The Project Gutenberg eBook, The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato; and How to Cook the Potato, by D. H. Compton and Pierre Blot

Title: The $100 Prize Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato; and How to Cook the Potato

Author: D. H. Compton and Pierre Blot

Release Date: June 26, 2008 [eBook #25905]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE $100 PRIZE ESSAY ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO; AND HOW TO COOK THE POTATO***

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THE
$100.
PRIZE ESSAY
ON THE
CULTIVATION OF THE POTATO.

Prize offered by W. T. Wylie and awarded to D. H. Compton.

HOW TO COOK THE POTATO,

Furnished by Prof. BLOT.

ILLUSTRATED. PRICE, 25 CENTS.

New-York:
ORANGE JUDD CO.,
No. 751 BROADWAY.

CONTENTS

PRIZE ESSAY

ON THE

POTATO AND ITS CULTIVATION.

$100.

In the fall of 1868, I offered $100 as a prize for the best Essay on the Cultivation of the Potato, under conditions then published; the prize to be awarded by a committee composed of the following gentlemen, well known in agricultural circles:

Colonel Mason C. Weld, Associate Editor of American Agriculturist.

A. S. Fuller, Esq., of Ridgewood, N. J., the popular author of several horticultural works, and Associate Editor of the Hearth and Home.

Dr. F. M. Hexamer, who has made the cultivation of the potato a special study.

In the month of January, 1870, the committee awarded the prize to D. A. Compton; and this Essay is herewith submitted to the public in the hope of stimulating a more intelligent and successful cultivation of the Potato.

Bellefonte, Pa., January, 1870.
W. T. Wylie.

---

Office of The American Agriculturist,
New-York, January, 1870.

Rev. W. T. Wylie: Dear Sir: The essays submitted to us by Mr. Bliss, according to your announcement, numbered about twenty. Several could not be called essays from their brevity, and others were exceedingly incomplete. About twelve, however, required and were worthy of careful consideration. That of Mr. D. A. Compton, of Hawley, Wayne County, Pa., was, in the opinion of your committee, decidedly superior to the others as a practical treatise, sure to be of use to potato-growers in every part of the country, and well worthy the liberal prize offered by yourself.

In behalf of the committee, sincerely yours,

Mason C. Weld, Chairman.

POTATO CULTURE.

BY D. A. COMPTON, HAWLEY, PENNSYLVANIA.

The design of this little treatise is to present, with minuteness of detail, that mode of culture which experience and observation have proved to be best adapted to the production of the Potato crop.

It is written by one who himself holds the plow, and who has, since his early youth, been engaged in agriculture in its various branches, to the exclusion of other pursuits.

The statements which appear in the following pages are based upon actual personal experience, and are the results of many experiments made to test as many theories.

Throughout the Northern States of our country the potato is the third of the three staple articles of food. It is held in such universal esteem as to be regarded as nearly indispensable. This fact is sufficient to render a thorough knowledge of the best varieties for use, the character of soil best adapted to their growth, their cultivation and after-care, matters of the highest importance to the farmers of the United States.

The main object of this essay is so to instruct the novice in potato-growing that he may be enabled to go to work understandingly and produce the potato in its highest perfection, and realize from his labors bestowed on the crop the greatest possible profits.

SOIL REQUIRED—ITS PREPARATION.

The potato is most profitably grown in a warm, dry, sandy, or gravelly loam, well filled with decayed vegetable matters. The famous potato lands of Lake County, Ohio, from which such vast quantities of potatoes are shipped yearly, are yellow sand. This potato district is confined to ridges running parallel with Lake Erie, which, according to geological indications, have each at different periods defined its boundaries. This sand owes much of its potato-growing qualities to the sedimentary deposit of the lake and to manural properties furnished by the decomposition of the shells of water-snails, shell-fish, etc., that inhabited the waters.

New lands, or lands recently denuded of the forest, if sufficiently dry, produce tubers of the most excellent quality. Grown on dry, new land, the potato always cooks dry and mealy, and possesses an agreeable flavor and aroma, not to be attained in older soils. In no argillaceous soil can the potato be grown to perfection as regards quality. Large crops on such soil may be obtained in favorable seasons, but the tubers