate Editor of _American Agriculturist_.
+
+A. S. FULLER, ESQ., of Ridgewood, N. J., the popular author of several
+horticultural works, and Associate Editor of the _Hearth and Home_.
+
+Dr. F. M. HEXAMER, who has made the cultivation of the potato a special
+study.
+
+In the month of January, 1870, the committee awarded the prize to D. A.
+Compton; and this Essay is herewith submitted to the public in the hope
+of stimulating a more intelligent and successful cultivation of the
+Potato.
+
+                                       BELLEFONTE, PA., January, 1870.
+                                                          W. T. WYLIE.
+
+
+                                 OFFICE OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST,
+                                              NEW-YORK, January, 1870.
+
+
+     REV. W. T. WYLIE: DEAR SIR: The essays submitted to us by Mr.
+     Bliss, according to your announcement, numbered about twenty.
+     Several could not be called essays from their brevity, and others
+     were exceedingly incomplete. About twelve, however, required and
+     were worthy of careful consideration. That of Mr. D. A. Compton, of
+     Hawley, Wayne County, Pa., was, in the opinion of your committee,
+     decidedly superior to the others as a practical treatise, sure to
+     be of use to potato-growers in every part of the country, and well
+     worthy the liberal prize offered by yourself.
+
+                  In behalf of the committee, sincerely yours,
+                                            MASON C. WELD, _Chairman_.
+
+
+
+
+POTATO CULTURE.
+
+BY D. A. COMPTON, HAWLEY, PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+
+The design of this little treatise is to present, with minuteness of
+detail, that mode of culture which experience and observation have
+proved to be best adapted to the production of the Potato crop.
+
+It is written by one who himself holds the plow, and who has, since his
+early youth, been engaged in agriculture in its various branches, to the
+exclusion of other pursuits.
+
+The statements which appear in the following pages are based upon actual
+personal experience, and are the results of many experiments made to
+test as many theories.
+
+Throughout the Northern States of our country the potato is the third
+of the three staple articles of food. It is held in such universal
+esteem as to be regarded as nearly indispensable. This fact is
+sufficient to render a thorough knowledge of the best varieties for use,
+the character of soil best adapted to their growth, their cultivation
+and after-care, matters of the highest importance to the farmers of the
+United States.
+
+The main object of this essay is so to instruct the novice in
+potato-growing that he may be enabled to go to work understandingly and
+produce the potato in its highest perfection, and realize from his
+labors bestowed on the crop the greatest possible profits.
+
+
+SOIL REQUIRED--ITS PREPARATION.
+
+The potato is most profitably grown in a warm, dry, sandy, or gravelly
+loam, well filled with decayed vegetable matters. The famous potato
+lands of Lake County, Ohio, from which such vast quantities of potatoes
+are shipped yearly, are yellow sand. This potato district is confined to
+ridges running parallel with Lake Erie, which, according to geological
+indications, have each at different periods defined its boundaries. This
+sand owes much of its potato-growing qualities to the sedimentary
+deposit of the lake and to manural properties furnished by the
+decomposition of the shells of water-snails, shell-fish, etc., that
+inhabited the waters.
+
+New lands, or lands recently denuded of the forest, if sufficiently dry,
+produce tubers of the most excellent quality. Grown on dry, new land,
+the potato always cooks dry and mealy, and possesses an agreeable flavor
+and aroma, not to be attained in older soils. In no argillaceous soil
+can the potato be grown to perfection as regards quality. Large crops
+on such soil may be obtained in favorable seasons, but the tubers are
+invariably coarse-fleshed and ill-flavored. To produce roots of the best
+quality, the ground must be dry, deep, and porous; and it should be
+remembered that, to obtain very large crops, it is almost impossible to
+get too much humus in the soil. Humus is usually added to arable land
+either by plowing under green crops, such as clover, buckwheat, peas,
+etc., or by drawing and working in muck obtained from swamps and low
+places.
+
+The muck should be drawn to the field in fall or winter, and exposed in
+small heaps to the action of frost. In the following spring, sufficient
+lime should be mixed with it to neutralize the acid, (which is found in
+nearly all muck,) and the whole be spread evenly and worked into the
+surface with harrow or cultivator.
+
+Leaves from the woods, buckwheat straw, bean, pea, and hop vines, etc.,
+plowed under long enough before planting to allow them time to rot, are
+very beneficial. Sea-weed, when bountifully applied, and turned under
+early in the fall, has no superior as a manure for the potato. No stable
+or barn-yard manure should be applied to this crop. If such nitrogenous
+manure must be used on the soil, it is better to apply it to some other
+crop, to be followed the succeeding year by potatoes. The use of stable
+manure predisposes the tubers to rot; detracts very much from the
+desired flavor; besides, generally not more than one half as many
+bushels can be grown per acre as can be obtained by using manures of a
+different nature. Market gardeners, many of whom from necessity plant on
+the same ground year after year, often use fine old stable manure with
+profit. Usually they plant only the earlier varieties, crowd them with
+all possible speed, dig early, and sell large and little before they
+have time to rot, thus clearing the ground for later-growing vegetables.
+Thus grown, potatoes are of inferior quality, and the yield is not
+always satisfactory. Flavor, however, is seldom thought of by the hungry
+denizens of our cities, in their eagerness to get a taste of something
+fresh.
+
+Market gardeners will find great benefit from the use of wood-ashes,
+lime, and the phosphates. Sprinkle superphosphate in the hill at the
+rate of two hundred pounds per acre; mix it slightly in the soil with an
+iron rake or potato-hook, then plant the seed. Just before the last
+hoeing, sprinkle on and around the hill a large handful of wood-ashes,
+or an equal quantity of lime slacked in brine as strong as salt will
+make it.
+
+But for the generality of farmers, those who grow only their own supply,
+or those who produce largely for market, no other method of preparing
+the soil is so good, so easy, and so cheap as the following; it requires
+time, but pays a big interest: Seed down the ground to clover with wheat
+or oats. As soon as the grain is off, sow one hundred and fifty pounds
+of plaster (gypsum) per acre, and keep off all stock. The next spring,
+when the clover has made a growth of two inches, sow the same quantity
+of plaster again. About the tenth of July, harrow down the clover,
+driving the same direction and on the same sized lands you wish to plow;
+then plow the clover neatly under about seven inches deep. Harrow down
+the same way it was plowed, and immediately sow and harrow in two
+bushels of buckwheat per acre. When it has grown two inches, sow plaster
+as before; and when the buckwheat has grown as large as it will, harrow
+down and plow under about five inches deep. This, when cross-plowed in
+the spring sufficiently deep to bring up the clover-sod, is potato
+ground _first-class in all respects_.
+
+It is hardly supposable that this mode of preparation of soil would meet
+with favor among all farmers. There is a parsimonious class of
+cultivators who would consider it a downright loss of time, seed, and
+labor; but any one who will take the trouble to investigate, will find
+that these same parsimonious men never produced four hundred bushels of
+potatoes per acre; and that the few bushels of small tubers that they do
+dig from an acre, are produced at considerable loss. "Men do not gather
+grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles."
+
+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. This great
+deterioration in yield can not be attributed to "running out" of
+varieties; for varieties are extant which have not yet passed their
+prime. It can not be wholly due to disease; for disease does not occur
+in every season and in every place. True, we have more insects than
+formerly, but they can not be responsible for all the great falling off.
+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 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.
+
+To realize from potato-growing the greatest possible profits, (and
+profits are what we are all after,) the following conditions must be
+strictly adhered to: First, the ground chosen _must be dry_, either
+naturally or made so by thorough drainage; a gently sloping, deep, sandy
+or gravelly loam is preferable. Second, the land should be liberally
+enriched with humus by some of the means mentioned, if it is not already
+present in the soil in sufficient quantities, and the soil should be
+deeply and thoroughly plowed, rendering it light, porous, and
+pulverulent, that the air and moisture may easily penetrate to any
+desirable depth of it; and a proper quantity of either wood-ashes or
+lime, or both, mixed with common salt, should be harrowed into the
+surface before planting, or be applied on top of the hills immediately
+after planting. And, finally, the cultivation and after-care should be
+_prompt_, and given as soon as needed. Nothing is more conducive to
+failure, after the crop is properly planted, than failure in promptness
+in the cultivation and care required.
+
+
+GENERAL REMARKS ON MANURING WITH GREEN CROPS.
+
+Experience proves that no better method can be adopted to bring up lands
+partially exhausted, which are remote from cities, than plowing under
+green crops. By this plan the farmer can take lot after lot, and soon
+bring all up to a high state of fertility. True, he gathers no crop for
+one year, but the outlay is little; and if in the second year he gathers
+as much from one acre as he formerly did from three, he is still
+largely the gainer.
+
+It costs no more to cultivate an acre of rich, productive land than an
+acre of poor, unproductive land; and the pleasure and profit of
+harvesting a crop that abundantly rewards the husbandman for his care
+and labor are so overwhelmingly in favor of rich land as to need no
+comment. Besides, manuring with green crops is not transitory in its
+effects; the land remembers the generous treatment for many years, and
+if at times lime or ashes be added to assist decomposition, will
+continue to yield remunerative crops long after land but once treated
+with stable manure or guano fails to produce any thing but weeds. The
+skinning process, the taking off of every thing grown on the soil and
+returning nothing to it, is ruinous alike to farm and farmer. Thousands
+of acres can be found in various parts of the country too poor to pay
+for cultivating without manuring. Of the capabilities of their lands
+under proper treatment the owners thereof have no idea whatever. Such
+men say they can not make enough manure on the farm and are too poor to
+buy. Why not, then, commence plowing under green crops, the only manure
+within easy reach? If fifty acres can not be turned under the first
+year, put at least one acre under, which will help feed the rest. Why be
+contented with thirty bushels of corn per acre, when eighty or one
+hundred may be had? Why raise eight or twelve bushels of wheat per acre,
+when forty may as well be had? Why cut but one half-ton of hay per acre,
+when the laws of nature allow at least three? Why spend precious time
+digging only one hundred bushels of potatoes per acre, when with proper
+care and culture three or four hundred may easily be obtained? And,
+finally, why toil and sweat, and have the poor dumb beasts toil and
+sweat, cultivating thirty acres for the amount of produce that should
+grow, may grow, can grow, and has grown on ten acres?
+
+The poorest, most forsaken side-hills, cobble-hills, and knolls, if the
+sand or gravel be of moderate depth, underlaid by a subsoil rather
+retentive, by turning under green crops grow potatoes of the first
+quality. If land be so poor that clover will not take, as is sometimes
+the case, seed to clover with millet very early in the spring, and
+harrow in with the millet thirty bushels of wood-ashes, or two hundred
+pounds of guano per acre; then sow the clover-seed one peck per acre;
+brush it in.
+
+If neither ashes nor guano can be obtained at a reasonable price, sow
+two hundred pounds of gypsum per acre as soon as the bushing is
+completed. This will not fail in giving the clover a fair foothold on
+the soil.
+
+Before the millet blossoms, cut and cure it for hay. Keep all stock off
+the clover, plaster it the following spring, plow it under when in full
+bloom; sow buckwheat immediately; when up, sow plaster; when in full
+bloom, plow under and sow the ground immediately with rye, to be plowed
+under the next May. Thus three crops are put under within a year, the
+ground is left strong, light, porous, free from weeds, ready to grow a
+large crop of potatoes, or almost any thing else.
+
+Much is gained every way by having and keeping land in a high state of
+fertility. Some crops require so long a season for growth, that high
+condition of soil is absolutely necessary to carry them through to
+maturity in time to escape autumnal frosts. In the Western States manure
+has hitherto been considered of but little value. The soil of these
+States was originally very rich in humus. For a time wheat was produced
+at the rate of forty bushels per acre; but according to the statistics
+given by the Agricultural Department at Washington, for the year 1866,
+the average yield in some of these States was but four and a half
+bushels per acre. It is evident from this that Mr. Skinflint has had
+things pretty much his own way. His land now produces four and a half
+bushels per acre; what time shall elapse when it shall be four and one
+half acres per bushel? Who dare predict that manure will not at some day
+be of value west of the Alleghanies? New-Jersey, with a soil naturally
+inferior to that of Illinois, contains extensive tracts that yearly
+yield over one hundred bushels of Indian corn per acre, while the
+average of the State is over forty-three; and the average yield of the
+same cereal in Illinois is but little over thirty-one bushels per acre.
+In the Western States, where potatoes are grown extensively for Southern
+markets, the average yield is about eighty bushels per acre; while in
+old Pennsylvania could be shown the last year potatoes yielding at the
+rate of six hundred and forty bushels per acre. There are those who
+argue that manure is never necessary--that plant-food is supplied in
+abundance by the atmosphere; it was also once said a certain man had
+taught his horse to live without eating; but it so happened that just as
+he got the animal perfectly schooled, it died.
+
+Good, thorough cultivation and aeration of the soil undoubtedly do much
+toward the production of crops; but mere manipulation is not all that is
+needed.
+
+That growing plants draw much nourishment from the atmosphere, and
+appropriate largely of its constituents in building up their tissue, is
+certainly true; it is also certainly true that they require something of
+the soil besides mere anchorage. All facts go to show that if the
+constituents needed by the plant from the soil are not present in the
+soil, the efforts of the plant toward proper development are abortive?
+What sane farmer expects to move a heavy load over a rugged road with a
+team so lean and poverty-stricken that they cast but a faint shadow? Yet
+is he much nearer sanity when he expects farming to be pleasant and
+profitable, and things to _move aright_, unless his land is strong and
+fat? Is he perfectly sane when he thinks he can skin his farm year after
+year, and not finally come to the bone? The farmer on exhausted land
+must of necessity use manure. Manure of _some_ kind must go under, or he
+must go under; and to the great mass of cultivators no mode of enriching
+is so feasible, so cheap, and attended with such satisfactory results,
+as that of plowing under green crops.
+
+The old plan of leaving an exhausted farm, and going West in search of
+rich "government land," must soon be abandoned. Already the head of the
+column of land-hunters have "fetched up" against the Pacific, and it is
+doubtful whether their anxious gaze will discover any desirable
+unoccupied soil over its waters.
+
+The writer would not be understood as saying that all farms are
+exhausted, or that there is _no_ way of recuperation but by plowing
+under green crops. What he wishes understood is, that where poor, sandy,
+or gravelly lands are found, which bring but small returns to the owner,
+by subjecting them to the process indicated, such lands bring good crops
+of the kind under consideration. And further, that land in the proper
+condition to yield a maximum crop of potatoes, is fitted to grow other
+crops equally well. Neither would the writer be understood as arguing
+that a crop of clover and one of buckwheat should be turned under for
+each crop of potatoes; where land is already in high condition, it may
+not be necessary. A second growth of clover plowed under in the fall for
+planting early kinds, and a clean clover sod turned in _flat_ furrows in
+the spring, for the late market varieties, answer very well. To turn
+flat furrows, take the furrow-slice wide enough to have it fall
+completely inside the preceding one.
+
+Potatoes should not be planted year after year on the same ground;
+trouble with weeds and rapid deterioration of quality and quantity of
+tubers soon render the crop unprofitable. Loamy soil planted
+continuously soon becomes compact, heavy, and lifeless. Where of
+necessity potatoes must be grown yearly on the same soil, it is
+advisable to dig rather early, and bury the vines of each hill in the
+one last dug; then harrow level, and sow rye to be plowed under next
+planting time.
+
+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.
+
+Why clover, or clover and buckwheat lands, are so strongly urged is,
+such lands have in them just what the tubers need for their best and
+healthiest development; the soil is rendered so rich, light, and porous,
+and so free from weeds, that the cultivation of such land is rather a
+pleasure than otherwise, and at the close of the season the tangible
+profits in dollars and cents are highly gratifying.
+
+
+VARIETIES.
+
+From the fact that the United States produce about 109,000,000 bushels
+of potatoes annually, it might be supposed a great many varieties would
+be cultivated. Such, however, is not the fact. Of the varieties extant,
+comparatively few are grown extensively.
+
+Every grower's observation has established the fact that for quality the
+early varieties are inferior to the late ones. The Early June is very
+early, but its quality is quite indifferent. The Cherry Blow is early,
+attains good size, and yields rather well. In quality it is poor. The
+Early Kidney, as to quality, is good, but will not yield enough to pay
+for cultivation. The Cowhorn, said to be the Mexican yam, is quite
+early, of first quality, but yields very poorly. The Michigan White
+Sprout is early, rather productive, and good. Jackson White is in
+quality quite good, is early, and a favorite in some places. The Monitor
+is rather early, yields large crops; but as its quality is below par, it
+brings a low price in market. Philbrick's Early White is one of the
+whitest-skinned and whitest-fleshed potatoes known. It is about as early
+as Early Goodrich, is quite productive, and grows to a large size, with
+but few small ones to the hill. Its quality is excellent. It has not yet
+been extensively tested. The Early Rose is said to be very early, of
+excellent quality, and to yield extremely well. It has, however, not
+been very widely tested. Perhaps for earliness and satisfactory product,
+the Early Goodrich has no superior. It is of fair quality, and though
+some seasons it does not yield as well as others, yet, all things
+considered, it is a desirable variety. The old Neshannock, or Mercer, is
+among the latest of the early varieties. As to quality, it is the
+standard of excellence of the whole potato family. But it yields rather
+poorly, and its liability to rot, except on soils especially fitted for
+it, has so discouraged growers that its cultivation in many sections is
+abandoned. 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.
+As an instance of this, it will be remembered that when the Merino and
+California varieties were first introduced, they were so coarse as to be
+thought fit only to feed hogs, and for this purpose, on account of their
+great yielding qualities, farmers continued to cultivate them, until
+finally they became so changed as in many sections to be preferred for
+the table. Their cultivation, however, is now nearly abandoned.
+
+Of the later varieties, the Garnet Chili, a widely-diffused and
+well-known sort, deserves notice. It is not of so good quality as the
+Peach Blow; but its freedom from disease, and the large crop it
+produces, make it a favorite with many growers. The chief fault with it
+is, the largest specimens are apt to be hollow at the centre. It ripens
+rather early; and, even when dug long before maturity, it has a dryness
+and mealiness, when prepared for the table, not found in many other
+sorts. The Buckeye is extensively grown for market; its yield is not
+satisfactory, and its quality is only medium. The Dykeman is yet grown
+to some extent, but will soon be superseded.
+
+The Prince Albert is a well-known and highly-esteemed variety,
+approaching very near the Peach Blow in quality. One peculiarity of
+this potato is, the largest tubers appear to be of as good quality as
+the small ones. With proper soil and culture, it yields a fair crop; is
+quite free from disease; and its smoothness, high flavor, and fine
+appearance make it much sought after in the market.
+
+The Fluke, a very late potato, is a great favorite with many who produce
+for market. Its yield is very large; and its smoothness and uniformity
+of size make it altogether a desirable variety. It is generally free
+from disease. In quality it is rather above medium.
+
+The Harrison, if it should do as well in the future as it has done in
+the past, bids fair to become _the_ potato for general cultivation. It
+has yielded in this section, on soil of moderate fertility, with
+ordinary culture, one peck to the hill of uniform-sized, merchantable
+potatoes. It is a strong, vigorous grower, and very healthy. Its
+quality, though not the very best, is good. The Willard, lately
+originated by C. W. Gleason, of Massachusetts, is a half-early variety.
+It is enormously productive, of a rich rose color, spotted and splashed
+with white. The flesh is white. In form and size it closely resembles
+the Early Goodrich, its parent. It has not been extensively tested, but
+certainly promises well. The Excelsior is said, by those interested in
+its sale, to be very productive, and of most excellent quality,
+retaining its superior flavor all the year round. It is claimed that old
+potatoes of this variety are better than new ones of most early kinds,
+thus obviating the necessity of having early sorts. The Excelsior is
+said to cook very white and mealy; form nearly round, eyes prominent. It
+has not been much tested out of the neighborhood where it originated.
+
+But the potato-eater is yet unborn who can justly find fault with a
+properly-grown Peach Blow. It is pronounced by many equal or superior to
+the Mercer in quality, which is not the fact. It is emphatically a late
+potato; and, though it does not yield as well per acre as some other
+sorts, it is comparatively healthy; and its quality is such that it
+always brings a high price in the market. In fact, but few other kinds
+of late sorts could find sale if enough of this kind were offered to
+supply the demand. Planted ever so early, it keeps green through the
+heat of summer, and never matures its tubers until after the fall rains,
+and then no potato does it more rapidly.
+
+Grown on rich argillaceous soil, it will be hollow, coarse flesh, and
+ill-flavored; but planted on such soil as is recommended, it is about
+all that could be desired. 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.
+
+Many other varieties might be mentioned; but the list given includes
+about all of much merit. New varieties are constantly arising, clamoring
+for public favor, many of which are wholly unworthy of general
+cultivation. One or two varieties, such as are adapted to the grower's
+locality and market, are preferable to a greater number of sorts grown
+merely for variety's sake.
+
+
+INFLUENCE OF SOIL ON SEEDLINGS.
+
+The characteristics of a potato, such as quality, productiveness,
+healthfulness, uniformity of size, etc., depend much on the nature of
+the soil on which it originated. These characteristics, some or all,
+imbibed by the minute potato from the ingredients of the soil, at its
+first growth from the seed of the potato-ball, adhere with great
+tenacity to it through all its generations. A seedling may, in size,
+color, and form resemble its parent; but its constitution and quality
+are in a great degree dependent on the nature of the soil, climatic
+influences, and other accidental causes.
+
+True crosses are generally more vigorous and healthy than others; and it
+is probably to accidental crosses we are indebted for many varieties
+that differ so widely from their parents. A cross is most apparent to
+the eye when the parents are of different colors, in which case the
+offspring will be striped or marked with the colors of each parent.
+
+
+HOW TO CROSS VARIETIES.
+
+In order to comprehend fully the principles of this subject, and their
+application to practical operations, it will be necessary to take a
+general view of the generative organs of the vegetable kingdom, and the
+manner in which they act in the production of their species. If we
+examine a perfect flower, we shall find that it consists essentially of
+two sets of organs, one called the pistils, the other the stamens. The
+pistils are located in the centre of the flower, and the stamens around
+them. The summit of the pistil is called the stigma; and on the top of
+each stamen is situated an anther--a small sack, which contains the
+pollen, a dust-like substance, that fertilizes the ovules or young seeds
+of the plant.
+
+These organs are supposed to perform offices analogous to those of the
+animal kingdom--the stamens representing the male, and the pistils the
+female organs.
+
+When the anthers, which contain the pollen, arrive at maturity, they
+open and emit a multitude of minute grains of pollen; and these, falling
+on the pistils of the flower, throw out hair-like tubes, which penetrate
+through the vascular tissue of the pistil, and ultimately reach the
+ovules, thus fertilizing them, and making them capable, when mature, of
+reproducing plants of their own kind.
+
+The ovules are the rudimentary seeds, situated in a case at the base of
+the pistils, each consisting of a central portion, called the nucleus,
+which is surrounded by two coats, the inner called the secundine, the
+outer the primine. When the hairlike tube of the pollen-grain passes
+through the orifice in the coatings of the ovule, and reaches the
+nucleus, or embryo sack, it is supposed to emit a spermatic or plantlet
+germ, which passes through the wall of the embryo sack and enters the
+germinal vesicle contained in it. The vesicle corresponds to the
+vesicle, or germinal spot, in the eggs of birds, and ovum of mammiferous
+animals. The germ remains in the vesicle, and finally becomes the
+embryo, fully developed into a plantlet, as may be seen in many seeds.
+
+Flowers of plants are called perfect when the stamens and pistils are in
+the same flower, as the apple; mon[oe]cious, when in different flowers
+and on the same plant, as the white oak; and di[oe]cious, when in
+different flowers and on different plants, as in the hemp. In that class
+of plants in which the stamens, or males, are on one plant, and the
+pistils, or females, on another, the males of course must always remain
+barren; and the pistilates, to be fruitful, must have the pollen from
+the anthers of the staminate brought in contact with its stigma by wind,
+insects, or other means. In plants with perfect flower, the stamens are
+generally situated around and above the pistil, so that the pollen falls
+upon the stigma by mere force of gravity. In the potato, the pollen is
+conveyed from the anthers to the stigma by actual contact of the two
+organs.
+
+Cross-breeding in plants consists in fertilizing one variety with the
+pollen of another variety of the same species. The offspring is called a
+cross-breed, or variety. The process of cross-breeding consists in
+taking the pollen of one variety and applying it to the stigma of
+another variety, in such a way as to effect its fertilization. This is
+done by cutting away (with scissors) the stamens of the flower to be
+fertilized, a short time before they arrive at maturity, and taking a
+flower in which the pollen is ripe, dry, and powdery, from the stalk of
+the variety wished for the male parent; and holding it in the right
+hand, and then striking it on the finger of the left, held near the
+flower, thus scattering the pollen on the stigma of the pistil of the
+flower to be fertilized. The utmost care should be taken to apply the
+pollen when the flower is in its greatest vigor, and the stigma is
+covered with the necessary coating of mucus to insure a perfect
+connection of the pollen with the pistil, and make the fertilization
+perfect. All flowers not wanted in the experiment should be removed
+before any pollen is formed.
+
+It is necessary to tie a thin piece of gauze over the flower to be
+fertilized, before and after crossing, to prevent insects from conveying
+pollen to it, thus frustrating the labors of the operator. If the
+operation has been successful, the pistil will soon begin to wither; if
+not perfect, the pistil will continue fresh and full for some days.
+This _modus operandi_ is substantially the same in crossing fruits,
+flowers, and vegetables throughout the vegetable kingdom.
+
+Hybridizing differs from cross-breeding only in fertilizing one species,
+or one of its varieties, with the pollen of another species, or one of
+its varieties, of the same or a different _genus_. The offspring is
+called a hybrid, or mule. Hybrids, with very few exceptions, are
+sterile, they fail to propagate themselves from seed, and must, to
+preserve them, be propagated by grafts, layers, or suckers. No change is
+perceptible in the fruit produced from blossoms upon which the operation
+of cross-breeding or hybridizing has been performed; but the seed of
+fruits so obtained may be planted with the certainty of producing a
+fruit or tuber commingling the qualities, colors, and main
+characteristics of both parents.
+
+Experience, however, shows that the characteristics of the male
+predominate somewhat in the offspring. To judicious cross-breeding and
+hybridizing we owe most of our superior fruits and vegetables. If the
+operation were more generally known and practiced by farmers, the most
+gratifying results would be soon obtained, not only in the production of
+the most valuable varieties of potatoes and other vegetables, but also
+in fruits, flowers, and grain of every description.
+
+
+SMOOTH VS. ROUGH POTATOES.
+
+Other things being equal, smooth potatoes are preferable to those with
+deeply-sunken eyes. The starch being most abundant near the skin, not so
+much is lost by the thin paring of the former as by the necessarily
+deeper paring of the latter.
+
+Varieties usually well formed sometimes grow so knobby and ill-shaped as
+to be scarcely recognized. This is caused by severe drought occurring
+when the tubers are about two thirds grown, causing them to partially
+ripen. On the return of moisture, a new growth takes place, which shows
+itself in knobby protuberances.
+
+
+CUT AND UNCUT SEED.
+
+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.
+
+Many eyes of the uncut seed start, but the stronger soon overpower the
+weaker, and finally starve them out. A plot planted with three small,
+uncut potatoes to the hill, and another planted with three pieces of two
+eyes each to the hill, will not show much difference in number of vines
+during the growing season.
+
+The poor results sometimes attending cut seed are almost always
+traceable to improper seed improperly cut. Only large, mature, sound
+tubers should be used. Cut them in pieces of two or three eyes each,
+taking pains to secure around each eye as much flesh as possible, also
+under the eye to the centre of the tuber.
+
+Experiments prove that eyes from the "seed end" produce potatoes that
+mature earliest; they are also smallest. Those from the large or stem
+end are largest, latest, and least in numbers. Eyes from the middle
+produce tubers of very uniform size.
+
+If small, ill-shaped potatoes be planted on the same ground for three
+successive years, the results will give the best variety a bad name.
+
+Much is gained by changing seed. No two varieties are made up of the
+same constituents exactly in the same proportion; hence, a soil may be
+exhausted for the best development of one, and still be fitted to meet
+the demands of another. Even when the same variety is desired,
+experience shows the great benefit of planting seed grown on a different
+soil. The best and most extensive growers procure new seed every two or
+three years, and many insist on changing seed every year; and
+undoubtedly the crop is often doubled by the practice.
+
+
+PLANTING AND MANURING.
+
+Early kinds should be planted as soon as the ground has become
+sufficiently dry and warm. Late market varieties should be planted about
+two weeks later than the early ones. Unquestionably more bushels can be
+obtained per acre by planting in drills than in hills, but the labor of
+cultivating in drills is much the greater.
+
+Prepare the ground by thorough plowing, making it decidedly mellow. Mark
+it out four feet apart each way, if to be planted in hills, by plowing
+broad, flat-bottomed furrows about three inches deep. At the crossings
+drop three pieces of potato, cut, as directed, in sections of two or
+three eyes each. Place the pieces so as to represent the points of a
+triangle, each piece being about a foot distant from each of the other
+two. If the cut side is put down, it is better; cover about two inches
+deep. Where land is free from stone and sod, the covering may be well
+and rapidly done with a light plow. Immediately after planting, sprinkle
+over and around each hill a large handful of unleached wood-ashes and
+salt, (a half-bushel of fine salt mixed with a barrel of ashes is about
+the right proportion.) If ashes can not be obtained, as is sometimes the
+case, apply instead about the same quantity of lime slacked in brine as
+strong as salt will make it. The potato from its peculiar organization
+has a hungering and thirsting after potash. Wood-ashes exactly meet its
+wants in this direction. Lime indirectly supplies potash by liberating
+what was before inert in the soil. Salt in small quantities induces
+vigorous, healthy growth. To obtain the best results, the ashes or lime
+should be covered with about half an inch of soil. This plan of manuring
+in the hill is recommended only in cases where the fertilizers named are
+in limited supply, and it is desirable to make the most of them. Maximum
+crops have been obtained by using the fertilizers named in the manner
+described; but where they can be obtained at low prices, it is certainly
+advisable, and requires less labor, to apply all three, ashes, lime, and
+salt, broadcast in bountiful quantities, and harrow it in before the
+ground is marked out for planting.
+
+
+CULTIVATION.
+
+If weeds are expected, pass a light harrow over the rows just before the
+vines are ready to burst through; this will disturb them and render them
+less troublesome. As soon as the tops are two inches high, run a
+corn-plow five inches deep _close_ to the hills, turning the furrows
+_from_ the rows.
+
+Plow both ways twice between the rows, finishing on the rows running
+east and west, which will give the sun's rays a better chance to warm
+the ground properly. Standing on the squares of earth, warmed on all
+sides by the air and sunlight, the potatoes will grow amazingly. Just as
+soon as the tops have attained a height of six or seven inches, hitch a
+strong horse to a two-horse plow, and turn furrows fully seven inches
+deep midway between the rows _to_ the hills. Plow twice between the
+rows both ways; and if the ground be a side-hill, turn the first furrow
+between the rows up-hill, which will leave the rows in better shape.
+Hoeing is often wholly unnecessary; but where, from weeds or poor
+plowing, it is needed, draw mellow earth to the plants with the hoe,
+keeping the top of the hills somewhat hollow to catch the rains. Then,
+so far as stirring the soil is concerned, _let it alone_.
+
+After potatoes are fairly up, their cultivation should be crowded
+through with all possible speed, or at least as rapidly as the growth of
+the tops will permit.
+
+If the last plowing be deferred until the vines are large, a large
+proportion of small potatoes is sure to be the consequence. After a
+certain stage of growth, new tubers are formed each time the soil is
+disturbed; these never fully develop, they rob those first formed, and
+make the crop much inferior to what it should be. By the mode of culture
+described, the ground is made warm and mellow close up to the
+seed-potatoes, the roots soon fill the whole hill, and tubers are formed
+that have nothing to do but to grow. The writer is aware flat culture
+has strong advocates; but, after many experiments, he is convinced that
+hills are much the best.
+
+
+PLASTER.
+
+However much lime or other fertilizers may be applied to the soil, still
+great benefit is derived from the use of plaster, (sulphate of lime.)
+
+After all, plaster is the main dependence of the potato-grower, a help
+on which he may rely with the utmost confidence. Astonishing results are
+obtained from its use, when applied in a proper manner. The writer has
+seen a field, all of the same soil, all prepared alike, and all planted
+with the same variety at the same time, on one half of which, that had
+no plaster, the yield was but sixty bushels per acre, and many rotten;
+the other part, to which plaster was applied in the manner hereafter
+explained, yielded three hundred and sixty bushels per acre, and not an
+unsound one among them.
+
+The action of plaster is often puzzling. From the fact that where land
+has been strongly limed, a small quantity of plaster applied shows such
+decided benefit, there would seem plausibility in Liebig's theory that
+its effects must be traceable not to the lime, but to the sulphuric
+acid. The ammonia in rain-water in the form of carbonate (a volatile
+salt) is decomposed by plaster, the sulphuric acid having greater
+affinity for it, thus forming two new compounds, sulphate of ammonia and
+carbonate of lime. But as arable soil has the same property of absorbing
+ammonia from the air and rain-water, and fixing it in the same or even a
+higher degree than lime, there is only the sulphuric acid left to look
+to for an explanation of the favorable action of plaster on the growth
+of plants.
+
+It is found that plaster in contact with soil undergoes decomposition,
+part of the lime separating from the sulphuric acid, and magnesia and
+potash taking its place, quite contrary to the ordinary affinities.
+
+These facts show that the action of plaster is very complex, and that it
+promotes the distribution of both magnesia and potash in the ground,
+exercising a chemical action upon the soil which extends to any depth of
+it; and that, in consequence of the chemical and mechanical
+modifications of the earth, particles of certain nutritive elements
+become accessible and available to plants that were not so before.
+
+It is said plaster is of most benefit in wet seasons; such is not
+always the case. It is certainly beneficial to clover, wet or dry; so of
+potatoes.
+
+A few years since, when the drought was so intense in this section as to
+render the general potato crop almost a total failure, the writer
+produced a plentiful crop by the use of plaster alone. On examination at
+the dryest time, the bottoms of the hills were found to be literally
+dust, yet in this dust the tubers were swelling finely: the leaves and
+vines were of a deep rich green, and remained so until frost, while
+other fields in sight, planted with the same variety, but not treated
+with plaster, were brown, dead, and not worth digging. That gypsum
+attracts moisture may be proved by plastering a hill of corn and leaving
+a hill by it unplastered; the dew will be found deposited in greater
+abundance on the plastered hill. But, according to Liebig, certain
+products of the chemical action of plaster enter into and are
+incorporated with the structure of the plant, closing its breathing
+pores to such an extent that the plant is enabled to withstand a drought
+which would prove fatal to it unassisted.
+
+Certain it is that plaster renders plants less palatable to insects,
+and, so far as the writer's experiments extend, it is fatal to many of
+the fungi family. To obtain the best results, the vines of potatoes
+should be dusted with plaster as soon as they are fairly through the
+soil, again immediately after the last plowing and hoeing, and, for
+reasons hereafter given, at intervals throughout the whole growing
+season. The first application may be light, the second heavier, and
+thereafter it should be bountifully applied, say two hundred pounds per
+acre at one sowing.
+
+
+THE POTATO-ROT--ITS CAUSE
+
+The year 1845 will ever be memorable by its giving birth to a disease
+which threatened the entire destruction of the potato crop, and which
+caused suffering and pecuniary ruin to an incredible extent throughout
+Europe.
+
+The potato, at the time of the appearance of the potato disease, was
+almost the sole dependence of the common people of Ireland for food.
+That over-populated country experienced more actual suffering in
+consequence of the potato disease than has any other from the same
+cause. Although this disease has never, in this country, prevailed to
+the same ruinous extent that it has in some others, yet we are yearly
+reminded of its existence, and in some seasons and localities its
+destructive effects are seriously apparent.
+
+The final or culminating cause of the disease known as the "potato-rot"
+is _Botrytis (peronospora) infestans_. This may be induced by many and
+various predisposing causes, such as feebleness of constitution of the
+variety planted, rendering them an easy prey to the disease; by planting
+on low, moist land, or on land highly enriched by nitrogenous manures,
+causing a morbid growth which invites the disease; also by insects or
+their larvæ puncturing or eating off the leaves or vines. But by far the
+most wide-spread and most common cause of the disease is sudden changes
+of atmospheric temperature, particularly when accompanied by rain.
+Drought, though quite protracted and severe, unless accompanied by
+strong drying winds, and followed by sudden and great reduction of
+temperature, seldom affects the potato seriously. It is not uncommon in
+the Northern States, during the months of August and September, for
+strong westerly winds to prevail for many days in succession. These
+winds, coming from the great American desert, are almost wholly devoid
+of moisture, and their aridity is often such that vegetation withers
+before them as at the touch of fire. Evaporation is increased in a
+prodigiously rapid ratio with the velocity of wind. The effects of the
+excessive exhalation from the leaves of plants exposed to the sweep of
+such drying winds are at once seriously apparent.
+
+When these winds finally cease, the atmosphere has a low relative
+humidity, not enough moisture remains in the air to prevent radiation;
+the heat absorbed by the earth through the day is, during the bright,
+cloudless night, rapidly radiated and lost in space, and a reduction in
+temperature of twenty to thirty degrees is the consequence.
+
+In the first place, the potato-vines suffer by excessive exhalation; in
+the second, by sudden reduction of temperature, and, though not frozen,
+their functions are much deranged, and their vitality greatly enfeebled.
+To use a common expression, the plant "has caught a violent cold that
+has settled on the lungs."
+
+The leaves (which are the lungs of plants) now fail to perform their
+functions properly. The points of many of the leaves turn brown, curl
+up, and die.
+
+The ascending sap, not being fully elaborated by the diseased leaves,
+oozes out through the skin of the stalk in a thick, viscous state, and
+the plant to all appearance is in a state of consumption.
+
+At this stage the ever-present minute spores of the _Botrytis infestans_
+eagerly pounce on the sickly plant, fastening themselves on its most
+diseased parts. The _Botrytis infestans_ is a cryptogamous plant, and is
+included in the Mucidineous family, (moulds.) It is a vegetable parasite
+preying upon the living potato plant, like lice or other animal
+parasites upon the animal species.
+
+At first this mould forms webby, creeping filaments, known in botanical
+language as mycelium. These root-like fibres then branch out, sending
+out straight or decumbent articulated stems. These bead-like joints fill
+up successively with seeds or spores, which are discharged at the proper
+time to multiply the species.
+
+Under favorable conditions of warmth and moisture, the mycelium spreads
+very rapidly. Spores are soon formed and matured, to be carried to
+plants not yet infected. Rains also wash the seminal dust down the
+plant, causing it to fasten and grow on the vine near the ground. The
+roots of the parasite penetrate and split up the stalk even to the
+medullary canal.
