There Are Now At Merced Special Openings For A Nurseryman And A
Dairyman; The Latter Would Be By Growing Alfalfa (Lucerne) And Raising
Poultry For At Present The Merced People Often Have To Get Poultry And
Eggs From San Francisco, 150 Miles Off.
POTATO GROWING.
A settler might make a really good return out of potatoes while his
Fruit trees are maturing, which is a food more in use in America than in
England. Potatoes are not only served at luncheon and dinner, but also
at breakfast everywhere, and, if every settler planted his land with
potatoes, there would be no fear of overstocking the market.
Mr. Eisen states that potatoes yield from 50 to 400 sacks to the acre,
and sell at prices varying from 90 cents to 2 dollars per sack. If only
50 sacks were grown to the acre, it would show a scarce year, when
prices would range higher, but the crop is never a failure in
California. Two crops can be grown in a year; the first crop is planted
at the end of February, if warm, or else in March, or indeed any time
till the middle of May, and dug three months after; the second crop is
planted in August or September, and dug three months after.
To put in the potatoes a settler would need the help of a labourer, to
whom he would have to give one dollar per day and his board, or, if the
labourer be a Chinaman, one dollar and a quarter per day without his
board. If the potatoes occupied ten acres, and they produced say 200
sacks to the acre, and fetched 1 dollar per sack, that would yield 2,000
dollars, or for the two crops 4,000 dollars, or, say, L800. This sounds
a large sum, but the land is exceedingly rich, as may be seen from the
samples I have brought back, and large results may be expected from it
if properly worked, for, of course, in any undertaking the result
depends upon the way it is worked.
The following paragraph is from an important paper or periodical of 20
pages, known as the Pacific Rural Press, of December 13th, 1890, and
although the crop it mentions was not grown in California, it shows at
least what can be done on good ground: -
"Nearly 1,000 bushels of potatoes, or, to be exact, 974 bushels and 48
pounds, have been grown on one acre of land in Johnson County, Wyoming,
the past season. This crop wins the first prize of several hundred
dollars offered by the American Agriculturist for the largest yield of
potatoes on one exact acre. It was grown on virgin soil without manure
or fertilizer, but the land was rich in potash, and the copious
irrigation was of water also rich in saline material. There were 22,800
hills on one acre, and 1,560 pounds of sets, containing one, two, and
three eyes, were planted of the early Vermont and Manhattan varieties.
The profit on the crop on this first prize acre was 714 dollars,
exclusive of 500 dollars in prizes."
Thus, this one acre would have produced L142 worth of potatoes.
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