"It has a stout, erect stalk, of medium height; large leaves; flowers freely; bears no fruit. The tuber is quite smooth, nearly cylindrical, varying to flattish at the centre, tapering gradually toward each end. Eyes shallow, but sharp and strongly marked. Skin thin, tough, of a dull bluish color. Flesh white, solid, and brittle; rarely hollow; boils through quickly; is very mealy, and of the best table quality. It is as healthy and productive as the Early Goodrich, matures about ten days earlier, and is its superior for the table. The cut is a good outline of this beautiful and excellent sort.
"I consider it the most promising very early potato with which I am acquainted, and I have tried nearly all the early sorts of the country."
How to Double Your Crop, when you have New and Rare Kinds.—In an ordinary hot-bed or cold frame, put some six inches of good, loose, rich soil; split your potato, and lay it cut side down about three inches under the surface. When the sprouts are four or five inches high, lift the potato, slip off the sprouts, and plant them.
You can then cut the tuber into single eyes, and plant as usual. The crop from the sprouts will ripen two weeks before the others. I made $40 this year by trying this with a handful of potatoes. Every reader is welcome to it, and may make as much or more than I did, if he secures a few pounds of the newer and costly but valuable kinds.
Early Goodrich.
A seedling of the Cusco of 1860. In 1862, Mr. Goodrich described it: "Round to longish; sometimes a crease at the insertion of the root; white; flowers bright lilac; (produces) many balls; yield large. Table quality is already very good. This sort is No. 1 every way." He said to me in the spring of 1864: "This early sort gives me more satisfaction than any other I have ever grown." This variety ripens as early as the Ashleaf Kidney; on rich soil yields from 250 to 350 bushels per acre; has never shown any disease; is white-fleshed, and of superior quality.
The above description by D. S. Heffron is fully sustained by my experience.