+
+These roots exude a poisonous substance, which is carried by the
+elaborated descending sap down to the tubers, and as the largest tubers
+require the largest amount of elaborated sap for their development, they
+will, consequently, receive the greatest quantity of the vitiating
+principle, and will, on digging, be found a mass of rottenness, when the
+smaller ones are often but slightly affected. The _Botrytis infestans_
+can not gain a lodgment on vines that are truly healthy and vigorous,
+high authority to the contrary notwithstanding.
+
+Healthy varieties, growing in a sheltered situation on dry, new soil, to
+which no nitrogenous manures have been applied, can not be infected,
+though brushed with other vines covered with the fungus. Different
+varieties, and sometimes different members of the same variety, are not
+always alike affected by the disease, though growing in the same hill.
+
+As will be noticed, the potato disease is rather an effect than a cause,
+and appears to have been designed to prevent members enfeebled by
+accident or otherwise from propagating their species by putting such
+members out of existence. Ozone, supposed to be a peculiar form of
+oxygen, is exhaled from every part of the green surface of plants in
+health, and effectually repels the attacks of mildew; but it is found
+that when the atmosphere is very dry, or, on the other hand, very humid,
+plants cease to evolve ozone, and are therefore unprotected. Winds from
+the ocean are strongly ozonic, and it is ascertained that plants growing
+on soil to which salt has been applied evolve more ozone than others.
+Hence the benefit derived from the use of salt on potato lands.
+
+The "Black knot," another species of fungus that attacks the branches of
+the plum and Morello cherry, operates very similarly to the potato
+mildew. The roots of the parasite penetrate and split up the cellular
+tissue of the branch on which it fastens, and if the limb be not
+promptly amputated, the descending sap carries the deleterious principle
+through the whole system, and the following year the disease appears in
+a greatly aggravated form in every part of the whole tree. The remedy in
+this case is prompt amputation of the part diseased on its first
+appearance, and a judicious application of salt to the soil.
+
+Common salt, to a certain extent, is as beneficial to some plants as to
+animals; and every intelligent farmer knows that if salt be withheld
+from the bovine _genus_ for any considerable length of time, the general
+health droops and parasites are sure to abound. The object of nature in
+bringing into existence the large family of mildews, each member of
+which is a perfect plant in its way, and as capable of performing its
+functions as the oak of the forest, was undoubtedly to prevent
+propagation from sickly stock, and by the decomposition of feeble plants
+to make room and enrich the soil for the better development of
+healthier plants. But it by no means follows that, because a plant is
+attacked by mildew, it must necessarily be left to die, any more than it
+follows that, because an animal is infested with vermin, it should be
+let alone to be eaten up by them.
+
+
+REMEDY FOR THE POTATO-ROT.
+
+In treating for the potato-rot, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound
+of cure;" for when leaves or vines are once dead, they ever remain so.
+All that can be done for potatoes infested is to stop the mildew from
+spreading, by destroying it where it is, and by strengthening "those
+things which remain." The writer was led to the adoption of the remedy
+proposed by experiments made upon fruits.
+
+Every one who has an apple or pear-orchard must have observed that
+mildew of fruit supervenes after some sudden change of temperature,
+especially when accompanied by rain. Spots of mildew invariably form on
+the young fruit immediately after a cold night, when the thermometer has
+indicated a change of twenty to twenty-five degrees. This growth of
+mildew takes place when the apples are of various sizes, from the
+earliest formation to the size of large marbles. These fungous growths
+appear as dark-colored spots, which arrest the growth of the apple
+immediately beneath, causing it to become distorted, while the expansion
+and contraction bring on diseased action, which results in the cracking
+and general scabbiness of the fruit.
+
+Knowing that dry-rot (_Merulius Lachrymans_, Schum,) another species of
+fungus, was remedied by an application of sulphuric acid, I thought it
+might possibly destroy the fruit mildew. An application of plaster,
+(gypsum,) which is composed of lime and sulphuric acid, was made with
+the happiest results. It was found that an apple dusted with ground
+plaster at its first formation remained free from mildew and came to
+maturity, while apples growing by it, but not so treated, became scabby
+and worthless. It was also ascertained that a thorough application of
+plaster destroyed the mildew after it had formed, and that such fruit
+came to maturity. On the potato mildew, so far as the writer's
+experience extends, plaster, if applied early, is a perfect prevention,
+and if not delayed too long after the disease appears, is a certain
+remedy.
+
+The vines should be watched closely, and on the first appearance of the
+disease plaster should be applied; not merely sowing it broadcast, but
+dashing it over and under the vines, bringing it in contact with the
+stalks, using a handful to three or four hills. Plaster for this purpose
+should be very dry and powdery, and should be applied when the air is
+still. One application is seldom sufficient; it should be renewed as
+often as circumstances require. Examine the vines about three days after
+a cold night, or about the same length of time after a heavy rain. If
+the leaves begin to curl and wither, apply plaster at once; and, in
+short, whenever the vines show any signs of drooping, be the cause bites
+of insects, excessive aridity, or excessive humidity of the atmosphere,
+or sudden change of temperature, drooping from any cause whatever
+indicates the approach of mildew, which should be promptly met with an
+application of plaster. As before stated, plaster the vines as soon as
+they are up, again after the last plowing and hoeing; after that, one,
+two, or three times, as circumstances indicate.
+
+By this method the vines are kept of a bright lively green, and the
+tubers are kept swelling until growth is stopped by frost. Another point
+gained is, potatoes so grown are so sound and free from disease as to be
+easily kept for spring market without loss by rot.
+
+Whether the surprising effects of plaster on the potato mildew is
+attributable to the sulphuric acid, to the lime, or to its simply being
+a dust, has not been determined. It is well known that the fruits of a
+vineyard or orchard in close proximity to a dusty and much frequented
+highway are remarkably free from mildew, which can only be due to dust
+settling on the trees and fruit. But in the case of plaster, the writer
+is inclined to believe its efficacy is mainly due to the sulphuric acid,
+probably assisted by the lime in a state of dust. Be this as it may, it
+matters not. The result is all that can be desired; the remedy is easily
+applied, costs but a trifle, and a single season's trial is all that is
+needed to convince the most skeptical grower of its merits.
+
+
+DIGGING AND STORING
+
+Is full half the labor of growing and securing a crop of potatoes.
+Digging is a long, laborious task. Many small fortunes are sunk yearly
+by inventors in experimenting with and constructing "potato-diggers;"
+but, so far, no machine has done the work properly except under the most
+favorable circumstances. Stones, vines, and weeds are obstacles not yet
+fully overcome. Many tubers are left covered with earth, and so lost;
+and besides, some machines so bruise the potatoes in digging as to
+injure their appearance and keeping qualities. Undoubtedly, the day will
+come when the great bulk of potatoes will be dug well and rapidly by
+horse-power; but until that day does come, the potato-hook must be used.
+
+Much of the back-ache and general unpleasantness incident to digging is
+avoided, or greatly mitigated, by having the potatoes large and sound,
+turning out a peck to the hill, especially if the digger is the owner
+of the crop.
+
+Digging should be done only when the ground is dry, that the potatoes
+may come out clean and bright. A small plow, to turn a light furrow from
+each side of the rows, is some help. Pull up the vines, and lay them
+down so that they will be covered by the dirt dug from the hill.
+Commence on one side of the hill; press the hook or hoe down, so that it
+will reach a trifle below the potatoes, and draw the implement firmly
+toward you. Repeat the operation, each time placing the tool a few
+inches further in or across the hill, until the whole hill is dug. By
+this method the potatoes will not be bruised; whereas, if the digging be
+commenced in the centre of the hill, many potatoes will be sacrificed
+and much injured. Potatoes should be picked up as soon and as fast as
+dug; and immediately covered with straw or other material, to protect
+them from the light. A few hours' strong sunshine will ruin the best
+potato ever grown. Light changes the natural color to green, and renders
+the potato so bitter and unpalatable as to be wholly unfit to eat.
+
+Owing to the inconsiderate way in which potatoes are often dug, and the
+light to which they are exposed while being transported to and while in
+market, the denizens of our cities seldom, if ever, taste this vegetable
+in its greatest excellence. If to be stored in the cellar, the potatoes
+should be left in the field, in heaps covered with straw, until the
+sweating is over, and then be removed to the cellar and lightly covered
+with dry sand, or earth, just sufficient to exclude the light.
+
+If to be buried in the field, choose a dry, sideling place; scrape out a
+slight hollow, by merely removing the surface soil with a hoe; into
+this, pile ten to twelve bushels; place the potatoes properly, and
+cover them carefully with clean straw, six inches deep; cover over the
+straw with four or five inches of earth, except a small opening at the
+top; over this opening place a board or flat stone, elevated a little on
+one side, to lead off the rain.
+
+Let them remain so until the sweating is completely over, or so long as
+prudence will permit; and when cold weather fairly sets in, add more
+earth to keep from freezing, leaving only a wisp of straw protruding
+through to carry off any foul air that may be generated.
+
+Where the winters are intensely cold, it is best to cover but lightly
+with earth, say five or six inches deep; and when freezing is becoming
+severe, spread over the heap buckwheat straw, or coarse manure, to the
+depth of six inches. There is danger in covering very deep at first,
+especially if the autumn should prove warm. If kept too warm, rot is
+sure to ensue. Experience shows that any vegetable keeps better buried
+in pits that contain not more than ten or twelve bushels each.
+
+Where large quantities are to be buried, it is advisable to open a long,
+shallow, broad trench, leading up and down a hill, if possible, to
+secure good drainage. Commence, at either end, by placing a desirable
+quantity of potatoes as soon as dug; next to these put a little straw;
+against the straw place about six inches of earth; then more straw and
+more potatoes; and so keep on until the trench is full. A few furrows
+plowed on each side assist in covering; and make a drain to lead off the
+rains, which is a matter of the first importance. By this method each
+lot of potatoes is kept separate; and any section can be opened at any
+time to be taken to market, without endangering the others.
+
+Potatoes buried properly are usually of better flavor in the spring than
+it is possible for potatoes to be which are kept in a common cellar.
+
+And here let me add that, if leaves from the woods be used instead of
+straw, to cover potatoes to be buried, such potatoes will be of better
+flavor; and further, if nothing but dry earth comes in contact with
+them, they will be better still. Straw is used for the twofold purpose
+of securing an air-chamber to keep out frost, and to prevent the earth
+from mingling with the tubers on opening the pits.
+
+
+INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE POTATO.
+
+There are ten distinct species of insects preying upon the potato-plant
+within the limits of the United States. Many of these ten species are
+confined within certain geographical limits. Their habits and history
+differ very widely. Some attack the potato both in the larva state and
+in the perfect or winged state; others in the perfect or winged state
+alone; and others again in the larva state alone.
+
+In the case of seven of these insects, there is but one single brood
+every year; while of the remaining three there are every year from two
+to three broods, each of them generated by females belonging to
+preceding broods. Eight of the ten feed externally on the leaves and
+tender stems of the potato; while two of them burrow, like a borer,
+exclusively in the larger stalks.
+
+Each of these ten species has its peculiar insect enemies; and a mode of
+attack which will prove very successful against some of them will often
+turn out to be worthless when employed against the remainder.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+~The Stalk-Borer~,[A] (_Gortyna nitela_, Guenee.)--This larva (Fig. 2,)
+commonly burrows in the large stalks of the potato. It occurs also in
+the stalks of the tomato, in those of the dahlia and aster, and other
+garden flowers. It is sometimes found boring through the cob of growing
+Indian corn. It is particularly partial to the stem of the common
+cocklebur, (_Zanthium sirumarium_;) and if it would only confine itself
+to such noxious weeds, it might be considered more of a friend than an
+enemy. It is yearly becoming more numerous and more destructive. It is
+found over a great extent of country; and is particularly numerous in
+the valley of the Mississippi north of the Ohio River. The larva of the
+stalk-borer moth leaves the stalk in which it burrowed about the latter
+part of July, and descends a little below the surface of the earth,
+where in about three days it changes into the pupa, or chrysalis state.
+
+[Footnote A: Where no hair-lines are given, the insects are represented
+life-size.]
+
+The winged insect (Fig. 1,) which belongs to the same extensive group of
+moths (_Noctua_ family, or owlet moths) to which all the cut-worm moths
+appertain, emerges from under ground from the end of August to the
+middle of September. Hence it is evident that some few, at all events,
+of the female moths must live through the winter, in obscure places, to
+lay eggs upon the plants they infest the following spring; for
+otherwise, as there is no young potato, or other plants, for them to lay
+eggs upon in the autumn, the whole breed would die out in a single year.
+This insect, in sections where it is numerous, does more injury to the
+potato crop than is generally supposed.
+
+
+~The Potato-Stalk Weevil,~ (_Baridius trinotatus_, Say.)--This insect is
+more particularly a southern species, occurring abundantly in the Middle
+States, and in the southern parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
+It appears to be totally unknown in New-England.
+
+The female of this beetle deposits a single egg in an oblong slit, about
+one eighth of an inch long, which it has previously formed with its beak
+in the stalk of the potato. The larva subsequently hatches out, and
+bores into the heart of the stalk, always proceeding downward toward the
+root. When full grown, it is a little more than one fourth of an inch in
+length, and is a soft, whitish, legless grub, with a scaly head. Hence
+it can always be readily distinguished from the larva of the
+stalk-borer, which has invariably sixteen legs, no matter how small it
+may be. Unlike this last insect, it becomes a pupa in the interior of
+the potato-stalk which it inhabits: and it comes out in the beetle state
+about the last of August or beginning of September.
+
+The stalk inhabited by the larva wilts and dies. The perfect beetle,
+like many other snout-beetles, must of course live through the winter,
+to reproduce its species the following spring. In Southern Pennsylvania,
+some years, nearly every stalk of extensive fields is infested by this
+insect, causing the premature decay of the vines, and giving them the
+appearance of having been scalded. In some districts of Illinois, the
+potato crop has, in some seasons, been utterly ruined by this
+snout-beetle, many vines having a dozen larvæ in them. This insect
+attacks no plant but the potato.
+
+
+~The Potato-Worm~, (_Sphinx 5-maculata_, Haworth.)--This well-known
+insect, the larva of which (Fig. 3,) is usually called the potato-worm,
+is more common on the closely allied tomato, the leaves of which it
+often clears off very completely in particular spots in a single night.
+When full-fed, which is usually about the last of August, the
+potato-worm burrows under the ground, and shortly afterward transforms
+into the pupa state, (Fig. 5.) The pupa is often dug up in the spring
+from the ground where tomatoes or potatoes were grown in the preceding
+season, and most persons that meet with it suppose that the singular
+jug-handled appendage at one end of it is its _tail_. In reality,
+however, it is the _tongue-case_, and contains the long, pliable tongue
+which the future moth will employ in lapping the nectar of flowers. The
+moth itself (Fig. 4) was formerly confounded with the tobacco-worm moth,
+(_Sphinx Carolina_, Linnæus,) which it very closely resembles, having
+the same series of orange-colored spots on each side of the abdomen.
+
+The gray and black markings, however, of the wings differ perceptibly in
+the two species; and in the tobacco-worm moth there is always a more or
+less faint white spat, or a dot, near the centre of the front wing,
+which is never met with in the other species. The potato-worm often
+feeds on the leaves of the tobacco plant in the Northern States. In the
+Southern States, in Mexico and the West-Indies, the true potato-worm is
+unknown, and it is the tobacco-worm that the tobacco-grower has to
+fight. The potato-worm, however, is never known to injure the potato
+crop to any serious extent.
+
+
+~The Striped Blister-Beetle~, (_Lytta vittata_, Fabr.) This insect (Fig.
+6) is almost exclusively a southern species, occurring in some years
+very abundantly on the potato-vines in Southern Illinois, and also in
+Missouri, and according to Dr. Harris, it is occasionally found even in
+New-England. In some specimens the broad outer black stripe on the
+wing-cases is divided lengthwise by a slender yellow line, so that,
+instead of _two_, there are _three_ black stripes on each wing-case; and
+often in the same field may be noticed all the intermediate grades; thus
+proving that the four-striped individuals do not form a distinct
+species, as was supposed by the European entomologist Fabricius, but are
+mere varieties of the same species to which the sixth-striped individual
+appertains.
+
+The striped blister-beetle lives under ground and feeds upon various
+roots during the larva state, and emerges to attack the foliage of the
+potato only when it has passed into the perfect or beetle state.
+
+This insect, in common with our other blister-beetles, has the same
+properties as the imported Spanish fly, and any of them will raise just
+as good a blister as that does, and are equally poisonous when taken
+internally in large doses. Where the striped blister-beetle is numerous,
+it is a great pest and very destructive to the potato crop. It eats the
+leaves so full of holes that the plant finally dies from loss of sap and
+the want of sufficient leaves to elaborate its juices. In some places
+they are driven off the plants (with bushes) on a pile of hay or straw,
+and burned. Some have been successful in ridding their fields of them by
+placing straw or hay between the rows of potatoes, and then setting it
+on fire. The insects, it is said, by this means are nearly all
+destroyed, and the straw burning very quickly, does not injure the
+vines.
+
+
+~The Ash-Gray Blister-Beetle~, (_Lytta cinera_, Fabr.)--This species (Fig.
+7, male) is the one commonly found in the more northerly parts of the
+Northern States, where it usually takes the place of the striped
+blister-beetle before mentioned. It is of a uniform ash-gray color. It
+attacks not only the potato-vines but also the honey locusts, and
+especially the Windsor bean. In particular years it has been known, in
+conjunction with the rose-bug, (_Macrodactylus subspinosus_, Linn.,) to
+swarm upon every apple-tree in some orchards in Illinois, not only
+eating the foliage, but gnawing into the young apples.
+
+This beetle does considerable damage to the potato crop, especially in
+the North-Western States. Like the other members of the (_Lytta_)
+family, it lives under ground while in the larva state, and is
+troublesome only when in the perfect or winged state.
+
+
+~The Black-Rat Blister-Beetle~, (_Lytta murina_, Le Conte.)--This species
+(Fig. 8,) is entirely black. There is a very similar species, the black
+blister-beetle, (_Lytta atrata_, Fabr.,) from which the black-rat
+blister-beetle is distinguishable only by having four raised lines
+placed lengthwise upon each wing-case, and by the two first joints of
+the antennæ being greatly dilated and lengthened in the males, of the
+lath species. It is asserted by some authors that the black
+blister-beetle is injurious to the potato; but I can not see how it
+could do much damage to that crop, as the perfect insect does not appear
+until late in August, when the potato crop is nearly out of its reach.
+Not so, however, with the black-rat blister-beetle, which is on hand
+ready for business early in the season. This insect does considerable
+damage to the potato in Iowa, and neighboring States; it is also found,
+though in not so great numbers, throughout the whole of the Northern
+States.
+
+
+~The Margined Blister-Beetle~, (_Lytta marginata_, Fabr.)--This species
+(Fig. 9) maybe at once recognized by its general black color, and the
+ash-gray edging to its wing-cases. It usually feeds on certain wild
+plants, but does not object to a diet of potato-leaves. Though found
+over a large extent of country, it seldom appears in numbers large
+enough to damage the potato crop materially. Like other blister-beetles,
+it goes under ground to pass into the pupa state, and attacks the potato
+only when it is in the perfect or winged state.
+
+
+~The Three-Lined Leaf-Beetle~, (_Lema trilineata_, Olivier.) The larva of
+the three-lined leaf-beetle may be distinguished from all other insects
+which prey upon the potato by its habit of covering itself with its own
+excrement. In Figure 10, _a_, this larva is shown in profile, both full
+and half grown, covered with the soft, greenish excrementitious matter
+which from time to time it discharges. Figure 10, _c_, gives a somewhat
+magnified view of the pupa, and Figure 10, _b_, shows the last few
+joints of the abdomen of the larva, magnified and viewed from above. The
+vent of the larva, as will be seen from this last figure, is situated on
+the upper surface of the last joint, so that its excrement naturally
+falls upon its back, and by successive discharges is crowded forward
+toward its head, till the whole upper surface is covered with it. There
+are several other larva, feeding upon other plants, which wear cloaks of
+this strange material.
+
+Many authors suppose that the object of the larva in all these cases is
+to protect itself from the heat of the sun. In all probability the real
+aim of nature in the case of all these larvæ is to defend them from the
+attacks of birds and of cannibal and parasitic insects.
+
+There are two broods of this insect every year. The first brood of larvæ
+may be found on the potato-vine toward the latter end of June, and the
+second in August.
+
+The first brood stays under ground about a fortnight before it emerges
+in the perfect beetle state, and the second brood stays under ground all
+winter, and only emerges at the beginning of the following June.
+
+The perfect beetle (Fig. 11) is of a pale yellow color, with three black
+stripes on its back, and bears a strong resemblance to the cucumber-bug,
+(_Diabrotica vittata_, Fabr. Fig. 12.)
+
+From this last species, however, it may be distinguished by its somewhat
+larger size, and by the remarkable pinching-in of the thorax, so as to
+make quite a lady-like waist there, or what naturalists call a
+"constriction." The female, after coupling, lays her yellow eggs (Fig.
+10,_d_) on the under surface of the leaves of the potato plant. The
+larvæ hatching, when full grown descend into the ground, where they
+transform to pupæ (Fig. 10, _c_) within a small oval chamber, from which
+in time the perfect beetle emerges.
+
+This insect in certain seasons is a great pest in the Eastern and Middle
+States, but has never yet occurred in the Mississippi Valley in such
+numbers as to be materially injurious.
+
+~The Cucumber Flea Beetle~, (_Haltica cucumeris_, Harris.) This nimble
+minute beetle (Fig. 13) belongs to the flea-beetles, (_Haltica_ family,)
+the same sub-group of the leaf-beetles (_Phytophaga_) to which also
+appertains the notorious steel-blue flea-beetle (_Haltica chalybea_,
+Illiger) that is such a pest to the vineyardist. Like all the rest of
+the flea-beetles, it has its hind thighs greatly enlarged, which enables
+it to jump with much agility. It is not peculiar to the potato, but
+infests a great variety of plants, including the cucumber, from which it
+derives its name. It eats minute round holes in the leaf of the plant it
+infests, but does not always penetrate entirely through it.
+
+The larva feeds internally upon the substance of the leaf, and goes
+under ground to assume the pupa state. It passes through all its stages
+in about a month, and there are two or three broods of them in the
+course of the same season. This is emphatically the greatest insect pest
+that the potato-grower has to contend with in Pennsylvania. It abounds
+throughout most of the Northern, Middle, and Western States. Large
+fields of potatoes can any summer be seen in the Middle States much
+injured by this minute insect, every leaf apparently completely riddled
+with minute round holes, and the stalks and leaves appearing yellow and
+seared. Plaster frequently and bountifully applied is sure to prevent
+the attacks of this insect, or to disperse it after it has commenced
+operations.
+
+
+~The Colorado Potato-Bug~, (_Doryphora_ 10--_lineata_, Say.)--This insect,
+which, according to Dr. Walsh, has in the North-West alone damaged the
+potato crop to the amount of one million seven hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars, came originally from the Rocky Mountains, where it was
+found forty-five years ago, feeding on a wild species of potato peculiar
+to that region, (_Solanum rostratum_, Dunal.) When civilization marched
+up the Rocky Mountains, and potatoes began to be grown in that region,
+this highly improved pest acquired the habit of feeding upon the
+cultivated potato. It went from potato-patch to potato-patch, moving
+east-ward at the rate of about sixty miles a year, and is now firmly
+established over all the country extending from Indiana to its old
+feeding-grounds in the Rocky Mountains. In about twelve years it will
+have reached the Atlantic coast.
+
+There is another very closely allied species, known as the Bogus
+Colorado potato-bug, (_coryphora juncta_, Germor,) which has existed
+throughout a great part of the United States from time immemorial. This
+latter insect, however, feeds almost exclusively on the horse-nettle,
+(_Solanum carolinense_, Linn.,) and is never known to injure the potato.
+Both insects are figured, so that one need not be mistaken for the
+other.
+
+Figure 14, _b_, _b_, _b_, gives a view of the larva of the true Colorado
+potato-bug, in various positions and stages of its existence. Figure 15,
+_b_, _b_, of that of the bogus Colorado potato-bug. It will be seen at
+once that the head of the former is black, and the first joint behind
+the head is pale and edged with black behind only; that there is a
+double row of black spots along the side of the body; and that the legs
+are black. In the other larva, (Fig. 15, _b_,) on the contrary, the head
+is of a pale color, the first joint behind the head is tinged with dusk
+and edged all round with black; there is but a single row of spots along
+the side of the body, and the legs are pale.
+
+Figure 14, _d_, _d_, exhibits the true Colorado potato-bug; Figure 15,
+the bogus Colorado potato-bug; each of its natural size. Figure 14, _e_,
+shows the _left_ wing-case enlarged, and Figure 15, _e_, an enlarged leg
+of the latter. On a close inspection, it will be perceived that in the
+former (Fig. 14, _e_) the boundary of each dark stripe on the wing-cases
+toward the middle is studded with confused and irregular punctures,
+partly inside and partly outside the edge of the dark stripe; that it is
+the third and fourth dark stripes, counting from the outside, that are
+united behind, and that both the knees and feet are black.
+
+In Figure 15, _d_, on the contrary, it is the second and third
+stripes--not the third and fourth--counting from the outside, that are
+united behind, and the leg is entirely pale, except a black spot on the
+middle of the front of the thigh. The eggs (Fig. 14, _a_, _a_, and Fig.
+15, _d_, _d_) are yellow, and are always laid on the under side of the
+leaf in patches of from twenty to thirty; those of the bogus are of a
+lighter color. Each female of the true Colorado potato-bug lays,
+according to Dr. Schirmer, about seven hundred eggs. In about six days
+the eggs hatch into larvæ, which feed on the foliage of the potato plant
+about seventeen days; they then descend to the ground, where they change
+into pupæ at the surface of the earth. The perfect beetle appears about
+ten to fourteen days after the pupa is formed, begins to pair in about
+seven days, and on the fourteenth day begins to deposit her eggs. There
+are three broods of this insect every year. Neither geese, ducks,
+turkeys, nor barn-yard fowl will touch the larva of the Colorado
+potato-bug when it is offered to them, and there are numerous authentic
+cases on record where persons who have scalded to death quantities of
+these larvæ, and inhaled the fumes of their bodies, have been taken
+seriously ill, and even been confined to their beds for many days in
+consequence. It is also reported to have produced poisonous effects on
+several persons who handled them incautiously with naked hands. Various
+plans have been tried to destroy this persistent enemy of the potato
+plant. Powdered hellebore is said to have been used with effect as a
+means of destroying the pest. It should be dusted on and under the
+foliage when the plant is wet with dew. Hellebore, however, is a
+dangerous remedy on account of its poisonous qualities. A mixture of one
+part salt, ten parts soap, and twenty parts water, applied to every part
+of the plants with a syringe, is quite effectual. Several cannibal and
+one parasitic insect are known to prey upon the larva of the Colorado
+potato-bug, and the eggs in vast numbers are eaten by several species of
+lady-birds and their larva.
+
+
+GENERAL REMARKS ON INSECTS.
+
+The time is not far distant when the American farmer will be obliged to
+put forth greater efforts to destroy noxious insects than he has
+hitherto. It is a well-known fact that noxious insects are increasing in
+a rapid rate throughout every part of our land. The country is becoming
+so "buggy" that eternal vigilance is the price of every thing produced
+from the soil.
+
+Close observers calculate that more fruits of various kinds and
+varieties are annually destroyed or rendered worthless by insects than
+are gathered and used by man. The cotton-worm, the wheat-midge, the
+canker-worms, the potato-bugs, are each every year increasing in numbers
+and destructiveness.
+
+The "curculio" alone destroys millions of dollars' worth of fruit
+annually.
+
+It is a safe estimate, all things considered, that, if noxious insects
+of all descriptions could at once be annihilated throughout our country,
+and mildews of various classes be effectually held in check, the cost of
+living to our people would, in-a short time, be reduced to one third of
+its present amount. It is disheartening to see what a vast amount of
+grains, fruits, and vegetables is annually eaten up by the larvæ, or
+appropriated by the perfect insects of various classes, merely for the
+sake of propagating their abominable species. Yet, in view of all the
+devastation, but feeble effort is made to abate the evil. Birds, many
+species of which nature seemingly designed on purpose to keep insects in
+check, are wantonly shot by lazy boys and indolent men, who range the
+fields and forests, killing all, from the humming-bird to the crow.
+Legislative enactments made expressly to protect the insectivorous
+songsters are every day violated with impunity. One man plants an
+orchard and does all he can to destroy noxious insects; another man near
+him also has an orchard, but his orchard serves no purpose but to
+propagate "curculios," "canker-worms," "bark-lice," "tent caterpillars,"
+"codling moths," etc., for his neighbors, and, as a matter of course,
+the whole neighborhood swarms with noxious insects. If all cultivators
+would act in concert and with a will, insects might be reduced in
+numbers very rapidly. Most moths of night-flying insects are attracted
+to and destroyed by small bonfires kindled in still evenings during the
+summer months.
+
+Bottles half-filled with sweetened water, hung here and there, will trap
+countless bugs. Strong soap-suds applied immediately after they hatch is
+a sure remedy for plant lice. Molasses and water, to which a little
+arsenic has been added, placed in shallow dishes among the vines, is
+good medicine for potato-bugs, and all bugs in general. A lighted lamp
+placed in the centre of a common milk-pan, partly filled with water, the
+whole elevated a few feet from the ground, will, on a still evening,
+attract and destroy the wheat-midge and similar insects in great
+numbers. The calculations of the "curculio" and "codling moth" are
+brought to naught by turning hogs into the orchard to eat the stung
+fruit as it falls, and the larva that depastures upon the leaves of the
+current and gooseberry is destroyed by syringing the plants with a
+mixture of soap, salt, and water.
+
+
+VALUE OF THE POTATO AS CATTLE FOOD.
+
+The constituents of the potato are according to different authorities,
+as follows:
+
+   Water                 75.2
+   Casein                 1.4
+   Starch                15.5
+   Dextrine               0.4
+   Sugar                  3.2
+   Fat                    0.2
+   Fibre                  3.2
+   Mineral matter         0.9
+
+     Or economically:
+   Water                 75.2
+   Flesh-formers          1.4
+   Fat-formers           18.9
+   Accessories            3.6
+   Mineral matter         0.9
+
+Of the high value of potatoes, when used in connection with other food,
+there is not a shadow of doubt. All experimenters and observers in the
+economy of food agree in saying that they are of the highest utility;
+but they must be used with other food whose constituents are different
+from those of the root.
+
+The analysis shows that potatoes surpass in the fat-producing principles
+the nutritious or flesh-forming in such proportions that they could not
+alone sustain the composition of the blood; for an animal fed alone on
+these tubers would be obliged to consume such quantities to provide the
+blood with the requisite proportion of albumen that, even if the process
+of digestion were not discontinued, there would be a superabundance of
+fat accumulated beyond the power of the oxygen to consume, which would
+successively absorb from the albuminous substance a part of its vital
+elements, and thus a check would be caused in the endless change of
+matter in the tissues in the nutritive and regressive transformations.
+
+Potatoes, then, to be of most value as food for cattle, should be fed in
+connection with grain, or with other roots in which the flesh-forming
+element predominates. There seems to be no doubt that the tubers are of
+most value when cooked, although some authors affirm to the contrary. It
+seems possible to prove this on philosophical principles; for it is well
+known that the starch contained in the potato is incapable of affording
+nourishment until the containing globules are broken, and one of the
+most efficient means of doing this seems to be by heat.
+
+Boussingault, in speaking of the economy of cooking potatoes, says, "The
+potato is frequently steamed or boiled first; yet I can say positively
+that horned cattle do extremely well upon raw potatoes, and at
+Bechelbrunn our cows never have them otherwise than raw. They are never
+boiled, save for horses and hogs. The best mode of dealing with them is
+to steam them; they need never be so thoroughly boiled as when they are
+to serve for the food of man. The steamed or boiled potatoes are crushed
+between two rollers, or simply broken with a wooden spade, and mixed
+with cut hay or straw or chaff, before being served out. It may not be
+unnecessary to observe that by steaming potatoes lose no weight; hence
+we conclude that the nutritive equivalent for the boiled is the same as
+that of the raw tuber.
+
+"Nevertheless, it is possible that the amylaceous principle is rendered
+more easily assimilable by boiling, and that by this means the tubers
+actually become more nutritious. Some have proposed to roast potatoes in
+the oven, and there can be little question that heated in this way they
+answer admirably for fattening hogs, and even oxen. Done in the oven,
+potatoes may be brought to a state in which they may perfectly supply
+the place of corn in feeding horses and other cattle."
+
+The apparent contradiction in the remarks will be observed; but the
+evident leaning in favor of cooked potatoes shows that Boussingault,
+although paying some attention to the theory that cooked food is not
+generally attended with the same benefit to ruminating as to other
+animals, was evidently almost convinced that those which contained an
+abundance of starch in their constituents must be rendered more
+nutritious when exposed to the action of heat.
+
+Potatoes fed in a raw state to stock are laxative in their effects, and
+are often given to horses as a medicine in cases of "hidebound" with
+decided benefit. Bots, which have been known to live twenty-four hours
+immersed in spirits of turpentine, die almost instantly when placed in
+potato-juice; hence a common practice with horsemen, where bots are
+suspected, is to first administer milk and molasses to decoy the
+parasites from the coating of the stomach, and then drench the animal
+with the expressed juice of potatoes. A decoction made by boiling the
+parings of potatoes in a small quantity of water is often used as a wash
+to kill vermin on cattle. Raw potatoes, fed occasionally and in small
+quantities, are a good tonic for stock of any kind which is kept
+principally on hay; but all experiments show that when the potato is
+used for fattening purposes, the tubers should in some way be cooked,
+that the animal to which they are fed may derive from them the greatest
+possible amount of nutriment. Repeated experiments demonstrate the fact
+that horned cattle or hogs lay on as much fat from the consumption of
+two thirds of a given quantity of potatoes properly cooked as they will
+by eating the entire quantity in a raw state. In point of nutriment as
+cattle-food, two pounds of potatoes are considered equivalent to one
+pound of hay.
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO COOK THE POTATO.
+
+FURNISHED BY
+
+PROF. PIERRE BLOT, OF BROOKLYN.
+
+
+At the suggestion of a number of friends, I addressed the following note
+to Professor Blot, which, with his reply, is appended:
+
+                                                PROFESSOR PIERRE BLOT:
+                                              NEW-YORK, Feb. 15, 1870.
+
+DEAR SIR: In connection with a Prize Essay on the cultivation of the
+potato, I wish to publish an article on COOKING THE POTATO, to be taken
+from your _Hand-Book of Practical Cookery_. I write this note to ask
+whether I can do this with your entire approval. Hoping that such
+article may aid our American housekeepers to prepare the potato for the
+table in a more palatable and wholesome manner, I remain yours very
+truly,
+
+                                                          W. T. WYLIE.
+
+
+                             BROOKLYN, CENTRAL KITCHEN, Feb. 15, 1870.
+
+  REV. W. T. WYLIE:
+
+DEAR SIR: ~You are authorized, with the greatest pleasure.~ P. BLOT.
+
+In accordance with the above authority, the following selections have
+been made from the book named:
+
+~To Select.~--As a general rule, the smaller the eye the better the
+potatoes. By cutting off a piece from the larger end, you ascertain if
+they are sound; they must be white, reddish, bluish, etc., according to
+the species. If spotted, they are not sound, and therefore very
+inferior. There are several kinds, and all of them are good when sound
+or coming from a proper soil. Use the kind you prefer, or those that are
+better fit for the way they are intended to be served.
+
+~To Boil.~--Being naturally watery, potatoes should never be cooked by
+boiling except when wanted very white, as for _croquettes_. When boiled
+whole, put them of an even size as much as possible, in order to cook
+them evenly. They are better, more mealy, when steamed or baked; but
+those who have no steamer must, of course, boil them. Cover them with
+cold water, set on the fire and boil till done, then pour off all the
+water, put the pan back on a slow fire for five minutes and well
+covered; then use the potatoes.
+
+~To Steam.~--Place them above a kettle of boiling water, in a kind of
+drainer made for that purpose, and adapted to the kettle. The drainer
+must be covered tight. They cook as fast as by boiling, the degree of
+heat being the same. When steamed the skin is very easily removed.
+
+~To Prepare.~--If they are to be boiled, or steamed, or baked, it is only
+necessary to wash them. If wanted peeled, as for frying, etc., then
+commence by cutting off the germs or eyes; if young and tender, take the
+skin off with a scrubbing-brush, and drop immediately in cold water to
+keep them white; if old, scrape the skin off with a knife, for the part
+immediately under the skin contains more nutriment than the middle, and
+drop in cold water also. If wanted cut, either in dice, or like carpels
+of oranges, or any other way, cut them above a bowl of cold water, so
+that they drop into it; for if kept exposed to the air, they turn
+reddish and lose their nutritive qualities.
+
+~A l'Allemande.~--Steam, peel, and slice the potatoes. Cut some bread in
+thin slices, and fry bread and potatoes with a little butter, and turn
+the whole in a bowl, dust well with sugar, pour a little milk all over,
+and bake for about fifteen minutes; serve warm.
+
+~A l'Anglaise.~--Steam or boil about a quart of potatoes, and then peel
+and slice them. Put two ounces of butter in a frying-pan on the fire,
+and put the potatoes in when melted, toss them for about ten minutes,
+add salt, pepper, a little grated nutmeg, and serve hot.
+
+~Broiled.~--Steam, peel, and slice the potatoes. Lay the slices on a
+gridiron, and place it over a rather slow fire; have melted butter, and
+spread some over the slices of potatoes with a brush; as soon as the
+under part is broiled, turn each slice over and spread butter over the
+other side. When done, dish, salt, and serve them hot. A little butter
+may be added when dished, according to taste.
+
+~Fried.~--To be fried, the potatoes are cut either with a vegetable spoon,
+in fillets, in slices, with a scalloped knife, or with an ordinary one,
+or cut in pieces like carpels of oranges, or even in dice. When cut,
+drain and wipe them dry. This must be done quickly, so as not to allow
+the potatoes to turn reddish. Have a coarse towel ready, then turn the
+potatoes into a colander, and immediately turn them in the towel, shake
+them a little, and quickly drop them in hot fat. When done, turn them
+into a colander, sprinkle salt on them, and serve hot. Bear in mind that
+fried potatoes must be eaten as hot as possible. Fry only one size at a
+time, as it takes three times as long to fry them when cut in pieces as
+when sliced or cut in fillets.
+
+~To fry them light or swelled.~--When fried, turn into the colander, and
+have the fat over a brisk fire; leave the potatoes in the colander only
+about half a minute, then put them back in the very hot fat, stir for
+about one minute, and put them again in the colander, salt them, and
+serve hot. If the fat is very hot, when dropped into it for the second
+time they will certainly swell; there is no other way known to do it. It
+is as easily done as it is simple. Potatoes cut in fillets and fried are
+sometimes called _à la Parisienne_; when cut in slices or with a
+vegetable spoon, they are called _à la française_.
