How and What to Grow in a Kitchen Garden of One Acre (10th Ed)/Potatoes
POTATOES.
A small planting, say two or three rows, of these should be made as early as possible in the spring, the amount planted depending on how soon they will be followed by the main crop. These may be planted in the furrow when the ground is plowed, but I prefer to plant the earliest ones in furrows struck out about three inches deep, after the ground has been thoroughly prepared, as they will come up more quickly. The rows should be dressed with phosphate, to give them a quick growing start, and the pieces of tuber placed about one foot apart; the ground may be run over with a sharp spike harrow when the potatoes are just coming through, or left a little longer and then worked with the cultivator. The soil must be kept well worked, and as close to the roots as it is possible to run. The bugs must be watched for and destroyed as soon as they appear, either by dusting with Paris green mixed with plaster, or with other insect poisons, or by picking them off and destroying them by hand, which is the easier way when the patch is small and potato plants are young. If these early bugs are destroyed before they can lay their eggs, the work of protecting the summer crop will be greatly lessened. Where the main crop of potatoes is to be raised in the garden, they should be planted about the first day of May, or the middle of April, that they may be harvested by the middle or last of August, and the ground used for a crop of turnips, peas, or other second-crop vegetables. As soon as the vines begin to die, and the skin of the potatoes is well set, so that it will not rub off with the fingers, the tubers should be dug or plowed up and stored, not only that the ground may be used again, but because, if they are left in the ground, they will either start to grow again or begin to rot. When dug, I pile them in small heaps of twenty bushels or so on the barn floor, dusting each pile as it is made with dry, air-slacked lime, about a quart to a heap; this helps to dry and preserve them, and prevents any tendency to rot. The barn doors are left open through the day, for a few days, and the potatoes dry gradually, until time for storing them, when it comes cold, though where there is a cool vegetable cellar it will save time to store them at once, and, of course, at this time of the year the ventilators of the cellar should be wide open. Where the cellar is too warın and the potatoes start to sprout, it is said that it may be prevented by turning them frequently, but I have never had an opportunity to try it. The first planting should be made of some very early ripening varieties, while the main crop should be of a kind selected for good size, heavy cropping, and the best cooking qualities.