PreaclicaAL
POTATO CULTURE

BY:
E. A. ROGERS

PRICE FIFTY CENTS

Practical
Potato
Culture

By

i> A> Rogers

Brunswick

Maine

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PENNSYLVANIA
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
HARRISBURG

‘January 29,1913
Mr. J. B. Haines,
Bailey Building,
Philadelphia, Pa.
My dear Sir:-

1 understand that you are about to publish a book on Potato Culture by
E. A. Rogers of Maine.

Mr. Rogers prepared a bulletin for this Department on Potato Culture, which
was published in 1910, which was very satisfactory to this Department and proved
to be of great value to the potato growers of this State.

I shall look with anxiety for the appearance of your publication which I feel
sure will be well received by potato growers throughout the country.

Very truly yours,

Cc

Secretery 01 Agriculture.

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Introduction

To the readers of this treatise on the potato I have but
to state that I receive so many inquiries each year as to our
Maine methods of growing this crop that it is impossible
for me to answer and give the information asked for in
a letter. “Iwo years ago I was asked by the Secretary of
Agriculture of the State of Pennsylvania to prepare a bul-
letin on the potato. This I did, and it was issued as bulletin
No. 190 of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture,
Harrisburg, Pa. I only had a few weeks in which to pre-
pare this work and was unable in the short time at my dis-
posal to make the work as complete as it should have been.
Nevertheless, it was considered of value enough so that a
year later the great Pennsylvania Railroad reissued it in an
abridged form for distribution to the farmers along its
lines, and up to November, 1911, had been obliged to print
the third edition to supply the demand for it.

In December, 1911, the manager of the New England
Industral Bureau of the N. Y., N. H. & H., the Boston &
Maine and the Maine Central R. R. wrote, asking the au-
thor’s permission to publish the original bulletin for dis-
tribution throughout New England.

This permission was readily given, for while the orig-
inal bulletin was not as complete as desired, I felt that it
might be of value to many. Nevertheless, I have no doubt
but what it will increase the number of letters asking for
information that come to me.

In order that I can fully answer these personal in-
quiries, I have revised and rewritten those parts of the
original bulletin which I considered incomplete. I also
have added a few more pages on the home garden and
its protection from insects, which is growing to be of more
and more importance to us each year as the cost of living
increases.

I am not going to attempt to say that all the methods as
laid down in the following pages relative to growing pota-
toes in Maine will be equally as productive in every state.

The principles of soil preparation and the use of com-
mercial fertilizers must be the same in one state as another.
So will the keeping and preparation of seed, the fighting of
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3

all insects without the injury to the vines, as is now so often
done, be the same, whether in Maine or Colorado. The
methods of cultivating may differ somewhat, depending on
the amount of rainfall in different states, but even this is a
mooted question. I have simply put down facts as they
apply to Maine’s conditions, with as great a variety of soil
as will be found in any state.

They have proved sound for Pennsylvania condi-
tions and will, I believe, prove equally as valuable for
Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin or any other of our
two Northern tiers of states. I ask my readers to re-
member as they peruse these pages that they are the work
of an everyday farmer, and one of the objects in writing
this book is to save the author’s time in the busy season
answering questions by letter to those who desire to learn
how it is that Maine leads every other large potato grow-
ing state in yield per acre. Theory is not fact, and while
theory helps the scientist on his way to work out many
problems, it will not feed the nation; that is done by you
and I, the hard-working farmers of this broad land.

To make many phases of the work more clear and
understandable to my readers | have used as far as pos-
sible photographs of the different farm implements, each
doing some portion of the work which it was designed
to do.

I have taken as far as possible those makes of imple-
ments which will do the work shown by the photograph in
the best possible manner, and to help out my readers who
desire to purchase implements of this kind I have given
the name of the manufacturers, who are in every case
honest, reliable firms. I have no interest whatever in the
manufacture of any of these implements, with the excep-
tion of the dry dusting machines, but give the information
wholly for the benefit of my readers and a desire to make
this work of the greatest possible value to them.

Yours truly,
KE. Av ROGERS;
Sec’y Johnson Seed Potato Co., Brunswick, Me.
General Offices, Leominster, Mass.
GENERAL CONDITIONS

The great bulk of the potatoes consumed in the
United States during the late fall and winter months

4

probably will be grown for a generation at least-in the
northern tier of states, as they are today. There are sec-
tions in most of these states where enormous quantities
could be grown with profit where but few are produced
today. As the population of the country increases, there
will be an ever increasing demand for the potato, for
there is no vegetable grown so generally used by all
classes.

There is also a wide demand for better quality than
is now raised in many sections, and a more intelligent
system of getting them to the consumers’ table, with
the natural quality unimpaired, than is now the case. |

The culture of this important crop has not received
the attention in certain localities that it deserves, for
there are but few crops grown that will so quickly re-
spond to intelligent care and culture as will the potato.
The value of the crop per acre ranks with the highest in
those sections where the crop is studied and modern
methods and machinery are used. That this can be made
to be true in many other localities where at present the
culture is limited, or if followed in the old way produces
but little or no profit to the grower, few who are familiar
with the subject will deny.

The following statistics obtained from the United
States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Statistics,
for the year 1908, are here given, showing the relative
standing of the seven leading potato states of the coun-
try, both as to acreage and yield per acre. For con-
venience of comparison, I give them in order of the
largest acreage first:

State. Acreage. Average Yield

Per Acre.
New York 425,000. 82 bushels
Michigan 325,000 72 bushels:
Pennsylvania 277,000 72 bushels’
Wisconsin 252,000 80 bushels
Ohio 170,000 77 bushels
Minnesota 145,000 76 bushels
Maine 116,000: 225 bushels

By this table it will be seen that while Maine comes
seventh on the list in number of acres planted, she is
second in point of yield, the average per acre being over
three times as great in Maine as in Michigan and Penn-
sylvania, and practically three times as large as in Min-

5

nesota, Ohio and Wisconsin and 234 as large as in New
York. '

! Maine, with her 116,000 acres planted, harvested
‘a crop of 26,100,000 bushels, while Pennsylvania, with an
acreage planted of 277,000 acres, only harvested 19,944,-
000 bushels; or, with 161,000 more acres planted, she
_did not harvest as many potatoes by over six million
bushels. Michigan had over two and three quarters times
as many acres planted as did Maine, and harvested less by
2,700,000 bushels. That this is wholly or largely the re-
sult of better climatic and soil conditions in Maine, I do
not believe. The conditions in Maine, one year with
another, may be, and probably are, more favorable than
they rule in Pennsylvania or Michigan. I do not, how-
ever, believe that this is true of New York. From a thor-
ough knowledge of Maine conditions, I have been able to
compare them with the conditions I have found in my
travels throughout New York, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio,
Pennsylvania and several other states, and it is my firm
belief that the attention given the culture, with protection
against insects and blight, along with a crop rotation suited
to the potato itself, has more to do with the great differ-
ence in yield found between Maine and those other states
than more soil and climatic conditions.

