Soil Culture: Containing a Comprehensive View of Agriculture, Horticulture, Pomology, Domestic Animals, Rural Economy, and Agricultural LiteratureWalden, J. H.
Science
Soil Culture: Containing a Comprehensive View of Agriculture, Horticulture, Pomology, Domestic Animals, Rural Economy, and Agricultural Literature
Walden, J. H.
Agriculture -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Plentiful, but not excessive, seeding is best. It is a universal fact
that you can never get something for nothing. Hence light seeding will
bring a light yield. We think it best to put one good-sized potato in a
place and make the rows three feet apart each way. We think they yield
better than at any other distances or in any other way. We have often
tried drills, and found them more trouble, with no greater yield. The
soil should be disintegrated to the depth of sixteen inches and the
potatoes planted four inches deep, and cultivated with subsoil plow, and
other suitable tools, in a manner to leave the surface nearly flat.
Hilling up potatoes never does any good. We advise always to harrow the
crop, as soon as they begin to appear through the soil.
_Soil._--Any good rich garden soil is good for this crop, provided it be
well drained. Potatoes like moisture, but are ruined by having water
stand in the soil. New land and newly broken-up old pastures are best.
_Manures._--All the usual fertilizers are good for potatoes, but
especially ashes and plaster. The application above all others, for
potatoes, is potash. Dissolve it in water, making it quite weak, and
saturate your other manures with it, and the effect will always be
marked. The tops contain a great deal of potash, and should always be
plowed in and decay in the soil where they grow, otherwise they will
rapidly exhaust the land. It is supposed that nothing will do more to
restore the former vigor and health of the potato than a liberal
application of potash in the soil in which they grow. The crop will be
much increased in a dry season by manuring in the hill, dropping the
potato first and putting the manure on the top of it.
_Gathering and Preserving._--The usual hand-digging with hoe or
potato-fork are well known, and do well when the crop is not large. But
for those who grow potatoes for market, it is better to employ the plow
in digging. Modern inventions for this purpose can everywhere be found
in the agricultural warehouses. Potatoes are well preserved in a good
cool cellar, in boxes or barrels; and are better for being covered with
moist sand. The usual method of burying them outdoor is effectual and
safe, if they be covered beyond the reach of frost, and have a small
airhole at the apex, filled with straw.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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