Irish potatoes
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The Way to Save Seed.--We had an Irish potato presented to us a few days since, which was as large as any we ever saw, no matter where it was raised.
We did not weigh it, but our readers can guess its size when we say it was as large as our two fists.
This potato was raised from seed planted last March was a year ago, and as it is likely that no foreign potatoes will be imported in time for next spring's planting, we have thought it would be an advantage to our readers to explain how the gentleman (a planter) who presented us the potato managed to save seed for the planting of last spring's crop.
He informs us that about the first of August of last year he ploughed up the ground where the spring crop had been planted and gathered, but enough seed had been left to produce a fall crop.
from which he used as late as
Christmas —
Early in January and not until then, he had the potatoes remaining in the ground taken up and put in a dry place.
His reason for taking them up was that if they remained they would sprout prematurely and be killed by cold weather.
At the usual time he planted the seed thus gathered, and raised as good a crop and as large potatoes as any of his neighbors raised.
This process is worth trying, and we have thought it our duty to describe it to our readers.
They will remember that the ground where the spring crop was planted must be ploughed about the first of August, and the potatoes that come up must be cultivated as usual; then about the first of January take up all that can be found and put them away in a dry place for planing in the spring.
We think seed can be saved in this way. The war and the blockade will learn the
Southern people more than they ever knew before, and will make them more self-reliant.--
Cahaba (
Ala.)
Gazette.