In this view, I believe I am supported by the yield
gotten by individuals in practically all the above-named
states, who have given the potato conditions suitable
for its best development, which any farmer ¢an do in’
any state named, who has gotten yields from 300 to
500 bushels per acre.

If such yields as the above can be gotten in indi-
vidual cases by proper fitting of the soil and fertilization,
there can be no question but what the same effort put’
forth by the potato growers of any state would increase
the yield per acre nearly, if not quite, up to that of
Maine.

ROTATION
The potato grower should have a certain fixed sys-.
tem of crop rotation in order to get the best results.
No haphazard method will pay in a series of years, and

this rotation will have 'to be waried to ‘suit the different
localities. In the southern sections, where winter wheat

6

is grown, a different system will be i1uund necessary than
in northern and mountainous regions. The Maine potato
grower usually has either a three or four year rotation.

First, potatoes on broken sod. Second, grain, usually
oats or spring wheat, which is sown as early as the
ground is in condition to be properly worked, grass and
clover being sown along with the oats or wheat. Third
and fourth years, hay, unless a three-year rotation is
practiced, when hay will only be cut the third year, plow-
ing under the second crop of clover for potatoes. This
is sometimes varied by planting corn the second year,
seeding to grass and clover at the last working of the
corn, which in Maine usually comes in the first ten days
of July. As fine a stand of grass and clover is usually
obtained by seeding in this manner as it is possible to
obtain with any system of seeding with small grains.
There is one disadvantage, in that the first year’s hay
will contain more or less corn stubble; this is of no con-
sequence if the hay can be fed on the farm and is not
intended for sale.

This following of potatoes with corn allows an ap-
plication of barn dressing to be applied to land that is in
the potato rotation, with but little if any injury to the
potato crop, as it will be so far used up by the corn and
hay crops before potatoes will again come into the rota-
tion that the chances of rot or scab from this cause are
slight.

The application of barn manure will greatly help
both corn and the newly seeded grass and clover. If oats
were to be sown, it would not do to apply this barn
dressing, as it is almost sure to result in lodged grain,
which means a killing out of the clover in the lodged
portions of the field, and a failure of the grain to fill.
This rotation should do as well for other states as it
does for Maine, but in the scuthern sections, where corn
is planted on sod, followed the second year with pota-
toes, crimson clover, winter vetch, or some other humus-
supplying crop should be sown in the corn, if large crops
of potatoes are to be expected. No farmer who follows
a system of rotation which places the potato second can
hope to get maximum crops.

7
SOILS FOR POTATOES

The potato must have well-drained soil; no amount
of care in selecting seed and cultivation or surface drain-
age after planting. will avail, the potato will not produce
a paying crop of nice, marketable tubers in a soil filled
with stagnant water. The deep sandy or gravelly loams
are without question the best. Not only will the potato, as
a rule, grow better in this kind of soil, but they are more
easily worked. The successful potato grower knows that
it is largely a question of doing the work at just the proper
time, and a deep sandy or gravelly loam can be worked
sooner after rains, and little delay will be caused in the
work by our short summer rains on this kind of land. Clay
loam, if not too heavy, will produce just as many bushels
per acre as will the lighter scils and of just as gocd qual-
ity, provided the soil is well drained; the disadvantage of
the heavier soils is in the working of them in wet weather,
which may delay planting in spring, and prevent cultiva-
tion to such an extent that the weeds may get a start, not
to be overcome with any system of cultivation, except
hand-work, which is too costly and slow to be consid-
ered in these days of high-priced labor. Some of the
largest yields I have ever seen, running from five to six
hundred bushels per acre, and of the very finest quality,
were grown on clay loam soil, and a farmer having such
a soil need not despair of entering potato growing in com-
petition with his more favored neighbors, who may have
an easily worked sandy or gravelly loam.

UNDERDRAINAGE

The value of underdrainage to land intended for
potatoes cannot be overestimated. In many cases the
whole cost of putting in a system of tile underdrain will
be more than paid back by the increase in the first year’s
crop. In fact, if there were any places in the field where
water was wont to stand after rains, this is most sure to
be the case. When we consider that a properly laid sys-
tem of tile drain will last for a lifetime or longer, with its
beneficial effects on all crops every year, it becomes one
of the most profitable investments any farmer can make.
The farmer will understand that this applies especially
to those fields which are springy or with depressions in
them where the water stands after rain. Such places

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will not produce a paying crop of potatoes, no matter
how much care is given in the way of fertilization, cul-
tivation and spraying, until the surplus water from those
places is removed by underdrains. The increase in the
crop from these underdrained wet places is only a part
of the value of this work to the potato grower, as a wet,
springy place or depression where the water may collect
after a rain will so reduce the vigor of the crop, if not
killing it outright in these places, that blight will very
often start; spreading from these to the higher portions
of the field, with the result that the whole field will be
ruined when, but from these sources of infection, it
would have escaped.

An undrained sag in a potato field is a menace to the
whole field, for it is a breeding place for the late blight
or rot, and furthermore, even in a dry season, when pota-
toes can grow in such a place, they are seldom fit for
market, being rough and ill shapen and of poor quality.

PREPARING LAND FORgPOTATOES

In taking up the preparation of land for white potatoes
I shall have to divide it into several sections in order to suit
each kind of soil and to properly describe how to work up
the vegetable matter that grows on each.

To the average grower the preparation of a potato
field is of more importance than the kind of soil, always
provided it is well drained. I believe we have very little
workable land which cannot by intelligent methods be made
to produce a paying crop of potatoes. Land which is too
wet needs drainage; land which is naturally too dry can, by
supplying it with plenty of humus or vegetable matter, be
made to hold plenty of moisture to produce a paying crop.

With the potato, I believe, more than with any other
crop does success depend on the man than on the soil itself.
Potatoes need a large amount of available moisture, not
stagnant water which excludes the air, but moisture in such
a way that air can circulate freely through the few inches
of the top soil and the more vegetable matter or humus, the
more moisture it can hold and still have this air circulation.
There is no crop I know of that will so rapidly use up
vegetable matter from the soil as will the potato, and the
more humus the soil contains the greater will be the re-
sultant yield; and the lack of humus or vegetable matter

10 :

in our soil is, I believe, one of the greatest drawbacks the
potato grower has to contend with today.

For this reason, in the chapters that follow, I shall
treat fully of the different methods by which the grower
can obtain this vegetable matter with the least possible
expense of time and labor. Again, after the grower obtains
this, it is equally as important, if the very best results are
to be obtained in crop production, that it be properly in-
corporated into the soil.