+
+Potatoes cut with a vegetable spoon and fried, make a good as well as a
+sightly decoration for a dish of meat or of fish. They may be fried in
+oil also, but it is more expensive than in fat. They may be fried in
+butter also, but it is still more expensive than oil, and is not better
+than fat; no matter what kind of fat is used, be it lard, beef suet, or
+skimmings of sauces and gravy, it can not be tasted.
+
+~Lyonnaise.~--Potatoes _Lyonnaise_ are prepared according to taste, that
+is, as much onion as liked is used, either in slices or chopped. If you
+have not any cold potatoes, steam or boil some, let them cool, and peel
+and slice them. For about a quart of potatoes, put two ounces of butter
+in a frying-pan on the fire, and when melted put as much onion as you
+please, either sliced or chopped, into the pan, and fry it till about
+half done, when add the potatoes and again two ounces of butter; salt,
+pepper, and stir and toss gently till the potatoes are all fried of a
+fine, light-brown color. It may require more butter, as no vegetable
+absorbs more than potatoes.
+
+~Mashed.~--Peel and quarter about three pints of potatoes, as directed;
+put them in a saucepan with more water than is necessary to cover them,
+and a little salt; set on the fire and boil gently till done, drain, put
+them back in the saucepan, mash them well and mix them with two ounces
+of butter, two yolks of eggs, salt, pepper, and milk enough to make them
+of a proper thickness. Set on the fire for two or three minutes,
+stirring the while, and serve warm. When on the dish, smooth them with
+the back of a knife or scallop them, according to fancy.
+
+~Mashed and Baked.~--Put two ounces of butter in a stewpan and set it on
+the fire; when hot, add a tea-spoonful of parsley chopped fine, and a
+little salt; five minutes after, put in it a quart of potatoes,
+prepared, cooked, peeled, and mashed, as directed; then pour on the
+whole, little by little, stirring continually with a wooden spoon, a
+pint of good milk; and when the whole is well mixed, and becoming rather
+thick, take from the fire, place on the dish, then set in a brisk oven
+for five minutes, and serve.
+
+~Sautees.~--Take a quart of young and tender potatoes, peel them with a
+brush, and cut in slices. Put two ounces of butter in a frying-pan on a
+quick fire; when hot, put the potatoes in, and fry them till of a golden
+color; place them on a dish without any butter, sprinkle chopped parsley
+and salt on, and serve. They may also be served without parsley,
+according to taste.
+
+~Soufflees.~--Steam a quart of potatoes, then peel and mash them in a
+saucepan and mix an ounce of butter with them; set on the fire, pour
+into it, little by little, stirring the while, about half a pint of
+milk, stir a little longer after the milk is in and until they are
+turning rather thick; dish the potatoes, smooth or scallop them with the
+back of a knife, and put them in a quick oven till of a proper color,
+and serve.
+
+~In Cakes.~--Prepare and cook by steam a quart and a half of potatoes,
+peel and mash them; mix with them the yolks of five eggs, half a
+lemon-rind grated, and four ounces of fine white sugar. Put four ounces
+of butter in a stewpan and set it on the fire; when melted, put the
+mixture in, stirring it with a wooden spoon continually; as soon as it
+is in the stewpan, add the whites of the five eggs, well beaten; leave
+on the fire only the time necessary to mix the whole well together, and
+take off; when nearly cold, add, if handy, and while stirring, a few
+drops of orange-flower water; it gives a very good flavor; then put the
+whole in a tin mould greased a little with butter; place in a quick oven
+for about thirty-five minutes, and serve.
+
+~With Butter, or English Fashion.~--Put water on the fire with
+considerable salt in it; at the first boil, drop a quart of washed
+potatoes in and boil till done, when take off, peel, and put them whole
+in a saucepan, with butter, salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg; set on a
+rather slow fire, stirring gently now and then till they have absorbed
+all the butter. Serve warm. They absorb a great deal of butter.
+
+~With Bacon or Salt Pork.~--Peel and quarter about a quart of potatoes.
+Set a saucepan on the fire with about four ounces of fat salt pork cut
+in dice in it. When fried, put the potatoes in. Season with a bunch of
+seasonings composed of two sprigs of parsley, one of thyme, and a
+bay-leaf; salt and pepper to taste, and about half a pint of broth or
+water. Boil gently till cooked, remove the bunch of seasonings; skim off
+the fat, if any, and serve warm. It is served at breakfast, as well as
+_entremets_ for dinner.
+
+~With Cream or Milk.~--Peel and mash a quart of potatoes, when prepared
+and cooked. Put two ounces of butter in a stewpan and set it on a good
+fire; when melted, sprinkle in it a tea-spoonful of flour, same of
+chopped parsley, a pinch of grated nutmeg, and salt; stir with a wooden
+spoon five minutes; then add the potatoes, and half a pint of milk or
+cream; keep stirring ten minutes longer, take from the fire, sprinkle in
+them half a table-spoonful of sugar, and serve as warm as possible.
+
+~With White Sauce.~--Clean, wash, and throw a quart of potatoes in boiling
+water, with a sprig of thyme, two onions, a bay-leaf, two sprigs of
+sweet basil, two cloves, salt, and pepper; when cooked, take the
+potatoes out carefully, peel and cut them in two, place them on a warm
+dish, pour on them a white sauce, and serve warm.
+
+
+
+
+THE POTATO:
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS.
+
+
+We propose to add a few pages of illustrations of the new varieties,
+together with descriptions of the same. A number of these were given in
+the pamphlet issued last year, and are reproduced from that. In case a
+new edition is called for, it is likely that a number of additional cuts
+will be added to it.
+
+We would call attention to the report of a series of experiments which
+have been made on the farms connected with the Agricultural College of
+Pennsylvania.
+
+There are very many questions connected with the cultivation of the
+potato which can be answered satisfactorily only by careful and repeated
+experiments.
+
+[Illustration: Excelsior.]
+
+Seedling of Early Goodrich, now six years old, and is claimed to combine
+more good qualities than any other potato. D. S. Heffron, of Utica,
+originated it. Is said to be productive, early, and of good keeping
+qualities.
+
+MASSASOIT.--A new variety from Western Massachusetts, resembling the
+Harrison in appearance, but earlier and of much better quality; flesh
+white, cooks dry and mealy, and altogether a superior variety; strongly
+recommended for a general crop. (See next page.)
+
+                                        BELLEFONTE, February 12, 1870.
+
+   REV. W. T. WYLIE:
+
+DEAR SIR: I inclose an extract from the report, suitable, I think, for
+the pamphlet.
+
+                                                     H. N. MCALLISTER.
+
+
+AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+From an interesting and instructive report of the Professor of
+Agriculture to the Board of Trustees of the Agricultural College of
+Pennsylvania, for 1869, in relation to the results of experiments made
+upon the three several experimental farms connected with that
+institution, we make the following extracts touching the Potato,
+verifying and illustrating some of the principles set forth in the above
+essay:
+
+_1st.--Varieties._
+
+Of upward of thirty different varieties experimented upon, the Early
+Goodrich, Early Rose, and Harrison are among the best and most prolific.
+
+LIKE WEIGHTS OF SEED UPON EQUAL AREAS OF GROUND.
+
+_2d.--Different Modes of Preparing the Seed._
+
+CENTRAL FARM.--One fourth of Plot No. 11--Early Goodrich--_cut tubers_,
+yields 500 pounds, equal to 286 bushels per acre; _large and whole
+tubers_, yields 410 pounds, equal to 234 bushels per acre; _medium-sized
+tubers_, yields 419 pounds, equal to 239 bushels per acre; and _small
+tubers_, yields 486 pounds, equal to 278 bushels per acre.
+
+_3d.--Combined Diversity between Soil and Sub-soil and Common Plowing._
+
+CENTRAL FARM.--The 4 plots, Nos. 11, 16, 116, and 416--_soil and subsoil
+plowing_--yields 6200 pounds, equal to 221 bushels per acre; the 2
+plots, Nos. 216 and 316--_common plowing_--yields 1845 pounds, equal to
+but 131 bushels per acre.
+
+_4th.--Diversity between Letting all Sprouts Grow and Thinning to Three
+in each Hill._.
+
+EASTERN FARM.--Plot No. 208: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 21-1/2
+pounds; _not thinned_; Moro Philips's superphosphate; yield 1174 pounds,
+equal to 168 bushels per acre.
+
+Plot No. 209: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 23 pounds; _thinned_;
+Moro Philips's superphosphate; yield 1042 pounds, equal to 149 bushels
+per acre.
+
+Plot No. 210: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 15 pounds; _not
+thinned_; stable manure; yield 860 pounds, equal to 124 bushels per
+acre.
+
+Plot No. 211: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 14-1/2 pounds;
+_thinned_; stable manure; yield 839 pounds, equal to 119 bushels per
+acre.
+
+_5th.--Diversity from Time of Cutting the Seed-Potatoes._.
+
+Plot No. 222: Monitors; _cut two weeks before planting_; yield 580
+pounds, equal to 83 bushels per acre.
+
+Plot 223: Monitors; _cut at time of planting_; yield 819 pounds, equal
+to 117 bushels per acre.
+
+Plot 220: Early Shaw; _cut two weeks before planting_; yield 764 pounds,
+equal to 100 bushels per acre.
+
+Plot 221: Early Shaw; _cut at time of planting_; yield 907 pounds, equal
+to 129 bushels per acre.
+
+[Illustration: Massasoit.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Bresee's Peerless, or No. 6.
+
+The latest and best of all Mr. Bresee's seedlings for the main crop.
+This is also a seedling of the Garnet Chili, and originated from the
+same seed-ball as the Early Rose; skin dull white, occasionally
+russeted; eyes shallow, oblong; flesh white, mealy; grows to a large
+size, often weighing from one and a half to two pounds, and enormously
+productive. At a trial before a committee of the Massachusetts
+Horticultural Society, in September last, this variety obtained more
+votes as to quality than any other of Bresee's seedlings.
+
+TABLE OF EXPERIMENTS.
+
+TRY IT AND REPORT RESULTS.
+
+                                                                       lbs.
+   Two pounds large-sized potatoes, planted whole                        00
+   "   "     "   "  cut into quarters                                    00
+   "   "     "   "  cut to single eyes                                   00
+   "   "     "   "  cut to single eyes and planted four in a hill        00
+   "   "     "   "  planted in drills, fifteen inches between the sets,  00
+   Two pounds small potatoes, planted whole                              00
+      "        "     "        cut in two pieces                          00
+   Two pounds cut to single eye, and worked in ridges                    00
+      "        "     "           the surface kept flat                   00
+
+To these add such other experiments as may be interesting to you.
+_Weigh_ the product of each carefully, and report _weight_, _average_,
+_size_ of each lot, and _quality_.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+_Brezee's King of the Earlies._
+
+Raised, in 1862, by Albert Brezee, of Hubbardton, Vt., from a ball of
+the Garnet Chili. Vines of medium height, or a little less, and bearing
+no balls; leaves large; tubers large and handsome, roundish and slightly
+flattened; eyes small, and somewhat pinkish; skin flesh-colored, or dull
+pinkish white; flesh white, cooks well, and is of the best quality for
+the table. Has proven thus far very hardy. The variety will not be sent
+out until the spring of 1870.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+THE EARLY MOHAWK POTATO.
+
+Originated in Michigan, in 1866, from a cross of the Peachblow and Brick
+Eye. It is of oblong, roundish shape, flattened at the ends. Skin light
+pink, with pink blush near the eye. Eyes slightly sunken, flesh white,
+cooks dry and mealy, and of superior flavor. Ripens from six to ten days
+earlier than the Rose, of uniform large size and but few small ones, and
+perfectly free from Core or Hollow Heart, and a superior Winter and
+Spring variety.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+_Brezee's Prolific._
+
+This variety originated with Albert Brezee, Esq., of Hubbardton, Vt., in
+1861. Mr. Brezee was the originator of the Early Rose, the seed
+producing both that and Brezee's Prolific being from the same seed-ball,
+and both are seedlings of the Garnet Chili.
+
+The vines of Brezee's Prolific are of medium height, quite bushy, and
+somewhat spreading, and with very large leaves; as yet they have
+produced no seed-balls. Tubers large, regular in shape, and very smooth,
+slightly oblong, and very much flattened; skin dull white, inclined to
+be russeted; eyes but little depressed and slightly pinkish; flesh
+white, rarely if ever hollow; cooks quickly, and is very mealy and of
+excellent quality. Yield very large, maturing three weeks later than the
+Early Rose.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Rules Worth Observing._--An experienced cultivator says, "My experience
+leads me to lay down the following as _safe rules_:
+
+"I. As early as possible, _lay your plans_ for the next season's
+planting, and manure and work your ground accordingly, in advance.
+
+"II. Secure the _best seed_, even if it cost you two or five times as
+much as a common and less valuable sort.
+
+"III. _Always_ get a new, improved variety, as soon as it has been
+tested and proved. _Remember_ the profit is mainly made by the early
+cultivators. When it gets so common that _you_ can buy cheap, you will
+have to _sell_ cheap, too.
+
+"IV. Buy only from reliable dealers, and _be sure_ you get the _genuine_
+article.
+
+"V. BUY, or at least ORDER, if you possibly can, in the fall or winter;
+you thus save the spring rise of prices.
+
+"VI. Liberal outlay for _seed, manure, tools, and work_ gives ten-fold
+the largest return in money, as well as satisfaction."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+THE GLEASON.
+
+Also a seedling of 1860, of the Pink Eye Rusty Coat, No. 15, which it
+closely resembles. When two years old, Mr. Goodrich described it thus:
+"Longish, rusty, coppery; leaves and vines dark green; flowers white; a
+very hopeful sort." September 29th, 1863, at digging time, he added:
+"Very nice; many in the hill; no disease." The two seasons, 1865 and
+1866, under Dr. Gray's cultivation, this variety yielded at the rate of
+four hundred bushels to the acre, being more productive than the parent.
+This variety gives the best satisfaction. The tubers are not overgrown,
+but numerous; have fine-grained, solid flesh, that cooks white. For
+winter use this kind is excellent. It is a good keeper, and has a fine,
+rich flavor, especially when baked.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+_Willard._
+
+J. J. H. Gregory says of this potato: "The Willard is a seedling from
+the Early Goodrich. It proves to be a half early variety, enormously
+productive, and is a potato of good promise. It is of a rich rose color,
+spotted and splashed with white. The flesh is white."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+THE EARLY ROSE.
+
+"It is a seedling of the Garnet Chili, that was originated in 1861, by
+Albert Brezee, Esq., an intelligent farmer of Hortonville, Vt. I have
+experimented with it for three years, and have been so well pleased with
+it that I have purchased all Mr. Brezee could spare for the last two
+years, and have engaged the whole of his small crop for another year.
+
+"It has a stout, erect stalk, of medium height; large leaves; flowers
+freely; bears no fruit. The tuber is quite smooth, nearly cylindrical,
+varying to flattish at the centre, tapering gradually toward each end.
+Eyes shallow, but sharp and strongly marked. Skin thin, tough, of a dull
+bluish color. Flesh white, solid, and brittle; rarely hollow; boils
+through quickly; is very mealy, and of the best table quality. It is as
+healthy and productive as the Early Goodrich, matures about ten days
+earlier, and is its superior for the table. The cut is a good outline of
+this beautiful and excellent sort.
+
+"I consider it the most promising very early potato with which I am
+acquainted, and I have tried nearly all the early sorts of the country."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_~How to Double Your Crop, when you have New and Rare Kinds.~_--In an
+ordinary hot-bed or cold frame, put some six inches of good, loose, rich
+soil; split your potato, and lay it cut side down about three inches
+under the surface. When the sprouts are four or five inches high, lift
+the potato, slip off the sprouts, and plant them.
+
+You can then cut the tuber into single eyes, and plant as usual. The
+crop from the sprouts will ripen two weeks before the others. I made $40
+this year by trying this with a _handful_ of potatoes. Every reader is
+welcome to it, and may make as much or more than I did, if he secures a
+few pounds of the newer and costly but valuable kinds.
+                                                                    W.
+
+
+_Early Goodrich._
+
+A seedling of the Cusco of 1860. In 1862, Mr. Goodrich described it:
+"Round to longish; sometimes a crease at the insertion of the root;
+white; flowers bright lilac; (produces) many balls; yield large. Table
+quality is already very good. This sort is No. 1 every way." He said to
+me in the spring of 1864: "This early sort gives me more satisfaction
+than any other I have ever grown." This variety ripens as early as the
+Ashleaf Kidney; on rich soil yields from 250 to 350 bushels per acre;
+has never shown any disease; is white-fleshed, and of superior quality.
+
+The above description by D. S. Heffron is fully sustained by my
+experience.
+
+I noticed at dinner to-day, (Nov. 17th,) every potato in a large dishful
+had cracked its skin, and from most of them the skin had peeled itself
+half off.
+                                                                    W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Rev. W. F. Dixon_, of Pine Grove, gives the results of his experience
+in the following note:
+
+                                         "PINE GROVE, MERCER CO., PA.,
+                                                   September 20, 1868.
+
+"A year ago last spring, a friend gave me three early Goodrich potatoes,
+which I planted four eyes in a hill, and last fall I raised over one
+bushel. I had the Buckeye planted in the same lot. The Goodrich produced
+about four times as much to the hill as the Buckeye."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Our country may well honor the memory of Rev. C. E. Goodrich, who, by
+persevering experiments and patient toil, has produced such wonderful
+results. His success should stimulate every farmer to make a similar
+line of experiments.
+
+_Potato Crop of New York State._--The total potato crop of the State of
+New York, this year, is about 25,000,000 bushels. The six great potato
+counties are Washington, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Monroe, St. Lawrence, and
+Genesee. Only one other county (Oneida) produces 300,000 bushels; three
+others, 600,000; one, 500,000; six, 400,000. New York county returns a
+crop of 1700 bushels. The entire crop of the State, 25,000,000 bushels,
+is raised on 254,403 acres of land. The three counties in the State
+which produce the most potatoes join each other, viz., Washington,
+Rensselaer, and Saratoga--their aggregate production reaching within a
+fraction of 2,500,000 bushels, or more than one-eighth of the total
+product of the whole State.--_New York Observer_.
+
+
+HARISON.
+
+Mr. Heffron gives the following account of this variety: "It is a
+brother of the Early Goodrich--a seedling of the Cusco of 1860. When two
+years old, Mr. Goodrich described it thus: 'White, large, not so deep
+eyes as the parent, nice.'" In 1863, Mr. Goodrich had eleven and a half
+bushels; and though it was a bad year for disease, and this a young and
+tender seedling, when he overhauled his seedlings, January 29th, 1864,
+he made this entry in his book: "All perfect, fine."
+
+It has a smooth white skin, white flesh, and is the most solid of large
+potatoes, having no hollow at the centre. It is enormously productive,
+yielding as well as the parent Cusco, and exceeds all others; its form
+is good, table quality excellent; keeps well; ripens ten days earlier
+than the Garnet Chili, and thus far is as hardy as the Garnet Chili.
+
+Among winter sorts this potato must soon hold as high a place as is
+conceded to the Early Goodrich among the early sorts.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+_To Keep Potatoes during Winter._--As soon as dry after digging, pick up
+and handle carefully; store in a dry, well-aired, cool cellar, free from
+frost, either in bins raised a little from the bottom of the cellar, or
+in barrels having at least two holes bored through the staves near the
+bottom, and lay the top head on, over a lath, so as to exclude the light
+without preventing a free circulation of air. Also sprinkle among the
+potatoes about half a pint of recently slacked quick-lime to each
+barrel. If bins are used, cover them over sufficiently to exclude the
+most of the light. Air the cellar all winter, as often as the
+temperature outside will admit of it.
+
+
+CLIMAX.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It has a stout, erect stalk, of full medium height, internodes of medium
+length, and very large leaves; the tuber is above medium in size, quite
+smooth, in form of a short cylinder swelled out at the centre,
+occasionally slightly flattened, and terminating rather abruptly; eyes
+shallow, sharp, sometimes swelled out or projecting, and always strongly
+defined; skin medium thickness, considerably netted or russet, tough,
+white; flesh entirely white, solid, heavy, brittle, and never hollow,
+and it boils through quickly, with no hard core at centre or stem, is
+mealy, of floury whiteness, and of superior table quality.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+_Early Prince._
+
+The _Early Prince_ is a seedling of the Early York, and was propagated
+in 1864. It has proved to be from a week to ten days earlier than the
+Early Rose, as far as size and solidity are concerned, and from two to
+three weeks earlier in quality.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ESTABLISHED IN 1842.
+
+
+A Good, Cheap, and very Valuable Paper for Every Man, Woman, and Child
+
+IN CITY, VILLAGE, AND COUNTRY.
+
+THE
+
+AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST,
+
+FOR THE
+
+Farm, Garden, and Household,
+
+Including a Special Department of Interesting and Instructive Reading
+for Children and Youth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE AGRICULTURIST is a large periodical of _forty-four_ quarto pages,
+beautifully printed, filled with _plain, practical, reliable, original_
+matter, and containing hundreds of _beautiful and instructive
+Engravings_ in every annual volume.
+
+It contains each month a Calendar of Operations to be performed on the
+_Farm_, in the _Orchard_ and _Garden_, in and around the _Dwelling_,
+etc.
+
+The thousands of hints and suggestions given in every volume are
+prepared by practical, intelligent _workingmen_, who know what they
+write about.
+
+The _Household Department_ is valuable to every housekeeper, affording
+very many useful hints and directions calculated to lighten and
+facilitate indoor work.
+
+The _Department for Children and Youth_ is prepared with special care,
+to furnish not only amusement, but also to inculcate knowledge and sound
+moral principles.
+
+
+TERMS--English Edition.
+
+The circulation of THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST is so large that it can be
+furnished (_postage prepaid by the publishers_) at the low price of
+$1.50 a year; four copies, one year, for $5; six copies, one year, for
+$7; ten or more copies, one year, $1 each; single copies, 15 cents each.
+
+  TRY IT A YEAR.
+
+~A German Edition,~ containing all the principal articles and engravings
+of the English Edition, and other matter of special interest to
+German-Americans, is furnished at the same rates as above stated for the
+English Edition, _postage prepaid by the publishers_.
+
+
+  ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, Publishers and Proprietors,
+  No. 751 Broadway, New York City.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE $100 PRIZE ESSAY ON THE
+CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO; AND HOW TO COOK THE POTATO***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 25905-8.txt or 25905-8.zip *******
+
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of
+the Potato; and How to Cook the Potato, by D. H. Compton and Pierre Blot</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato; and How to Cook the Potato</p>
+<p>Author: D. H. Compton and Pierre Blot</p>
+<p>Release Date: June 26, 2008  [eBook #25905]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE $100 PRIZE ESSAY ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO; AND HOW TO COOK THE POTATO***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by<br />
+    Steven Giacomelli, Jeannie Howse, Irma &Scaron;pehar, Janet Blenkinship,<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA),<br />
+    Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University<br />
+    (<a href="http://chla.library.cornell.edu/">http://chla.library.cornell.edu/</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA),
+      Albert R. Mann Library, Cornell University. See
+      <a href="http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=2923510">
+      http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=2923510</a>
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+   <h1>THE<br />
+   $100.<br />
+   PRIZE ESSAY<br />
+   ON THE<br />
+   CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO.</h1>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/illus-002.jpg" width="400" height="231" alt="" title="title page decoration" />
+</div>
+
+   <h2>Prize offered by <span class="smcap">W. T. Wylie</span> and awarded to <span class="smcap">D. H. Compton.</span></h2>
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+   <h2>HOW TO COOK THE POTATO,</h2>
+
+   <h3><i>Furnished by Prof. BLOT.</i></h3>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+   <h4>ILLUSTRATED. PRICE, 25 CENTS.</h4>
+
+   <p class="center">New-York:<br />
+   ORANGE JUDD CO.,<br />
+   No. 751 BROADWAY.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h3>CONTENTS</h3>
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="CONTENTS">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PRIZE_ESSAY_ON_THE_POTATO_AND_ITS_CULTIVATION">PRIZE ESSAY ON THE POTATO AND ITS CULTIVATION.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#POTATO_CULTURE">POTATO CULTURE.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#HOW_TO_COOK_THE_POTATO">HOW TO COOK THE POTATO.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#THE_POTATO">THE POTATO.</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="PRIZE_ESSAY_ON_THE_POTATO_AND_ITS_CULTIVATION" id="PRIZE_ESSAY_ON_THE_POTATO_AND_ITS_CULTIVATION"></a>PRIZE ESSAY</h2>
+
+ <h4>ON THE</h4> <h3>POTATO AND ITS CULTIVATION.</h3>
+
+<h3>$100.</h3>
+
+
+<blockquote><p>In the fall of 1868, I offered $100 as a prize for the best Essay on the
+Cultivation of the Potato, under conditions then published; the prize to
+be awarded by a committee composed of the following gentlemen, well
+known in agricultural circles:</p>
+
+<p>Colonel <span class="smcap">Mason C. Weld</span>, Associate Editor of <i>American Agriculturist</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">A. S. Fuller, Esq.</span>, of Ridgewood, N. J., the popular author of several
+horticultural works, and Associate Editor of the <i>Hearth and Home</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. <span class="smcap">F. M. Hexamer</span>, who has made the cultivation of the potato a special
+study.</p>
+
+<p>In the month of January, 1870, the committee awarded the prize to D. A.
+Compton; and this Essay is herewith submitted to the public in the hope
+of stimulating a more intelligent and successful cultivation of the
+Potato.</p>
+
+<p class="author">
+<span class="smcap">Bellefonte, Pa.</span>, January, 1870.<br />
+<span class="smcap">W. T. Wylie</span>.
+</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Office of The American Agriculturist</span>,<br />
+<span class="smcap">New-York</span>, January, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Rev. W. T. Wylie</span>: <span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: The essays submitted to us by Mr.
+Bliss, according to your announcement, numbered about twenty.
+Several could not be called essays from their brevity, and others
+were exceedingly incomplete. About twelve, however, required and
+were worthy of careful consideration. That of Mr. D. A. Compton, of
+Hawley, Wayne County, Pa., was, in the opinion of your committee,
+decidedly superior to the others as a practical treatise, sure to
+be of use to potato-growers in every part of the country, and well
+worthy the liberal prize offered by yourself.</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+In behalf of the committee, sincerely yours,</p>
+<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Mason C. Weld</span>, <i>Chairman</i>.<br />
+</p>
+
+
+</blockquote>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="POTATO_CULTURE" id="POTATO_CULTURE"></a>POTATO CULTURE.</h2>
+
+<h3>BY D. A. COMPTON, HAWLEY, PENNSYLVANIA.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The design of this little treatise is to present, with minuteness of
+detail, that mode of culture which experience and observation have
+proved to be best adapted to the production of the Potato crop.</p>
+
+<p>It is written by one who himself holds the plow, and who has, since his
+early youth, been engaged in agriculture in its various branches, to the
+exclusion of other pursuits.</p>
+
+<p>The statements which appear in the following pages are based upon actual
+personal experience, and are the results of many experiments made to
+test as many theories.</p>
+
+<p>Throughout the Northern States of our country the potato is the third
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> the three staple articles of food. It is held in such universal
+esteem as to be regarded as nearly indispensable. This fact is
+sufficient to render a thorough knowledge of the best varieties for use,
+the character of soil best adapted to their growth, their cultivation
+and after-care, matters of the highest importance to the farmers of the
+United States.</p>
+
+<p>The main object of this essay is so to instruct the novice in
+potato-growing that he may be enabled to go to work understandingly and
+produce the potato in its highest perfection, and realize from his
+labors bestowed on the crop the greatest possible profits.</p>
+
+
+<h4>SOIL REQUIRED&mdash;ITS PREPARATION.</h4>
+
+<p>The potato is most profitably grown in a warm, dry, sandy, or gravelly
+loam, well filled with decayed vegetable matters. The famous potato
+lands of Lake County, Ohio, from which such vast quantities of potatoes
+are shipped yearly, are yellow sand. This potato district is confined to
+ridges running parallel with Lake Erie, which, according to geological
+indications, have each at different periods defined its boundaries. This
+sand owes much of its potato-growing qualities to the sedimentary
+deposit of the lake and to manural properties furnished by the
+decomposition of the shells of water-snails, shell-fish, etc., that
+inhabited the waters.</p>
+
+<p>New lands, or lands recently denuded of the forest, if sufficiently dry,
+produce tubers of the most excellent quality. Grown on dry, new land,
+the potato always cooks dry and mealy, and possesses an agreeable flavor
+and aroma, not to be attained in older soils. In no argillaceous soil
+can the potato be grown to perfection as regards quality. Large crops
+on such soil may be obtained in favorable seasons, but the tubers are
+invariably coarse-fleshed and ill-flavored. To produce roots of the best
+quality, the ground must be dry, deep, and porous; and it should be
+remembered that, to obtain very large crops, it is almost impossible to
+get too much humus in the soil. Humus is usually added to arable land
+either by plowing under green crops, such as clover, buckwheat, peas,
+etc., or by drawing and working in muck obtained from swamps and low
+places.</p>
+
+<p>The muck should be drawn to the field in fall or winter, and exposed in
+small heaps to the action of frost. In the following spring, sufficient
+lime should be mixed with it to neutralize the acid, (which is found in
+nearly all muck,) and the whole be spread evenly and worked into the
+surface with harrow or cultivator.</p>
+
+<p>Leaves from the woods, buckwheat straw, bean, pea, and hop vines, etc.,
+plowed under long enough before planting to allow them time to rot, are
+very beneficial. Sea-weed, when bountifully applied, and turned under
+early in the fall, has no superior as a manure for the potato. No stable
+or barn-yard manure should be applied to this crop. If such nitrogenous
+manure must be used on the soil, it is better to apply it to some other
+crop, to be followed the succeeding year by potatoes. The use of stable
+manure predisposes the tubers to rot; detracts very much from the
+desired flavor; besides, generally not more than one half as many
+bushels can be grown per acre as can be obtained by using manures of a
+different nature. Market gardeners, many of whom from necessity plant on
+the same ground year after year, often use fine old stable manure with
+profit. Usually they plant only the earlier varieties, crowd them with
+all possible speed, dig early, and sell large and little before they
+have time to rot, thus clearing the ground for later-growing vegetables.
+Thus grown, potatoes are of inferior quality, and the yield is not
+always satisfactory. Flavor, however, is seldom thought of by the hungry
+denizens of our cities, in their eagerness to get a taste of something
+fresh.</p>
+
+<p>Market gardeners will find great benefit from the use of wood-ashes,
+lime, and the phosphates. Sprinkle superphosphate in the hill at the
+rate of two hundred pounds per acre; mix it slightly in the soil with an
+iron rake or potato-hook, then plant the seed. Just before the last
+hoeing, sprinkle on and around the hill a large handful of wood-ashes,
+or an equal quantity of lime slacked in brine as strong as salt will
+make it.</p>
+
+<p>But for the generality of farmers, those who grow only their own supply,
+or those who produce largely for market, no other method of preparing
+the soil is so good, so easy, and so cheap as the following; it requires
+time, but pays a big interest: Seed down the ground to clover with wheat
+or oats. As soon as the grain is off, sow one hundred and fifty pounds
+of plaster (gypsum) per acre, and keep off all stock. The next spring,
+when the clover has made a growth of two inches, sow the same quantity
+of plaster again. About the tenth of July, harrow down the clover,
+driving the same direction and on the same sized lands you wish to plow;
+then plow the clover neatly under about seven inches deep. Harrow down
+the same way it was plowed, and immediately sow and harrow in two
+bushels of buckwheat per acre. When it has grown two inches, sow plaster
+as before; and when the buckwheat has grown as large as it will, harrow
+down and plow under about five inches deep. This, when cross-plowed in
+the spring sufficiently deep to bring up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> clover-sod, is potato
+ground <i>first-class in all respects</i>.</p>
+
+<p>It is hardly supposable that this mode of preparation of soil would meet
+with favor among all farmers. There is a parsimonious class of
+cultivators who would consider it a downright loss of time, seed, and
+labor; but any one who will take the trouble to investigate, will find
+that these same parsimonious men never produced four hundred bushels of
+potatoes per acre; and that the few bushels of small tubers that they do
+dig from an acre, are produced at considerable loss. "Men do not gather
+grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles."</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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. This great
+deterioration in yield can not be attributed to "running out" of
+varieties; for varieties are extant which have not yet passed their
+prime. It can not be wholly due to disease; for disease does not occur
+in every season and in every place. True, we have more insects than
+formerly, but they can not be responsible for all the great falling off.
+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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> 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.</p>
+
+<p>To realize from potato-growing the greatest possible profits, (and
+profits are what we are all after,) the following conditions must be
+strictly adhered to: First, the ground chosen <i>must be dry</i>, either
+naturally or made so by thorough drainage; a gently sloping, deep, sandy
+or gravelly loam is preferable. Second, the land should be liberally
+enriched with humus by some of the means mentioned, if it is not already
+present in the soil in sufficient quantities, and the soil should be
+deeply and thoroughly plowed, rendering it light, porous, and
+pulverulent, that the air and moisture may easily penetrate to any
+desirable depth of it; and a proper quantity of either wood-ashes or
+lime, or both, mixed with common salt, should be harrowed into the
+surface before planting, or be applied on top of the hills immediately
+after planting. And, finally, the cultivation and after-care should be
+<i>prompt</i>, and given as soon as needed. Nothing is more conducive to
+failure, after the crop is properly planted, than failure in promptness
+in the cultivation and care required.</p>
+
+
+<h4>GENERAL REMARKS ON MANURING WITH GREEN CROPS.</h4>
+
+<p>Experience proves that no better method can be adopted to bring up lands
+partially exhausted, which are remote from cities, than plowing under
+green crops. By this plan the farmer can take lot after lot, and soon
+bring all up to a high state of fertility. True, he gathers no crop for
+one year, but the outlay is little; and if in the second year he gathers
+as much from one acre as he formerly did from three, he is still
+largely the gainer.</p>
+
+<p>It costs no more to cultivate an acre of rich, productive land than an
+acre of poor, unproductive land; and the pleasure and profit of
+harvesting a crop that abundantly rewards the husbandman for his care
+and labor are so overwhelmingly in favor of rich land as to need no
+comment. Besides, manuring with green crops is not transitory in its
+effects; the land remembers the generous treatment for many years, and
+if at times lime or ashes be added to assist decomposition, will
+continue to yield remunerative crops long after land but once treated
+with stable manure or guano fails to produce any thing but weeds. The
+skinning process, the taking off of every thing grown on the soil and
+returning nothing to it, is ruinous alike to farm and farmer. Thousands
+of acres can be found in various parts of the country too poor to pay
+for cultivating without manuring. Of the capabilities of their lands
+under proper treatment the owners thereof have no idea whatever. Such
+men say they can not make enough manure on the farm and are too poor to
+buy. Why not, then, commence plowing under green crops, the only manure
+within easy reach? If fifty acres can not be turned under the first
+year, put at least one acre under, which will help feed the rest. Why be
+contented with thirty bushels of corn per acre, when eighty or one
+hundred may be had? Why raise eight or twelve bushels of wheat per acre,
+when forty may as well be had? Why cut but one half-ton of hay per acre,
+when the laws of nature allow at least three? Why spend precious time
+digging only one hundred bushels of potatoes per acre, when with proper
+care and culture three or four hundred may easily be obtained? And,
+finally, why toil and sweat, and have the poor dumb beasts toil and
+sweat, cultivating thirty acres for the amount of produce that should
+grow, may grow, can grow, and has grown on ten acres?</p>
+
+<p>The poorest, most forsaken side-hills, cobble-hills, and knolls, if the
+sand or gravel be of moderate depth, underlaid by a subsoil rather
+retentive, by turning under green crops grow potatoes of the first
+quality. If land be so poor that clover will not take, as is sometimes
+the case, seed to clover with millet very early in the spring, and
+harrow in with the millet thirty bushels of wood-ashes, or two hundred
+pounds of guano per acre; then sow the clover-seed one peck per acre;
+brush it in.</p>
+
+<p>If neither ashes nor guano can be obtained at a reasonable price, sow
+two hundred pounds of gypsum per acre as soon as the bushing is
+completed. This will not fail in giving the clover a fair foothold on
+the soil.</p>
+
+<p>Before the millet blossoms, cut and cure it for hay. Keep all stock off
+the clover, plaster it the following spring, plow it under when in full
+bloom; sow buckwheat immediately; when up, sow plaster; when in full
+bloom, plow under and sow the ground immediately with rye, to be plowed
+under the next May. Thus three crops are put under within a year, the
+ground is left strong, light, porous, free from weeds, ready to grow a
+large crop of potatoes, or almost any thing else.</p>
+
+<p>Much is gained every way by having and keeping land in a high state of
+fertility. Some crops require so long a season for growth, that high
+condition of soil is absolutely necessary to carry them through to
+maturity in time to escape autumnal frosts. In the Western States manure
+has hitherto been considered of but little value. The soil of these
+States was originally very rich in humus. For a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> time wheat was produced
+at the rate of forty bushels per acre; but according to the statistics
+given by the Agricultural Department at Washington, for the year 1866,
+the average yield in some of these States was but four and a half
+bushels per acre. It is evident from this that Mr. Skinflint has had
+things pretty much his own way. His land now produces four and a half
+bushels per acre; what time shall elapse when it shall be four and one
+half acres per bushel? Who dare predict that manure will not at some day
+be of value west of the Alleghanies? New-Jersey, with a soil naturally
+inferior to that of Illinois, contains extensive tracts that yearly
+yield over one hundred bushels of Indian corn per acre, while the
+average of the State is over forty-three; and the average yield of the
+same cereal in Illinois is but little over thirty-one bushels per acre.
+In the Western States, where potatoes are grown extensively for Southern
+markets, the average yield is about eighty bushels per acre; while in
+old Pennsylvania could be shown the last year potatoes yielding at the
+rate of six hundred and forty bushels per acre. There are those who
+argue that manure is never necessary&mdash;that plant-food is supplied in
+abundance by the atmosphere; it was also once said a certain man had
+taught his horse to live without eating; but it so happened that just as
+he got the animal perfectly schooled, it died.</p>
+
+<p>Good, thorough cultivation and aeration of the soil undoubtedly do much
+toward the production of crops; but mere manipulation is not all that is
+needed.</p>
+
+<p>That growing plants draw much nourishment from the atmosphere, and
+appropriate largely of its constituents in building up their tissue, is
+certainly true; it is also certainly true that they require something of
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> soil besides mere anchorage. All facts go to show that if the
+constituents needed by the plant from the soil are not present in the
+soil, the efforts of the plant toward proper development are abortive?
