The Princeton Union

A New Method of Potato Raising Described.

A friend in the far South calls my attention to a new method of raising potatoes, which, according to a report in the Horticultural Gleaner, is practiced by a Mr. Ford of Texas. To tell the truth, I hardly know what to think of this new plan. Mr. Ford manures heavily with cottonseed and cow manure, and also irrigates a little, and claims to be able to raise six crops in a year, and heavy yields in each crop.

"The secret of my potato growing," he says, "is that I grow the potatoes before I plant them, and dig the potatoes I plant." A crop is made in from four to six weeks. Triumph, the great early potato for the South, is the first choice; Early Rose is twenty days later. The new scheme is as follows: The seed potatoes are put in old barrels or small boxes, and stored in the "sprouting room." This is done about six weeks before time for planting them out in the open ground. The "sprouting room" is kept warm, if necessary, by means of a stove or oven. The potatoes soon begin to sprout, and in from four to six weeks the young potatoes will be the size of peas, or of the right size for planting. The barrels or boxes are then knocked to pieces, and then contain a mass of roots and sprouts and myriads of little new potatoes. The numerous roots hold the whole mass together. This seed is carted to the field, and in planting, a handful of the mass is broken off and dropped in the furrow, and another handful eighteen inches from the first, etc. There should be not more than forty nor less than twenty of these little potatoes to the handful planted in each place. If there is enough rain, Mr. Ford says, every one of them will make a fine, large potato. But it takes manure to grow them, and after rains he puts on liquid manure in addition to the manure already in the soil. The manuring governs the yield.

It will not be necessary to refer here to other details of this novel plan. That potatoes can be started under glass and successfully transplanted to the open ground, even after they have already produced little sets, I have repeatedly demonstrated in my own practice, and it may be possible to grow extra early potatoes in a manner somewhat on this plan. At any rate, I shall make an earnest attempt to do it the coming season.—T. Greiner in Farm and Fireside.