The system of planting corn on sod, following the next
year with potatoes, deprives the potato of the vegetable
matter it so badly needs, and in many cases reduces the
yield of tubers below a paying basis, and one of the greatest
problems of the potato grower is how at the minimum cost
to supply this vegetable matter.

In those sections where crimson clover can be sown
at the last working of the corn with a fair prospect of get-
ting a good growth, it will be found to be of benefit, but
in the more northern sections and mountainous portions,
where corn is not so much grown, the same system of cul-
ture and rotation that is practiced in Maine can be followed
successfully with some slight variations.

On an old meadow which has been down to grass for
several years and covered with a heavy sod, there will be
found to be vegetable matter enough in the sod to produce
a large crop of tubers if a liberal application of chemicals
or ready mixed commercial fertilizer is used.

Having such a sod, the next thing is to so prepare it
that the potato crop will derive the maximum benefit from
it. The chapters immediately following will give some of
the best known methods.

Subduing a New England Witch-Grass Sod

This is known locally also as quack, couch, wild rye
and Johnson grass, and the methods described for fitting
a sod of this kind for potatoes is equally as good for any
other kind of grass, but usually the work does not have to
be so thoroughly done, therefore is not so expensive. Land
with a tough witch-grass-bound sod, such as is found in
New England, must have a different and longer prepara-
tion before it can be planted to potatoes than any that is
usually found in most other sections of our country.

Again, the more northern sections can and should use

11

a different method than would give the best results farther
south.

While witch-grass is not confined wholly to the New
England states, there is practically no farmer there but
what knows what it is, with its long white roots with a
very sharp point which will grow right through a good
sized tuber. It starts its growth early in the spring and if
the roots are cut or broken will send up new stalks from
every root joint. Probably it has driven more New Eng-
land boys from the farms than any one thing, and where
allowed to get a good start in a potato field makes it im-
possible to dig such a field with any digger yet made with
any degree of success. Witch-grass is one of the greatest
curses to New England agriculture and one of the greatest
blessings also (when you have gotten rid of it), for one
having a good sod of this kind is sure of raising fine pota-
toes if he will simply kill it out and make plant food of it.
Potatoes will grow smoother upon it than they will on a
clover sod and be of the finest quality.

To subdue a field of this kind the work must be begun
the year previous to planting potatoes, and if the land is
in grass this should be cut just as the witch-grass begins
to blossom, as the roots then seem to be at their most ex-
hausted period. As soon as the hay is gathered in, work
should be commenced to kill out the grass, and on land
free from stone a double cutaway harrow is a fine imple-
ment. In using this method the ground should not be
plowed until the sod has been entirely killed out by har-
rowing.

The disks should be ground sharp and the harrow
weighted, and if three or four horses can be spared for the
harrow the more quickly and thoroughly can the work be
done. The field should be gone over both lengthways and
crosswise, cutting us as deeply as the harrow will do the
work. The field should be gone over at least once a week
with the harrow for the first few weeks and then as often
as any of the roots show any signs of sprouting, even as
late as October. I have at this stage sown winter rye and
plowed down in the spring, but there is most sure to be some
of the witch-grass roots which would not be quite dead and
would make growth after the rye was sown, springing into
vigorous life after the rye was plowed down in the spring.
Thus, one wanting to make a sure kill of the grass had bet-
ter leave the rye out even if there is some loss of nitrates

12

by leaching during the winter. There will be such a mass
of dead vegetable matter that the soil is not exposed to
winter leaching like plowed land, which will make humus,
pulverized and mixed all through the top, five or six inches
of soil. As soon as the soil can be worked in the spring
start the harrow again going, both crosswise and length-
ways, as before. If the work has been done thoroughly
there should not be a live root on the field, but there wil!
be an immense amount of dead vegetable matter.

Photo No. 3 shows a double-action cutaway harrow
made by the Cutaway Harrow Co., Higganum, Conn., cut-
ting up and pulverizing a heavy timothy red top and witch-
grass sod in early September, 1912, for a crop of potatoes in
1913 on the author’s home farm, Mere Point Brunswick,
Maine. The reader will note the mass of vegetable matter
that has already been worked up. This in itself is a good
protection against winter leaching.

The field is now ready to be plowed, and this should be
done deeply, not less than eight, and ten inches is much
better for potatoes, turning down this top soil with its mass
of vegetable matter into the bottom of the furrow.

Go over the field both ways again with the double
cutaway, followed by the smoothing harrow, and we have
the whole depth plowed a finely pulverized seed bed with
the witch-grass sod entirely killed and in the best possible
place and condition to make the potato crop grow. It wiil
now act as storage for moisture and not prevent the sub-
soil moisture from coming to the surface by capillary at-
traction, as would have been the case had it been plowed
down without being first cut up and mixed with the soil.

No harm will be done on land worked in this manner
by plowing as deep as mentioned above, even if an inch
or two of the hard subsoil has been turned on top. We
have got to have a few inches of the soil that is on top for
our dust mulch, and this subsoil we have turned up will do
nearly as well as any and gives the potato crop all the nice
soil to grow in.

The cost of working a witch-grass sod in this way is
about ten dollars per acre, previous to plowing. The work
after plowing is less, as less discing is needed to make a
perfect seed bed. The yield per acre is very much more,
as the intense cultivation required to kill the grass roots
makes the soil more productive, and the reduction in the
cost of handling the crop after planting more than offsets

Photo No. 3. Photo taken Sept. 5th, 1912 on the home farm of the Author showing the splendid work of the Clark Cutaway double action harrow in pulverizing and
fitting a tough New England Witch grass sod for a potato crop in 1914. This harrow is manufactured by the Cutaway Harrow Co., Higganum, Conn,

14
the cost of the work to kill the grass.

Handling a Northern Timothy, Red Top and Clover Sod

In describing the working up of a witch-grass sod the
everyday farmer will know that the witch-grass seldom
grows entirely alone, but has mixed with it timothy and
usually some red top, and at times some clover, although
the clover stands but little show when the witch-grass is
thick or has had time to form a heavy sod. Hence, any
land that has the witch-grass in it should be worked as de-
scribed in the previous chapter.

A good timothy and red top sod can be as thick on the
ground as the quack, but is not usually as deep, and as
this can be readily killed out, the harrow need not be started
until spring, when the work can be thoroughly done unless
the land is intended for very early potatoes, when it is
better to cut it up*late the fall previous. No man who has
not thoroughly tried this cutting up of the sod with a good
cutaway harrow previous to plowing can begin to realize
the benefit it is to the crop, the mixing of this decaying turf
all through the soil and then plowing down works favorable
to the crop in many ways.