+What sane farmer expects to move a heavy load over a rugged road with a
+team so lean and poverty-stricken that they cast but a faint shadow? Yet
+is he much nearer sanity when he expects farming to be pleasant and
+profitable, and things to <i>move aright</i>, unless his land is strong and
+fat? Is he perfectly sane when he thinks he can skin his farm year after
+year, and not finally come to the bone? The farmer on exhausted land
+must of necessity use manure. Manure of <i>some</i> kind must go under, or he
+must go under; and to the great mass of cultivators no mode of enriching
+is so feasible, so cheap, and attended with such satisfactory results,
+as that of plowing under green crops.</p>
+
+<p>The old plan of leaving an exhausted farm, and going West in search of
+rich "government land," must soon be abandoned. Already the head of the
+column of land-hunters have "fetched up" against the Pacific, and it is
+doubtful whether their anxious gaze will discover any desirable
+unoccupied soil over its waters.</p>
+
+<p>The writer would not be understood as saying that all farms are
+exhausted, or that there is <i>no</i> way of recuperation but by plowing
+under green crops. What he wishes understood is, that where poor, sandy,
+or gravelly lands are found, which bring but small returns to the owner,
+by subjecting them to the process indicated, such lands bring good crops
+of the kind under consideration. And further, that land in the proper
+condition to yield a maximum crop of potatoes, is fitted to grow other
+crops equally well. Neither would the writer be understood as arguing
+that a crop of clover and one of buckwheat should be turned under for
+each crop of potatoes; where land is already in high condition, it may
+not be necessary. A second growth of clover plowed under in the fall for
+planting early kinds, and a clean clover sod turned in <i>flat</i> furrows in
+the spring, for the late market varieties, answer very well. To turn
+flat furrows, take the furrow-slice wide enough to have it fall
+completely inside the preceding one.</p>
+
+<p>Potatoes should not be planted year after year on the same ground;
+trouble with weeds and rapid deterioration of quality and quantity of
+tubers soon render the crop unprofitable. Loamy soil planted
+continuously soon becomes compact, heavy, and lifeless. Where of
+necessity potatoes must be grown yearly on the same soil, it is
+advisable to dig rather early, and bury the vines of each hill in the
+one last dug; then harrow level, and sow rye to be plowed under next
+planting time.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Why clover, or clover and buckwheat lands, are so strongly urged is,
+such lands have in them just what the tubers need for their best and
+healthiest development; the soil is rendered so rich, light, and porous,
+and so free from weeds, that the cultivation of such land is rather a
+pleasure than otherwise, and at the close of the season the tangible
+profits in dollars and cents are highly gratifying.</p>
+
+
+<h4>VARIETIES.</h4>
+
+<p>From the fact that the United States produce about 109,000,000 bushels
+of potatoes annually, it might be supposed a great many varieties would
+be cultivated. Such, however, is not the fact. Of the varieties extant,
+comparatively few are grown extensively.</p>
+
+<p>Every grower's observation has established the fact that for quality the
+early varieties are inferior to the late ones. The Early June is very
+early, but its quality is quite indifferent. The Cherry Blow is early,
+attains good size, and yields rather well. In quality it is poor. The
+Early Kidney, as to quality, is good, but will not yield enough to pay
+for cultivation. The Cowhorn, said to be the Mexican yam, is quite
+early, of first quality, but yields very poorly. The Michigan White
+Sprout is early, rather productive, and good. Jackson White is in
+quality quite good, is early, and a favorite in some places. The Monitor
+is rather early, yields large crops; but as its quality is below par, it
+brings a low price in market. Philbrick's Early White is one of the
+whitest-skinned and whitest-fleshed potatoes known. It is about as early
+as Early Goodrich, is quite productive, and grows to a large size, with
+but few small ones to the hill. Its quality is excellent. It has not yet
+been extensively tested. The Early Rose is said to be very early, of
+excellent quality, and to yield extremely well. It has, however, not
+been very widely tested. Perhaps for earliness and satisfactory product,
+the Early Goodrich has no superior. It is of fair quality, and though
+some seasons it does not yield as well as others, yet, all things
+considered, it is a desirable variety. The old Neshannock, or Mercer, is
+among the latest of the early varieties. As to quality, it is the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+standard of excellence of the whole potato family. But it yields rather
+poorly, and its liability to rot, except on soils especially fitted for
+it, has so discouraged growers that its cultivation in many sections is
+abandoned. 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.
+As an instance of this, it will be remembered that when the Merino and
+California varieties were first introduced, they were so coarse as to be
+thought fit only to feed hogs, and for this purpose, on account of their
+great yielding qualities, farmers continued to cultivate them, until
+finally they became so changed as in many sections to be preferred for
+the table. Their cultivation, however, is now nearly abandoned.</p>
+
+<p>Of the later varieties, the Garnet Chili, a widely-diffused and
+well-known sort, deserves notice. It is not of so good quality as the
+Peach Blow; but its freedom from disease, and the large crop it
+produces, make it a favorite with many growers. The chief fault with it
+is, the largest specimens are apt to be hollow at the centre. It ripens
+rather early; and, even when dug long before maturity, it has a dryness
+and mealiness, when prepared for the table, not found in many other
+sorts. The Buckeye is extensively grown for market; its yield is not
+satisfactory, and its quality is only medium. The Dykeman is yet grown
+to some extent, but will soon be superseded.</p>
+
+<p>The Prince Albert is a well-known and highly-esteemed variety,
+ap<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>proaching very near the Peach Blow in quality. One peculiarity of
+this potato is, the largest tubers appear to be of as good quality as
+the small ones. With proper soil and culture, it yields a fair crop; is
+quite free from disease; and its smoothness, high flavor, and fine
+appearance make it much sought after in the market.</p>
+
+<p>The Fluke, a very late potato, is a great favorite with many who produce
+for market. Its yield is very large; and its smoothness and uniformity
+of size make it altogether a desirable variety. It is generally free
+from disease. In quality it is rather above medium.</p>
+
+<p>The Harrison, if it should do as well in the future as it has done in
+the past, bids fair to become <i>the</i> potato for general cultivation. It
+has yielded in this section, on soil of moderate fertility, with
+ordinary culture, one peck to the hill of uniform-sized, merchantable
+potatoes. It is a strong, vigorous grower, and very healthy. Its
+quality, though not the very best, is good. The Willard, lately
+originated by C. W. Gleason, of Massachusetts, is a half-early variety.
+It is enormously productive, of a rich rose color, spotted and splashed
+with white. The flesh is white. In form and size it closely resembles
+the Early Goodrich, its parent. It has not been extensively tested, but
+certainly promises well. The Excelsior is said, by those interested in
+its sale, to be very productive, and of most excellent quality,
+retaining its superior flavor all the year round. It is claimed that old
+potatoes of this variety are better than new ones of most early kinds,
+thus obviating the necessity of having early sorts. The Excelsior is
+said to cook very white and mealy; form nearly round, eyes prominent. It
+has not been much tested out of the neighborhood where it originated.</p>
+
+<p>But the potato-eater is yet unborn who can justly find fault with a
+properly-grown Peach Blow. It is pronounced by many equal or superior to
+the Mercer in quality, which is not the fact. It is emphatically a late
+potato; and, though it does not yield as well per acre as some other
+sorts, it is comparatively healthy; and its quality is such that it
+always brings a high price in the market. In fact, but few other kinds
+of late sorts could find sale if enough of this kind were offered to
+supply the demand. Planted ever so early, it keeps green through the
+heat of summer, and never matures its tubers until after the fall rains,
+and then no potato does it more rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>Grown on rich argillaceous soil, it will be hollow, coarse flesh, and
+ill-flavored; but planted on such soil as is recommended, it is about
+all that could be desired. 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Many other varieties might be mentioned; but the list given includes
+about all of much merit. New varieties are constantly arising, clamoring
+for public favor, many of which are wholly unworthy of general
+cultivation. One or two varieties, such as are adapted to the grower's
+locality and market, are preferable to a greater number of sorts grown
+merely for variety's sake.</p>
+
+
+<h4>INFLUENCE OF SOIL ON SEEDLINGS.</h4>
+
+<p>The characteristics of a potato, such as quality, productiveness,
+healthfulness, uniformity of size, etc., depend much on the nature of
+the soil on which it originated. These characteristics, some or all,
+imbibed by the minute potato from the ingredients of the soil, at its
+first growth from the seed of the potato-ball, adhere with great
+tenacity to it through all its generations. A seedling may, in size,
+color, and form resemble its parent; but its constitution and quality
+are in a great degree dependent on the nature of the soil, climatic
+influences, and other accidental causes.</p>
+
+<p>True crosses are generally more vigorous and healthy than others; and it
+is probably to accidental crosses we are indebted for many varieties
+that differ so widely from their parents. A cross is most apparent to
+the eye when the parents are of different colors, in which case the
+offspring will be striped or marked with the colors of each parent.</p>
+
+
+<h4>HOW TO CROSS VARIETIES.</h4>
+
+<p>In order to comprehend fully the principles of this subject, and their
+application to practical operations, it will be necessary to take a
+general view of the generative organs of the vegetable kingdom, and the
+manner in which they act in the production of their species. If we
+examine a perfect flower, we shall find that it consists essentially of
+two sets of organs, one called the pistils, the other the stamens. The
+pistils are located in the centre of the flower, and the stamens around
+them. The summit of the pistil is called the stigma; and on the top of
+each stamen is situated an anther&mdash;a small sack, which contains the
+pollen, a dust-like substance, that fertilizes the ovules or young seeds
+of the plant.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>These organs are supposed to perform offices analogous to those of the
+animal kingdom&mdash;the stamens representing the male, and the pistils the
+female organs.</p>
+
+<p>When the anthers, which contain the pollen, arrive at maturity, they
+open and emit a multitude of minute grains of pollen; and these, falling
+on the pistils of the flower, throw out hair-like tubes, which penetrate
+through the vascular tissue of the pistil, and ultimately reach the
+ovules, thus fertilizing them, and making them capable, when mature, of
+reproducing plants of their own kind.</p>
+
+<p>The ovules are the rudimentary seeds, situated in a case at the base of
+the pistils, each consisting of a central portion, called the nucleus,
+which is surrounded by two coats, the inner called the secundine, the
+outer the primine. When the hairlike tube of the pollen-grain passes
+through the orifice in the coatings of the ovule, and reaches the
+nucleus, or embryo sack, it is supposed to emit a spermatic or plantlet
+germ, which passes through the wall of the embryo sack and enters the
+germinal vesicle contained in it. The vesicle corresponds to the
+vesicle, or germinal spot, in the eggs of birds, and ovum of mammiferous
+animals. The germ remains in the vesicle, and finally becomes the
+embryo, fully developed into a plantlet, as may be seen in many seeds.</p>
+
+<p>Flowers of plants are called perfect when the stamens and pistils are in
+the same flower, as the apple; mon[oe]cious, when in different flowers
+and on the same plant, as the white oak; and di[oe]cious, when in
+different flowers and on different plants, as in the hemp. In that class
+of plants in which the stamens, or males, are on one plant, and the
+pistils, or females, on another, the males of course must always remain
+barren; and the pisti<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>lates, to be fruitful, must have the pollen from
+the anthers of the staminate brought in contact with its stigma by wind,
+insects, or other means. In plants with perfect flower, the stamens are
+generally situated around and above the pistil, so that the pollen falls
+upon the stigma by mere force of gravity. In the potato, the pollen is
+conveyed from the anthers to the stigma by actual contact of the two
+organs.</p>
+
+<p>Cross-breeding in plants consists in fertilizing one variety with the
+pollen of another variety of the same species. The offspring is called a
+cross-breed, or variety. The process of cross-breeding consists in
+taking the pollen of one variety and applying it to the stigma of
+another variety, in such a way as to effect its fertilization. This is
+done by cutting away (with scissors) the stamens of the flower to be
+fertilized, a short time before they arrive at maturity, and taking a
+flower in which the pollen is ripe, dry, and powdery, from the stalk of
+the variety wished for the male parent; and holding it in the right
+hand, and then striking it on the finger of the left, held near the
+flower, thus scattering the pollen on the stigma of the pistil of the
+flower to be fertilized. The utmost care should be taken to apply the
+pollen when the flower is in its greatest vigor, and the stigma is
+covered with the necessary coating of mucus to insure a perfect
+connection of the pollen with the pistil, and make the fertilization
+perfect. All flowers not wanted in the experiment should be removed
+before any pollen is formed.</p>
+
+<p>It is necessary to tie a thin piece of gauze over the flower to be
+fertilized, before and after crossing, to prevent insects from conveying
+pollen to it, thus frustrating the labors of the operator. If the
+operation has been successful, the pistil will soon begin to wither; if
+not perfect, the pistil will continue fresh and full for some days.
+This <i>modus operandi</i> is substantially the same in crossing fruits,
+flowers, and vegetables throughout the vegetable kingdom.</p>
+
+<p>Hybridizing differs from cross-breeding only in fertilizing one species,
+or one of its varieties, with the pollen of another species, or one of
+its varieties, of the same or a different <i>genus</i>. The offspring is
+called a hybrid, or mule. Hybrids, with very few exceptions, are
+sterile, they fail to propagate themselves from seed, and must, to
+preserve them, be propagated by grafts, layers, or suckers. No change is
+perceptible in the fruit produced from blossoms upon which the operation
+of cross-breeding or hybridizing has been performed; but the seed of
+fruits so obtained may be planted with the certainty of producing a
+fruit or tuber commingling the qualities, colors, and main
+characteristics of both parents.</p>
+
+<p>Experience, however, shows that the characteristics of the male
+predominate somewhat in the offspring. To judicious cross-breeding and
+hybridizing we owe most of our superior fruits and vegetables. If the
+operation were more generally known and practiced by farmers, the most
+gratifying results would be soon obtained, not only in the production of
+the most valuable varieties of potatoes and other vegetables, but also
+in fruits, flowers, and grain of every description.</p>
+
+
+<h4>SMOOTH VS. ROUGH POTATOES.</h4>
+
+<p>Other things being equal, smooth potatoes are preferable to those with
+deeply-sunken eyes. The starch being most abundant near the skin, not so
+much is lost by the thin paring of the former as by the necessarily
+deeper paring of the latter.</p>
+
+<p>Varieties usually well formed sometimes grow so knobby and ill-shaped as
+to be scarcely recognized. This is caused by severe drought occurring
+when the tubers are about two thirds grown, causing them to partially
+ripen. On the return of moisture, a new growth takes place, which shows
+itself in knobby protuberances.</p>
+
+
+<h4>CUT AND UNCUT SEED.</h4>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Many eyes of the uncut seed start, but the stronger soon overpower the
+weaker, and finally starve them out. A plot planted with three small,
+uncut potatoes to the hill, and another planted with three pieces of two
+eyes each to the hill, will not show much difference in number of vines
+during the growing season.</p>
+
+<p>The poor results sometimes attending cut seed are almost always
+traceable to improper seed improperly cut. Only large, mature, sound
+tubers should be used. Cut them in pieces of two or three eyes each,
+taking pains to secure around each eye as much flesh as possible, also
+under the eye to the centre of the tuber.</p>
+
+<p>Experiments prove that eyes from the "seed end" produce potatoes that
+mature earliest; they are also smallest. Those from the large or stem
+end are largest, latest, and least in numbers. Eyes from the middle
+produce tubers of very uniform size.</p>
+
+<p>If small, ill-shaped potatoes be planted on the same ground for three
+successive years, the results will give the best variety a bad name.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Much is gained by changing seed. No two varieties are made up of the
+same constituents exactly in the same proportion; hence, a soil may be
+exhausted for the best development of one, and still be fitted to meet
+the demands of another. Even when the same variety is desired,
+experience shows the great benefit of planting seed grown on a different
+soil. The best and most extensive growers procure new seed every two or
+three years, and many insist on changing seed every year; and
+undoubtedly the crop is often doubled by the practice.</p>
+
+
+<h4>PLANTING AND MANURING.</h4>
+
+<p>Early kinds should be planted as soon as the ground has become
+sufficiently dry and warm. Late market varieties should be planted about
+two weeks later than the early ones. Unquestionably more bushels can be
+obtained per acre by planting in drills than in hills, but the labor of
+cultivating in drills is much the greater.</p>
+
+<p>Prepare the ground by thorough plowing, making it decidedly mellow. Mark
+it out four feet apart each way, if to be planted in hills, by plowing
+broad, flat-bottomed furrows about three inches deep. At the crossings
+drop three pieces of potato, cut, as directed, in sections of two or
+three eyes each. Place the pieces so as to represent the points of a
+triangle, each piece being about a foot distant from each of the other
+two. If the cut side is put down, it is better; cover about two inches
+deep. Where land is free from stone and sod, the covering may be well
+and rapidly done with a light plow. Immediately after planting, sprinkle
+over and around each hill a large handful of unleached wood-ashes and
+salt, (a half-bushel of fine salt mixed with a barrel of ashes is about
+the right proportion.) If ashes can not be obtained, as is sometimes the
+case, apply<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> instead about the same quantity of lime slacked in brine as
+strong as salt will make it. The potato from its peculiar organization
+has a hungering and thirsting after potash. Wood-ashes exactly meet its
+wants in this direction. Lime indirectly supplies potash by liberating
+what was before inert in the soil. Salt in small quantities induces
+vigorous, healthy growth. To obtain the best results, the ashes or lime
+should be covered with about half an inch of soil. This plan of manuring
+in the hill is recommended only in cases where the fertilizers named are
+in limited supply, and it is desirable to make the most of them. Maximum
+crops have been obtained by using the fertilizers named in the manner
+described; but where they can be obtained at low prices, it is certainly
+advisable, and requires less labor, to apply all three, ashes, lime, and
+salt, broadcast in bountiful quantities, and harrow it in before the
+ground is marked out for planting.</p>
+
+
+<h4>CULTIVATION.</h4>
+
+<p>If weeds are expected, pass a light harrow over the rows just before the
+vines are ready to burst through; this will disturb them and render them
+less troublesome. As soon as the tops are two inches high, run a
+corn-plow five inches deep <i>close</i> to the hills, turning the furrows
+<i>from</i> the rows.</p>
+
+<p>Plow both ways twice between the rows, finishing on the rows running
+east and west, which will give the sun's rays a better chance to warm
+the ground properly. Standing on the squares of earth, warmed on all
+sides by the air and sunlight, the potatoes will grow amazingly. Just as
+soon as the tops have attained a height of six or seven inches, hitch a
+strong horse to a two-horse plow, and turn furrows fully seven inches
+deep midway between the rows <i>to</i> the hills. Plow twice between the
+rows both ways; and if the ground be a side-hill, turn the first furrow
+between the rows up-hill, which will leave the rows in better shape.
+Hoeing is often wholly unnecessary; but where, from weeds or poor
+plowing, it is needed, draw mellow earth to the plants with the hoe,
+keeping the top of the hills somewhat hollow to catch the rains. Then,
+so far as stirring the soil is concerned, <i>let it alone</i>.</p>
+
+<p>After potatoes are fairly up, their cultivation should be crowded
+through with all possible speed, or at least as rapidly as the growth of
+the tops will permit.</p>
+
+<p>If the last plowing be deferred until the vines are large, a large
+proportion of small potatoes is sure to be the consequence. After a
+certain stage of growth, new tubers are formed each time the soil is
+disturbed; these never fully develop, they rob those first formed, and
+make the crop much inferior to what it should be. By the mode of culture
+described, the ground is made warm and mellow close up to the
+seed-potatoes, the roots soon fill the whole hill, and tubers are formed
+that have nothing to do but to grow. The writer is aware flat culture
+has strong advocates; but, after many experiments, he is convinced that
+hills are much the best.</p>
+
+
+<h4>PLASTER.</h4>
+
+<p>However much lime or other fertilizers may be applied to the soil, still
+great benefit is derived from the use of plaster, (sulphate of lime.)</p>
+
+<p>After all, plaster is the main dependence of the potato-grower, a help
+on which he may rely with the utmost confidence. Astonishing results are
+obtained from its use, when applied in a proper manner. The writer has
+seen a field, all of the same soil, all prepared alike, and all planted
+with the same variety at the same time, on one half of which, that had
+no plaster, the yield was but sixty bushels per acre, and many rotten;
+the other part, to which plaster was applied in the manner hereafter
+explained, yielded three hundred and sixty bushels per acre, and not an
+unsound one among them.</p>
+
+<p>The action of plaster is often puzzling. From the fact that where land
+has been strongly limed, a small quantity of plaster applied shows such
+decided benefit, there would seem plausibility in Liebig's theory that
+its effects must be traceable not to the lime, but to the sulphuric
+acid. The ammonia in rain-water in the form of carbonate (a volatile
+salt) is decomposed by plaster, the sulphuric acid having greater
+affinity for it, thus forming two new compounds, sulphate of ammonia and
+carbonate of lime. But as arable soil has the same property of absorbing
+ammonia from the air and rain-water, and fixing it in the same or even a
+higher degree than lime, there is only the sulphuric acid left to look
+to for an explanation of the favorable action of plaster on the growth
+of plants.</p>
+
+<p>It is found that plaster in contact with soil undergoes decomposition,
+part of the lime separating from the sulphuric acid, and magnesia and
+potash taking its place, quite contrary to the ordinary affinities.</p>
+
+<p>These facts show that the action of plaster is very complex, and that it
+promotes the distribution of both magnesia and potash in the ground,
+exercising a chemical action upon the soil which extends to any depth of
+it; and that, in consequence of the chemical and mechanical
+modifications of the earth, particles of certain nutritive elements
+become accessible and available to plants that were not so before.</p>
+
+<p>It is said plaster is of most bene<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>fit in wet seasons; such is not
+always the case. It is certainly beneficial to clover, wet or dry; so of
+potatoes.</p>
+
+<p>A few years since, when the drought was so intense in this section as to
+render the general potato crop almost a total failure, the writer
+produced a plentiful crop by the use of plaster alone. On examination at
+the dryest time, the bottoms of the hills were found to be literally
+dust, yet in this dust the tubers were swelling finely: the leaves and
+vines were of a deep rich green, and remained so until frost, while
+other fields in sight, planted with the same variety, but not treated
+with plaster, were brown, dead, and not worth digging. That gypsum
+attracts moisture may be proved by plastering a hill of corn and leaving
+a hill by it unplastered; the dew will be found deposited in greater
+abundance on the plastered hill. But, according to Liebig, certain
+products of the chemical action of plaster enter into and are
+incorporated with the structure of the plant, closing its breathing
+pores to such an extent that the plant is enabled to withstand a drought
+which would prove fatal to it unassisted.</p>
+
+<p>Certain it is that plaster renders plants less palatable to insects,
+and, so far as the writer's experiments extend, it is fatal to many of
+the fungi family. To obtain the best results, the vines of potatoes
+should be dusted with plaster as soon as they are fairly through the
+soil, again immediately after the last plowing and hoeing, and, for
+reasons hereafter given, at intervals throughout the whole growing
+season. The first application may be light, the second heavier, and
+thereafter it should be bountifully applied, say two hundred pounds per
+acre at one sowing.</p>
+
+
+<h4>THE POTATO-ROT&mdash;ITS CAUSE</h4>
+
+<p>The year 1845 will ever be memo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>rable by its giving birth to a disease
+which threatened the entire destruction of the potato crop, and which
+caused suffering and pecuniary ruin to an incredible extent throughout
+Europe.</p>
+
+<p>The potato, at the time of the appearance of the potato disease, was
+almost the sole dependence of the common people of Ireland for food.
+That over-populated country experienced more actual suffering in
+consequence of the potato disease than has any other from the same
+cause. Although this disease has never, in this country, prevailed to
+the same ruinous extent that it has in some others, yet we are yearly
+reminded of its existence, and in some seasons and localities its
+destructive effects are seriously apparent.</p>
+
+<p>The final or culminating cause of the disease known as the "potato-rot"
+is <i>Botrytis (peronospora) infestans</i>. This may be induced by many and
+various predisposing causes, such as feebleness of constitution of the
+variety planted, rendering them an easy prey to the disease; by planting
+on low, moist land, or on land highly enriched by nitrogenous manures,
+causing a morbid growth which invites the disease; also by insects or
+their larv&aelig; puncturing or eating off the leaves or vines. But by far the
+most wide-spread and most common cause of the disease is sudden changes
+of atmospheric temperature, particularly when accompanied by rain.
+Drought, though quite protracted and severe, unless accompanied by
+strong drying winds, and followed by sudden and great reduction of
+temperature, seldom affects the potato seriously. It is not uncommon in
+the Northern States, during the months of August and September, for
+strong westerly winds to prevail for many days in succession. These
+winds, coming from the great American desert, are almost wholly devoid
+of moisture, and their aridity is often such that vegetation withers
+before them as at the touch of fire. Evaporation is increased in a
+prodigiously rapid ratio with the velocity of wind. The effects of the
+excessive exhalation from the leaves of plants exposed to the sweep of
+such drying winds are at once seriously apparent.</p>
+
+<p>When these winds finally cease, the atmosphere has a low relative
+humidity, not enough moisture remains in the air to prevent radiation;
+the heat absorbed by the earth through the day is, during the bright,
+cloudless night, rapidly radiated and lost in space, and a reduction in
+temperature of twenty to thirty degrees is the consequence.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, the potato-vines suffer by excessive exhalation; in
+the second, by sudden reduction of temperature, and, though not frozen,
+their functions are much deranged, and their vitality greatly enfeebled.
+To use a common expression, the plant "has caught a violent cold that
+has settled on the lungs."</p>
+
+<p>The leaves (which are the lungs of plants) now fail to perform their
+functions properly. The points of many of the leaves turn brown, curl
+up, and die.</p>
+
+<p>The ascending sap, not being fully elaborated by the diseased leaves,
+oozes out through the skin of the stalk in a thick, viscous state, and
+the plant to all appearance is in a state of consumption.</p>
+
+<p>At this stage the ever-present minute spores of the <i>Botrytis infestans</i>
+eagerly pounce on the sickly plant, fastening themselves on its most
+diseased parts. The <i>Botrytis infestans</i> is a cryptogamous plant, and is
+included in the Mucidineous family, (moulds.) It is a vegetable parasite
+preying upon the living potato plant, like lice or other animal
+parasites upon the animal species.</p>
+
+<p>At first this mould forms webby, creeping filaments, known in botanical
+language as mycelium. These root-like fibres then branch out, sending
+out straight or decumbent articulated stems. These bead-like joints fill
+up successively with seeds or spores, which are discharged at the proper
+time to multiply the species.</p>
+
+<p>Under favorable conditions of warmth and moisture, the mycelium spreads
+very rapidly. Spores are soon formed and matured, to be carried to
+plants not yet infected. Rains also wash the seminal dust down the
+plant, causing it to fasten and grow on the vine near the ground. The
+roots of the parasite penetrate and split up the stalk even to the
+medullary canal.</p>
+
+<p>These roots exude a poisonous substance, which is carried by the
+elaborated descending sap down to the tubers, and as the largest tubers
+require the largest amount of elaborated sap for their development, they
+will, consequently, receive the greatest quantity of the vitiating
+principle, and will, on digging, be found a mass of rottenness, when the
+smaller ones are often but slightly affected. The <i>Botrytis infestans</i>
+can not gain a lodgment on vines that are truly healthy and vigorous,
+high authority to the contrary notwithstanding.</p>
+
+<p>Healthy varieties, growing in a sheltered situation on dry, new soil, to
+which no nitrogenous manures have been applied, can not be infected,
+though brushed with other vines covered with the fungus. Different
+varieties, and sometimes different members of the same variety, are not
+always alike affected by the disease, though growing in the same hill.</p>
+
+<p>As will be noticed, the potato disease is rather an effect than a cause,
+and appears to have been designed to prevent members enfeebled by
+accident or otherwise from propagating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> their species by putting such
+members out of existence. Ozone, supposed to be a peculiar form of
+oxygen, is exhaled from every part of the green surface of plants in
+health, and effectually repels the attacks of mildew; but it is found
+that when the atmosphere is very dry, or, on the other hand, very humid,
+plants cease to evolve ozone, and are therefore unprotected. Winds from
+the ocean are strongly ozonic, and it is ascertained that plants growing
+on soil to which salt has been applied evolve more ozone than others.
+Hence the benefit derived from the use of salt on potato lands.</p>
+
+<p>The "Black knot," another species of fungus that attacks the branches of
+the plum and Morello cherry, operates very similarly to the potato
+mildew. The roots of the parasite penetrate and split up the cellular
+tissue of the branch on which it fastens, and if the limb be not
+promptly amputated, the descending sap carries the deleterious principle
+through the whole system, and the following year the disease appears in
+a greatly aggravated form in every part of the whole tree. The remedy in
+this case is prompt amputation of the part diseased on its first
+appearance, and a judicious application of salt to the soil.</p>
+
+<p>Common salt, to a certain extent, is as beneficial to some plants as to
+animals; and every intelligent farmer knows that if salt be withheld
+from the bovine <i>genus</i> for any considerable length of time, the general
+health droops and parasites are sure to abound. The object of nature in
+bringing into existence the large family of mildews, each member of
+which is a perfect plant in its way, and as capable of performing its
+functions as the oak of the forest, was undoubtedly to prevent
+propagation from sickly stock, and by the decomposition of feeble plants
+to make room and enrich the soil for the better development of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
+healthier plants. But it by no means follows that, because a plant is
+attacked by mildew, it must necessarily be left to die, any more than it
+follows that, because an animal is infested with vermin, it should be
+let alone to be eaten up by them.</p>
+
+
+<h4>REMEDY FOR THE POTATO-ROT.</h4>
+
+<p>In treating for the potato-rot, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound
+of cure;" for when leaves or vines are once dead, they ever remain so.
+All that can be done for potatoes infested is to stop the mildew from
+spreading, by destroying it where it is, and by strengthening "those
+things which remain." The writer was led to the adoption of the remedy
+proposed by experiments made upon fruits.</p>
+
+<p>Every one who has an apple or pear-orchard must have observed that
+mildew of fruit supervenes after some sudden change of temperature,
+especially when accompanied by rain. Spots of mildew invariably form on
+the young fruit immediately after a cold night, when the thermometer has
+indicated a change of twenty to twenty-five degrees. This growth of
+mildew takes place when the apples are of various sizes, from the
+earliest formation to the size of large marbles. These fungous growths
+appear as dark-colored spots, which arrest the growth of the apple
+immediately beneath, causing it to become distorted, while the expansion
+and contraction bring on diseased action, which results in the cracking
+and general scabbiness of the fruit.</p>
+
+<p>Knowing that dry-rot (<i>Merulius Lachrymans</i>, Schum,) another species of
+fungus, was remedied by an application of sulphuric acid, I thought it
+might possibly destroy the fruit mildew. An application of plaster,
+(gypsum,) which is composed of lime and sulphuric acid, was made with
+the happiest results. It was found that an apple dusted with ground
+plaster at its first formation remained free from mildew and came to
+maturity, while apples growing by it, but not so treated, became scabby
+and worthless. It was also ascertained that a thorough application of
+plaster destroyed the mildew after it had formed, and that such fruit
+came to maturity. On the potato mildew, so far as the writer's
+experience extends, plaster, if applied early, is a perfect prevention,
+and if not delayed too long after the disease appears, is a certain
+remedy.</p>
+
+<p>The vines should be watched closely, and on the first appearance of the
+disease plaster should be applied; not merely sowing it broadcast, but
+dashing it over and under the vines, bringing it in contact with the
+stalks, using a handful to three or four hills. Plaster for this purpose
+should be very dry and powdery, and should be applied when the air is
+still. One application is seldom sufficient; it should be renewed as
+often as circumstances require. Examine the vines about three days after
+a cold night, or about the same length of time after a heavy rain. If
+the leaves begin to curl and wither, apply plaster at once; and, in
+short, whenever the vines show any signs of drooping, be the cause bites
+of insects, excessive aridity, or excessive humidity of the atmosphere,
+or sudden change of temperature, drooping from any cause whatever
+indicates the approach of mildew, which should be promptly met with an
+application of plaster. As before stated, plaster the vines as soon as
+they are up, again after the last plowing and hoeing; after that, one,
+two, or three times, as circumstances indicate.</p>
+
+<p>By this method the vines are kept of a bright lively green, and the
+tubers are kept swelling until growth is stopped by frost. Another point
+gained is, potatoes so grown are so sound and free from disease as to be
+easily kept for spring market without loss by rot.</p>
+
+<p>Whether the surprising effects of plaster on the potato mildew is
+attributable to the sulphuric acid, to the lime, or to its simply being
+a dust, has not been determined. It is well known that the fruits of a
+vineyard or orchard in close proximity to a dusty and much frequented
+highway are remarkably free from mildew, which can only be due to dust
+settling on the trees and fruit. But in the case of plaster, the writer
+is inclined to believe its efficacy is mainly due to the sulphuric acid,
+probably assisted by the lime in a state of dust. Be this as it may, it
+matters not. The result is all that can be desired; the remedy is easily
+applied, costs but a trifle, and a single season's trial is all that is
+needed to convince the most skeptical grower of its merits.</p>
+
+
+<h4>DIGGING AND STORING</h4>
+
+<p>Is full half the labor of growing and securing a crop of potatoes.
+Digging is a long, laborious task. Many small fortunes are sunk yearly
+by inventors in experimenting with and constructing "potato-diggers;"
+but, so far, no machine has done the work properly except under the most
+favorable circumstances. Stones, vines, and weeds are obstacles not yet
+fully overcome. Many tubers are left covered with earth, and so lost;
+and besides, some machines so bruise the potatoes in digging as to
+injure their appearance and keeping qualities. Undoubtedly, the day will
+come when the great bulk of potatoes will be dug well and rapidly by
+horse-power; but until that day does come, the potato-hook must be used.</p>
+
+<p>Much of the back-ache and general unpleasantness incident to digging is
+avoided, or greatly mitigated, by having the potatoes large and sound,
+turning out a peck to the hill, espe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>cially if the digger is the owner
+of the crop.</p>
+
+<p>Digging should be done only when the ground is dry, that the potatoes
+may come out clean and bright. A small plow, to turn a light furrow from
+each side of the rows, is some help. Pull up the vines, and lay them
+down so that they will be covered by the dirt dug from the hill.
+Commence on one side of the hill; press the hook or hoe down, so that it
+will reach a trifle below the potatoes, and draw the implement firmly
+toward you. Repeat the operation, each time placing the tool a few
+inches further in or across the hill, until the whole hill is dug. By
+this method the potatoes will not be bruised; whereas, if the digging be
+commenced in the centre of the hill, many potatoes will be sacrificed
+and much injured. Potatoes should be picked up as soon and as fast as
+dug; and immediately covered with straw or other material, to protect
+them from the light. A few hours' strong sunshine will ruin the best
+potato ever grown. Light changes the natural color to green, and renders
+the potato so bitter and unpalatable as to be wholly unfit to eat.</p>
+
+<p>Owing to the inconsiderate way in which potatoes are often dug, and the
+light to which they are exposed while being transported to and while in
+market, the denizens of our cities seldom, if ever, taste this vegetable
+in its greatest excellence. If to be stored in the cellar, the potatoes
+should be left in the field, in heaps covered with straw, until the
+sweating is over, and then be removed to the cellar and lightly covered
+with dry sand, or earth, just sufficient to exclude the light.</p>
+
+<p>If to be buried in the field, choose a dry, sideling place; scrape out a
+slight hollow, by merely removing the surface soil with a hoe; into
+this, pile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> ten to twelve bushels; place the potatoes properly, and
+cover them carefully with clean straw, six inches deep; cover over the
+straw with four or five inches of earth, except a small opening at the
+top; over this opening place a board or flat stone, elevated a little on
+one side, to lead off the rain.</p>
+
+<p>Let them remain so until the sweating is completely over, or so long as
+prudence will permit; and when cold weather fairly sets in, add more
+earth to keep from freezing, leaving only a wisp of straw protruding
+through to carry off any foul air that may be generated.</p>
+
+<p>Where the winters are intensely cold, it is best to cover but lightly
+with earth, say five or six inches deep; and when freezing is becoming
+severe, spread over the heap buckwheat straw, or coarse manure, to the
+depth of six inches. There is danger in covering very deep at first,
+especially if the autumn should prove warm. If kept too warm, rot is
+sure to ensue. Experience shows that any vegetable keeps better buried
+in pits that contain not more than ten or twelve bushels each.</p>
+
+<p>Where large quantities are to be buried, it is advisable to open a long,
+shallow, broad trench, leading up and down a hill, if possible, to
+secure good drainage. Commence, at either end, by placing a desirable
+quantity of potatoes as soon as dug; next to these put a little straw;
+against the straw place about six inches of earth; then more straw and
+more potatoes; and so keep on until the trench is full. A few furrows
+plowed on each side assist in covering; and make a drain to lead off the
+rains, which is a matter of the first importance. By this method each
+lot of potatoes is kept separate; and any section can be opened at any
+time to be taken to market, without endangering the others.</p>
+
+<p>Potatoes buried properly are usually of better flavor in the spring than
+it is possible for potatoes to be which are kept in a common cellar.</p>
+
+<p>And here let me add that, if leaves from the woods be used instead of
+straw, to cover potatoes to be buried, such potatoes will be of better
+flavor; and further, if nothing but dry earth comes in contact with
+them, they will be better still. Straw is used for the twofold purpose
+of securing an air-chamber to keep out frost, and to prevent the earth
+from mingling with the tubers on opening the pits.</p>
+
+
+<h4>INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE POTATO.</h4>
+
+<p>There are ten distinct species of insects preying upon the potato-plant
+within the limits of the United States. Many of these ten species are
+confined within certain geographical limits. Their habits and history
+differ very widely. Some attack the potato both in the larva state and
+in the perfect or winged state; others in the perfect or winged state
+alone; and others again in the larva state alone.</p>
+
+<p>In the case of seven of these insects, there is but one single brood
+every year; while of the remaining three there are every year from two
+to three broods, each of them generated by females belonging to
+preceding broods. Eight of the ten feed externally on the leaves and
+tender stems of the potato; while two of them burrow, like a borer,
+exclusively in the larger stalks.</p>
+
+<p>Each of these ten species has its peculiar insect enemies; and a mode of
+attack which will prove very successful against some of them will often
+turn out to be worthless when employed against the remainder.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;">
+<img src="images/illus-021.jpg" width="650" height="504" alt="" title="INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE POTATO." />
+</div>
+
+<p><b>The Stalk-Borer</b>,<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> (<i>Gortyna nitela</i>, Guenee.)&mdash;This larva (Fig. 2,)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
+commonly burrows in the large stalks of the potato. It occurs also in
+the stalks of the tomato, in those of the dahlia and aster, and other
+garden flowers. It is sometimes found boring through the cob of growing
+Indian corn. It is particularly partial to the stem of the common
+cocklebur, (<i>Zanthium sirumarium</i>;) and if it would only confine itself
+to such noxious weeds, it might be considered more of a friend than an
+enemy. It is yearly becoming more numerous and more destructive. It is
+found over a great extent of country; and is particularly numerous in
+the valley of the Mississippi north of the Ohio River. The larva of the
+stalk-borer moth leaves the stalk in which it burrowed about the latter
+part of July, and descends a little below the surface of the earth,
+where in about three days it changes into the pupa, or chrysalis state.</p>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> Where no hair-lines are given, the insects are represented
+life-size.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<p>The winged insect (Fig. 1,) which belongs to the same extensive group of
+moths (<i>Noctua</i> family, or owlet moths) to which all the cut-worm moths
+appertain, emerges from under ground from the end of August to the
+middle of September. Hence it is evident that some few, at all events,
+of the female moths must live through the winter, in obscure places, to
+lay eggs upon the plants they infest the following spring; for
+otherwise, as there is no young potato, or other plants, for them to lay
+eggs upon in the autumn, the whole breed would die out in a single year.
