The 100USD Prize Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato Part 6

_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."

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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.

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_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."

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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 b.a.l.l.s; 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.

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_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.

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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.

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_Early Prince._