The old method in Maine was to break the sod late in
the fall. This, if followed by a dry season, was much bet-
ter than turning it down just before planting in the spring.

None of our general field crops need as deep plow-
ing to do their best as does the potato; to break and turn
down a sod in the fall and plow the land as deeply as the
potato needs to do its best in is to put all that vegetable
matter too deep into the soil for the best results. No har-
row can be worked deep enough to touch it, and the re-
sult is that only a few inches of the top soil gets worked
with the harrow at all, leaving this blanket of turf to re-
tard the subsoil moisture from coming near enough to
the surface to benefit the growing potatoes as it should
and further denying them of the plant food the sod con-
tains, which they could have used had the sod been prop-
erly worked up previous to plowing.

However, it is much better if a sod is not going to be
cut up with a harrow to plow it down the fall previous to
planting, then to wait until spring, especially if followed by
a dry season. Land broken in the fall gets settled down
together and decay sets in from the rains of winter and
spring, so that there is much better capillary connection

15

through the turf than if the same field was spring plowed,
and while it cannot be harrowed as deeply as it should be
to get the best results in crop production, the same would
hold true if it were spring plowed. In turning down a
heavy sod in the spring without first cutting it up and mix-
ing it with the first five or six inches of soil, we are deny-
ing the crop to be planted, whether potatoes or anything
else, not only of the greater part of the plant food the sod
contains, but we are putting it in the worst possible place
and condition to retard that crop’s development, for with
dry weather coming on the sod will not decay, and until it
does none of the subsoil moisture can get near enough to
the surface to be of any use in dissolving plant food for
the crop to drink up.

This working will apply equally as well to any clover
field, either crimson or northern, wherever grown, South
or North. It is a decided advantage in sprouting and kill-
ing millions of weed seeds before the crop is planted.

Subsoiling

We see but little of late years about subsoiling, and
there seems to be a sort of fad to plow very shallow for
most every crop.

This is a better system for corn and the small grains
than for the potato. The deeper soil can be worked for
potatoes the better, if it is done right. There is always a
right and wrong way to do most any kind of farm work.
Subsoiling, if done when and as it should be, will greatly
increase the yield of potatoes, enlarge the water holding
capacity of the soil and improve the crop of grain and hay
which follow.

Let a farmer take a field where the soil is somewhat
thin, and which he had been plowing for years from five
to not over seven inches, and put on a heavy team with a
big plow, and plow twelve, turning up from four to five
inches of hard subsoil with all of his good soil underneath
and there could be but one result, and that a bad one. Yet
that subsoil contains elements of plant food in much more
abundance than the top soil which he has turned down, but
it is to a very great extent deficient in humus or vegetabie
matter, and it will make but little difference to most crops
how much potash and phosphoric acid it may contain, it is
unpalatable to them, and they will not thrive upon it until
in course of time it becomes filled with decaying vegetable
matter.

16

On some farms, cultivated as they are, this might take
years.

Therefore, unless a farmer clearly knows what he
wants and just how to go about it, he had better let sub-
soiling alone.

Dig a well, twenty feet or more deep, in my section
of Maine, and take the clear blue clay from the very bot-
tom of it and spread it on the ground and clover will come
up and grow finely upon it, but not many other plants
would. I have pulverized clear blue clay to the depth of
two feet and planted potatoes in it and they have done
finely, and no smoother, finer tubers were ever taken from
the ground than these out of this clear blue clay.

I cite these cases simply to cail attention to the posst-
bilities that lie in our soil below what the common farmer
is cultivating.

When the potato grower has worked up his sod as
I have described under ‘“‘Subduing a New England Witch-
grass Sod,” and starts his plow at the depth I have named,
if he will follow with another team with a good subsoil
plow, running it as deep as he can, the deeper, the better,
but not turning this up on top of the other soil, simply
breaking it up and loosening it in the bottom of the furrow,
he will find that not only will his potatoes pay him a big
price for the work done by an increased yield, but the
other crops that follow will for years do the same. By
doing this in this way he has greatly enlarged the soil’s
water holding capacity, which in a dry season may for this
reason alone make him a good crop of tubers, when with-
out it his crop would have been a failure.

Potato roots will penetrate deeper into this in a dry
season than many will believe.

When seeded to the grasses and clovers the clover roots
will fill this full of roots, gradually filling it with humus as
they decay, deepening and making the land more pro-
ductive as the years go on.

I suppose I have heard hundreds of farmers say that
their soil was not as deep as it used to be, and almost in-
variably by inquiry I find that shallow plowing for corn
and small grains has been the rule.

I believe that in thousands of cases the growers of
corn and small grains could, by working their land over as
above described, planting to potatoes the year they sub-

17

soiled, increase the production of their farms many per
cent over what they are now getting. Subsoiling, when
rightly done, on many soils is a decided benefit.

HOW TO GET HUMUS

The control of moisture in land to be planted to
potatoes is of great importance and cannot be secured
by drainage alone, as it is largely a matter of the humus-
content in the soil. One hundred pounds of clean, dry
sand will take twenty-two pounds of water to saturate
it; one hundred pounds of our ordinary clay loam soil,
perfectly dry, will take fifty-six pounds of water before
it will become saturated, while one hundred pounds of
perfectly dry leaf mold soil will take one hundred and
ninety-six pounds of water to saturate it, or nearly nine
times as much as it takes to saturate an equal number
of pounds of sand, and three and one-half as much more
as it takes to saturate our ordinary clay loam soil. With
a soil deficient in humus, no amount of cultivation or
commercial fertilizer in a dry season can make it produce
a paying crop of potatoes, while a soil filled with humus
can be made by cultivation to produce a paying crop
even in a season of practically no rain. A clay loam soil,
filled with humus, can be worked much quicker after a
heavy rain than the same soil which is deficient in it,
and the capacity of the humus-filled soil to hold moisture
is so much greater, that with intelligent shallow culti-
vation, a good crop is practically assured.

The control of moisture is not the only advantage
of having a soil filled with humus. The rock-formed soils
of the eastern portion of our country are filled with
mineral plant food. It has been claimed by leading scien-
tific men that the top eight inches of our heaviest loams
contains potash enough to raise maximum crops from
two to four hundred years, and phosphoric acid from
one hundred and fifty to three hundred years, but they
are locked up in an insoluble form; a wise provision, in-
deed, to prevent man from leaving the face of nature a
barren waste. Fill a soil with humus, which is decaying
organic matter, and the acids formed in this process
help to break down and set free some of this locked-
up plant food. The second eight inches contains as much
Or even more mineral plant food than the first. The

18

productiveness of our soils depends more largely upon
their humus-content than upon any other one thing, and
one of the first objects of the potato grower should be
to fill his soil with this decaying vegetable matter.