+This insect, in sections where it is numerous, does more injury to the
+potato crop than is generally supposed.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>The Potato-Stalk Weevil,</b> (<i>Baridius trinotatus</i>, Say.)&mdash;This insect is
+more particularly a southern species, occurring abundantly in the Middle
+States, and in the southern parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
+It appears to be totally unknown in New-England.</p>
+
+<p>The female of this beetle deposits a single egg in an oblong slit, about
+one eighth of an inch long, which it has previously formed with its beak
+in the stalk of the potato. The larva subsequently hatches out, and
+bores into the heart of the stalk, always proceeding downward toward the
+root. When full grown, it is a little more than one fourth of an inch in
+length, and is a soft, whitish, legless grub, with a scaly head. Hence
+it can always be readily distinguished from the larva of the
+stalk-borer, which has invariably sixteen legs, no matter how small it
+may be. Unlike this last insect, it becomes a pupa in the interior of
+the potato-stalk which it inhabits: and it comes out in the beetle state
+about the last of August or beginning of September.</p>
+
+<p>The stalk inhabited by the larva wilts and dies. The perfect beetle,
+like many other snout-beetles, must of course live through the winter,
+to reproduce its species the following spring. In Southern Pennsylvania,
+some years, nearly every stalk of extensive fields is infested by this
+insect, causing the premature decay of the vines, and giving them the
+appearance of having been scalded. In some districts of Illinois, the
+potato crop has, in some seasons, been utterly ruined by this
+snout-beetle, many vines having a dozen larv&aelig; in them. This insect
+attacks no plant but the potato.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>The Potato-Worm</b>, (<i>Sphinx 5-maculata</i>, Haworth.)&mdash;This well-known
+insect, the larva of which (Fig. 3,) is usually called the potato-worm,
+is more common on the closely allied tomato, the leaves of which it
+often clears off very completely in particular spots in a single night.
+When full-fed, which is usually about the last of August, the
+potato-worm burrows under the ground, and shortly afterward transforms
+into the pupa state, (Fig. 5.) The pupa is often dug up in the spring
+from the ground where tomatoes or potatoes were grown in the preceding
+season, and most persons that meet with it suppose that the singular
+jug-handled appendage at one end of it is its <i>tail</i>. In reality,
+however, it is the <i>tongue-case</i>, and contains the long, pliable tongue
+which the future moth will employ in lapping the nectar of flowers. The
+moth itself (Fig. 4) was formerly confounded with the tobacco-worm moth,
+(<i>Sphinx Carolina</i>, Linn&aelig;us,) which it very closely resembles, having
+the same series of orange-colored spots on each side of the abdomen.</p>
+
+<p>The gray and black markings, however, of the wings differ perceptibly in
+the two species; and in the tobacco-worm moth there is always a more or
+less faint white spat, or a dot, near the centre of the front wing,
+which is never met with in the other species. The potato-worm often
+feeds on the leaves of the tobacco plant in the Northern States. In the
+Southern States, in Mexico and the West-Indies, the true potato-worm is
+unknown, and it is the tobacco-worm that the tobacco-grower has to
+fight. The potato-worm, however, is never known to injure the potato
+crop to any serious extent.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>The Striped Blister-Beetle</b>, (<i>Lytta vittata</i>, Fabr.) This insect (Fig.
+6) is almost exclusively a southern species, occurring in some years
+very abundantly on the potato-vines in Southern Illinois, and also in
+Missouri, and according to Dr. Harris, it is occasionally found even in
+New-England. In some specimens the broad outer black stripe on the
+wing-cases is divided lengthwise by a slen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>der yellow line, so that,
+instead of <i>two</i>, there are <i>three</i> black stripes on each wing-case; and
+often in the same field may be noticed all the intermediate grades; thus
+proving that the four-striped individuals do not form a distinct
+species, as was supposed by the European entomologist Fabricius, but are
+mere varieties of the same species to which the sixth-striped individual
+appertains.</p>
+
+<p>The striped blister-beetle lives under ground and feeds upon various
+roots during the larva state, and emerges to attack the foliage of the
+potato only when it has passed into the perfect or beetle state.</p>
+
+<p>This insect, in common with our other blister-beetles, has the same
+properties as the imported Spanish fly, and any of them will raise just
+as good a blister as that does, and are equally poisonous when taken
+internally in large doses. Where the striped blister-beetle is numerous,
+it is a great pest and very destructive to the potato crop. It eats the
+leaves so full of holes that the plant finally dies from loss of sap and
+the want of sufficient leaves to elaborate its juices. In some places
+they are driven off the plants (with bushes) on a pile of hay or straw,
+and burned. Some have been successful in ridding their fields of them by
+placing straw or hay between the rows of potatoes, and then setting it
+on fire. The insects, it is said, by this means are nearly all
+destroyed, and the straw burning very quickly, does not injure the
+vines.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>The Ash-Gray Blister-Beetle</b>, (<i>Lytta cinera</i>, Fabr.)&mdash;This species (Fig.
+7, male) is the one commonly found in the more northerly parts of the
+Northern States, where it usually takes the place of the striped
+blister-beetle before mentioned. It is of a uniform ash-gray color. It
+attacks not only the potato-vines but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> also the honey locusts, and
+especially the Windsor bean. In particular years it has been known, in
+conjunction with the rose-bug, (<i>Macrodactylus subspinosus</i>, Linn.,) to
+swarm upon every apple-tree in some orchards in Illinois, not only
+eating the foliage, but gnawing into the young apples.</p>
+
+<p>This beetle does considerable damage to the potato crop, especially in
+the North-Western States. Like the other members of the (<i>Lytta</i>)
+family, it lives under ground while in the larva state, and is
+troublesome only when in the perfect or winged state.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>The Black-Rat Blister-Beetle</b>, (<i>Lytta murina</i>, Le Conte.)&mdash;This species
+(Fig. 8,) is entirely black. There is a very similar species, the black
+blister-beetle, (<i>Lytta atrata</i>, Fabr.,) from which the black-rat
+blister-beetle is distinguishable only by having four raised lines
+placed lengthwise upon each wing-case, and by the two first joints of
+the antenn&aelig; being greatly dilated and lengthened in the males, of the
+lath species. It is asserted by some authors that the black
+blister-beetle is injurious to the potato; but I can not see how it
+could do much damage to that crop, as the perfect insect does not appear
+until late in August, when the potato crop is nearly out of its reach.
+Not so, however, with the black-rat blister-beetle, which is on hand
+ready for business early in the season. This insect does considerable
+damage to the potato in Iowa, and neighboring States; it is also found,
+though in not so great numbers, throughout the whole of the Northern
+States.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>The Margined Blister-Beetle</b>, (<i>Lytta marginata</i>, Fabr.)&mdash;This species
+(Fig. 9) maybe at once recognized by its general black color, and the
+ash-gray edging to its wing-cases. It usually feeds on certain wild
+plants, but does not object to a diet of potato-leaves. Though found
+over a large extent of country, it seldom appears in numbers large
+enough to damage the potato crop materially. Like other blister-beetles,
+it goes under ground to pass into the pupa state, and attacks the potato
+only when it is in the perfect or winged state.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>The Three-Lined Leaf-Beetle</b>, (<i>Lema trilineata</i>, Olivier.) The larva of
+the three-lined leaf-beetle may be distinguished from all other insects
+which prey upon the potato by its habit of covering itself with its own
+excrement. In Figure 10, <i>a</i>, this larva is shown in profile, both full
+and half grown, covered with the soft, greenish excrementitious matter
+which from time to time it discharges. Figure 10, <i>c</i>, gives a somewhat
+magnified view of the pupa, and Figure 10, <i>b</i>, shows the last few
+joints of the abdomen of the larva, magnified and viewed from above. The
+vent of the larva, as will be seen from this last figure, is situated on
+the upper surface of the last joint, so that its excrement naturally
+falls upon its back, and by successive discharges is crowded forward
+toward its head, till the whole upper surface is covered with it. There
+are several other larva, feeding upon other plants, which wear cloaks of
+this strange material.</p>
+
+<p>Many authors suppose that the object of the larva in all these cases is
+to protect itself from the heat of the sun. In all probability the real
+aim of nature in the case of all these larv&aelig; is to defend them from the
+attacks of birds and of cannibal and parasitic insects.</p>
+
+<p>There are two broods of this insect every year. The first brood of larv&aelig;
+may be found on the potato-vine toward the latter end of June, and the
+second in August.</p>
+
+<p>The first brood stays under ground about a fortnight before it emerges
+in the perfect beetle state, and the second brood stays under ground all
+winter, and only emerges at the beginning of the following June.</p>
+
+<p>The perfect beetle (Fig. 11) is of a pale yellow color, with three black
+stripes on its back, and bears a strong resemblance to the cucumber-bug,
+(<i>Diabrotica vittata</i>, Fabr. Fig. 12.)</p>
+
+<p>From this last species, however, it may be distinguished by its somewhat
+larger size, and by the remarkable pinching-in of the thorax, so as to
+make quite a lady-like waist there, or what naturalists call a
+"constriction." The female, after coupling, lays her yellow eggs (Fig.
+10,<i>d</i>) on the under surface of the leaves of the potato plant. The
+larv&aelig; hatching, when full grown descend into the ground, where they
+transform to pup&aelig; (Fig. 10, <i>c</i>) within a small oval chamber, from which
+in time the perfect beetle emerges.</p>
+
+<p>This insect in certain seasons is a great pest in the Eastern and Middle
+States, but has never yet occurred in the Mississippi Valley in such
+numbers as to be materially injurious.</p>
+
+<p><b>The Cucumber Flea Beetle</b>, (<i>Haltica cucumeris</i>, Harris.) This nimble
+minute beetle (Fig. 13) belongs to the flea-beetles, (<i>Haltica</i> family,)
+the same sub-group of the leaf-beetles (<i>Phytophaga</i>) to which also
+appertains the notorious steel-blue flea-beetle (<i>Haltica chalybea</i>,
+Illiger) that is such a pest to the vineyardist. Like all the rest of
+the flea-beetles, it has its hind thighs greatly enlarged, which enables
+it to jump with much agility. It is not peculiar to the potato, but
+infests a great variety of plants, including the cucumber, from which it
+derives its name. It eats minute round holes in the leaf of the plant it
+infests, but does not always penetrate entirely through it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The larva feeds internally upon the substance of the leaf, and goes
+under ground to assume the pupa state. It passes through all its stages
+in about a month, and there are two or three broods of them in the
+course of the same season. This is emphatically the greatest insect pest
+that the potato-grower has to contend with in Pennsylvania. It abounds
+throughout most of the Northern, Middle, and Western States. Large
+fields of potatoes can any summer be seen in the Middle States much
+injured by this minute insect, every leaf apparently completely riddled
+with minute round holes, and the stalks and leaves appearing yellow and
+seared. Plaster frequently and bountifully applied is sure to prevent
+the attacks of this insect, or to disperse it after it has commenced
+operations.</p>
+
+
+<p><b>The Colorado Potato-Bug</b>, (<i>Doryphora</i> 10&mdash;<i>lineata</i>, Say.)&mdash;This insect,
+which, according to Dr. Walsh, has in the North-West alone damaged the
+potato crop to the amount of one million seven hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars, came originally from the Rocky Mountains, where it was
+found forty-five years ago, feeding on a wild species of potato peculiar
+to that region, (<i>Solanum rostratum</i>, Dunal.) When civilization marched
+up the Rocky Mountains, and potatoes began to be grown in that region,
+this highly improved pest acquired the habit of feeding upon the
+cultivated potato. It went from potato-patch to potato-patch, moving
+east-ward at the rate of about sixty miles a year, and is now firmly
+established over all the country extending from Indiana to its old
+feeding-grounds in the Rocky Mountains. In about twelve years it will
+have reached the Atlantic coast.</p>
+
+<p>There is another very closely allied species, known as the Bogus
+Colorado<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> potato-bug, (<i>coryphora juncta</i>, Germor,) which has existed
+throughout a great part of the United States from time immemorial. This
+latter insect, however, feeds almost exclusively on the horse-nettle,
+(<i>Solanum carolinense</i>, Linn.,) and is never known to injure the potato.
+Both insects are figured, so that one need not be mistaken for the
+other.</p>
+
+<p>Figure 14, <i>b</i>, <i>b</i>, <i>b</i>, gives a view of the larva of the true Colorado
+potato-bug, in various positions and stages of its existence. Figure 15,
+<i>b</i>, <i>b</i>, of that of the bogus Colorado potato-bug. It will be seen at
+once that the head of the former is black, and the first joint behind
+the head is pale and edged with black behind only; that there is a
+double row of black spots along the side of the body; and that the legs
+are black. In the other larva, (Fig. 15, <i>b</i>,) on the contrary, the head
+is of a pale color, the first joint behind the head is tinged with dusk
+and edged all round with black; there is but a single row of spots along
+the side of the body, and the legs are pale.</p>
+
+<p>Figure 14, <i>d</i>, <i>d</i>, exhibits the true Colorado potato-bug; Figure 15,
+the bogus Colorado potato-bug; each of its natural size. Figure 14, <i>e</i>,
+shows the <i>left</i> wing-case enlarged, and Figure 15, <i>e</i>, an enlarged leg
+of the latter. On a close inspection, it will be perceived that in the
+former (Fig. 14, <i>e</i>) the boundary of each dark stripe on the wing-cases
+toward the middle is studded with confused and irregular punctures,
+partly inside and partly outside the edge of the dark stripe; that it is
+the third and fourth dark stripes, counting from the outside, that are
+united behind, and that both the knees and feet are black.</p>
+
+<p>In Figure 15, <i>d</i>, on the contrary, it is the second and third
+stripes&mdash;not the third and fourth&mdash;counting from the outside, that are
+united behind, and the leg is entirely pale, except a black spot on the
+middle of the front of the thigh. The eggs (Fig. 14, <i>a</i>, <i>a</i>, and Fig.
+15, <i>d</i>, <i>d</i>) are yellow, and are always laid on the under side of the
+leaf in patches of from twenty to thirty; those of the bogus are of a
+lighter color. Each female of the true Colorado potato-bug lays,
+according to Dr. Schirmer, about seven hundred eggs. In about six days
+the eggs hatch into larv&aelig;, which feed on the foliage of the potato plant
+about seventeen days; they then descend to the ground, where they change
+into pup&aelig; at the surface of the earth. The perfect beetle appears about
+ten to fourteen days after the pupa is formed, begins to pair in about
+seven days, and on the fourteenth day begins to deposit her eggs. There
+are three broods of this insect every year. Neither geese, ducks,
+turkeys, nor barn-yard fowl will touch the larva of the Colorado
+potato-bug when it is offered to them, and there are numerous authentic
+cases on record where persons who have scalded to death quantities of
+these larv&aelig;, and inhaled the fumes of their bodies, have been taken
+seriously ill, and even been confined to their beds for many days in
+consequence. It is also reported to have produced poisonous effects on
+several persons who handled them incautiously with naked hands. Various
+plans have been tried to destroy this persistent enemy of the potato
+plant. Powdered hellebore is said to have been used with effect as a
+means of destroying the pest. It should be dusted on and under the
+foliage when the plant is wet with dew. Hellebore, however, is a
+dangerous remedy on account of its poisonous qualities. A mixture of one
+part salt, ten parts soap, and twenty parts water, applied to every part
+of the plants with a syringe, is quite effectual. Several cannibal and
+one parasitic insect are known to prey upon the larva of the Colorado
+potato-bug, and the eggs in vast numbers are eaten by several species of
+lady-birds and their larva.</p>
+
+
+<h4>GENERAL REMARKS ON INSECTS.</h4>
+
+<p>The time is not far distant when the American farmer will be obliged to
+put forth greater efforts to destroy noxious insects than he has
+hitherto. It is a well-known fact that noxious insects are increasing in
+a rapid rate throughout every part of our land. The country is becoming
+so "buggy" that eternal vigilance is the price of every thing produced
+from the soil.</p>
+
+<p>Close observers calculate that more fruits of various kinds and
+varieties are annually destroyed or rendered worthless by insects than
+are gathered and used by man. The cotton-worm, the wheat-midge, the
+canker-worms, the potato-bugs, are each every year increasing in numbers
+and destructiveness.</p>
+
+<p>The "curculio" alone destroys millions of dollars' worth of fruit
+annually.</p>
+
+<p>It is a safe estimate, all things considered, that, if noxious insects
+of all descriptions could at once be annihilated throughout our country,
+and mildews of various classes be effectually held in check, the cost of
+living to our people would, in-a short time, be reduced to one third of
+its present amount. It is disheartening to see what a vast amount of
+grains, fruits, and vegetables is annually eaten up by the larv&aelig;, or
+appropriated by the perfect insects of various classes, merely for the
+sake of propagating their abominable species. Yet, in view of all the
+devastation, but feeble effort is made to abate the evil. Birds, many
+species of which nature seemingly designed on purpose to keep insects in
+check, are wantonly shot by lazy boys and indolent men, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> range the
+fields and forests, killing all, from the humming-bird to the crow.
+Legislative enactments made expressly to protect the insectivorous
+songsters are every day violated with impunity. One man plants an
+orchard and does all he can to destroy noxious insects; another man near
+him also has an orchard, but his orchard serves no purpose but to
+propagate "curculios," "canker-worms," "bark-lice," "tent caterpillars,"
+"codling moths," etc., for his neighbors, and, as a matter of course,
+the whole neighborhood swarms with noxious insects. If all cultivators
+would act in concert and with a will, insects might be reduced in
+numbers very rapidly. Most moths of night-flying insects are attracted
+to and destroyed by small bonfires kindled in still evenings during the
+summer months.</p>
+
+<p>Bottles half-filled with sweetened water, hung here and there, will trap
+countless bugs. Strong soap-suds applied immediately after they hatch is
+a sure remedy for plant lice. Molasses and water, to which a little
+arsenic has been added, placed in shallow dishes among the vines, is
+good medicine for potato-bugs, and all bugs in general. A lighted lamp
+placed in the centre of a common milk-pan, partly filled with water, the
+whole elevated a few feet from the ground, will, on a still evening,
+attract and destroy the wheat-midge and similar insects in great
+numbers. The calculations of the "curculio" and "codling moth" are
+brought to naught by turning hogs into the orchard to eat the stung
+fruit as it falls, and the larva that depastures upon the leaves of the
+current and gooseberry is destroyed by syringing the plants with a
+mixture of soap, salt, and water.</p>
+
+
+<h4>VALUE OF THE POTATO AS CATTLE FOOD.</h4>
+
+<p>The constituents of the potato are<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> according to different authorities,
+as follows:</p>
+
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="50%" cellspacing="0" summary="VALUE OF THE POTATO AS CATTLE FOOD">
+<tr><td align='left'>Water</td><td align='right'>75.2</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Casein</td><td align='right'>1.4</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Starch</td><td align='right'>15.5</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Dextrine</td><td align='right'>0.4</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Sugar</td><td align='right'>3.2</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Fat</td><td align='right'>0.2</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Fibre</td><td align='right'>3.2</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mineral matter</td><td align='right'>0.9</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Or economically:</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Water</td><td align='right'>75.2</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Flesh-formers</td><td align='right'>1.4</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Fat-formers</td><td align='right'>18.9</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Accessories</td><td align='right'>3.6</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Mineral matter</td><td align='right'>0.9</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>Of the high value of potatoes, when used in connection with other food,
+there is not a shadow of doubt. All experimenters and observers in the
+economy of food agree in saying that they are of the highest utility;
+but they must be used with other food whose constituents are different
+from those of the root.</p>
+
+<p>The analysis shows that potatoes surpass in the fat-producing principles
+the nutritious or flesh-forming in such proportions that they could not
+alone sustain the composition of the blood; for an animal fed alone on
+these tubers would be obliged to consume such quantities to provide the
+blood with the requisite proportion of albumen that, even if the process
+of digestion were not discontinued, there would be a superabundance of
+fat accumulated beyond the power of the oxygen to consume, which would
+successively absorb from the albuminous substance a part of its vital
+elements, and thus a check would be caused in the endless change of
+matter in the tissues in the nutritive and regressive transformations.</p>
+
+<p>Potatoes, then, to be of most value as food for cattle, should be fed in
+connection with grain, or with other roots in which the flesh-forming
+element predominates. There seems to be no doubt that the tubers are of
+most value when cooked, although some authors affirm to the contrary. It
+seems possible to prove this on philosophical principles; for it is well
+known that the starch contained in the potato is incapable of affording
+nourishment until the containing globules are broken, and one of the
+most efficient means of doing this seems to be by heat.</p>
+
+<p>Boussingault, in speaking of the economy of cooking potatoes, says, "The
+potato is frequently steamed or boiled first; yet I can say positively
+that horned cattle do extremely well upon raw potatoes, and at
+Bechelbrunn our cows never have them otherwise than raw. They are never
+boiled, save for horses and hogs. The best mode of dealing with them is
+to steam them; they need never be so thoroughly boiled as when they are
+to serve for the food of man. The steamed or boiled potatoes are crushed
+between two rollers, or simply broken with a wooden spade, and mixed
+with cut hay or straw or chaff, before being served out. It may not be
+unnecessary to observe that by steaming potatoes lose no weight; hence
+we conclude that the nutritive equivalent for the boiled is the same as
+that of the raw tuber.</p>
+
+<p>"Nevertheless, it is possible that the amylaceous principle is rendered
+more easily assimilable by boiling, and that by this means the tubers
+actually become more nutritious. Some have proposed to roast potatoes in
+the oven, and there can be little question that heated in this way they
+answer admirably for fattening hogs, and even oxen. Done in the oven,
+potatoes may be brought to a state in which they may perfectly supply
+the place of corn in feeding horses and other cattle."</p>
+
+<p>The apparent contradiction in the remarks will be observed; but the
+evident leaning in favor of cooked potatoes shows that Boussingault,
+although paying some attention to the theory that cooked food is not
+generally attended with the same benefit to ruminating as to other
+animals, was evidently almost convinced that those which contained an
+abundance of starch in their constituents must be rendered more
+nutritious when exposed to the action of heat.</p>
+
+<p>Potatoes fed in a raw state to stock are laxative in their effects, and
+are often given to horses as a medicine in cases of "hidebound" with
+decided benefit. Bots, which have been known to live twenty-four hours
+immersed in spirits of turpentine, die almost instantly when placed in
+potato-juice; hence a common practice with horsemen, where bots are
+suspected, is to first administer milk and molasses to decoy the
+parasites from the coating of the stomach, and then drench the animal
+with the expressed juice of potatoes. A decoction made by boiling the
+parings of potatoes in a small quantity of water is often used as a wash
+to kill vermin on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> cattle. Raw potatoes, fed occasionally and in small
+quantities, are a good tonic for stock of any kind which is kept
+principally on hay; but all experiments show that when the potato is
+used for fattening purposes, the tubers should in some way be cooked,
+that the animal to which they are fed may derive from them the greatest
+possible amount of nutriment. Repeated experiments demonstrate the fact
+that horned cattle or hogs lay on as much fat from the consumption of
+two thirds of a given quantity of potatoes properly cooked as they will
+by eating the entire quantity in a raw state. In point of nutriment as
+cattle-food, two pounds of potatoes are considered equivalent to one
+pound of hay.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="HOW_TO_COOK_THE_POTATO" id="HOW_TO_COOK_THE_POTATO"></a>HOW TO COOK THE POTATO.</h2>
+
+<h4>FURNISHED BY</h4>
+
+<h3>PROF. PIERRE BLOT, OF BROOKLYN.</h3>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>At the suggestion of a number of friends, I addressed the following note
+to Professor Blot, which, with his reply, is appended:</p>
+
+<p class="author">
+<span class="smcap">Professor Pierre Blot</span>:<br />
+<span class="smcap">New-York</span>, Feb. 15, 1870.
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: In connection with a Prize Essay on the cultivation of the
+potato, I wish to publish an article on <span class="smcap">Cooking the Potato</span>, to be taken
+from your <i>Hand-Book of Practical Cookery</i>. I write this note to ask
+whether I can do this with your entire approval. Hoping that such
+article may aid our American housekeepers to prepare the potato for the
+table in a more palatable and wholesome manner, I remain yours very
+truly,</p>
+
+<p class="author">
+<span class="smcap">W. T. Wylie.</span></p></div>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+<p class="author"><span class="smcap">Brooklyn, Central Kitchen</span>, Feb. 15, 1870.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Rev. W. T. Wylie</span>:</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: <b>You are authorized, with the greatest pleasure.</b></p>
+<p class="author"><span class="smcap">P. Blot.</span></p>
+
+<p>In accordance with the above authority, the following selections have
+been made from the book named:</p>
+
+<p><b>To Select.</b>&mdash;As a general rule, the smaller the eye the better the
+potatoes. By cutting off a piece from the larger end, you ascertain if
+they are sound; they must be white, reddish, bluish, etc., according to
+the species. If spotted, they are not sound, and therefore very
+inferior. There are several kinds, and all of them are good when sound
+or coming from a proper soil. Use the kind you prefer, or those that are
+better fit for the way they are intended to be served.</p>
+
+<p><b>To Boil.</b>&mdash;Being naturally watery, potatoes should never be cooked by
+boiling except when wanted very white, as for <i>croquettes</i>. When boiled
+whole, put them of an even size as much as possible, in order to cook
+them evenly. They are better, more mealy, when steamed or baked; but
+those who have no steamer must, of course, boil them. Cover them with
+cold water, set on the fire and boil till done, then pour off all the
+water, put the pan back on a slow fire for five minutes and well
+covered; then use the potatoes.</p>
+
+<p><b>To Steam.</b>&mdash;Place them above a kettle of boiling water, in a kind of
+drainer made for that purpose, and adapted to the kettle. The drainer
+must be covered tight. They cook as fast as by boiling, the degree of
+heat being the same. When steamed the skin is very easily removed.</p>
+
+<p><b>To Prepare.</b>&mdash;If they are to be boiled, or steamed, or baked, it is only
+necessary to wash them. If wanted peeled, as for frying, etc., then
+commence by cutting off the germs or eyes; if young and tender, take the
+skin off with a scrubbing-brush, and drop immediately in cold water to
+keep them white; if old, scrape the skin off with a knife, for the part
+immediately under the skin contains more nutriment than the middle, and
+drop in cold water also. If wanted cut, either in dice, or like carpels
+of oranges, or any other way, cut them above a bowl of cold water, so
+that they drop into it; for if kept exposed to the air, they turn
+reddish and lose their nutritive qualities.</p>
+
+<p><b>A l'Allemande.</b>&mdash;Steam, peel, and slice the potatoes. Cut some bread in
+thin slices, and fry bread and potatoes with a little butter, and turn
+the whole in a bowl, dust well with sugar, pour a little milk all over,
+and bake for about fifteen minutes; serve warm.</p>
+
+<p><b>A l'Anglaise.</b>&mdash;Steam or boil about a quart of potatoes, and then peel
+and slice them. Put two ounces of butter in a frying-pan on the fire,
+and put the potatoes in when melted, toss them for about ten minutes,
+add salt, pepper, a little grated nutmeg, and serve hot.</p>
+
+<p><b>Broiled.</b>&mdash;Steam, peel, and slice the potatoes. Lay the slices on a
+gridiron, and place it over a rather slow fire; have melted butter, and
+spread some over the slices of potatoes with a brush; as soon as the
+under part is broiled, turn each slice over and spread butter over the
+other side. When done, dish, salt, and serve them hot. A little butter
+may be added when dished, according to taste.</p>
+
+<p><b>Fried.</b>&mdash;To be fried, the potatoes are cut either with a vegetable spoon,
+in fillets, in slices, with a scalloped knife, or with an ordinary one,
+or cut in pieces like carpels of oranges, or even in dice. When cut,
+drain and wipe them dry. This must be done quickly, so as not to allow
+the potatoes to turn reddish. Have a coarse towel ready, then turn the
+potatoes into a colander, and immediately turn them in the towel, shake
+them a little, and quickly drop them in hot fat. When done, turn them
+into a colander, sprinkle salt on them, and serve hot. Bear in mind that
+fried potatoes must be eaten as hot as possible. Fry only one size at a
+time, as it takes three times as long to fry them when cut in pieces as
+when sliced or cut in fillets.</p>
+
+<p><b>To fry them light or swelled.</b>&mdash;When fried, turn into the colander, and
+have the fat over a brisk fire; leave the potatoes in the colander only
+about half a minute, then put them back in the very hot fat, stir for
+about one minute, and put them again in the colander, salt them, and
+serve hot. If the fat is very hot, when dropped into it for the second
+time they will certainly swell; there is no other way known to do it. It
+is as easily done as it is simple. Potatoes cut in fillets and fried are
+sometimes called <i>&agrave; la Parisienne</i>; when cut in slices or with a
+vegetable spoon, they are called <i>&agrave; la fran&ccedil;aise</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Potatoes cut with a vegetable spoon and fried, make a good as well as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
+sightly decoration for a dish of meat or of fish. They may be fried in
+oil also, but it is more expensive than in fat. They may be fried in
+butter also, but it is still more expensive than oil, and is not better
+than fat; no matter what kind of fat is used, be it lard, beef suet, or
+skimmings of sauces and gravy, it can not be tasted.</p>
+
+<p><b>Lyonnaise.</b>&mdash;Potatoes <i>Lyonnaise</i> are prepared according to taste, that
+is, as much onion as liked is used, either in slices or chopped. If you
+have not any cold potatoes, steam or boil some, let them cool, and peel
+and slice them. For about a quart of potatoes, put two ounces of butter
+in a frying-pan on the fire, and when melted put as much onion as you
+please, either sliced or chopped, into the pan, and fry it till about
+half done, when add the potatoes and again two ounces of butter; salt,
+pepper, and stir and toss gently till the potatoes are all fried of a
+fine, light-brown color. It may require more butter, as no vegetable
+absorbs more than potatoes.</p>
+
+<p><b>Mashed.</b>&mdash;Peel and quarter about three pints of potatoes, as directed;
+put them in a saucepan with more water than is necessary to cover them,
+and a little salt; set on the fire and boil gently till done, drain, put
+them back in the saucepan, mash them well and mix them with two ounces
+of butter, two yolks of eggs, salt, pepper, and milk enough to make them
+of a proper thickness. Set on the fire for two or three minutes,
+stirring the while, and serve warm. When on the dish, smooth them with
+the back of a knife or scallop them, according to fancy.</p>
+
+<p><b>Mashed and Baked.</b>&mdash;Put two ounces of butter in a stewpan and set it on
+the fire; when hot, add a tea-spoonful of parsley chopped fine, and a
+little salt; five minutes after, put in it a quart of potatoes,
+prepared, cooked, peeled, and mashed, as directed; then pour on the
+whole, little by little, stirring continually with a wooden spoon, a
+pint of good milk; and when the whole is well mixed, and becoming rather
+thick, take from the fire, place on the dish, then set in a brisk oven
+for five minutes, and serve.</p>
+
+<p><b>Sautees.</b>&mdash;Take a quart of young and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> tender potatoes, peel them with a
+brush, and cut in slices. Put two ounces of butter in a frying-pan on a
+quick fire; when hot, put the potatoes in, and fry them till of a golden
+color; place them on a dish without any butter, sprinkle chopped parsley
+and salt on, and serve. They may also be served without parsley,
+according to taste.</p>
+
+<p><b>Soufflees.</b>&mdash;Steam a quart of potatoes, then peel and mash them in a
+saucepan and mix an ounce of butter with them; set on the fire, pour
+into it, little by little, stirring the while, about half a pint of
+milk, stir a little longer after the milk is in and until they are
+turning rather thick; dish the potatoes, smooth or scallop them with the
+back of a knife, and put them in a quick oven till of a proper color,
+and serve.</p>
+
+<p><b>In Cakes.</b>&mdash;Prepare and cook by steam a quart and a half of potatoes,
+peel and mash them; mix with them the yolks of five eggs, half a
+lemon-rind grated, and four ounces of fine white sugar. Put four ounces
+of butter in a stewpan and set it on the fire; when melted, put the
+mixture in, stirring it with a wooden spoon continually; as soon as it
+is in the stewpan, add the whites of the five eggs, well beaten; leave
+on the fire only the time necessary to mix the whole well together, and
+take off; when nearly cold, add, if handy, and while stirring, a few
+drops of orange-flower water; it gives a very good flavor; then put the
+whole in a tin mould greased a little with butter; place in a quick oven
+for about thirty-five minutes, and serve.</p>
+
+<p><b>With Butter, or English Fashion.</b>&mdash;Put water on the fire with
+considerable salt in it; at the first boil, drop a quart of washed
+potatoes in and boil till done, when take off, peel, and put them whole
+in a saucepan, with butter, salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg; set on a
+rather slow fire, stirring gently now and then till they have absorbed
+all the butter. Serve warm. They absorb a great deal of butter.</p>
+
+<p><b>With Bacon or Salt Pork.</b>&mdash;Peel and quarter about a quart of potatoes.
+Set a saucepan on the fire with about four ounces of fat salt pork cut
+in dice in it. When fried, put the potatoes in. Season with a bunch of
+seasonings composed of two sprigs of parsley, one of thyme, and a
+bay-leaf; salt and pepper to taste, and about half a pint of broth or
+water. Boil gently till cooked, remove the bunch of seasonings; skim off
+the fat, if any, and serve warm. It is served at breakfast, as well as
+<i>entremets</i> for dinner.</p>
+
+<p><b>With Cream or Milk.</b>&mdash;Peel and mash a quart of potatoes, when prepared
+and cooked. Put two ounces of butter in a stewpan and set it on a good
+fire; when melted, sprinkle in it a tea-spoonful of flour, same of
+chopped parsley, a pinch of grated nutmeg, and salt; stir with a wooden
+spoon five minutes; then add the potatoes, and half a pint of milk or
+cream; keep stirring ten minutes longer, take from the fire, sprinkle in
+them half a table-spoonful of sugar, and serve as warm as possible.</p>
+
+<p><b>With White Sauce.</b>&mdash;Clean, wash, and throw a quart of potatoes in boiling
+water, with a sprig of thyme, two onions, a bay-leaf, two sprigs of
+sweet basil, two cloves, salt, and pepper; when cooked, take the
+potatoes out carefully, peel and cut them in two, place them on a warm
+dish, pour on them a white sauce, and serve warm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="THE_POTATO" id="THE_POTATO"></a>THE POTATO:</h2>
+
+<h3>ILLUSTRATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>We propose to add a few pages of illustrations of the new varieties,
+together with descriptions of the same. A number of these were given in
+the pamphlet issued last year, and are reproduced from that. In case a
+new edition is called for, it is likely that a number of additional cuts
+will be added to it.</p>
+
+<p>We would call attention to the report of a series of experiments which
+have been made on the farms connected with the Agricultural College of
+Pennsylvania.</p>
+
+<p>There are very many questions connected with the cultivation of the
+potato which can be answered satisfactorily only by careful and repeated
+experiments.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus-033.jpg" width="450" height="275" alt="" title="Excelsior." />
+</div>
+
+<h4>Excelsior.</h4>
+
+<p>Seedling of Early Goodrich, now six years old, and is claimed to combine
+more good qualities than any other potato. D. S. Heffron, of Utica,
+originated it. Is said to be productive, early, and of good keeping
+qualities.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Massasoit</span>.&mdash;A new variety from Western Massachusetts, resembling the
+Harrison in appearance, but earlier and of much better quality; flesh
+white, cooks dry and mealy, and altogether a superior variety; strongly
+recommended for a general crop. (See next page.)<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<blockquote><p class="author">
+<span class="smcap">Bellefonte</span>, February 12, 1870.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">Rev. W. T. Wylie</span>:</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>: I inclose an extract from the report, suitable, I think, for
+the pamphlet.</p>
+
+<p class="author">
+<span class="smcap">H. N. McAllister.</span>
+</p></blockquote>
+
+
+<h4>AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OF PENNSYLVANIA.</h4>
+
+<p>From an interesting and instructive report of the Professor of
+Agriculture to the Board of Trustees of the Agricultural College of
+Pennsylvania, for 1869, in relation to the results of experiments made
+upon the three several experimental farms connected with that
+institution, we make the following extracts touching the Potato,
+verifying and illustrating some of the principles set forth in the above
+essay:</p>
+
+<p><i>1st.&mdash;Varieties.</i></p>
+
+<p>Of upward of thirty different varieties experimented upon, the Early
+Goodrich, Early Rose, and Harrison are among the best and most prolific.</p>
+
+<h4>LIKE WEIGHTS OF SEED UPON EQUAL AREAS OF GROUND.</h4>
+
+<p><i>2d.&mdash;Different Modes of Preparing the Seed.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Central Farm</span>.&mdash;One fourth of Plot No. 11&mdash;Early Goodrich&mdash;<i>cut tubers</i>,
+yields 500 pounds, equal to 286 bushels per acre; <i>large and whole
+tubers</i>, yields 410 pounds, equal to 234 bushels per acre; <i>medium-sized
+tubers</i>, yields 419 pounds, equal to 239 bushels per acre; and <i>small
+tubers</i>, yields 486 pounds, equal to 278 bushels per acre.</p>
+
+<p><i>3d.&mdash;Combined Diversity between Soil and Sub-soil and Common Plowing.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Central Farm</span>.&mdash;The 4 plots, Nos. 11, 16, 116, and 416&mdash;<i>soil and subsoil
+plowing</i>&mdash;yields 6200 pounds, equal to 221 bushels per acre; the 2
+plots, Nos. 216 and 316&mdash;<i>common plowing</i>&mdash;yields 1845 pounds, equal to
+but 131 bushels per acre.</p>
+
+<p><i>4th.&mdash;Diversity between Letting all Sprouts Grow and Thinning to Three
+in each Hill.</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Eastern Farm</span>.&mdash;Plot No. 208: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 21&frac12;
+pounds; <i>not thinned</i>; Moro Philips's superphosphate; yield 1174 pounds,
+equal to 168 bushels per acre.</p>
+
+<p>Plot No. 209: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 23 pounds; <i>thinned</i>;
+Moro Philips's superphosphate; yield 1042 pounds, equal to 149 bushels
+per acre.</p>
+
+<p>Plot No. 210: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 15 pounds; <i>not
+thinned</i>; stable manure; yield 860 pounds, equal to 124 bushels per
+acre.</p>
+
+<p>Plot No. 211: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 14&frac12; pounds;
+<i>thinned</i>; stable manure; yield 839 pounds, equal to 119 bushels per
+acre.</p>
+
+<p><i>5th.&mdash;Diversity from Time of Cutting the Seed-Potatoes.</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Plot No. 222: Monitors; <i>cut two weeks before planting</i>; yield 580
+pounds, equal to 83 bushels per acre.</p>
+
+<p>Plot 223: Monitors; <i>cut at time of planting</i>; yield 819 pounds, equal
+to 117 bushels per acre.</p>
+
+<p>Plot 220: Early Shaw; <i>cut two weeks before planting</i>; yield 764 pounds,
+equal to 100 bushels per acre.</p>
+
+<p>Plot 221: Early Shaw; <i>cut at time of planting</i>; yield 907 pounds, equal
+to 129 bushels per acre.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus-034.jpg" width="450" height="270" alt="" title="Massasoit." />
+</div>
+<h4><i>Massasoit.</i></h4>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus-035.jpg" width="450" height="318" alt="" title="Bresee&#39;s Peerless, or No. 6." />
+</div>
+
+<h4>Bresee&#39;s Peerless, or No. 6.</h4>
+
+
+
+<p>The latest and best of all Mr. Bresee's seedlings for the main crop.
