POTATOES AND FLOODS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXV, Issue 7864, 20 May 1886, Page 6

POTATOES AND FLOODS.

TO THE EDITOE. Sib,—l notice in your leading article of to-day, that you blame the farmers in Canterbury for any loss they may have sustained in their potato crop, to their remissness in not having their potatoes dug up in time. . It is quite clear that the writer of the article in question, is not a farmer, and his knowledge of potato growing of the most meagre description. The crop this year was not fit to be lifted; in other words, was not ripe till about the last week in April, and, in my own case, not till the second week in May. Now, I would like to ask, what would be the use of digging up a crop before it was: ripe, so as to guard against floods ? Why, the cure would be worse than the disease. Another thing, potatoes are principally shipped from here to other places, and, unless thoroughly ripe, would be useless to send, besides giving the country a bad name, as they would not keep. The practical farmers have got much to bear from the opinions of, .theorists, and I could not allow the article to pass without contradicting its accuracy.—l am, &c., AN ASHLEY POTATO GROWER. fWe may point out to our correspondent. ' that,'as he himself admits, the farmers had a full fortnight in which they might have dug up their potatoes.— Ed. L.T.j