In studying to replenish the organic content of our
soils, we should keep in mind those plants which will
also supply nitrogen, as this is the most costly element
of plant food we have to buy, and both humus and nitro-
gen can be supplied to our soils by the legumes. Of
these, alfalfa stands at the head, but owing to the short
rotation usually carried out by the potato grower, it is
but little used. With those who have land enough to
adopt a five-year rotation for their potato crop, and
facilities for keeping stock to use up the alfalfa on their
farms, I know of no crop which will give better returns.
Alfalfa makes a very large root-growth, which will pene-
trate deeply, even into a hard clay sub-soil, bringing up
fertility from below, increasing greatly the water-hold-
ing capacity of the soil, and at the same time gathering
and storing the costly nitrogen. None of our clovers
have the soil-renovating capacity equal to alfalfa, and
the potato grower, having a three-year-old alfalfa sod
to plow under, can grow a good crop of potatoes with
the smallest amount of commercial fertilizer. Alfalfa
can be grown on most any well-drained soil, and as it
seems to thrive best when sowed in early August, it can
follow early potatoes.

The ground should be thoroughly worked previous
to sowing the alfalfa to kill out the weed seeds; this, ot
course, would be the case on land planted to early pota-
toes, and this is one of the essentials, as the alfalfa plant,
when young, is easily smothered out by weeds. Taking
a field which has been worked in this manner and ap-
plying a liberal amount of lime, not less than one ton
per acre, well harrowed in with from one to three
bushels of inoculated soil from a thrifty alfalfa field,
sowing twenty-five to thirty pounds of the best north-
ern-grown alfalfa seed about the first week in August,
there will be no trouble in getting a stand of alfalfa
which will last three years, giving a large amount of
hay and putting the soil in the best possible condition
for the growing of potatoes.

Next to alfalfa, a heavy clover sod to plow under
not only furnishes a large amount of vegetable matter,

19

but also many dollars’ worth of nitrogenous plant food.
Some authorities claim that a second crop of clover, with
its root system, leaves in an acre of eround from 150 to
200 pounds of nitrogen, which, at the price the farmer
has to pay, of eighteen to twenty cents per pound, would
amount to from twenty-seven to forty dollars in nitro-
gen, and the mechanical effect of plowing under this sec-
ond crop of clover and sod, while not as great as with
alfalfa, would be worth as much as the nitrogen to the
potato grower. In many sections clover does not grow
as well as it formerly did, and owing to this failure, many
farmers have entirely stopped using it in their rotation,
which must result in a great loss to the productivity of
their farms.

From my experience, there are two main causes for
this failure of clover to grow, and I think these two will
prove to be the case in ninety out of every one hundred
cases, taking the country as a whole. These are, first: The
lack of lime; clover needs a great deal of lime. Burn
clover hay and a certain per cent of the ashes will be
found to be lime, which shows that the plant needs more
or less in its stock-growth, and unless lime is present in
the soil, the bacteria, which lives on the clover roots and
gathers nitrogen from the air for the plant to use, cannot
live, or at least will not develop to the extent of being of
much use to the clover crop. Second: If, after applying
lime, the farmer still finds that his clover refuses to grow,
he may be very sure that an application of phosphoric
acid will be the one thing now lacking to give him as
bountiful crops as he has ever grown in the past. The
potato grower cannot afford to do without one of these
two crops, alfalfa or clover.

WINTERS VET CH.

Next in value to alfalfa and clover as humus pro-
ducers, I should place winter vetch, especially for the
northern states. This is sown with winter rye by a good
many, as the rye will hold the vetch up, it is easier to
plow under. In my experience, to sow the vetch with
rye brings the seeding of the vetch too late to get as
good stand as is to be desired, although many do this
with good results. In the more northern states, I believe
July to be the best time to sow winter vetch. Vetch has

20

one drawback, while it is one of the very best soil im-
provers known to agriculture today, unless handled
rightly it can become a troublesome pest in our fields.
This is one of the reasons I dislike to sow it with rye,
as sown as late as the rye will have to be in order for it
not to make too large growth before winter, it is seldom
that all the vetch will sprout and grow the first season,
but will keep coming up for two or three years at least,
as soil and weather conditions become favorable to it>
This will bring more or less of it over into the grain and
hay crops, and while not so bad to have in the hay, espe-
cially if the hay is to be fed on the farm, it is unde-
sirable to have in the grain, from every point of view.

Again, as ~vetch ripens more or less of its seeds
early, it is most sure to reseed itself in the hay field.

I have one small patch, which was sown to vetch
alone about September 15, 1909. The weather being
somewhat dry, the germination was not of the best, and
it made but little growth that fall, but what was there
developed finely the next spring, and by early June I had
all that was possible to turn under with a big breaking-
up plow. Corn was then planted, and at every cultiva-
tion a liberal sprinkling of vetch plants was noted com-
ing from seed which failed to sprout the fall previous.
The following season, 1911, it was again plowed and
planted to melons, and a goodly number of plants de-
veloped after the last working of the melons. Some of
these developed into the largest, finest vetch plants I
have ever seen, there being individual specimens by
October 20th that measured over 8 feet across, forming
a fine, close mat over the soil; as fine a winter covering
as I have even seen.

None of the plants were ever allowed to seed, so
there can be no doubt in this instance but what all came
from the first sowing of seed in September, 1909. Those
who follow potatoes after corn can sow the vetch in the
corn at the last working in July, and unless the season
should finish very dry, would be almost sure to have it
all germinate. Sown at this early date, not near the
amount of seed would be needed per acre as is usuaily
called for. The plants would spread out over the ground,
covering it nicely and make a vigorous and early start
the following spring, and excepting where very early

~ potatoes were to be planted, would give a large amount

21

of highly nitrogenous vegetable matter to plow down,
and early enough in the season for any except the very
early potatoes.

Rightly handled, there need be no trouble of having
it become a pest, and as it can be successfully grown
in the northern states, it takes the place in the north
that crimson clover occupies farther south. A farmer
having a field he wishes to plant to potatoes, which is
deficient in vegetable matter, can get a larger amount of
highly nitrogenous vegetable matter in a shorter time
with vetch than any other plant I know of, but I would
advise, in the northern states at least, that it be sown
in July or August.

WINDER RYE

Probably winter rye is one of the most, if not the
most largely grown crop for plowing under green that
we have.

The fact that it can be sown very late in the fall is
perhaps one reason for this. It needs only to get well
sprouted to pass through most any winter, and will make
a good growth even on poor soil.

The amount of nitrogen it will return to the soil
is, of course, small, as compared to the clovers, vetch,
peas or beans, but with it one can greatly increase the
humus content of the soil, which is one of the first re-
quirements in building up top-worn or run-out soils.