+This is also a seedling of the Garnet Chili, and originated from the
+same seed-ball as the Early Rose; skin dull white, occasionally
+russeted; eyes shallow, oblong; flesh white, mealy; grows to a large
+size, often weighing from one and a half to two pounds, and enormously
+productive. At a trial before a committee of the Massachusetts
+Horticultural Society, in September last, this variety obtained more
+votes as to quality than any other of Bresee's seedlings.</p>
+
+<h4>TABLE OF EXPERIMENTS.</h4>
+
+<h4><span class="smcap">Try it and Report Results.</span></h4>
+
+
+
+<div class='centered'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" width="65%" cellspacing="0" summary="Try it and Report Results.">
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>lbs.</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Two pounds large-sized potatoes, planted whole</td><td align='left'>00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Two pounds large-sized potatoes, cut into quarters</td><td align='left'>00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Two pounds large-sized potatoes,cut to single eyes</td><td align='left'>00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Two pounds large-sized potatoes,cut to single eyes and planted four in a hill</td><td align='left'>00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Two pounds large-sized potatoes, planted in drills, fifteen inches between the sets,</td><td align='left'>00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Two pounds small potatoes, planted whole</td><td align='left'>00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Two pounds small potatoes, cut in two pieces</td><td align='left'>00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Two pounds cut to single eye, and worked in ridges</td><td align='left'>00</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>Two pounds cut to single eye, the surface kept flat</td><td align='left'>00</td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+<p>To these add such other experiments as may be interesting to you.
+<i>Weigh</i> the product of each carefully, and report <i>weight</i>, <i>average</i>,
+<i>size</i> of each lot, and <i>quality</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus-036a.jpg" width="450" height="287" alt="" title="Brezee&#39;s King of the Earlies." />
+</div>
+
+
+<h4><i>Brezee&#39;s King of the Earlies.</i></h4>
+
+
+<p>Raised, in 1862, by Albert Brezee, of Hubbardton, Vt., from a ball of
+the Garnet Chili. Vines of medium height, or a little less, and bearing
+no balls; leaves large; tubers large and handsome, roundish and slightly
+flattened; eyes small, and somewhat pinkish; skin flesh-colored, or dull
+pinkish white; flesh white, cooks well, and is of the best quality for
+the table. Has proven thus far very hardy. The variety will not be sent
+out until the spring of 1870.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus-036b.jpg" width="450" height="267" alt="" title="THE EARLY MOHAWK POTATO." />
+</div>
+
+<h4>THE EARLY MOHAWK POTATO.</h4>
+
+<p>Originated in Michigan, in 1866, from a cross of the Peachblow and Brick
+Eye. It is of oblong, roundish shape, flattened at the ends. Skin light
+pink, with pink blush near the eye. Eyes slightly sunken, flesh white,
+cooks dry and mealy, and of superior flavor. Ripens from six to ten days
+earlier than the Rose, of uniform large size and but few small ones, and
+perfectly free from Core or Hollow Heart, and a superior Winter and
+Spring variety.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus-037.jpg" width="450" height="276" alt="" title="Brezee&#39;s Prolific." />
+</div>
+
+<h4><i>Brezee's Prolific.</i></h4>
+
+<p>This variety originated with Albert Brezee, Esq., of Hubbardton, Vt., in
+1861. Mr. Brezee was the originator of the Early Rose, the seed
+producing both that and Brezee's Prolific being from the same seed-ball,
+and both are seedlings of the Garnet Chili.</p>
+
+<p>The vines of Brezee's Prolific are of medium height, quite bushy, and
+somewhat spreading, and with very large leaves; as yet they have
+produced no seed-balls. Tubers large, regular in shape, and very smooth,
+slightly oblong, and very much flattened; skin dull white, inclined to
+be russeted; eyes but little depressed and slightly pinkish; flesh
+white, rarely if ever hollow; cooks quickly, and is very mealy and of
+excellent quality. Yield very large, maturing three weeks later than the
+Early Rose.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Rules Worth Observing.</i>&mdash;An experienced cultivator says, "My experience
+leads me to lay down the following as <i>safe rules</i>:</p>
+
+<p>"I. As early as possible, <i>lay your plans</i> for the next season's
+planting, and manure and work your ground accordingly, in advance.</p>
+
+<p>"II. Secure the <i>best seed</i>, even if it cost you two or five times as
+much as a common and less valuable sort.</p>
+
+<p>"III. <i>Always</i> get a new, improved variety, as soon as it has been
+tested and proved. <i>Remember</i> the profit is mainly made by the early
+cultivators. When it gets so common that <i>you</i> can buy cheap, you will
+have to <i>sell</i> cheap, too.</p>
+
+<p>"IV. Buy only from reliable dealers, and <i>be sure</i> you get the <i>genuine</i>
+article.</p>
+
+<p>"V. <span class="smcap">Buy</span>, or at least <span class="smcap">order</span>, if you possibly can, in the fall or winter;
+you thus save the spring rise of prices.</p>
+
+<p>"VI. Liberal outlay for <i>seed, manure, tools, and work</i> gives ten-fold
+the largest return in money, as well as satisfaction."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus-038a.jpg" width="450" height="219" alt="" title="THE GLEASON." />
+</div>
+
+<h4>THE GLEASON.</h4>
+
+<p>Also a seedling of 1860, of the Pink Eye Rusty Coat, No. 15, which it
+closely resembles. When two years old, Mr. Goodrich described it thus:
+"Longish, rusty, coppery; leaves and vines dark green; flowers white; a
+very hopeful sort." September 29th, 1863, at digging time, he added:
+"Very nice; many in the hill; no disease." The two seasons, 1865 and
+1866, under Dr. Gray's cultivation, this variety yielded at the rate of
+four hundred bushels to the acre, being more productive than the parent.
+This variety gives the best satisfaction. The tubers are not overgrown,
+but numerous; have fine-grained, solid flesh, that cooks white. For
+winter use this kind is excellent. It is a good keeper, and has a fine,
+rich flavor, especially when baked.</p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus-038b.jpg" width="450" height="256" alt="" title="Willard." />
+</div>
+
+
+<h4><i>Willard.</i></h4>
+
+<p>J. J. H. Gregory says of this potato: "The Willard is a seedling from
+the Early Goodrich. It proves to be a half early variety, enormously
+productive, and is a potato of good promise. It is of a rich rose color,
+spotted and splashed with white. The flesh is white."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 321px;">
+<img src="images/illus-039.jpg" width="321" height="450" alt="" title="THE EARLY ROSE." />
+</div>
+
+<h4>THE EARLY ROSE.</h4>
+
+<p>"It is a seedling of the Garnet Chili, that was originated in 1861, by
+Albert Brezee, Esq., an intelligent farmer of Hortonville, Vt. I have
+experimented with it for three years, and have been so well pleased with
+it that I have purchased all Mr. Brezee could spare for the last two
+years, and have engaged the whole of his small crop for another year.</p>
+
+<p>"It has a stout, erect stalk, of medium height; large leaves; flowers
+freely; bears no fruit. The tuber is quite smooth, nearly cylindrical,
+varying to flattish at the centre, tapering gradually toward each end.
+Eyes shallow, but sharp and strongly marked. Skin thin, tough, of a dull
+bluish color. Flesh white, solid, and brittle; rarely hollow; boils
+through quickly; is very mealy, and of the best table quality. It is as
+healthy and productive as the Early Goodrich, matures about ten days
+earlier, and is its superior for the table. The cut is a good outline of
+this beautiful and excellent sort.</p>
+
+<p>"I consider it the most promising very early potato with which I am
+acquainted, and I have tried nearly all the early sorts of the country."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i><b>How to Double Your Crop, when you have New and Rare Kinds.</b></i>&mdash;In an
+ordinary hot-bed or cold frame, put some six inches of good, loose, rich
+soil; split your potato, and lay it cut side down about three inches
+under the surface. When the sprouts are four or five inches high, lift
+the potato, slip off the sprouts, and plant them.</p>
+
+<p>You can then cut the tuber into single eyes, and plant as usual. The
+crop from the sprouts will ripen two weeks before the others. I made $40
+this year by trying this with a <i>handful</i> of potatoes. Every reader is
+welcome to it, and may make as much or more than I did, if he secures a
+few pounds of the newer and costly but valuable kinds.</p>
+
+<p class="author">
+W.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 276px;">
+<img src="images/illus-040.jpg" width="276" height="450" alt="" title="Early Goodrich." />
+</div>
+
+<h4><i>Early Goodrich.</i></h4>
+
+<p>A seedling of the Cusco of 1860. In 1862, Mr. Goodrich described it:
+"Round to longish; sometimes a crease at the insertion of the root;
+white; flowers bright lilac; (produces) many balls; yield large. Table
+quality is already very good. This sort is No. 1 every way." He said to
+me in the spring of 1864: "This early sort gives me more satisfaction
+than any other I have ever grown." This variety ripens as early as the
+Ashleaf Kidney; on rich soil yields from 250 to 350 bushels per acre;
+has never shown any disease; is white-fleshed, and of superior quality.</p>
+
+<p>The above description by D. S. Heffron is fully sustained by my
+experience.</p>
+
+<p>I noticed at dinner to-day, (Nov. 17th,) every potato in a large dishful
+had cracked its skin, and from most of them the skin had peeled itself
+half off.</p>
+
+<p class="author">
+W.
+</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><i>Rev. W. F. Dixon</i>, of Pine Grove, gives the results of his experience
+in the following note:</p>
+
+<p class="author">
+"<span class="smcap">Pine Grove, Mercer Co., Pa</span>.,<br />
+September 20, 1868.
+</p>
+
+<p>"A year ago last spring, a friend gave me three early Goodrich potatoes,
+which I planted four eyes in a hill, and last fall I raised over one
+bushel. I had the Buckeye planted in the same lot. The Goodrich produced
+about four times as much to the hill as the Buckeye."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Our country may well honor the memory of Rev. C. E. Goodrich, who, by
+persevering experiments and patient toil, has produced such wonderful
+results. His success should stimulate every farmer to make a similar
+line of experiments.</p>
+
+<p><i>Potato Crop of New York State.</i>&mdash;The total potato crop of the State of
+New York, this year, is about 25,000,000 bushels. The six great potato
+counties are Washington, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Monroe, St. Lawrence, and
+Genesee. Only one other county (Oneida) produces 300,000 bushels; three
+others, 600,000; one, 500,000; six, 400,000. New York county returns a
+crop of 1700 bushels. The entire crop of the State, 25,000,000 bushels,
+is raised on 254,403 acres of land. The three counties in the State
+which produce the most potatoes join each other, viz., Washington,
+Rensselaer, and Saratoga&mdash;their aggregate production reaching within a
+fraction of 2,500,000 bushels, or more than one-eighth of the total
+product of the whole State.&mdash;<i>New York Observer</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 299px;">
+<img src="images/illus-041.jpg" width="299" height="450" alt="" title="HARISON." />
+</div>
+<h4>HARISON.</h4>
+
+<p>Mr. Heffron gives the following account of this variety: "It is a
+brother of the Early Goodrich&mdash;a seedling of the Cusco of 1860. When two
+years old, Mr. Goodrich described it thus: 'White, large, not so deep
+eyes as the parent, nice.'" In 1863, Mr. Goodrich had eleven and a half
+bushels; and though it was a bad year for disease, and this a young and
+tender seedling, when he overhauled his seedlings, January 29th, 1864,
+he made this entry in his book: "All perfect, fine."</p>
+
+<p>It has a smooth white skin, white flesh, and is the most solid of large
+potatoes, having no hollow at the centre. It is enormously productive,
+yielding as well as the parent Cusco, and exceeds all others; its form
+is good, table quality excellent; keeps well; ripens ten days earlier
+than the Garnet Chili, and thus far is as hardy as the Garnet Chili.</p>
+
+<p>Among winter sorts this potato must soon hold as high a place as is
+conceded to the Early Goodrich among the early sorts.</p>
+
+
+
+
+<p><i>To Keep Potatoes during Winter.</i>&mdash;As soon as dry after digging, pick up
+and handle carefully; store in a dry, well-aired, cool cellar, free from
+frost, either in bins raised a little from the bottom of the cellar, or
+in barrels having at least two holes bored through the staves near the
+bottom, and lay the top head on, over a lath, so as to exclude the light
+without preventing a free circulation of air. Also sprinkle among the
+potatoes about half a pint of recently slacked quick-lime to each
+barrel. If bins are used, cover them over sufficiently to exclude the
+most of the light. Air the cellar all winter, as often as the
+temperature outside will admit of it.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus-042a.jpg" width="450" height="224" alt="" title="CLIMAX." />
+</div>
+
+<h4>CLIMAX.</h4>
+
+
+<p>It has a stout, erect stalk, of full medium height, internodes of medium
+length, and very large leaves; the tuber is above medium in size, quite
+smooth, in form of a short cylinder swelled out at the centre,
+occasionally slightly flattened, and terminating rather abruptly; eyes
+shallow, sharp, sometimes swelled out or projecting, and always strongly
+defined; skin medium thickness, considerably netted or russet, tough,
+white; flesh entirely white, solid, heavy, brittle, and never hollow,
+and it boils through quickly, with no hard core at centre or stem, is
+mealy, of floury whiteness, and of superior table quality.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 450px;">
+<img src="images/illus-042b.jpg" width="450" height="295" alt="" title="Early Prince." />
+</div>
+
+
+<h4><i>Early Prince.</i></h4>
+
+<p>The <i>Early Prince</i> is a seedling of the Early York, and was propagated
+in 1864. It has proved to be from a week to ten days earlier than the
+Early Rose, as far as size and solidity are concerned, and from two to
+three weeks earlier in quality.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h3>ESTABLISHED IN 1842.</h3>
+
+
+<h3>A Good, Cheap, and very Valuable Paper for Every Man, Woman, and Child</h3>
+
+<h4>IN CITY, VILLAGE, AND COUNTRY.</h4>
+
+<h4>THE</h4>
+
+<h2>AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST,</h2>
+
+<h4>FOR THE</h4>
+
+<h3>Farm, Garden, and Household,</h3>
+
+<p class="author">Including a Special Department of Interesting and Instructive Reading
+for Children and Youth.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">The Agriculturist</span> is a large periodical of <i>forty-four</i> quarto pages,
+beautifully printed, filled with <i>plain, practical, reliable, original</i>
+matter, and containing hundreds of <i>beautiful and instructive
+Engravings</i> in every annual volume.</p>
+
+<p>It contains each month a Calendar of Operations to be performed on the
+<i>Farm</i>, in the <i>Orchard</i> and <i>Garden</i>, in and around the <i>Dwelling</i>,
+etc.</p>
+
+<p>The thousands of hints and suggestions given in every volume are
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@@ -0,0 +1,2653 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of
+the Potato; and How to Cook the Potato, by D. H. Compton and Pierre Blot
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato; and How to Cook the Potato
+
+
+Author: D. H. Compton and Pierre Blot
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 26, 2008  [eBook #25905]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE $100 PRIZE ESSAY ON THE
+CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO; AND HOW TO COOK THE POTATO***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Steven Giacomelli, Jeannie Howse, Irma Spehar, Janet
+Blenkinship, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
+Core Historical Literature of Agriculture (CHLA), Albert R. Mann Library,
+Cornell University (http://chla.library.cornell.edu/)
+
+
+
+http://chla.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=chla;idno=2923510
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+      Text enclosed between tilde characters was in bold face in
+      the original (~bold face~).
+
+      [oe] represents the oe-ligature.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE $100. PRIZE ESSAY ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO.
+
+Prize offered by W. T. WYLIE and awarded to D. H. COMPTON.
+
+HOW TO COOK THE POTATO,
+
+_Furnished by Prof. BLOT._
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED. PRICE, 25 CENTS.
+
+New-York:
+ORANGE JUDD CO.,
+No. 751 BROADWAY.
+
+
+
+
+PRIZE ESSAY ON THE POTATO AND ITS CULTIVATION.
+
+$100.
+
+
+In the fall of 1868, I offered $100 as a prize for the best Essay on the
+Cultivation of the Potato, under conditions then published; the prize to
+be awarded by a committee composed of the following gentlemen, well
+known in agricultural circles:
+
+Colonel MASON C. WELD, Associate Editor of _American Agriculturist_.
+
+A. S. FULLER, ESQ., of Ridgewood, N. J., the popular author of several
+horticultural works, and Associate Editor of the _Hearth and Home_.
+
+Dr. F. M. HEXAMER, who has made the cultivation of the potato a special
+study.
+
+In the month of January, 1870, the committee awarded the prize to D. A.
+Compton; and this Essay is herewith submitted to the public in the hope
+of stimulating a more intelligent and successful cultivation of the
+Potato.
+
+                                       BELLEFONTE, PA., January, 1870.
+                                                          W. T. WYLIE.
+
+
+                                 OFFICE OF THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST,
+                                              NEW-YORK, January, 1870.
+
+
+     REV. W. T. WYLIE: DEAR SIR: The essays submitted to us by Mr.
+     Bliss, according to your announcement, numbered about twenty.
+     Several could not be called essays from their brevity, and others
+     were exceedingly incomplete. About twelve, however, required and
+     were worthy of careful consideration. That of Mr. D. A. Compton, of
+     Hawley, Wayne County, Pa., was, in the opinion of your committee,
+     decidedly superior to the others as a practical treatise, sure to
+     be of use to potato-growers in every part of the country, and well
+     worthy the liberal prize offered by yourself.
+
+                  In behalf of the committee, sincerely yours,
+                                            MASON C. WELD, _Chairman_.
+
+
+
+
+POTATO CULTURE.
+
+BY D. A. COMPTON, HAWLEY, PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+
+The design of this little treatise is to present, with minuteness of
+detail, that mode of culture which experience and observation have
+proved to be best adapted to the production of the Potato crop.
+
+It is written by one who himself holds the plow, and who has, since his
+early youth, been engaged in agriculture in its various branches, to the
+exclusion of other pursuits.
+
+The statements which appear in the following pages are based upon actual
+personal experience, and are the results of many experiments made to
+test as many theories.
+
+Throughout the Northern States of our country the potato is the third
+of the three staple articles of food. It is held in such universal
+esteem as to be regarded as nearly indispensable. This fact is
+sufficient to render a thorough knowledge of the best varieties for use,
+the character of soil best adapted to their growth, their cultivation
+and after-care, matters of the highest importance to the farmers of the
+United States.
+
+The main object of this essay is so to instruct the novice in
+potato-growing that he may be enabled to go to work understandingly and
+produce the potato in its highest perfection, and realize from his
+labors bestowed on the crop the greatest possible profits.
+
+
+SOIL REQUIRED--ITS PREPARATION.
+
+The potato is most profitably grown in a warm, dry, sandy, or gravelly
+loam, well filled with decayed vegetable matters. The famous potato
+lands of Lake County, Ohio, from which such vast quantities of potatoes
+are shipped yearly, are yellow sand. This potato district is confined to
+ridges running parallel with Lake Erie, which, according to geological
+indications, have each at different periods defined its boundaries. This
+sand owes much of its potato-growing qualities to the sedimentary
+deposit of the lake and to manural properties furnished by the
+decomposition of the shells of water-snails, shell-fish, etc., that
+inhabited the waters.
+
+New lands, or lands recently denuded of the forest, if sufficiently dry,
+produce tubers of the most excellent quality. Grown on dry, new land,
+the potato always cooks dry and mealy, and possesses an agreeable flavor
+and aroma, not to be attained in older soils. In no argillaceous soil
+can the potato be grown to perfection as regards quality. Large crops
+on such soil may be obtained in favorable seasons, but the tubers are
+invariably coarse-fleshed and ill-flavored. To produce roots of the best
+quality, the ground must be dry, deep, and porous; and it should be
+remembered that, to obtain very large crops, it is almost impossible to
+get too much humus in the soil. Humus is usually added to arable land
+either by plowing under green crops, such as clover, buckwheat, peas,
+etc., or by drawing and working in muck obtained from swamps and low
+places.
+
+The muck should be drawn to the field in fall or winter, and exposed in
+small heaps to the action of frost. In the following spring, sufficient
+lime should be mixed with it to neutralize the acid, (which is found in
+nearly all muck,) and the whole be spread evenly and worked into the
+surface with harrow or cultivator.
+
+Leaves from the woods, buckwheat straw, bean, pea, and hop vines, etc.,
+plowed under long enough before planting to allow them time to rot, are
+very beneficial. Sea-weed, when bountifully applied, and turned under
+early in the fall, has no superior as a manure for the potato. No stable
+or barn-yard manure should be applied to this crop. If such nitrogenous
+manure must be used on the soil, it is better to apply it to some other
+crop, to be followed the succeeding year by potatoes. The use of stable
+manure predisposes the tubers to rot; detracts very much from the
+desired flavor; besides, generally not more than one half as many
+bushels can be grown per acre as can be obtained by using manures of a
+different nature. Market gardeners, many of whom from necessity plant on
+the same ground year after year, often use fine old stable manure with
+profit. Usually they plant only the earlier varieties, crowd them with
+all possible speed, dig early, and sell large and little before they
+have time to rot, thus clearing the ground for later-growing vegetables.
+Thus grown, potatoes are of inferior quality, and the yield is not
+always satisfactory. Flavor, however, is seldom thought of by the hungry
+denizens of our cities, in their eagerness to get a taste of something
+fresh.
+
+Market gardeners will find great benefit from the use of wood-ashes,
+lime, and the phosphates. Sprinkle superphosphate in the hill at the
+rate of two hundred pounds per acre; mix it slightly in the soil with an
+iron rake or potato-hook, then plant the seed. Just before the last
+hoeing, sprinkle on and around the hill a large handful of wood-ashes,
+or an equal quantity of lime slacked in brine as strong as salt will
+make it.
+
+But for the generality of farmers, those who grow only their own supply,
+or those who produce largely for market, no other method of preparing
+the soil is so good, so easy, and so cheap as the following; it requires
+time, but pays a big interest: Seed down the ground to clover with wheat
+or oats. As soon as the grain is off, sow one hundred and fifty pounds
+of plaster (gypsum) per acre, and keep off all stock. The next spring,
+when the clover has made a growth of two inches, sow the same quantity
+of plaster again. About the tenth of July, harrow down the clover,
+driving the same direction and on the same sized lands you wish to plow;
+then plow the clover neatly under about seven inches deep. Harrow down
+the same way it was plowed, and immediately sow and harrow in two
+bushels of buckwheat per acre. When it has grown two inches, sow plaster
+as before; and when the buckwheat has grown as large as it will, harrow
+down and plow under about five inches deep. This, when cross-plowed in
+the spring sufficiently deep to bring up the clover-sod, is potato
+ground _first-class in all respects_.
+
+It is hardly supposable that this mode of preparation of soil would meet
+with favor among all farmers. There is a parsimonious class of
+cultivators who would consider it a downright loss of time, seed, and
+labor; but any one who will take the trouble to investigate, will find
+that these same parsimonious men never produced four hundred bushels of
+potatoes per acre; and that the few bushels of small tubers that they do
+dig from an acre, are produced at considerable loss. "Men do not gather
+grapes from thorns, nor figs from thistles."
+
+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. This great
+deterioration in yield can not be attributed to "running out" of
+varieties; for varieties are extant which have not yet passed their
+prime. It can not be wholly due to disease; for disease does not occur
+in every season and in every place. True, we have more insects than
+formerly, but they can not be responsible for all the great falling off.
+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 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.
+
+To realize from potato-growing the greatest possible profits, (and
+profits are what we are all after,) the following conditions must be
+strictly adhered to: First, the ground chosen _must be dry_, either
+naturally or made so by thorough drainage; a gently sloping, deep, sandy
+or gravelly loam is preferable. Second, the land should be liberally
+enriched with humus by some of the means mentioned, if it is not already
+present in the soil in sufficient quantities, and the soil should be
+deeply and thoroughly plowed, rendering it light, porous, and
+pulverulent, that the air and moisture may easily penetrate to any
+desirable depth of it; and a proper quantity of either wood-ashes or
+lime, or both, mixed with common salt, should be harrowed into the
+surface before planting, or be applied on top of the hills immediately
+after planting. And, finally, the cultivation and after-care should be
+_prompt_, and given as soon as needed. Nothing is more conducive to
+failure, after the crop is properly planted, than failure in promptness
+in the cultivation and care required.
+
+
+GENERAL REMARKS ON MANURING WITH GREEN CROPS.
+
+Experience proves that no better method can be adopted to bring up lands
+partially exhausted, which are remote from cities, than plowing under
+green crops. By this plan the farmer can take lot after lot, and soon
+bring all up to a high state of fertility. True, he gathers no crop for
+one year, but the outlay is little; and if in the second year he gathers
+as much from one acre as he formerly did from three, he is still
+largely the gainer.
+
+It costs no more to cultivate an acre of rich, productive land than an
+acre of poor, unproductive land; and the pleasure and profit of
+harvesting a crop that abundantly rewards the husbandman for his care
+and labor are so overwhelmingly in favor of rich land as to need no
+comment. Besides, manuring with green crops is not transitory in its
+effects; the land remembers the generous treatment for many years, and
+if at times lime or ashes be added to assist decomposition, will
+continue to yield remunerative crops long after land but once treated
+with stable manure or guano fails to produce any thing but weeds. The
+skinning process, the taking off of every thing grown on the soil and
+returning nothing to it, is ruinous alike to farm and farmer. Thousands
+of acres can be found in various parts of the country too poor to pay
+for cultivating without manuring. Of the capabilities of their lands
+under proper treatment the owners thereof have no idea whatever. Such
+men say they can not make enough manure on the farm and are too poor to
+buy. Why not, then, commence plowing under green crops, the only manure
+within easy reach? If fifty acres can not be turned under the first
+year, put at least one acre under, which will help feed the rest. Why be
+contented with thirty bushels of corn per acre, when eighty or one
+hundred may be had? Why raise eight or twelve bushels of wheat per acre,
+when forty may as well be had? Why cut but one half-ton of hay per acre,
+when the laws of nature allow at least three? Why spend precious time
+digging only one hundred bushels of potatoes per acre, when with proper
+care and culture three or four hundred may easily be obtained? And,
+finally, why toil and sweat, and have the poor dumb beasts toil and
+sweat, cultivating thirty acres for the amount of produce that should
+grow, may grow, can grow, and has grown on ten acres?
+
+The poorest, most forsaken side-hills, cobble-hills, and knolls, if the
+sand or gravel be of moderate depth, underlaid by a subsoil rather
+retentive, by turning under green crops grow potatoes of the first
+quality. If land be so poor that clover will not take, as is sometimes
+the case, seed to clover with millet very early in the spring, and
+harrow in with the millet thirty bushels of wood-ashes, or two hundred
+pounds of guano per acre; then sow the clover-seed one peck per acre;
+brush it in.
+
+If neither ashes nor guano can be obtained at a reasonable price, sow
+two hundred pounds of gypsum per acre as soon as the bushing is
+completed. This will not fail in giving the clover a fair foothold on
+the soil.
+
+Before the millet blossoms, cut and cure it for hay. Keep all stock off
+the clover, plaster it the following spring, plow it under when in full
+bloom; sow buckwheat immediately; when up, sow plaster; when in full
+bloom, plow under and sow the ground immediately with rye, to be plowed
+under the next May. Thus three crops are put under within a year, the
+ground is left strong, light, porous, free from weeds, ready to grow a
+large crop of potatoes, or almost any thing else.
+
+Much is gained every way by having and keeping land in a high state of
+fertility. Some crops require so long a season for growth, that high
+condition of soil is absolutely necessary to carry them through to
+maturity in time to escape autumnal frosts. In the Western States manure
+has hitherto been considered of but little value. The soil of these
+States was originally very rich in humus. For a time wheat was produced
+at the rate of forty bushels per acre; but according to the statistics
+given by the Agricultural Department at Washington, for the year 1866,
+the average yield in some of these States was but four and a half
+bushels per acre. It is evident from this that Mr. Skinflint has had
+things pretty much his own way. His land now produces four and a half
+bushels per acre; what time shall elapse when it shall be four and one
+half acres per bushel? Who dare predict that manure will not at some day
+be of value west of the Alleghanies? New-Jersey, with a soil naturally
+inferior to that of Illinois, contains extensive tracts that yearly
+yield over one hundred bushels of Indian corn per acre, while the
+average of the State is over forty-three; and the average yield of the
+same cereal in Illinois is but little over thirty-one bushels per acre.
+In the Western States, where potatoes are grown extensively for Southern
+markets, the average yield is about eighty bushels per acre; while in
+old Pennsylvania could be shown the last year potatoes yielding at the
+rate of six hundred and forty bushels per acre. There are those who
+argue that manure is never necessary--that plant-food is supplied in
+abundance by the atmosphere; it was also once said a certain man had
+taught his horse to live without eating; but it so happened that just as
+he got the animal perfectly schooled, it died.
+
+Good, thorough cultivation and aeration of the soil undoubtedly do much
+toward the production of crops; but mere manipulation is not all that is
+needed.
+
+That growing plants draw much nourishment from the atmosphere, and
+appropriate largely of its constituents in building up their tissue, is
+certainly true; it is also certainly true that they require something of
+the soil besides mere anchorage. All facts go to show that if the
+constituents needed by the plant from the soil are not present in the
+soil, the efforts of the plant toward proper development are abortive?
+What sane farmer expects to move a heavy load over a rugged road with a
+team so lean and poverty-stricken that they cast but a faint shadow? Yet
+is he much nearer sanity when he expects farming to be pleasant and
+profitable, and things to _move aright_, unless his land is strong and
+fat? Is he perfectly sane when he thinks he can skin his farm year after
+year, and not finally come to the bone? The farmer on exhausted land
+must of necessity use manure. Manure of _some_ kind must go under, or he
+must go under; and to the great mass of cultivators no mode of enriching
+is so feasible, so cheap, and attended with such satisfactory results,
+as that of plowing under green crops.
+
+The old plan of leaving an exhausted farm, and going West in search of
+rich "government land," must soon be abandoned. Already the head of the
+column of land-hunters have "fetched up" against the Pacific, and it is
+doubtful whether their anxious gaze will discover any desirable
+unoccupied soil over its waters.
+
+The writer would not be understood as saying that all farms are
+exhausted, or that there is _no_ way of recuperation but by plowing
+under green crops. What he wishes understood is, that where poor, sandy,
+or gravelly lands are found, which bring but small returns to the owner,
+by subjecting them to the process indicated, such lands bring good crops
+of the kind under consideration. And further, that land in the proper
+condition to yield a maximum crop of potatoes, is fitted to grow other
+crops equally well. Neither would the writer be understood as arguing
+that a crop of clover and one of buckwheat should be turned under for
+each crop of potatoes; where land is already in high condition, it may
+not be necessary. A second growth of clover plowed under in the fall for
+planting early kinds, and a clean clover sod turned in _flat_ furrows in
+the spring, for the late market varieties, answer very well. To turn
+flat furrows, take the furrow-slice wide enough to have it fall
+completely inside the preceding one.
+
+Potatoes should not be planted year after year on the same ground;
+trouble with weeds and rapid deterioration of quality and quantity of
+tubers soon render the crop unprofitable. Loamy soil planted
+continuously soon becomes compact, heavy, and lifeless. Where of
+necessity potatoes must be grown yearly on the same soil, it is
+advisable to dig rather early, and bury the vines of each hill in the
+one last dug; then harrow level, and sow rye to be plowed under next
+planting time.
+
+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.
+
+Why clover, or clover and buckwheat lands, are so strongly urged is,
+such lands have in them just what the tubers need for their best and
+healthiest development; the soil is rendered so rich, light, and porous,
+and so free from weeds, that the cultivation of such land is rather a
+pleasure than otherwise, and at the close of the season the tangible
+profits in dollars and cents are highly gratifying.
+
+
+VARIETIES.
+
+From the fact that the United States produce about 109,000,000 bushels
+of potatoes annually, it might be supposed a great many varieties would
+be cultivated. Such, however, is not the fact. Of the varieties extant,
+comparatively few are grown extensively.
+
+Every grower's observation has established the fact that for quality the
+early varieties are inferior to the late ones. The Early June is very
+early, but its quality is quite indifferent. The Cherry Blow is early,
+attains good size, and yields rather well. In quality it is poor. The
+Early Kidney, as to quality, is good, but will not yield enough to pay
+for cultivation. The Cowhorn, said to be the Mexican yam, is quite
+early, of first quality, but yields very poorly. The Michigan White
+Sprout is early, rather productive, and good. Jackson White is in
+quality quite good, is early, and a favorite in some places. The Monitor
+is rather early, yields large crops; but as its quality is below par, it
+brings a low price in market. Philbrick's Early White is one of the
+whitest-skinned and whitest-fleshed potatoes known. It is about as early
+as Early Goodrich, is quite productive, and grows to a large size, with
+but few small ones to the hill. Its quality is excellent. It has not yet
+been extensively tested. The Early Rose is said to be very early, of
+excellent quality, and to yield extremely well. It has, however, not
+been very widely tested. Perhaps for earliness and satisfactory product,
+the Early Goodrich has no superior. It is of fair quality, and though
+some seasons it does not yield as well as others, yet, all things
+considered, it is a desirable variety. The old Neshannock, or Mercer, is
+among the latest of the early varieties. As to quality, it is the
+standard of excellence of the whole potato family. But it yields rather
+poorly, and its liability to rot, except on soils especially fitted for
+it, has so discouraged growers that its cultivation in many sections is
+abandoned. 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.
+As an instance of this, it will be remembered that when the Merino and
+California varieties were first introduced, they were so coarse as to be
+thought fit only to feed hogs, and for this purpose, on account of their
+great yielding qualities, farmers continued to cultivate them, until
+finally they became so changed as in many sections to be preferred for
+the table. Their cultivation, however, is now nearly abandoned.
+
+Of the later varieties, the Garnet Chili, a widely-diffused and
+well-known sort, deserves notice. It is not of so good quality as the
+Peach Blow; but its freedom from disease, and the large crop it
+produces, make it a favorite with many growers. The chief fault with it
+is, the largest specimens are apt to be hollow at the centre. It ripens
+rather early; and, even when dug long before maturity, it has a dryness
+and mealiness, when prepared for the table, not found in many other
+sorts. The Buckeye is extensively grown for market; its yield is not
+satisfactory, and its quality is only medium. The Dykeman is yet grown
+to some extent, but will soon be superseded.
+
+The Prince Albert is a well-known and highly-esteemed variety,
+approaching very near the Peach Blow in quality. One peculiarity of
+this potato is, the largest tubers appear to be of as good quality as
+the small ones. With proper soil and culture, it yields a fair crop; is
+quite free from disease; and its smoothness, high flavor, and fine
+appearance make it much sought after in the market.
+
+The Fluke, a very late potato, is a great favorite with many who produce
+for market. Its yield is very large; and its smoothness and uniformity
+of size make it altogether a desirable variety. It is generally free
+from disease. In quality it is rather above medium.
+
+The Harrison, if it should do as well in the future as it has done in
+the past, bids fair to become _the_ potato for general cultivation. It
+has yielded in this section, on soil of moderate fertility, with
+ordinary culture, one peck to the hill of uniform-sized, merchantable
+potatoes. It is a strong, vigorous grower, and very healthy. Its
+quality, though not the very best, is good. The Willard, lately
+originated by C. W. Gleason, of Massachusetts, is a half-early variety.
+It is enormously productive, of a rich rose color, spotted and splashed
+with white. The flesh is white. In form and size it closely resembles
+the Early Goodrich, its parent. It has not been extensively tested, but
+certainly promises well. The Excelsior is said, by those interested in
+its sale, to be very productive, and of most excellent quality,
+retaining its superior flavor all the year round. It is claimed that old
+potatoes of this variety are better than new ones of most early kinds,
+thus obviating the necessity of having early sorts. The Excelsior is
+said to cook very white and mealy; form nearly round, eyes prominent. It
+has not been much tested out of the neighborhood where it originated.
+
+But the potato-eater is yet unborn who can justly find fault with a
+properly-grown Peach Blow. It is pronounced by many equal or superior to
+the Mercer in quality, which is not the fact. It is emphatically a late
+potato; and, though it does not yield as well per acre as some other
+sorts, it is comparatively healthy; and its quality is such that it
+always brings a high price in the market. In fact, but few other kinds
+of late sorts could find sale if enough of this kind were offered to
+supply the demand. Planted ever so early, it keeps green through the
+heat of summer, and never matures its tubers until after the fall rains,
+and then no potato does it more rapidly.
+
+Grown on rich argillaceous soil, it will be hollow, coarse flesh, and
+ill-flavored; but planted on such soil as is recommended, it is about
+all that could be desired. 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.
+
+Many other varieties might be mentioned; but the list given includes
+about all of much merit. New varieties are constantly arising, clamoring
+for public favor, many of which are wholly unworthy of general
+cultivation. One or two varieties, such as are adapted to the grower's
+locality and market, are preferable to a greater number of sorts grown
+merely for variety's sake.
+
+
+INFLUENCE OF SOIL ON SEEDLINGS.
+
+The characteristics of a potato, such as quality, productiveness,
+healthfulness, uniformity of size, etc., depend much on the nature of
+the soil on which it originated. These characteristics, some or all,
+imbibed by the minute potato from the ingredients of the soil, at its
+first growth from the seed of the potato-ball, adhere with great
+tenacity to it through all its generations. A seedling may, in size,
+color, and form resemble its parent; but its constitution and quality
+are in a great degree dependent on the nature of the soil, climatic
+influences, and other accidental causes.
+
+True crosses are generally more vigorous and healthy than others; and it
+is probably to accidental crosses we are indebted for many varieties
+that differ so widely from their parents. A cross is most apparent to
+the eye when the parents are of different colors, in which case the
+offspring will be striped or marked with the colors of each parent.
+
+
+HOW TO CROSS VARIETIES.
+
+In order to comprehend fully the principles of this subject, and their
+application to practical operations, it will be necessary to take a
+general view of the generative organs of the vegetable kingdom, and the
+manner in which they act in the production of their species. If we
+examine a perfect flower, we shall find that it consists essentially of
+two sets of organs, one called the pistils, the other the stamens. The
+pistils are located in the centre of the flower, and the stamens around
+them. The summit of the pistil is called the stigma; and on the top of
+each stamen is situated an anther--a small sack, which contains the
+pollen, a dust-like substance, that fertilizes the ovules or young seeds
+of the plant.
+
+These organs are supposed to perform offices analogous to those of the
+animal kingdom--the stamens representing the male, and the pistils the
+female organs.