With a liberal application of barn dressing, I have
had it make a growth by early June of over seven feet,
and this on poor soil.

A growth of this kind is not to be desired, for while
it can be plowed down as easily as a shorter growth,
it is apt to be woody, and does not decay very readily
in the soil, and in case of dry weather following, it holds
up the furrows and dries out the soil, to the injury of
any crop planted or sown immediately following its
turning under.

Probably the best stage of growth to plow down is
when the rye is about twenty inches high, before it com-
mences to head out. For this reason it can and should
be sown much thicker when intended for this purpose
than if desired to ripen for grain.

Humus is so badly needed in poor, thin soils that
a whole season had better be given to filling the soil on

22

a field where potatoes are to be planted, if a profitable
crop is to be expected.

If some barn dressing can be spared to give the rye
a good start there will be a large amount ready to plow
down by the last of May in our Northern states, then Japa-
nese Millet can be sown, and by August 20th a much
heavier crop of Millet will be ready to turn down than we
had of rye. Now, if winter Vetch is sown, there will be a
heavy crop of this ready the following spring, in ample
time for a medium, early or late crop of potatoes. By this
means the soil will be filled with vegetable matter, and a
part of it at least containing a large portion of nitrogen.
To be sure, one season’s cropping has been entirely given
up to this work, but it means so much larger crops in the
years to come that one can hardly afford not to do it.

It is a comparatively easy matter for the thought-
ful farmer to keep the humus content of his soil up te
where it will produce good crops after it has once been
brought up to that desired state, but unless a season is
taken for this work in the beginning, the average man
will crop it for years, getting only barely enough to pay
him for his labor, when it might have been growing him
immense and paying crops every year. To start with a
thin soil that will only produce a small crop of rye, and
turn it down and crop it with potatoes, is to use up
practically all the vegetable matter we have got with
the rye, which would not be enough in any case to grow
a paying crop of potatoes, and the soil would be in prac-
tically the same condition as at first. As this would be
the case each year, no great gain towards building up
the soil to where it could produce maximum crops can
be accomplished unless one season in the beginning be
taken for this purpose.

The potato grower who is using commercial fertilizers
should remember that he must have a large supply of
humus in his soil, or he will get but little benefit from the
use of the fertilizer used, and he, of all men, cannot af-
ford to neglect adopting a system to replenish this
moisture-holding, life-giving quality to his soil.

TWO MAIN CAUSES OF THE DETERIORATION
OF TAH POTATO

Within the memory of living men, all one had to do

23

to raise an abundance of potatoes, was to plant them;
it did not much matter how, as long as the seed was
covered by soil. Methods of culture, which at that time
produced a large crop of tubers, if followed today, would
hardly pay for the seed planted. The vigor of the pota-
to in those days enabled it not only to produce an
abundant crop of tubers, but to produce its true seed
under the worst cultural methods. The date of the de-
cline of this vigor was the arrival east of the Colorado
Potato Beetle. The injury done by this insect in stripping
the vines of their leaves was one of the prime causes of
this loss of vigor; another, and far greater cause, was the
use of Paris green to kill the beetle and their larvae. These
two causes, one destroying the foliage of the plant entire-
ly and the other poisoning the life of the plant by the ab-
sorbing of arsenic, acting year after year on practically
the whole potato crop of the eastern part of the country,
did an incalculable damage to the vigor of the potato. So
much has the old-time vigor been impaired, that there
are but few of the younger generation of farmers who
have ever seen a potato boll, the true seed of the plant,
the plants not possessing vitality enough to produce a
good crop of tubers and the seed boll also. See photo
Woz 2.

That the habit of producing seed bolls is more pro-
nounced in some varieties than in others no one who is
familiar with the subject will deny. There are some va-
rieties which possess great vigor, but little in the line
of producing tubers, especially of good quality, that grow
the seed bolls even under the vigor-destroying condi-
tions [ have named, yet these are of little use to the
grower. On the other hand, many of our best varieties,
in point of yield and quality of tubers will, if given proper
culture and protection from insects and blight in a man-
ner which will not in itself injure the vines, produce many
of the seed bolls.

There has not been a year for fourteen years when
I have not been able to pick seed bolls in more or less
abundance from varieties that are of the very best qual-
ity for table use and largest in point of yield of tubers.
New varieties have been constantly brought forward,
many of them of great promise and vigor, only to run
out in a few years, chiefly from the causes above given,
but helped along in many minor ways. Many farmers

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25

saved and planted only culls; these gave them good re-
sults years ago, before the bug and the poison had de-
stroyed the old-time vitality, but will not, except in rare
instances, give a paying crop today. This is true also of
many of the older varieties which have so far lost their
vitality, that it is practically useless to try and bring
them back to productivity equal to some of the newer
varieties. There can be no question but what there are
thousands of farmers today planting potatoes of so low
vitality that it is an impossibility for them to raise a pay-
ing crop of tubers under any system of cultivation and pro-
tection from insects and blights, even in a favorable sea-
son. The remedy for the more Northern states is to get
some newer strain and make careful selection each year
from the best and most vigorous hills, coupled with a sys-
tem of protection to the vines against insects and blights
that will not in itself destroy the vitality of the plants.
Farther South, where the soil and climatic conditions are
more unfavorable, there was a still more rapid decline,
and even in those sections where the second crop is grown
for seed there is a disposition to get Northern-grown seed
every few years as a new start, in order to keep up the
vitality. There has been a widespread effort on the part
of some of the Ex. stations in the last few years to get a
potato of large yielding capacity and of good table qual-
ity, that is blight-resisting, but, so far as I am able to
learn, with but little success, owing, I firmly believe,
more to those having the work in charge failing to realize
the deadly influence the arsenical poisons have on the
vitality of this plant.

As a proof of my contention along this line, I refer
my reader to Fig. 4 of a field of Green Mountain, Jr.,
potatoes, which is a four-year-old seedling, having been
originated by W. E. Johnson, of Bowdoin, Me., in 1905.
The parent stock had been carefully protected from
blights and insect injury without the use of any
arsenical poison for several years previous to producing
the seed boll from which the Green Mountain, Jr., was
originated.

This field was planted on an old run-out field or knoll,
too poor to produce even a fair crop of weeds, and was
given no fertilizing material whatever, but was protected
from insects and blight in the same manner as its parents
had been without the use of the arsenical poisons. As

26

the reader will note from the cut, there is the most perfect
development of vines and bloom possible to obtain, and
this in the face of the most severe drouth Southern
Maine has known in the memory of her oldest living
inhabitant. The yield per acre of 354 bushels, while it
would not be considered remarkable on a good clover sod
with liberal fertilization in a year of normal rainfall,
shows to what extent we can bring back the potato to
its old-time vigor when we get back to first principles.

Fig. 5 shows the field at digging, October 15th, 1909.
If a blight-proof potato is ever found, it will be devel-
oped along these lines, as it is a practical impossibility
to produce a blight-proof variety when the methods of
culture are such that every year saps to a greater or less
extent the original vitality. More than this, there is lit-
tle hope of getting a seedling from a seed boll grown on
plants that have had their vitality weakened by arsenical
poisoning, that will develop vigor enough to be blight-
proof, but the plants producing the seed boll from which
we will get, if we ever do, a blight-proof variety of good
yield and quality, must have behind them a series of
years of unimpaired vigor, which can never be obtained
if insect injury or arsenical poisoning is allowed.

The orchardist of Colorado has found to his sorrow
that the use of Paris green has poisoned, not only his trees
to their death, but his land as well. If we had the vigor in
our potatoes today we had forty years ago, before the use
of Paris green, with the methods of culture and fertiliza-
tion we are now giving them, I believe we are putting it
low to say that the yield would be double what we are now
getting.

POTATOES FOR*SEED

As I have shown in the previous chapter, “Two
Main Causes of the Deterioration of the Potato,” that
seed of strong vitality is of vital importance to the
grower, the losses from poor seed would be staggering
if fully realized. Many a farmer has given up the plant-
ing of this crop, with the idea that his land was not
suited to it, when a successful grower on other soil
would have had no better success with the same seed.

I have carried on experiments along this line for years,
some of which have cost me many hundreds of dollars, and
in spite of fertilization, cultivation and protection against

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28

insects and diseases, the fact remains that the yield is large-
ly governed by the seed we plant. No amount of care can
produce a good crop from a field that has come up weak
and spindling. While such a state of affairs might, and
does sometimes happen from other causes, it is mostly
the result of poor seed. The true seed of the potato is in
the potato boll, and the tuber is merely an enlargement
of an underground stem, and as such it partakes of the
character of the vine that produced it. If the vine was
vigorous with ability to resist disease, just so sure will
that tuber, if properly stored and planted, produce the
same type of plant the next season, if kept free of all dis-
ease. “Like begets like,” and if tubers are saved for
seed from little, weak spindling vines, we will have little,
weak spindling vines in profusion the next year. It makes
no difference whether those tubers come from vines
weakened by disease, insects, climate conditions or
arsenical poisoning, the vitality is lowered, and while
extreme favorable soil and weather conditions will help
greatly to produce a good crop from this kind of seed,
the fact would remain that good seed planted on the
same soil under the same conditions would have pro-
duced a much better yield. Potatoes grown in the South
rapidly lose their power to produce tubers, and it is sel-
dom of much use to plant them even the second year.
There is a belt that is too far north for the growing of
the second crop for seed, and too far south to plant their
own raising, which has to buy nearly all Northern-grown
seed every year. To the grower who has to buy new seed
every year from the North, it is of great importance to
him to know something of the growing of that seed, and
it is not out of place to point out a few methods in the
growing, which the buyer should demand of the North-
ern seed grower.

Good seed is worth all it costs to grow it, but poor,
weak seed is dear at any price. There is a widespread prac-
tice in Northern Maine of planting second-size potatoes
without much attention being given to whether they come
from vigorous hills or not. This is all wrong. Second-size
potatoes taken from the bin year after year, can result in
only one thing, the early running out of the variety. Sec-
ond size potatoes are all right for seed, provided they grew
in hills showing vigor of plant and a goodly production of
large, nice market tubers other than the one or more sec-

— »

29

ond-size which the hill may contain. The practice of hill-
selections of seed should be done, at least, every two or
three years by the Northern grower, and every year will
give better results. This involves some extra labor, but not
so much as the average grower would think, and it is
worth many times its cost.

The process is simple, and more uniformity of selection
can be had by confining one’s self to the one-stalk hills in the
field; this can be varied, however, setting a standard for
hills in about the ratio of not less than four nice potatoes
large enough for market purposes to each hill of one stalk,
and not less than seven, to each hill of two stalks, and ten, to
a three-stalk hill, all grown from a single seed price. When
the field to be selected from is from one-half to two-thirds
ripened off, the grower, taking a bundle of twigs or sticks,
goes over the field, up one row and down the next, and
wherever there is a hill showing more vigor than the rest,
marks it by placing one of the twigs, designating in this
manner hills enough to furnish seed for the next season’s
planting. A little later when the field is ripe and ready for
digging, it should be gone over with a hand-digging potato
fork, and these marked hills dug out by this hand method.
We know that all these marked hills have vigor that was
apparent to anyone at the time the hills were marked, but
what the grower did not know at that time, was whether or
not they had desirability of tubers. It is not every vigorous
hill that has tubers desirable for seed, either in number of
tubers per hill or quality. Any marked hill that produces
less tubers per stalk than we have set for our standard,
should be discarded; also any that varies in type from she
original stock, or for any other reason, such as roughness or
prongs. In making a selection in this manner, we have got
the following points: First, vigor, which is of prime impor-
tance, enabling the crop to be grown to withstand insects
and blights without injury, when the weak stock, mixed
in, which we have discarded by this selection, would be
attacked by fungus diseases. This would spread to the
more vigorous plants by being in such close proximity, and
our whole field would die before it had grown a paying
crop of tubers. Thousands of farmers have lost their potato
fields at various times by having only a few weak, spindling
hills there, which made breeding places for fungus diseases
which would never have got started but for these weak hills.

Second, the grower is getting all of his seed stock from

30

hills that have produced a good number of market-size tubers
which greatly increase the yield. Third, it has enabled him
to eliminate any desire to sport which is rampant in even
some of our best varieties, and keeps any variety in which
seed is being selected in this manner true to name, and puts
a stop to so much of the seed stock sold to the Southern
potato grower becoming badly mixed, which is one of the
banes of some Northern grown seed. The seed grower
making a selection of this kind for his own planting, his
resultant crop is sure to give satisfaction to the purchaser
who buys it to plant, and is worth much more to that pur-
chaser. In my own experience I have had a single selection
made in the above manner increase the yield the following
year over one hundred bushels per acre over the same
variety taken from the same field, but sorted out of the bin
the following spring when desired for planting. This
method of seed selection is as applicable to the farmers of
other states as it is to the seed growers and farmers of
Maine. In many cases this would do away with any need
of sending North for seed stock, and the yield per acre
would be doubled in a few years without any additional
expense in growing the crop. In a section where it is not
necessary to get new seed every year, one wishing to get a
new variety or new stock of an old variety to grow “seed
to plant and not being able to buy seed grown from selected
hills, should buy large size potatoes of the variety wanted
that are smooth and free from disease. My rule is, where
possible, not to take anything under a pound each of the
medium late or main crop varieties. By so doing I am sure
that the seed I get has vigor, for not little, weak, sickly hill
or stalk ever produced a tuber to weigh a pound. Planting
these, hill selection can be made from those hills producing
the most tubers per hill in number and weight, and the pur-
chaser has got new seed containing both vigor and pro-
ductiveness at a minimum cost. In selecting seed stock on
the above plan, the size of tubers would need to be governed
somewhat by the variety; for instance, with the Green
Mountain or Norcross, a potato weighing a pound, is not an
overgrown one, as in favorable conditions either variety will
produce tubers smooth and nice weighing up to two and
two and one-half pounds, and a tuber weighing a pound may
be only one of a half-dozen grown on a single vigorous stalk,
while on a variety like the Irish Cobbler potatoes weighing
from one-half to three-quarters of a pound would indicate

a

31

vigor, and would be all right to plant to make a hill selec-
tion from.