+
+When the anthers, which contain the pollen, arrive at maturity, they
+open and emit a multitude of minute grains of pollen; and these, falling
+on the pistils of the flower, throw out hair-like tubes, which penetrate
+through the vascular tissue of the pistil, and ultimately reach the
+ovules, thus fertilizing them, and making them capable, when mature, of
+reproducing plants of their own kind.
+
+The ovules are the rudimentary seeds, situated in a case at the base of
+the pistils, each consisting of a central portion, called the nucleus,
+which is surrounded by two coats, the inner called the secundine, the
+outer the primine. When the hairlike tube of the pollen-grain passes
+through the orifice in the coatings of the ovule, and reaches the
+nucleus, or embryo sack, it is supposed to emit a spermatic or plantlet
+germ, which passes through the wall of the embryo sack and enters the
+germinal vesicle contained in it. The vesicle corresponds to the
+vesicle, or germinal spot, in the eggs of birds, and ovum of mammiferous
+animals. The germ remains in the vesicle, and finally becomes the
+embryo, fully developed into a plantlet, as may be seen in many seeds.
+
+Flowers of plants are called perfect when the stamens and pistils are in
+the same flower, as the apple; mon[oe]cious, when in different flowers
+and on the same plant, as the white oak; and di[oe]cious, when in
+different flowers and on different plants, as in the hemp. In that class
+of plants in which the stamens, or males, are on one plant, and the
+pistils, or females, on another, the males of course must always remain
+barren; and the pistilates, to be fruitful, must have the pollen from
+the anthers of the staminate brought in contact with its stigma by wind,
+insects, or other means. In plants with perfect flower, the stamens are
+generally situated around and above the pistil, so that the pollen falls
+upon the stigma by mere force of gravity. In the potato, the pollen is
+conveyed from the anthers to the stigma by actual contact of the two
+organs.
+
+Cross-breeding in plants consists in fertilizing one variety with the
+pollen of another variety of the same species. The offspring is called a
+cross-breed, or variety. The process of cross-breeding consists in
+taking the pollen of one variety and applying it to the stigma of
+another variety, in such a way as to effect its fertilization. This is
+done by cutting away (with scissors) the stamens of the flower to be
+fertilized, a short time before they arrive at maturity, and taking a
+flower in which the pollen is ripe, dry, and powdery, from the stalk of
+the variety wished for the male parent; and holding it in the right
+hand, and then striking it on the finger of the left, held near the
+flower, thus scattering the pollen on the stigma of the pistil of the
+flower to be fertilized. The utmost care should be taken to apply the
+pollen when the flower is in its greatest vigor, and the stigma is
+covered with the necessary coating of mucus to insure a perfect
+connection of the pollen with the pistil, and make the fertilization
+perfect. All flowers not wanted in the experiment should be removed
+before any pollen is formed.
+
+It is necessary to tie a thin piece of gauze over the flower to be
+fertilized, before and after crossing, to prevent insects from conveying
+pollen to it, thus frustrating the labors of the operator. If the
+operation has been successful, the pistil will soon begin to wither; if
+not perfect, the pistil will continue fresh and full for some days.
+This _modus operandi_ is substantially the same in crossing fruits,
+flowers, and vegetables throughout the vegetable kingdom.
+
+Hybridizing differs from cross-breeding only in fertilizing one species,
+or one of its varieties, with the pollen of another species, or one of
+its varieties, of the same or a different _genus_. The offspring is
+called a hybrid, or mule. Hybrids, with very few exceptions, are
+sterile, they fail to propagate themselves from seed, and must, to
+preserve them, be propagated by grafts, layers, or suckers. No change is
+perceptible in the fruit produced from blossoms upon which the operation
+of cross-breeding or hybridizing has been performed; but the seed of
+fruits so obtained may be planted with the certainty of producing a
+fruit or tuber commingling the qualities, colors, and main
+characteristics of both parents.
+
+Experience, however, shows that the characteristics of the male
+predominate somewhat in the offspring. To judicious cross-breeding and
+hybridizing we owe most of our superior fruits and vegetables. If the
+operation were more generally known and practiced by farmers, the most
+gratifying results would be soon obtained, not only in the production of
+the most valuable varieties of potatoes and other vegetables, but also
+in fruits, flowers, and grain of every description.
+
+
+SMOOTH VS. ROUGH POTATOES.
+
+Other things being equal, smooth potatoes are preferable to those with
+deeply-sunken eyes. The starch being most abundant near the skin, not so
+much is lost by the thin paring of the former as by the necessarily
+deeper paring of the latter.
+
+Varieties usually well formed sometimes grow so knobby and ill-shaped as
+to be scarcely recognized. This is caused by severe drought occurring
+when the tubers are about two thirds grown, causing them to partially
+ripen. On the return of moisture, a new growth takes place, which shows
+itself in knobby protuberances.
+
+
+CUT AND UNCUT SEED.
+
+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.
+
+Many eyes of the uncut seed start, but the stronger soon overpower the
+weaker, and finally starve them out. A plot planted with three small,
+uncut potatoes to the hill, and another planted with three pieces of two
+eyes each to the hill, will not show much difference in number of vines
+during the growing season.
+
+The poor results sometimes attending cut seed are almost always
+traceable to improper seed improperly cut. Only large, mature, sound
+tubers should be used. Cut them in pieces of two or three eyes each,
+taking pains to secure around each eye as much flesh as possible, also
+under the eye to the centre of the tuber.
+
+Experiments prove that eyes from the "seed end" produce potatoes that
+mature earliest; they are also smallest. Those from the large or stem
+end are largest, latest, and least in numbers. Eyes from the middle
+produce tubers of very uniform size.
+
+If small, ill-shaped potatoes be planted on the same ground for three
+successive years, the results will give the best variety a bad name.
+
+Much is gained by changing seed. No two varieties are made up of the
+same constituents exactly in the same proportion; hence, a soil may be
+exhausted for the best development of one, and still be fitted to meet
+the demands of another. Even when the same variety is desired,
+experience shows the great benefit of planting seed grown on a different
+soil. The best and most extensive growers procure new seed every two or
+three years, and many insist on changing seed every year; and
+undoubtedly the crop is often doubled by the practice.
+
+
+PLANTING AND MANURING.
+
+Early kinds should be planted as soon as the ground has become
+sufficiently dry and warm. Late market varieties should be planted about
+two weeks later than the early ones. Unquestionably more bushels can be
+obtained per acre by planting in drills than in hills, but the labor of
+cultivating in drills is much the greater.
+
+Prepare the ground by thorough plowing, making it decidedly mellow. Mark
+it out four feet apart each way, if to be planted in hills, by plowing
+broad, flat-bottomed furrows about three inches deep. At the crossings
+drop three pieces of potato, cut, as directed, in sections of two or
+three eyes each. Place the pieces so as to represent the points of a
+triangle, each piece being about a foot distant from each of the other
+two. If the cut side is put down, it is better; cover about two inches
+deep. Where land is free from stone and sod, the covering may be well
+and rapidly done with a light plow. Immediately after planting, sprinkle
+over and around each hill a large handful of unleached wood-ashes and
+salt, (a half-bushel of fine salt mixed with a barrel of ashes is about
+the right proportion.) If ashes can not be obtained, as is sometimes the
+case, apply instead about the same quantity of lime slacked in brine as
+strong as salt will make it. The potato from its peculiar organization
+has a hungering and thirsting after potash. Wood-ashes exactly meet its
+wants in this direction. Lime indirectly supplies potash by liberating
+what was before inert in the soil. Salt in small quantities induces
+vigorous, healthy growth. To obtain the best results, the ashes or lime
+should be covered with about half an inch of soil. This plan of manuring
+in the hill is recommended only in cases where the fertilizers named are
+in limited supply, and it is desirable to make the most of them. Maximum
+crops have been obtained by using the fertilizers named in the manner
+described; but where they can be obtained at low prices, it is certainly
+advisable, and requires less labor, to apply all three, ashes, lime, and
+salt, broadcast in bountiful quantities, and harrow it in before the
+ground is marked out for planting.
+
+
+CULTIVATION.
+
+If weeds are expected, pass a light harrow over the rows just before the
+vines are ready to burst through; this will disturb them and render them
+less troublesome. As soon as the tops are two inches high, run a
+corn-plow five inches deep _close_ to the hills, turning the furrows
+_from_ the rows.
+
+Plow both ways twice between the rows, finishing on the rows running
+east and west, which will give the sun's rays a better chance to warm
+the ground properly. Standing on the squares of earth, warmed on all
+sides by the air and sunlight, the potatoes will grow amazingly. Just as
+soon as the tops have attained a height of six or seven inches, hitch a
+strong horse to a two-horse plow, and turn furrows fully seven inches
+deep midway between the rows _to_ the hills. Plow twice between the
+rows both ways; and if the ground be a side-hill, turn the first furrow
+between the rows up-hill, which will leave the rows in better shape.
+Hoeing is often wholly unnecessary; but where, from weeds or poor
+plowing, it is needed, draw mellow earth to the plants with the hoe,
+keeping the top of the hills somewhat hollow to catch the rains. Then,
+so far as stirring the soil is concerned, _let it alone_.
+
+After potatoes are fairly up, their cultivation should be crowded
+through with all possible speed, or at least as rapidly as the growth of
+the tops will permit.
+
+If the last plowing be deferred until the vines are large, a large
+proportion of small potatoes is sure to be the consequence. After a
+certain stage of growth, new tubers are formed each time the soil is
+disturbed; these never fully develop, they rob those first formed, and
+make the crop much inferior to what it should be. By the mode of culture
+described, the ground is made warm and mellow close up to the
+seed-potatoes, the roots soon fill the whole hill, and tubers are formed
+that have nothing to do but to grow. The writer is aware flat culture
+has strong advocates; but, after many experiments, he is convinced that
+hills are much the best.
+
+
+PLASTER.
+
+However much lime or other fertilizers may be applied to the soil, still
+great benefit is derived from the use of plaster, (sulphate of lime.)
+
+After all, plaster is the main dependence of the potato-grower, a help
+on which he may rely with the utmost confidence. Astonishing results are
+obtained from its use, when applied in a proper manner. The writer has
+seen a field, all of the same soil, all prepared alike, and all planted
+with the same variety at the same time, on one half of which, that had
+no plaster, the yield was but sixty bushels per acre, and many rotten;
+the other part, to which plaster was applied in the manner hereafter
+explained, yielded three hundred and sixty bushels per acre, and not an
+unsound one among them.
+
+The action of plaster is often puzzling. From the fact that where land
+has been strongly limed, a small quantity of plaster applied shows such
+decided benefit, there would seem plausibility in Liebig's theory that
+its effects must be traceable not to the lime, but to the sulphuric
+acid. The ammonia in rain-water in the form of carbonate (a volatile
+salt) is decomposed by plaster, the sulphuric acid having greater
+affinity for it, thus forming two new compounds, sulphate of ammonia and
+carbonate of lime. But as arable soil has the same property of absorbing
+ammonia from the air and rain-water, and fixing it in the same or even a
+higher degree than lime, there is only the sulphuric acid left to look
+to for an explanation of the favorable action of plaster on the growth
+of plants.
+
+It is found that plaster in contact with soil undergoes decomposition,
+part of the lime separating from the sulphuric acid, and magnesia and
+potash taking its place, quite contrary to the ordinary affinities.
+
+These facts show that the action of plaster is very complex, and that it
+promotes the distribution of both magnesia and potash in the ground,
+exercising a chemical action upon the soil which extends to any depth of
+it; and that, in consequence of the chemical and mechanical
+modifications of the earth, particles of certain nutritive elements
+become accessible and available to plants that were not so before.
+
+It is said plaster is of most benefit in wet seasons; such is not
+always the case. It is certainly beneficial to clover, wet or dry; so of
+potatoes.
+
+A few years since, when the drought was so intense in this section as to
+render the general potato crop almost a total failure, the writer
+produced a plentiful crop by the use of plaster alone. On examination at
+the dryest time, the bottoms of the hills were found to be literally
+dust, yet in this dust the tubers were swelling finely: the leaves and
+vines were of a deep rich green, and remained so until frost, while
+other fields in sight, planted with the same variety, but not treated
+with plaster, were brown, dead, and not worth digging. That gypsum
+attracts moisture may be proved by plastering a hill of corn and leaving
+a hill by it unplastered; the dew will be found deposited in greater
+abundance on the plastered hill. But, according to Liebig, certain
+products of the chemical action of plaster enter into and are
+incorporated with the structure of the plant, closing its breathing
+pores to such an extent that the plant is enabled to withstand a drought
+which would prove fatal to it unassisted.
+
+Certain it is that plaster renders plants less palatable to insects,
+and, so far as the writer's experiments extend, it is fatal to many of
+the fungi family. To obtain the best results, the vines of potatoes
+should be dusted with plaster as soon as they are fairly through the
+soil, again immediately after the last plowing and hoeing, and, for
+reasons hereafter given, at intervals throughout the whole growing
+season. The first application may be light, the second heavier, and
+thereafter it should be bountifully applied, say two hundred pounds per
+acre at one sowing.
+
+
+THE POTATO-ROT--ITS CAUSE
+
+The year 1845 will ever be memorable by its giving birth to a disease
+which threatened the entire destruction of the potato crop, and which
+caused suffering and pecuniary ruin to an incredible extent throughout
+Europe.
+
+The potato, at the time of the appearance of the potato disease, was
+almost the sole dependence of the common people of Ireland for food.
+That over-populated country experienced more actual suffering in
+consequence of the potato disease than has any other from the same
+cause. Although this disease has never, in this country, prevailed to
+the same ruinous extent that it has in some others, yet we are yearly
+reminded of its existence, and in some seasons and localities its
+destructive effects are seriously apparent.
+
+The final or culminating cause of the disease known as the "potato-rot"
+is _Botrytis (peronospora) infestans_. This may be induced by many and
+various predisposing causes, such as feebleness of constitution of the
+variety planted, rendering them an easy prey to the disease; by planting
+on low, moist land, or on land highly enriched by nitrogenous manures,
+causing a morbid growth which invites the disease; also by insects or
+their larvae puncturing or eating off the leaves or vines. But by far the
+most wide-spread and most common cause of the disease is sudden changes
+of atmospheric temperature, particularly when accompanied by rain.
+Drought, though quite protracted and severe, unless accompanied by
+strong drying winds, and followed by sudden and great reduction of
+temperature, seldom affects the potato seriously. It is not uncommon in
+the Northern States, during the months of August and September, for
+strong westerly winds to prevail for many days in succession. These
+winds, coming from the great American desert, are almost wholly devoid
+of moisture, and their aridity is often such that vegetation withers
+before them as at the touch of fire. Evaporation is increased in a
+prodigiously rapid ratio with the velocity of wind. The effects of the
+excessive exhalation from the leaves of plants exposed to the sweep of
+such drying winds are at once seriously apparent.
+
+When these winds finally cease, the atmosphere has a low relative
+humidity, not enough moisture remains in the air to prevent radiation;
+the heat absorbed by the earth through the day is, during the bright,
+cloudless night, rapidly radiated and lost in space, and a reduction in
+temperature of twenty to thirty degrees is the consequence.
+
+In the first place, the potato-vines suffer by excessive exhalation; in
+the second, by sudden reduction of temperature, and, though not frozen,
+their functions are much deranged, and their vitality greatly enfeebled.
+To use a common expression, the plant "has caught a violent cold that
+has settled on the lungs."
+
+The leaves (which are the lungs of plants) now fail to perform their
+functions properly. The points of many of the leaves turn brown, curl
+up, and die.
+
+The ascending sap, not being fully elaborated by the diseased leaves,
+oozes out through the skin of the stalk in a thick, viscous state, and
+the plant to all appearance is in a state of consumption.
+
+At this stage the ever-present minute spores of the _Botrytis infestans_
+eagerly pounce on the sickly plant, fastening themselves on its most
+diseased parts. The _Botrytis infestans_ is a cryptogamous plant, and is
+included in the Mucidineous family, (moulds.) It is a vegetable parasite
+preying upon the living potato plant, like lice or other animal
+parasites upon the animal species.
+
+At first this mould forms webby, creeping filaments, known in botanical
+language as mycelium. These root-like fibres then branch out, sending
+out straight or decumbent articulated stems. These bead-like joints fill
+up successively with seeds or spores, which are discharged at the proper
+time to multiply the species.
+
+Under favorable conditions of warmth and moisture, the mycelium spreads
+very rapidly. Spores are soon formed and matured, to be carried to
+plants not yet infected. Rains also wash the seminal dust down the
+plant, causing it to fasten and grow on the vine near the ground. The
+roots of the parasite penetrate and split up the stalk even to the
+medullary canal.
+
+These roots exude a poisonous substance, which is carried by the
+elaborated descending sap down to the tubers, and as the largest tubers
+require the largest amount of elaborated sap for their development, they
+will, consequently, receive the greatest quantity of the vitiating
+principle, and will, on digging, be found a mass of rottenness, when the
+smaller ones are often but slightly affected. The _Botrytis infestans_
+can not gain a lodgment on vines that are truly healthy and vigorous,
+high authority to the contrary notwithstanding.
+
+Healthy varieties, growing in a sheltered situation on dry, new soil, to
+which no nitrogenous manures have been applied, can not be infected,
+though brushed with other vines covered with the fungus. Different
+varieties, and sometimes different members of the same variety, are not
+always alike affected by the disease, though growing in the same hill.
+
+As will be noticed, the potato disease is rather an effect than a cause,
+and appears to have been designed to prevent members enfeebled by
+accident or otherwise from propagating their species by putting such
+members out of existence. Ozone, supposed to be a peculiar form of
+oxygen, is exhaled from every part of the green surface of plants in
+health, and effectually repels the attacks of mildew; but it is found
+that when the atmosphere is very dry, or, on the other hand, very humid,
+plants cease to evolve ozone, and are therefore unprotected. Winds from
+the ocean are strongly ozonic, and it is ascertained that plants growing
+on soil to which salt has been applied evolve more ozone than others.
+Hence the benefit derived from the use of salt on potato lands.
+
+The "Black knot," another species of fungus that attacks the branches of
+the plum and Morello cherry, operates very similarly to the potato
+mildew. The roots of the parasite penetrate and split up the cellular
+tissue of the branch on which it fastens, and if the limb be not
+promptly amputated, the descending sap carries the deleterious principle
+through the whole system, and the following year the disease appears in
+a greatly aggravated form in every part of the whole tree. The remedy in
+this case is prompt amputation of the part diseased on its first
+appearance, and a judicious application of salt to the soil.
+
+Common salt, to a certain extent, is as beneficial to some plants as to
+animals; and every intelligent farmer knows that if salt be withheld
+from the bovine _genus_ for any considerable length of time, the general
+health droops and parasites are sure to abound. The object of nature in
+bringing into existence the large family of mildews, each member of
+which is a perfect plant in its way, and as capable of performing its
+functions as the oak of the forest, was undoubtedly to prevent
+propagation from sickly stock, and by the decomposition of feeble plants
+to make room and enrich the soil for the better development of
+healthier plants. But it by no means follows that, because a plant is
+attacked by mildew, it must necessarily be left to die, any more than it
+follows that, because an animal is infested with vermin, it should be
+let alone to be eaten up by them.
+
+
+REMEDY FOR THE POTATO-ROT.
+
+In treating for the potato-rot, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound
+of cure;" for when leaves or vines are once dead, they ever remain so.
+All that can be done for potatoes infested is to stop the mildew from
+spreading, by destroying it where it is, and by strengthening "those
+things which remain." The writer was led to the adoption of the remedy
+proposed by experiments made upon fruits.
+
+Every one who has an apple or pear-orchard must have observed that
+mildew of fruit supervenes after some sudden change of temperature,
+especially when accompanied by rain. Spots of mildew invariably form on
+the young fruit immediately after a cold night, when the thermometer has
+indicated a change of twenty to twenty-five degrees. This growth of
+mildew takes place when the apples are of various sizes, from the
+earliest formation to the size of large marbles. These fungous growths
+appear as dark-colored spots, which arrest the growth of the apple
+immediately beneath, causing it to become distorted, while the expansion
+and contraction bring on diseased action, which results in the cracking
+and general scabbiness of the fruit.
+
+Knowing that dry-rot (_Merulius Lachrymans_, Schum,) another species of
+fungus, was remedied by an application of sulphuric acid, I thought it
+might possibly destroy the fruit mildew. An application of plaster,
+(gypsum,) which is composed of lime and sulphuric acid, was made with
+the happiest results. It was found that an apple dusted with ground
+plaster at its first formation remained free from mildew and came to
+maturity, while apples growing by it, but not so treated, became scabby
+and worthless. It was also ascertained that a thorough application of
+plaster destroyed the mildew after it had formed, and that such fruit
+came to maturity. On the potato mildew, so far as the writer's
+experience extends, plaster, if applied early, is a perfect prevention,
+and if not delayed too long after the disease appears, is a certain
+remedy.
+
+The vines should be watched closely, and on the first appearance of the
+disease plaster should be applied; not merely sowing it broadcast, but
+dashing it over and under the vines, bringing it in contact with the
+stalks, using a handful to three or four hills. Plaster for this purpose
+should be very dry and powdery, and should be applied when the air is
+still. One application is seldom sufficient; it should be renewed as
+often as circumstances require. Examine the vines about three days after
+a cold night, or about the same length of time after a heavy rain. If
+the leaves begin to curl and wither, apply plaster at once; and, in
+short, whenever the vines show any signs of drooping, be the cause bites
+of insects, excessive aridity, or excessive humidity of the atmosphere,
+or sudden change of temperature, drooping from any cause whatever
+indicates the approach of mildew, which should be promptly met with an
+application of plaster. As before stated, plaster the vines as soon as
+they are up, again after the last plowing and hoeing; after that, one,
+two, or three times, as circumstances indicate.
+
+By this method the vines are kept of a bright lively green, and the
+tubers are kept swelling until growth is stopped by frost. Another point
+gained is, potatoes so grown are so sound and free from disease as to be
+easily kept for spring market without loss by rot.
+
+Whether the surprising effects of plaster on the potato mildew is
+attributable to the sulphuric acid, to the lime, or to its simply being
+a dust, has not been determined. It is well known that the fruits of a
+vineyard or orchard in close proximity to a dusty and much frequented
+highway are remarkably free from mildew, which can only be due to dust
+settling on the trees and fruit. But in the case of plaster, the writer
+is inclined to believe its efficacy is mainly due to the sulphuric acid,
+probably assisted by the lime in a state of dust. Be this as it may, it
+matters not. The result is all that can be desired; the remedy is easily
+applied, costs but a trifle, and a single season's trial is all that is
+needed to convince the most skeptical grower of its merits.
+
+
+DIGGING AND STORING
+
+Is full half the labor of growing and securing a crop of potatoes.
+Digging is a long, laborious task. Many small fortunes are sunk yearly
+by inventors in experimenting with and constructing "potato-diggers;"
+but, so far, no machine has done the work properly except under the most
+favorable circumstances. Stones, vines, and weeds are obstacles not yet
+fully overcome. Many tubers are left covered with earth, and so lost;
+and besides, some machines so bruise the potatoes in digging as to
+injure their appearance and keeping qualities. Undoubtedly, the day will
+come when the great bulk of potatoes will be dug well and rapidly by
+horse-power; but until that day does come, the potato-hook must be used.
+
+Much of the back-ache and general unpleasantness incident to digging is
+avoided, or greatly mitigated, by having the potatoes large and sound,
+turning out a peck to the hill, especially if the digger is the owner
+of the crop.
+
+Digging should be done only when the ground is dry, that the potatoes
+may come out clean and bright. A small plow, to turn a light furrow from
+each side of the rows, is some help. Pull up the vines, and lay them
+down so that they will be covered by the dirt dug from the hill.
+Commence on one side of the hill; press the hook or hoe down, so that it
+will reach a trifle below the potatoes, and draw the implement firmly
+toward you. Repeat the operation, each time placing the tool a few
+inches further in or across the hill, until the whole hill is dug. By
+this method the potatoes will not be bruised; whereas, if the digging be
+commenced in the centre of the hill, many potatoes will be sacrificed
+and much injured. Potatoes should be picked up as soon and as fast as
+dug; and immediately covered with straw or other material, to protect
+them from the light. A few hours' strong sunshine will ruin the best
+potato ever grown. Light changes the natural color to green, and renders
+the potato so bitter and unpalatable as to be wholly unfit to eat.
+
+Owing to the inconsiderate way in which potatoes are often dug, and the
+light to which they are exposed while being transported to and while in
+market, the denizens of our cities seldom, if ever, taste this vegetable
+in its greatest excellence. If to be stored in the cellar, the potatoes
+should be left in the field, in heaps covered with straw, until the
+sweating is over, and then be removed to the cellar and lightly covered
+with dry sand, or earth, just sufficient to exclude the light.
+
+If to be buried in the field, choose a dry, sideling place; scrape out a
+slight hollow, by merely removing the surface soil with a hoe; into
+this, pile ten to twelve bushels; place the potatoes properly, and
+cover them carefully with clean straw, six inches deep; cover over the
+straw with four or five inches of earth, except a small opening at the
+top; over this opening place a board or flat stone, elevated a little on
+one side, to lead off the rain.
+
+Let them remain so until the sweating is completely over, or so long as
+prudence will permit; and when cold weather fairly sets in, add more
+earth to keep from freezing, leaving only a wisp of straw protruding
+through to carry off any foul air that may be generated.
+
+Where the winters are intensely cold, it is best to cover but lightly
+with earth, say five or six inches deep; and when freezing is becoming
+severe, spread over the heap buckwheat straw, or coarse manure, to the
+depth of six inches. There is danger in covering very deep at first,
+especially if the autumn should prove warm. If kept too warm, rot is
+sure to ensue. Experience shows that any vegetable keeps better buried
+in pits that contain not more than ten or twelve bushels each.
+
+Where large quantities are to be buried, it is advisable to open a long,
+shallow, broad trench, leading up and down a hill, if possible, to
+secure good drainage. Commence, at either end, by placing a desirable
+quantity of potatoes as soon as dug; next to these put a little straw;
+against the straw place about six inches of earth; then more straw and
+more potatoes; and so keep on until the trench is full. A few furrows
+plowed on each side assist in covering; and make a drain to lead off the
+rains, which is a matter of the first importance. By this method each
+lot of potatoes is kept separate; and any section can be opened at any
+time to be taken to market, without endangering the others.
+
+Potatoes buried properly are usually of better flavor in the spring than
+it is possible for potatoes to be which are kept in a common cellar.
+
+And here let me add that, if leaves from the woods be used instead of
+straw, to cover potatoes to be buried, such potatoes will be of better
+flavor; and further, if nothing but dry earth comes in contact with
+them, they will be better still. Straw is used for the twofold purpose
+of securing an air-chamber to keep out frost, and to prevent the earth
+from mingling with the tubers on opening the pits.
+
+
+INSECTS INJURIOUS TO THE POTATO.
+
+There are ten distinct species of insects preying upon the potato-plant
+within the limits of the United States. Many of these ten species are
+confined within certain geographical limits. Their habits and history
+differ very widely. Some attack the potato both in the larva state and
+in the perfect or winged state; others in the perfect or winged state
+alone; and others again in the larva state alone.
+
+In the case of seven of these insects, there is but one single brood
+every year; while of the remaining three there are every year from two
+to three broods, each of them generated by females belonging to
+preceding broods. Eight of the ten feed externally on the leaves and
+tender stems of the potato; while two of them burrow, like a borer,
+exclusively in the larger stalks.
+
+Each of these ten species has its peculiar insect enemies; and a mode of
+attack which will prove very successful against some of them will often
+turn out to be worthless when employed against the remainder.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+~The Stalk-Borer~,[A] (_Gortyna nitela_, Guenee.)--This larva (Fig. 2,)
+commonly burrows in the large stalks of the potato. It occurs also in
+the stalks of the tomato, in those of the dahlia and aster, and other
+garden flowers. It is sometimes found boring through the cob of growing
+Indian corn. It is particularly partial to the stem of the common
+cocklebur, (_Zanthium sirumarium_;) and if it would only confine itself
+to such noxious weeds, it might be considered more of a friend than an
+enemy. It is yearly becoming more numerous and more destructive. It is
+found over a great extent of country; and is particularly numerous in
+the valley of the Mississippi north of the Ohio River. The larva of the
+stalk-borer moth leaves the stalk in which it burrowed about the latter
+part of July, and descends a little below the surface of the earth,
+where in about three days it changes into the pupa, or chrysalis state.
+
+[Footnote A: Where no hair-lines are given, the insects are represented
+life-size.]
+
+The winged insect (Fig. 1,) which belongs to the same extensive group of
+moths (_Noctua_ family, or owlet moths) to which all the cut-worm moths
+appertain, emerges from under ground from the end of August to the
+middle of September. Hence it is evident that some few, at all events,
+of the female moths must live through the winter, in obscure places, to
+lay eggs upon the plants they infest the following spring; for
+otherwise, as there is no young potato, or other plants, for them to lay
+eggs upon in the autumn, the whole breed would die out in a single year.
+This insect, in sections where it is numerous, does more injury to the
+potato crop than is generally supposed.
+
+
+~The Potato-Stalk Weevil,~ (_Baridius trinotatus_, Say.)--This insect is
+more particularly a southern species, occurring abundantly in the Middle
+States, and in the southern parts of Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana.
+It appears to be totally unknown in New-England.
+
+The female of this beetle deposits a single egg in an oblong slit, about
+one eighth of an inch long, which it has previously formed with its beak
+in the stalk of the potato. The larva subsequently hatches out, and
+bores into the heart of the stalk, always proceeding downward toward the
+root. When full grown, it is a little more than one fourth of an inch in
+length, and is a soft, whitish, legless grub, with a scaly head. Hence
+it can always be readily distinguished from the larva of the
+stalk-borer, which has invariably sixteen legs, no matter how small it
+may be. Unlike this last insect, it becomes a pupa in the interior of
+the potato-stalk which it inhabits: and it comes out in the beetle state
+about the last of August or beginning of September.
+
+The stalk inhabited by the larva wilts and dies. The perfect beetle,
+like many other snout-beetles, must of course live through the winter,
+to reproduce its species the following spring. In Southern Pennsylvania,
+some years, nearly every stalk of extensive fields is infested by this
+insect, causing the premature decay of the vines, and giving them the
+appearance of having been scalded. In some districts of Illinois, the
+potato crop has, in some seasons, been utterly ruined by this
+snout-beetle, many vines having a dozen larvae in them. This insect
+attacks no plant but the potato.
+
+
+~The Potato-Worm~, (_Sphinx 5-maculata_, Haworth.)--This well-known
+insect, the larva of which (Fig. 3,) is usually called the potato-worm,
+is more common on the closely allied tomato, the leaves of which it
+often clears off very completely in particular spots in a single night.
+When full-fed, which is usually about the last of August, the
+potato-worm burrows under the ground, and shortly afterward transforms
+into the pupa state, (Fig. 5.) The pupa is often dug up in the spring
+from the ground where tomatoes or potatoes were grown in the preceding
+season, and most persons that meet with it suppose that the singular
+jug-handled appendage at one end of it is its _tail_. In reality,
+however, it is the _tongue-case_, and contains the long, pliable tongue
+which the future moth will employ in lapping the nectar of flowers. The
+moth itself (Fig. 4) was formerly confounded with the tobacco-worm moth,
+(_Sphinx Carolina_, Linnaeus,) which it very closely resembles, having
+the same series of orange-colored spots on each side of the abdomen.
+
+The gray and black markings, however, of the wings differ perceptibly in
+the two species; and in the tobacco-worm moth there is always a more or
+less faint white spat, or a dot, near the centre of the front wing,
+which is never met with in the other species. The potato-worm often
+feeds on the leaves of the tobacco plant in the Northern States. In the
+Southern States, in Mexico and the West-Indies, the true potato-worm is
+unknown, and it is the tobacco-worm that the tobacco-grower has to
+fight. The potato-worm, however, is never known to injure the potato
+crop to any serious extent.
+
+
+~The Striped Blister-Beetle~, (_Lytta vittata_, Fabr.) This insect (Fig.
+6) is almost exclusively a southern species, occurring in some years
+very abundantly on the potato-vines in Southern Illinois, and also in
+Missouri, and according to Dr. Harris, it is occasionally found even in
+New-England. In some specimens the broad outer black stripe on the
+wing-cases is divided lengthwise by a slender yellow line, so that,
+instead of _two_, there are _three_ black stripes on each wing-case; and
+often in the same field may be noticed all the intermediate grades; thus
+proving that the four-striped individuals do not form a distinct
+species, as was supposed by the European entomologist Fabricius, but are
+mere varieties of the same species to which the sixth-striped individual
+appertains.
+
+The striped blister-beetle lives under ground and feeds upon various
+roots during the larva state, and emerges to attack the foliage of the
+potato only when it has passed into the perfect or beetle state.
+
+This insect, in common with our other blister-beetles, has the same
+properties as the imported Spanish fly, and any of them will raise just
+as good a blister as that does, and are equally poisonous when taken
+internally in large doses. Where the striped blister-beetle is numerous,
+it is a great pest and very destructive to the potato crop. It eats the
+leaves so full of holes that the plant finally dies from loss of sap and
+the want of sufficient leaves to elaborate its juices. In some places
+they are driven off the plants (with bushes) on a pile of hay or straw,
+and burned. Some have been successful in ridding their fields of them by
+placing straw or hay between the rows of potatoes, and then setting it
+on fire. The insects, it is said, by this means are nearly all
+destroyed, and the straw burning very quickly, does not injure the
+vines.
+
+
+~The Ash-Gray Blister-Beetle~, (_Lytta cinera_, Fabr.)--This species (Fig.
+7, male) is the one commonly found in the more northerly parts of the
+Northern States, where it usually takes the place of the striped
+blister-beetle before mentioned. It is of a uniform ash-gray color. It
+attacks not only the potato-vines but also the honey locusts, and
+especially the Windsor bean. In particular years it has been known, in
+conjunction with the rose-bug, (_Macrodactylus subspinosus_, Linn.,) to
+swarm upon every apple-tree in some orchards in Illinois, not only
+eating the foliage, but gnawing into the young apples.
+
+This beetle does considerable damage to the potato crop, especially in
+the North-Western States. Like the other members of the (_Lytta_)
+family, it lives under ground while in the larva state, and is
+troublesome only when in the perfect or winged state.
+
+
+~The Black-Rat Blister-Beetle~, (_Lytta murina_, Le Conte.)--This species
+(Fig. 8,) is entirely black. There is a very similar species, the black
+blister-beetle, (_Lytta atrata_, Fabr.,) from which the black-rat
+blister-beetle is distinguishable only by having four raised lines
+placed lengthwise upon each wing-case, and by the two first joints of
+the antennae being greatly dilated and lengthened in the males, of the
+lath species. It is asserted by some authors that the black
+blister-beetle is injurious to the potato; but I can not see how it
+could do much damage to that crop, as the perfect insect does not appear
+until late in August, when the potato crop is nearly out of its reach.
+Not so, however, with the black-rat blister-beetle, which is on hand
+ready for business early in the season. This insect does considerable
+damage to the potato in Iowa, and neighboring States; it is also found,
+though in not so great numbers, throughout the whole of the Northern
+States.
+
+
+~The Margined Blister-Beetle~, (_Lytta marginata_, Fabr.)--This species
+(Fig. 9) maybe at once recognized by its general black color, and the
+ash-gray edging to its wing-cases. It usually feeds on certain wild
+plants, but does not object to a diet of potato-leaves. Though found
+over a large extent of country, it seldom appears in numbers large
+enough to damage the potato crop materially. Like other blister-beetles,
+it goes under ground to pass into the pupa state, and attacks the potato
+only when it is in the perfect or winged state.
+
+
+~The Three-Lined Leaf-Beetle~, (_Lema trilineata_, Olivier.) The larva of
+the three-lined leaf-beetle may be distinguished from all other insects
+which prey upon the potato by its habit of covering itself with its own
+excrement. In Figure 10, _a_, this larva is shown in profile, both full
+and half grown, covered with the soft, greenish excrementitious matter
+which from time to time it discharges. Figure 10, _c_, gives a somewhat
+magnified view of the pupa, and Figure 10, _b_, shows the last few
+joints of the abdomen of the larva, magnified and viewed from above. The
+vent of the larva, as will be seen from this last figure, is situated on
+the upper surface of the last joint, so that its excrement naturally
+falls upon its back, and by successive discharges is crowded forward
+toward its head, till the whole upper surface is covered with it. There
+are several other larva, feeding upon other plants, which wear cloaks of
+this strange material.
+
+Many authors suppose that the object of the larva in all these cases is
+to protect itself from the heat of the sun. In all probability the real
+aim of nature in the case of all these larvae is to defend them from the
+attacks of birds and of cannibal and parasitic insects.
+
+There are two broods of this insect every year. The first brood of larvae
+may be found on the potato-vine toward the latter end of June, and the
+second in August.
+
+The first brood stays under ground about a fortnight before it emerges
+in the perfect beetle state, and the second brood stays under ground all
+winter, and only emerges at the beginning of the following June.
+
+The perfect beetle (Fig. 11) is of a pale yellow color, with three black
+stripes on its back, and bears a strong resemblance to the cucumber-bug,
+(_Diabrotica vittata_, Fabr. Fig. 12.)
+
+From this last species, however, it may be distinguished by its somewhat
+larger size, and by the remarkable pinching-in of the thorax, so as to
+make quite a lady-like waist there, or what naturalists call a
+"constriction." The female, after coupling, lays her yellow eggs (Fig.
+10,_d_) on the under surface of the leaves of the potato plant. The
+larvae hatching, when full grown descend into the ground, where they
+transform to pupae (Fig. 10, _c_) within a small oval chamber, from which
+in time the perfect beetle emerges.
+
+This insect in certain seasons is a great pest in the Eastern and Middle
+States, but has never yet occurred in the Mississippi Valley in such
+numbers as to be materially injurious.
+
+~The Cucumber Flea Beetle~, (_Haltica cucumeris_, Harris.) This nimble
+minute beetle (Fig. 13) belongs to the flea-beetles, (_Haltica_ family,)
+the same sub-group of the leaf-beetles (_Phytophaga_) to which also
+appertains the notorious steel-blue flea-beetle (_Haltica chalybea_,
+Illiger) that is such a pest to the vineyardist. Like all the rest of
+the flea-beetles, it has its hind thighs greatly enlarged, which enables
+it to jump with much agility. It is not peculiar to the potato, but
+infests a great variety of plants, including the cucumber, from which it
+derives its name. It eats minute round holes in the leaf of the plant it
+infests, but does not always penetrate entirely through it.
+
+The larva feeds internally upon the substance of the leaf, and goes
+under ground to assume the pupa state. It passes through all its stages
+in about a month, and there are two or three broods of them in the
+course of the same season. This is emphatically the greatest insect pest
+that the potato-grower has to contend with in Pennsylvania. It abounds
+throughout most of the Northern, Middle, and Western States. Large
+fields of potatoes can any summer be seen in the Middle States much
+injured by this minute insect, every leaf apparently completely riddled
+with minute round holes, and the stalks and leaves appearing yellow and
+seared. Plaster frequently and bountifully applied is sure to prevent
+the attacks of this insect, or to disperse it after it has commenced
+operations.
+
+
+~The Colorado Potato-Bug~, (_Doryphora_ 10--_lineata_, Say.)--This insect,
+which, according to Dr. Walsh, has in the North-West alone damaged the
+potato crop to the amount of one million seven hundred and fifty
+thousand dollars, came originally from the Rocky Mountains, where it was
+found forty-five years ago, feeding on a wild species of potato peculiar
+to that region, (_Solanum rostratum_, Dunal.) When civilization marched
+up the Rocky Mountains, and potatoes began to be grown in that region,
+this highly improved pest acquired the habit of feeding upon the
+cultivated potato. It went from potato-patch to potato-patch, moving
+east-ward at the rate of about sixty miles a year, and is now firmly
+established over all the country extending from Indiana to its old
+feeding-grounds in the Rocky Mountains. In about twelve years it will
+have reached the Atlantic coast.
+
+There is another very closely allied species, known as the Bogus
+Colorado potato-bug, (_coryphora juncta_, Germor,) which has existed
+throughout a great part of the United States from time immemorial. This
+latter insect, however, feeds almost exclusively on the horse-nettle,
+(_Solanum carolinense_, Linn.,) and is never known to injure the potato.
+Both insects are figured, so that one need not be mistaken for the
+other.
+
+Figure 14, _b_, _b_, _b_, gives a view of the larva of the true Colorado
+potato-bug, in various positions and stages of its existence. Figure 15,
+_b_, _b_, of that of the bogus Colorado potato-bug. It will be seen at
+once that the head of the former is black, and the first joint behind
+the head is pale and edged with black behind only; that there is a
+double row of black spots along the side of the body; and that the legs
+are black. In the other larva, (Fig. 15, _b_,) on the contrary, the head
+is of a pale color, the first joint behind the head is tinged with dusk
+and edged all round with black; there is but a single row of spots along
+the side of the body, and the legs are pale.
+
+Figure 14, _d_, _d_, exhibits the true Colorado potato-bug; Figure 15,
+the bogus Colorado potato-bug; each of its natural size. Figure 14, _e_,
+shows the _left_ wing-case enlarged, and Figure 15, _e_, an enlarged leg
+of the latter. On a close inspection, it will be perceived that in the
+former (Fig. 14, _e_) the boundary of each dark stripe on the wing-cases
+toward the middle is studded with confused and irregular punctures,
+partly inside and partly outside the edge of the dark stripe; that it is
+the third and fourth dark stripes, counting from the outside, that are
+united behind, and that both the knees and feet are black.
+
+In Figure 15, _d_, on the contrary, it is the second and third
+stripes--not the third and fourth--counting from the outside, that are
+united behind, and the leg is entirely pale, except a black spot on the
+middle of the front of the thigh. The eggs (Fig. 14, _a_, _a_, and Fig.
+15, _d_, _d_) are yellow, and are always laid on the under side of the
+leaf in patches of from twenty to thirty; those of the bogus are of a
+lighter color. Each female of the true Colorado potato-bug lays,
+according to Dr. Schirmer, about seven hundred eggs. In about six days
+the eggs hatch into larvae, which feed on the foliage of the potato plant
+about seventeen days; they then descend to the ground, where they change
+into pupae at the surface of the earth. The perfect beetle appears about
+ten to fourteen days after the pupa is formed, begins to pair in about
+seven days, and on the fourteenth day begins to deposit her eggs. There
+are three broods of this insect every year. Neither geese, ducks,
+turkeys, nor barn-yard fowl will touch the larva of the Colorado
+potato-bug when it is offered to them, and there are numerous authentic
+cases on record where persons who have scalded to death quantities of
+these larvae, and inhaled the fumes of their bodies, have been taken
+seriously ill, and even been confined to their beds for many days in
+consequence. It is also reported to have produced poisonous effects on
+several persons who handled them incautiously with naked hands. Various
+plans have been tried to destroy this persistent enemy of the potato
+plant. Powdered hellebore is said to have been used with effect as a
+means of destroying the pest. It should be dusted on and under the
+foliage when the plant is wet with dew. Hellebore, however, is a
+dangerous remedy on account of its poisonous qualities. A mixture of one
+part salt, ten parts soap, and twenty parts water, applied to every part
+of the plants with a syringe, is quite effectual. Several cannibal and
+one parasitic insect are known to prey upon the larva of the Colorado
+potato-bug, and the eggs in vast numbers are eaten by several species of
+lady-birds and their larva.
+
+
+GENERAL REMARKS ON INSECTS.
+
+The time is not far distant when the American farmer will be obliged to
+put forth greater efforts to destroy noxious insects than he has
+hitherto. It is a well-known fact that noxious insects are increasing in
+a rapid rate throughout every part of our land. The country is becoming
+so "buggy" that eternal vigilance is the price of every thing produced
+from the soil.
+
+Close observers calculate that more fruits of various kinds and
+varieties are annually destroyed or rendered worthless by insects than
+are gathered and used by man. The cotton-worm, the wheat-midge, the
+canker-worms, the potato-bugs, are each every year increasing in numbers
+and destructiveness.
+
+The "curculio" alone destroys millions of dollars' worth of fruit
+annually.
+
+It is a safe estimate, all things considered, that, if noxious insects
+of all descriptions could at once be annihilated throughout our country,
+and mildews of various classes be effectually held in check, the cost of
+living to our people would, in-a short time, be reduced to one third of
+its present amount. It is disheartening to see what a vast amount of
+grains, fruits, and vegetables is annually eaten up by the larvae, or
+appropriated by the perfect insects of various classes, merely for the
+sake of propagating their abominable species. Yet, in view of all the
+devastation, but feeble effort is made to abate the evil. Birds, many
+species of which nature seemingly designed on purpose to keep insects in
+check, are wantonly shot by lazy boys and indolent men, who range the
+fields and forests, killing all, from the humming-bird to the crow.
+Legislative enactments made expressly to protect the insectivorous
+songsters are every day violated with impunity. One man plants an
+orchard and does all he can to destroy noxious insects; another man near
+him also has an orchard, but his orchard serves no purpose but to
+propagate "curculios," "canker-worms," "bark-lice," "tent caterpillars,"
+"codling moths," etc., for his neighbors, and, as a matter of course,
+the whole neighborhood swarms with noxious insects. If all cultivators
+would act in concert and with a will, insects might be reduced in
+numbers very rapidly. Most moths of night-flying insects are attracted
+to and destroyed by small bonfires kindled in still evenings during the
+summer months.
+
+Bottles half-filled with sweetened water, hung here and there, will trap
+countless bugs. Strong soap-suds applied immediately after they hatch is
+a sure remedy for plant lice. Molasses and water, to which a little
+arsenic has been added, placed in shallow dishes among the vines, is
+good medicine for potato-bugs, and all bugs in general. A lighted lamp
+placed in the centre of a common milk-pan, partly filled with water, the
+whole elevated a few feet from the ground, will, on a still evening,
+attract and destroy the wheat-midge and similar insects in great
+numbers. The calculations of the "curculio" and "codling moth" are
+brought to naught by turning hogs into the orchard to eat the stung
+fruit as it falls, and the larva that depastures upon the leaves of the
+current and gooseberry is destroyed by syringing the plants with a
+mixture of soap, salt, and water.
+
+
+VALUE OF THE POTATO AS CATTLE FOOD.
+
+The constituents of the potato are according to different authorities,
+as follows:
+
+   Water                 75.2
+   Casein                 1.4
+   Starch                15.5
+   Dextrine               0.4
+   Sugar                  3.2
+   Fat                    0.2
+   Fibre                  3.2
+   Mineral matter         0.9
+
+     Or economically:
+   Water                 75.2
+   Flesh-formers          1.4
+   Fat-formers           18.9
+   Accessories            3.6
+   Mineral matter         0.9
+
+Of the high value of potatoes, when used in connection with other food,
+there is not a shadow of doubt. All experimenters and observers in the
+economy of food agree in saying that they are of the highest utility;
+but they must be used with other food whose constituents are different
+from those of the root.
+
+The analysis shows that potatoes surpass in the fat-producing principles
+the nutritious or flesh-forming in such proportions that they could not
+alone sustain the composition of the blood; for an animal fed alone on
+these tubers would be obliged to consume such quantities to provide the
+blood with the requisite proportion of albumen that, even if the process
+of digestion were not discontinued, there would be a superabundance of
+fat accumulated beyond the power of the oxygen to consume, which would
+successively absorb from the albuminous substance a part of its vital
+elements, and thus a check would be caused in the endless change of
+matter in the tissues in the nutritive and regressive transformations.
+
+Potatoes, then, to be of most value as food for cattle, should be fed in
+connection with grain, or with other roots in which the flesh-forming
+element predominates. There seems to be no doubt that the tubers are of
+most value when cooked, although some authors affirm to the contrary. It
+seems possible to prove this on philosophical principles; for it is well
+known that the starch contained in the potato is incapable of affording
+nourishment until the containing globules are broken, and one of the
+most efficient means of doing this seems to be by heat.
+
+Boussingault, in speaking of the economy of cooking potatoes, says, "The
+potato is frequently steamed or boiled first; yet I can say positively
+that horned cattle do extremely well upon raw potatoes, and at
+Bechelbrunn our cows never have them otherwise than raw. They are never
+boiled, save for horses and hogs. The best mode of dealing with them is
+to steam them; they need never be so thoroughly boiled as when they are
+to serve for the food of man. The steamed or boiled potatoes are crushed
+between two rollers, or simply broken with a wooden spade, and mixed
+with cut hay or straw or chaff, before being served out. It may not be
+unnecessary to observe that by steaming potatoes lose no weight; hence
+we conclude that the nutritive equivalent for the boiled is the same as
+that of the raw tuber.
+
+"Nevertheless, it is possible that the amylaceous principle is rendered
+more easily assimilable by boiling, and that by this means the tubers
+actually become more nutritious. Some have proposed to roast potatoes in
+the oven, and there can be little question that heated in this way they
+answer admirably for fattening hogs, and even oxen. Done in the oven,
+potatoes may be brought to a state in which they may perfectly supply
+the place of corn in feeding horses and other cattle."
+
+The apparent contradiction in the remarks will be observed; but the
+evident leaning in favor of cooked potatoes shows that Boussingault,
+although paying some attention to the theory that cooked food is not
+generally attended with the same benefit to ruminating as to other
+animals, was evidently almost convinced that those which contained an
+abundance of starch in their constituents must be rendered more
+nutritious when exposed to the action of heat.
+
+Potatoes fed in a raw state to stock are laxative in their effects, and
+are often given to horses as a medicine in cases of "hidebound" with
+decided benefit. Bots, which have been known to live twenty-four hours
+immersed in spirits of turpentine, die almost instantly when placed in
+potato-juice; hence a common practice with horsemen, where bots are
+suspected, is to first administer milk and molasses to decoy the
+parasites from the coating of the stomach, and then drench the animal
+with the expressed juice of potatoes. A decoction made by boiling the
+parings of potatoes in a small quantity of water is often used as a wash
+to kill vermin on cattle. Raw potatoes, fed occasionally and in small
+quantities, are a good tonic for stock of any kind which is kept
+principally on hay; but all experiments show that when the potato is
+used for fattening purposes, the tubers should in some way be cooked,
+that the animal to which they are fed may derive from them the greatest
+possible amount of nutriment. Repeated experiments demonstrate the fact
+that horned cattle or hogs lay on as much fat from the consumption of
+two thirds of a given quantity of potatoes properly cooked as they will
+by eating the entire quantity in a raw state. In point of nutriment as
+cattle-food, two pounds of potatoes are considered equivalent to one
+pound of hay.
+
+
+
+
+HOW TO COOK THE POTATO.
+
+FURNISHED BY
+
+PROF. PIERRE BLOT, OF BROOKLYN.
+
+
+At the suggestion of a number of friends, I addressed the following note
+to Professor Blot, which, with his reply, is appended:
+
+                                                PROFESSOR PIERRE BLOT:
+                                              NEW-YORK, Feb. 15, 1870.
+
+DEAR SIR: In connection with a Prize Essay on the cultivation of the
+potato, I wish to publish an article on COOKING THE POTATO, to be taken
+from your _Hand-Book of Practical Cookery_. I write this note to ask
+whether I can do this with your entire approval. Hoping that such
+article may aid our American housekeepers to prepare the potato for the
+table in a more palatable and wholesome manner, I remain yours very
+truly,
+
+                                                          W. T. WYLIE.
+
+
+                             BROOKLYN, CENTRAL KITCHEN, Feb. 15, 1870.
+
+  REV. W. T. WYLIE:
+
+DEAR SIR: ~You are authorized, with the greatest pleasure.~ P. BLOT.
+
+In accordance with the above authority, the following selections have
+been made from the book named:
+
+~To Select.~--As a general rule, the smaller the eye the better the
+potatoes. By cutting off a piece from the larger end, you ascertain if
+they are sound; they must be white, reddish, bluish, etc., according to
+the species. If spotted, they are not sound, and therefore very
+inferior. There are several kinds, and all of them are good when sound
+or coming from a proper soil. Use the kind you prefer, or those that are
+better fit for the way they are intended to be served.
+
+~To Boil.~--Being naturally watery, potatoes should never be cooked by
+boiling except when wanted very white, as for _croquettes_. When boiled
+whole, put them of an even size as much as possible, in order to cook
+them evenly. They are better, more mealy, when steamed or baked; but
+those who have no steamer must, of course, boil them. Cover them with
+cold water, set on the fire and boil till done, then pour off all the
+water, put the pan back on a slow fire for five minutes and well
+covered; then use the potatoes.
+
+~To Steam.~--Place them above a kettle of boiling water, in a kind of
+drainer made for that purpose, and adapted to the kettle. The drainer
+must be covered tight. They cook as fast as by boiling, the degree of
+heat being the same. When steamed the skin is very easily removed.
+
+~To Prepare.~--If they are to be boiled, or steamed, or baked, it is only
+necessary to wash them. If wanted peeled, as for frying, etc., then
+commence by cutting off the germs or eyes; if young and tender, take the
+skin off with a scrubbing-brush, and drop immediately in cold water to
+keep them white; if old, scrape the skin off with a knife, for the part
+immediately under the skin contains more nutriment than the middle, and
+drop in cold water also. If wanted cut, either in dice, or like carpels
+of oranges, or any other way, cut them above a bowl of cold water, so
+that they drop into it; for if kept exposed to the air, they turn
+reddish and lose their nutritive qualities.
+
+~A l'Allemande.~--Steam, peel, and slice the potatoes. Cut some bread in
+thin slices, and fry bread and potatoes with a little butter, and turn
+the whole in a bowl, dust well with sugar, pour a little milk all over,
+and bake for about fifteen minutes; serve warm.
+
+~A l'Anglaise.~--Steam or boil about a quart of potatoes, and then peel
+and slice them. Put two ounces of butter in a frying-pan on the fire,
+and put the potatoes in when melted, toss them for about ten minutes,
+add salt, pepper, a little grated nutmeg, and serve hot.
+
+~Broiled.~--Steam, peel, and slice the potatoes. Lay the slices on a
+gridiron, and place it over a rather slow fire; have melted butter, and
+spread some over the slices of potatoes with a brush; as soon as the
+under part is broiled, turn each slice over and spread butter over the
+other side. When done, dish, salt, and serve them hot. A little butter
+may be added when dished, according to taste.
+
+~Fried.~--To be fried, the potatoes are cut either with a vegetable spoon,
+in fillets, in slices, with a scalloped knife, or with an ordinary one,
+or cut in pieces like carpels of oranges, or even in dice. When cut,
+drain and wipe them dry. This must be done quickly, so as not to allow
+the potatoes to turn reddish. Have a coarse towel ready, then turn the
+potatoes into a colander, and immediately turn them in the towel, shake
+them a little, and quickly drop them in hot fat. When done, turn them
+into a colander, sprinkle salt on them, and serve hot. Bear in mind that
+fried potatoes must be eaten as hot as possible. Fry only one size at a
+time, as it takes three times as long to fry them when cut in pieces as
+when sliced or cut in fillets.
+
+~To fry them light or swelled.~--When fried, turn into the colander, and
+have the fat over a brisk fire; leave the potatoes in the colander only
+about half a minute, then put them back in the very hot fat, stir for
+about one minute, and put them again in the colander, salt them, and
+serve hot. If the fat is very hot, when dropped into it for the second
+time they will certainly swell; there is no other way known to do it. It
+is as easily done as it is simple. Potatoes cut in fillets and fried are
+sometimes called _a la Parisienne_; when cut in slices or with a
+vegetable spoon, they are called _a la francaise_.
+
+Potatoes cut with a vegetable spoon and fried, make a good as well as a
+sightly decoration for a dish of meat or of fish. They may be fried in
+oil also, but it is more expensive than in fat. They may be fried in
+butter also, but it is still more expensive than oil, and is not better
+than fat; no matter what kind of fat is used, be it lard, beef suet, or
+skimmings of sauces and gravy, it can not be tasted.
+
+~Lyonnaise.~--Potatoes _Lyonnaise_ are prepared according to taste, that
+is, as much onion as liked is used, either in slices or chopped. If you
+have not any cold potatoes, steam or boil some, let them cool, and peel
+and slice them. For about a quart of potatoes, put two ounces of butter
+in a frying-pan on the fire, and when melted put as much onion as you
+please, either sliced or chopped, into the pan, and fry it till about
+half done, when add the potatoes and again two ounces of butter; salt,
+pepper, and stir and toss gently till the potatoes are all fried of a
+fine, light-brown color. It may require more butter, as no vegetable
+absorbs more than potatoes.
+
+~Mashed.~--Peel and quarter about three pints of potatoes, as directed;
+put them in a saucepan with more water than is necessary to cover them,
+and a little salt; set on the fire and boil gently till done, drain, put
+them back in the saucepan, mash them well and mix them with two ounces
+of butter, two yolks of eggs, salt, pepper, and milk enough to make them
+of a proper thickness. Set on the fire for two or three minutes,
+stirring the while, and serve warm. When on the dish, smooth them with
+the back of a knife or scallop them, according to fancy.
+
+~Mashed and Baked.~--Put two ounces of butter in a stewpan and set it on
+the fire; when hot, add a tea-spoonful of parsley chopped fine, and a
+little salt; five minutes after, put in it a quart of potatoes,
+prepared, cooked, peeled, and mashed, as directed; then pour on the
+whole, little by little, stirring continually with a wooden spoon, a
+pint of good milk; and when the whole is well mixed, and becoming rather
+thick, take from the fire, place on the dish, then set in a brisk oven
+for five minutes, and serve.
+
+~Sautees.~--Take a quart of young and tender potatoes, peel them with a
+brush, and cut in slices. Put two ounces of butter in a frying-pan on a
+quick fire; when hot, put the potatoes in, and fry them till of a golden
+color; place them on a dish without any butter, sprinkle chopped parsley
+and salt on, and serve. They may also be served without parsley,
+according to taste.
+
+~Soufflees.~--Steam a quart of potatoes, then peel and mash them in a
+saucepan and mix an ounce of butter with them; set on the fire, pour
+into it, little by little, stirring the while, about half a pint of
+milk, stir a little longer after the milk is in and until they are
+turning rather thick; dish the potatoes, smooth or scallop them with the
+back of a knife, and put them in a quick oven till of a proper color,
+and serve.
+
+~In Cakes.~--Prepare and cook by steam a quart and a half of potatoes,
+peel and mash them; mix with them the yolks of five eggs, half a
+lemon-rind grated, and four ounces of fine white sugar. Put four ounces
+of butter in a stewpan and set it on the fire; when melted, put the
+mixture in, stirring it with a wooden spoon continually; as soon as it
+is in the stewpan, add the whites of the five eggs, well beaten; leave
+on the fire only the time necessary to mix the whole well together, and
+take off; when nearly cold, add, if handy, and while stirring, a few
+drops of orange-flower water; it gives a very good flavor; then put the
+whole in a tin mould greased a little with butter; place in a quick oven
+for about thirty-five minutes, and serve.
+
+~With Butter, or English Fashion.~--Put water on the fire with
+considerable salt in it; at the first boil, drop a quart of washed
+potatoes in and boil till done, when take off, peel, and put them whole
+in a saucepan, with butter, salt, pepper, and a little nutmeg; set on a
+rather slow fire, stirring gently now and then till they have absorbed
+all the butter. Serve warm. They absorb a great deal of butter.
+
+~With Bacon or Salt Pork.~--Peel and quarter about a quart of potatoes.
+Set a saucepan on the fire with about four ounces of fat salt pork cut
+in dice in it. When fried, put the potatoes in. Season with a bunch of
+seasonings composed of two sprigs of parsley, one of thyme, and a
+bay-leaf; salt and pepper to taste, and about half a pint of broth or
+water. Boil gently till cooked, remove the bunch of seasonings; skim off
+the fat, if any, and serve warm. It is served at breakfast, as well as
+_entremets_ for dinner.
+
+~With Cream or Milk.~--Peel and mash a quart of potatoes, when prepared
+and cooked. Put two ounces of butter in a stewpan and set it on a good
+fire; when melted, sprinkle in it a tea-spoonful of flour, same of
+chopped parsley, a pinch of grated nutmeg, and salt; stir with a wooden
+spoon five minutes; then add the potatoes, and half a pint of milk or
+cream; keep stirring ten minutes longer, take from the fire, sprinkle in
+them half a table-spoonful of sugar, and serve as warm as possible.
+
+~With White Sauce.~--Clean, wash, and throw a quart of potatoes in boiling
+water, with a sprig of thyme, two onions, a bay-leaf, two sprigs of
+sweet basil, two cloves, salt, and pepper; when cooked, take the
+potatoes out carefully, peel and cut them in two, place them on a warm
+dish, pour on them a white sauce, and serve warm.
+
+
+
+
+THE POTATO:
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS.
+
+
+We propose to add a few pages of illustrations of the new varieties,
+together with descriptions of the same. A number of these were given in
+the pamphlet issued last year, and are reproduced from that. In case a
+new edition is called for, it is likely that a number of additional cuts
+will be added to it.
+
+We would call attention to the report of a series of experiments which
+have been made on the farms connected with the Agricultural College of
+Pennsylvania.
+
+There are very many questions connected with the cultivation of the
+potato which can be answered satisfactorily only by careful and repeated
+experiments.
+
+[Illustration: Excelsior.]
+
+Seedling of Early Goodrich, now six years old, and is claimed to combine
+more good qualities than any other potato. D. S. Heffron, of Utica,
+originated it. Is said to be productive, early, and of good keeping
+qualities.
+
+MASSASOIT.--A new variety from Western Massachusetts, resembling the
+Harrison in appearance, but earlier and of much better quality; flesh
+white, cooks dry and mealy, and altogether a superior variety; strongly
+recommended for a general crop. (See next page.)
+
+                                        BELLEFONTE, February 12, 1870.
+
+   REV. W. T. WYLIE:
+
+DEAR SIR: I inclose an extract from the report, suitable, I think, for
+the pamphlet.
+
+                                                     H. N. MCALLISTER.
+
+
+AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE OF PENNSYLVANIA.
+
+From an interesting and instructive report of the Professor of
+Agriculture to the Board of Trustees of the Agricultural College of
+Pennsylvania, for 1869, in relation to the results of experiments made
+upon the three several experimental farms connected with that
+institution, we make the following extracts touching the Potato,
+verifying and illustrating some of the principles set forth in the above
+essay:
+
+_1st.--Varieties._
+
+Of upward of thirty different varieties experimented upon, the Early
+Goodrich, Early Rose, and Harrison are among the best and most prolific.
+
+LIKE WEIGHTS OF SEED UPON EQUAL AREAS OF GROUND.
+
+_2d.--Different Modes of Preparing the Seed._
+
+CENTRAL FARM.--One fourth of Plot No. 11--Early Goodrich--_cut tubers_,
+yields 500 pounds, equal to 286 bushels per acre; _large and whole
+tubers_, yields 410 pounds, equal to 234 bushels per acre; _medium-sized
+tubers_, yields 419 pounds, equal to 239 bushels per acre; and _small
+tubers_, yields 486 pounds, equal to 278 bushels per acre.
+
+_3d.--Combined Diversity between Soil and Sub-soil and Common Plowing._
+
+CENTRAL FARM.--The 4 plots, Nos. 11, 16, 116, and 416--_soil and subsoil
+plowing_--yields 6200 pounds, equal to 221 bushels per acre; the 2
+plots, Nos. 216 and 316--_common plowing_--yields 1845 pounds, equal to
+but 131 bushels per acre.
+
+_4th.--Diversity between Letting all Sprouts Grow and Thinning to Three
+in each Hill._.
+
+EASTERN FARM.--Plot No. 208: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 21-1/2
+pounds; _not thinned_; Moro Philips's superphosphate; yield 1174 pounds,
+equal to 168 bushels per acre.
+
+Plot No. 209: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 23 pounds; _thinned_;
+Moro Philips's superphosphate; yield 1042 pounds, equal to 149 bushels
+per acre.
+
+Plot No. 210: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 15 pounds; _not
+thinned_; stable manure; yield 860 pounds, equal to 124 bushels per
+acre.
+
+Plot No. 211: Monitors; large and whole tubers, 14-1/2 pounds;
+_thinned_; stable manure; yield 839 pounds, equal to 119 bushels per
+acre.
+
+_5th.--Diversity from Time of Cutting the Seed-Potatoes._.
+
+Plot No. 222: Monitors; _cut two weeks before planting_; yield 580
+pounds, equal to 83 bushels per acre.
+
+Plot 223: Monitors; _cut at time of planting_; yield 819 pounds, equal
+to 117 bushels per acre.
+
+Plot 220: Early Shaw; _cut two weeks before planting_; yield 764 pounds,
+equal to 100 bushels per acre.
+
+Plot 221: Early Shaw; _cut at time of planting_; yield 907 pounds, equal
+to 129 bushels per acre.
+
+[Illustration: Massasoit.]
+
+[Illustration]
+
+Bresee's Peerless, or No. 6.
+
+The latest and best of all Mr. Bresee's seedlings for the main crop.
+This is also a seedling of the Garnet Chili, and originated from the
+same seed-ball as the Early Rose; skin dull white, occasionally
+russeted; eyes shallow, oblong; flesh white, mealy; grows to a large
+size, often weighing from one and a half to two pounds, and enormously
+productive. At a trial before a committee of the Massachusetts
+Horticultural Society, in September last, this variety obtained more
+votes as to quality than any other of Bresee's seedlings.
+
+TABLE OF EXPERIMENTS.
+
+TRY IT AND REPORT RESULTS.
+
+                                                                       lbs.
+   Two pounds large-sized potatoes, planted whole                        00
+   "   "     "   "  cut into quarters                                    00
+   "   "     "   "  cut to single eyes                                   00
+   "   "     "   "  cut to single eyes and planted four in a hill        00
+   "   "     "   "  planted in drills, fifteen inches between the sets,  00
+   Two pounds small potatoes, planted whole                              00
+      "        "     "        cut in two pieces                          00
+   Two pounds cut to single eye, and worked in ridges                    00
+      "        "     "           the surface kept flat                   00
+
+To these add such other experiments as may be interesting to you.
+_Weigh_ the product of each carefully, and report _weight_, _average_,
+_size_ of each lot, and _quality_.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+_Brezee's King of the Earlies._
+
+Raised, in 1862, by Albert Brezee, of Hubbardton, Vt., from a ball of
+the Garnet Chili. Vines of medium height, or a little less, and bearing
+no balls; leaves large; tubers large and handsome, roundish and slightly
+flattened; eyes small, and somewhat pinkish; skin flesh-colored, or dull
+pinkish white; flesh white, cooks well, and is of the best quality for
+the table. Has proven thus far very hardy. The variety will not be sent
+out until the spring of 1870.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+THE EARLY MOHAWK POTATO.
+
+Originated in Michigan, in 1866, from a cross of the Peachblow and Brick
+Eye. It is of oblong, roundish shape, flattened at the ends. Skin light
+pink, with pink blush near the eye. Eyes slightly sunken, flesh white,
+cooks dry and mealy, and of superior flavor. Ripens from six to ten days
+earlier than the Rose, of uniform large size and but few small ones, and
+perfectly free from Core or Hollow Heart, and a superior Winter and
+Spring variety.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+_Brezee's Prolific._
+
+This variety originated with Albert Brezee, Esq., of Hubbardton, Vt., in
+1861. Mr. Brezee was the originator of the Early Rose, the seed
+producing both that and Brezee's Prolific being from the same seed-ball,
+and both are seedlings of the Garnet Chili.
+
+The vines of Brezee's Prolific are of medium height, quite bushy, and
+somewhat spreading, and with very large leaves; as yet they have
+produced no seed-balls. Tubers large, regular in shape, and very smooth,
+slightly oblong, and very much flattened; skin dull white, inclined to
+be russeted; eyes but little depressed and slightly pinkish; flesh
+white, rarely if ever hollow; cooks quickly, and is very mealy and of
+excellent quality. Yield very large, maturing three weeks later than the
+Early Rose.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Rules Worth Observing._--An experienced cultivator says, "My experience
+leads me to lay down the following as _safe rules_:
+
+"I. As early as possible, _lay your plans_ for the next season's
+planting, and manure and work your ground accordingly, in advance.
+
+"II. Secure the _best seed_, even if it cost you two or five times as
+much as a common and less valuable sort.
+
+"III. _Always_ get a new, improved variety, as soon as it has been
+tested and proved. _Remember_ the profit is mainly made by the early
+cultivators. When it gets so common that _you_ can buy cheap, you will
+have to _sell_ cheap, too.
+
+"IV. Buy only from reliable dealers, and _be sure_ you get the _genuine_
+article.
+
+"V. BUY, or at least ORDER, if you possibly can, in the fall or winter;
+you thus save the spring rise of prices.
+
+"VI. Liberal outlay for _seed, manure, tools, and work_ gives ten-fold
+the largest return in money, as well as satisfaction."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+THE GLEASON.
+
+Also a seedling of 1860, of the Pink Eye Rusty Coat, No. 15, which it
+closely resembles. When two years old, Mr. Goodrich described it thus:
+"Longish, rusty, coppery; leaves and vines dark green; flowers white; a
+very hopeful sort." September 29th, 1863, at digging time, he added:
+"Very nice; many in the hill; no disease." The two seasons, 1865 and
+1866, under Dr. Gray's cultivation, this variety yielded at the rate of
+four hundred bushels to the acre, being more productive than the parent.
+This variety gives the best satisfaction. The tubers are not overgrown,
+but numerous; have fine-grained, solid flesh, that cooks white. For
+winter use this kind is excellent. It is a good keeper, and has a fine,
+rich flavor, especially when baked.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+_Willard._
+
+J. J. H. Gregory says of this potato: "The Willard is a seedling from
+the Early Goodrich. It proves to be a half early variety, enormously
+productive, and is a potato of good promise. It is of a rich rose color,
+spotted and splashed with white. The flesh is white."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+THE EARLY ROSE.
+
+"It is a seedling of the Garnet Chili, that was originated in 1861, by
+Albert Brezee, Esq., an intelligent farmer of Hortonville, Vt. I have
+experimented with it for three years, and have been so well pleased with
+it that I have purchased all Mr. Brezee could spare for the last two
+years, and have engaged the whole of his small crop for another year.
+
+"It has a stout, erect stalk, of medium height; large leaves; flowers
+freely; bears no fruit. The tuber is quite smooth, nearly cylindrical,
+varying to flattish at the centre, tapering gradually toward each end.
+Eyes shallow, but sharp and strongly marked. Skin thin, tough, of a dull
+bluish color. Flesh white, solid, and brittle; rarely hollow; boils
+through quickly; is very mealy, and of the best table quality. It is as
+healthy and productive as the Early Goodrich, matures about ten days
+earlier, and is its superior for the table. The cut is a good outline of
+this beautiful and excellent sort.
+
+"I consider it the most promising very early potato with which I am
+acquainted, and I have tried nearly all the early sorts of the country."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_~How to Double Your Crop, when you have New and Rare Kinds.~_--In an
+ordinary hot-bed or cold frame, put some six inches of good, loose, rich
+soil; split your potato, and lay it cut side down about three inches
+under the surface. When the sprouts are four or five inches high, lift
+the potato, slip off the sprouts, and plant them.
+
+You can then cut the tuber into single eyes, and plant as usual. The
+crop from the sprouts will ripen two weeks before the others. I made $40
+this year by trying this with a _handful_ of potatoes. Every reader is
+welcome to it, and may make as much or more than I did, if he secures a
+few pounds of the newer and costly but valuable kinds.
+                                                                    W.
+
+
+_Early Goodrich._
+
+A seedling of the Cusco of 1860. In 1862, Mr. Goodrich described it:
+"Round to longish; sometimes a crease at the insertion of the root;
+white; flowers bright lilac; (produces) many balls; yield large. Table
+quality is already very good. This sort is No. 1 every way." He said to
+me in the spring of 1864: "This early sort gives me more satisfaction
+than any other I have ever grown." This variety ripens as early as the
+Ashleaf Kidney; on rich soil yields from 250 to 350 bushels per acre;
+has never shown any disease; is white-fleshed, and of superior quality.
+
+The above description by D. S. Heffron is fully sustained by my
+experience.
+
+I noticed at dinner to-day, (Nov. 17th,) every potato in a large dishful
+had cracked its skin, and from most of them the skin had peeled itself
+half off.
+                                                                    W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Rev. W. F. Dixon_, of Pine Grove, gives the results of his experience
+in the following note:
+
+                                         "PINE GROVE, MERCER CO., PA.,
+                                                   September 20, 1868.
+
+"A year ago last spring, a friend gave me three early Goodrich potatoes,
+which I planted four eyes in a hill, and last fall I raised over one
+bushel. I had the Buckeye planted in the same lot. The Goodrich produced
+about four times as much to the hill as the Buckeye."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Our country may well honor the memory of Rev. C. E. Goodrich, who, by
+persevering experiments and patient toil, has produced such wonderful
+results. His success should stimulate every farmer to make a similar
+line of experiments.
+
+_Potato Crop of New York State._--The total potato crop of the State of
+New York, this year, is about 25,000,000 bushels. The six great potato
+counties are Washington, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Monroe, St. Lawrence, and
+Genesee. Only one other county (Oneida) produces 300,000 bushels; three
+others, 600,000; one, 500,000; six, 400,000. New York county returns a
+crop of 1700 bushels. The entire crop of the State, 25,000,000 bushels,
+is raised on 254,403 acres of land. The three counties in the State
+which produce the most potatoes join each other, viz., Washington,
+Rensselaer, and Saratoga--their aggregate production reaching within a
+fraction of 2,500,000 bushels, or more than one-eighth of the total
+product of the whole State.--_New York Observer_.
+
+
+HARISON.
+
+Mr. Heffron gives the following account of this variety: "It is a
+brother of the Early Goodrich--a seedling of the Cusco of 1860. When two
+years old, Mr. Goodrich described it thus: 'White, large, not so deep
+eyes as the parent, nice.'" In 1863, Mr. Goodrich had eleven and a half
+bushels; and though it was a bad year for disease, and this a young and
+tender seedling, when he overhauled his seedlings, January 29th, 1864,
+he made this entry in his book: "All perfect, fine."
+
+It has a smooth white skin, white flesh, and is the most solid of large
+potatoes, having no hollow at the centre. It is enormously productive,
+yielding as well as the parent Cusco, and exceeds all others; its form
+is good, table quality excellent; keeps well; ripens ten days earlier
+than the Garnet Chili, and thus far is as hardy as the Garnet Chili.
+
+Among winter sorts this potato must soon hold as high a place as is
+conceded to the Early Goodrich among the early sorts.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+_To Keep Potatoes during Winter._--As soon as dry after digging, pick up
+and handle carefully; store in a dry, well-aired, cool cellar, free from
+frost, either in bins raised a little from the bottom of the cellar, or
+in barrels having at least two holes bored through the staves near the
+bottom, and lay the top head on, over a lath, so as to exclude the light
+without preventing a free circulation of air. Also sprinkle among the
+potatoes about half a pint of recently slacked quick-lime to each
+barrel. If bins are used, cover them over sufficiently to exclude the
+most of the light. Air the cellar all winter, as often as the
+temperature outside will admit of it.
+
+
+CLIMAX.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+It has a stout, erect stalk, of full medium height, internodes of medium
+length, and very large leaves; the tuber is above medium in size, quite
+smooth, in form of a short cylinder swelled out at the centre,
+occasionally slightly flattened, and terminating rather abruptly; eyes
+shallow, sharp, sometimes swelled out or projecting, and always strongly
+defined; skin medium thickness, considerably netted or russet, tough,
+white; flesh entirely white, solid, heavy, brittle, and never hollow,
+and it boils through quickly, with no hard core at centre or stem, is
+mealy, of floury whiteness, and of superior table quality.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+_Early Prince._
+
+The _Early Prince_ is a seedling of the Early York, and was propagated
+in 1864. It has proved to be from a week to ten days earlier than the
+Early Rose, as far as size and solidity are concerned, and from two to
+three weeks earlier in quality.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ESTABLISHED IN 1842.
+
+
+A Good, Cheap, and very Valuable Paper for Every Man, Woman, and Child
+
+IN CITY, VILLAGE, AND COUNTRY.
+
+THE
+
+AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST,
+
+FOR THE
+
+Farm, Garden, and Household,
+
+Including a Special Department of Interesting and Instructive Reading
+for Children and Youth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE AGRICULTURIST is a large periodical of _forty-four_ quarto pages,
+beautifully printed, filled with _plain, practical, reliable, original_
+matter, and containing hundreds of _beautiful and instructive
+Engravings_ in every annual volume.
+
+It contains each month a Calendar of Operations to be performed on the
+_Farm_, in the _Orchard_ and _Garden_, in and around the _Dwelling_,
+etc.
+
+The thousands of hints and suggestions given in every volume are
+prepared by practical, intelligent _workingmen_, who know what they
+write about.
+
+The _Household Department_ is valuable to every housekeeper, affording
+very many useful hints and directions calculated to lighten and
+facilitate indoor work.
+
+The _Department for Children and Youth_ is prepared with special care,
+to furnish not only amusement, but also to inculcate knowledge and sound
+moral principles.
+
+
+TERMS--English Edition.
+
+The circulation of THE AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST is so large that it can be
+furnished (_postage prepaid by the publishers_) at the low price of
+$1.50 a year; four copies, one year, for $5; six copies, one year, for
+$7; ten or more copies, one year, $1 each; single copies, 15 cents each.
+
+  TRY IT A YEAR.
+
+~A German Edition,~ containing all the principal articles and engravings
+of the English Edition, and other matter of special interest to
+German-Americans, is furnished at the same rates as above stated for the
+English Edition, _postage prepaid by the publishers_.
+
+
+  ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, Publishers and Proprietors,
+  No. 751 Broadway, New York City.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE $100 PRIZE ESSAY ON THE
+CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO; AND HOW TO COOK THE POTATO***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 25905.txt or 25905.zip *******
+
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