Photo No. 6. A plate of Clyde Potatoes. One of the
best medium late potatoes grown in Maine today.
Originated in 1902 by the

Johnson Seed Potato Co.

VARIETIES

It is quite an important matter that the grower obtains
-a variety which will do well in his particular locality. It is
a common occurrence to see two varieties planted on the
same field, both receiving the same treatment and planted
on the same day, one giving double the market tubers of
the other, and the tubers of both being of the same general
appearance, so much so that the ordinary grower would be
unable to tell them apart. One would spell financial suc-
cess and the other ruin. In those sections where the potato
can be raised year after year without changing seed, the
farmer has a chance to test out new varieties and seldom
meets with heavy loss. Where new seed has to be bought
every year for a large acreage and proves to be an inferior
variety for that section, the loss is heavy. Again, a grower
has got to conform to shape and color demanded by the
market he sells in to get the most out of his crop. As a rule,
the most of the large markets are demanding a round white

32

potato with a shallow eye, and many of these are of fine
quality. Some of the best eating, largest yielding and blight-
resisting varieties | know of, will not sell well in the City
markets simply because the publi¢ judges them by color; but
to the grower who largely retails his crop to his own cus-
tomers, they are of value, as his crop, differing in color
and perhaps shape, from the majority sold in his market,
gives him an added individuality and helps him to build up
and keep a fine local retail trade.

There are many varieties which will not properly ma-
ture if planted as late as June Ist and will skin badly when
dug, and never get to market in shape to get the market
price for good stock. There are but few of these grown in
Maine, but this cannot be said of New York and Michigan,
especially the latter, where a large proportion of the potatoes
grown are of this type. Michigan would be the banner
potato state in the Union today, if she had not got into the
way of raising Rurals and other varieties of this class, which
has killed her prestige -in the potato markets. The time
was not so many years ago when Michigan largely governed
the price in New York City, but that was before her farm-
ers took to raising Rurals. Today Michigan potatoes sell
about 15c per bushel less in New York City than does
Maine stock. Yet Maine has much to learn along this line,
she has no cause to cast reflections towards Michigan, the
well graded ripened stock from Long Island brings from
50c to 75c per bbl. more than the Maine tubers. I firmly
believe much of the soil of Michigan to be capable of pro-
ducing as fine potatoes as Long Island and to command as
high a price, but that will never come to pass with the varie-
ties generally planted in that state at the present time.

For one to lay down a list of varieties for any section
to plant would be folly, this I shall not do, but will name
a few only of the newer varieties which have proved good
from Maine to Minnesota. In doing this I shall not name
any of the older ones except perhaps the “Norcross.” There
are but few varieties of potatoes that do not begin to fail
after their fifteenth year. For this reason it would be use-
less for me to name a potato for a section like Michigan,
where it will take from five to eight years to get them gen-
erally disseminated, which has reached the age of fifteen
years from the seed boll. To do so is to see the variety run
out by the time it becomes generally known. Thus I shall
name but three of the Medium late varieties, but varieties

33

which will ripen up good and hard when planted as late as
June 1st to 15th, and which are as fine table tubers as can
be grown. These are the Clyde, Green Mountain Jr. and
Snow. See photos Nos. 6 and 7. The Clyde and Green
Mountain Jr. are only seven and ten years from the seed
boll, and the Green Mountain Jr. should not be confound-
ed with the old Green Mountain. The Snow is older, its
age I am not sure of, but would place it around twelve
years. These three potatoes will suit most any section,
the Snow for light and sandy soils or light clay loam, the
Clyde for heavy and clay soils, while the Green Mountain
Jr. will do well on either if not too heavy clay or too light
sand. These are three distinct varieties, yet they are so
near alike in looks and eating qualities that no one can
tell them apart in the market. Here in these three varie-
ties we have one that will suit the farmer whoa has light
soil, as well as the farmer with heavy, and which will suit
the buyer and the market, for no one can tell them apart
except the expert. I might go on and name several more
which are good, but no better than these, but to do so
would only tend to confuse, and help no one. What any
section needs which has a diversity of soils are varieties
which will do well on each, but which, when it comes to
marketing will be alike as to shape, size, color and eating
qualities, all of which are found in the above three.

I shall say nothing about the Rurals or potatoes of
that class, they have their place, but they should at least be
planted early enough to get ripe before digging and near
enough together to prevent being overgrown. Much of this
unripe, overgrown stock is hardly fit to eat and is never
a source of pride to the grower. ©

As to early varieties the country today lacks a first
class early potato. I shall mention but three or four and
these with considerable mental reservation. The Irish Cob-
bler is perhaps the most generally known in the East. It is
roundish white and a good yielder in many localities, while
perhaps but a few miles away its yield is very light. The
eyes are apt to be deep and the stem end is sunken and its
quality is not first class in many sections. The chief reason
it is grown in the North is to furnish seed for the early
Southern crop, and the same can be said of the Red Bliss.
Both of these potatoes have got to an age where they have
done their best, but will be grown for some years yet for
want of something better. The early Ohio is perhaps the

34

leading potato of the Central West. It is a better all-around
potato than either the Cobbler or Bliss, it 1s reddish in color
and when it grows well is of fine shape ahd good quality.
I will mention but one more of the Early sorts, and this is
the Early White Albino. It is the least known of either I
have mentioned, but ahead of them all as to quality and
yield. Its color is white and of as good shape as the Early
Ohio. See photo No. 8.

Photo No. 7. Showing two hills of the Green Mountain Jr. potatoes. A large strong yielder originated

1905 by the Johnson Seed Potato Co.

SAVING POTATO BOLE SEED
There seems to be a lack of knowledge among many
as to the proper way to save the seed from the potato boll.
From letters received by the author, it would seem that
many who are so fortunate as to find seed bolls on their
potato vines have difficulty in keeping the seed through the
winter, and I am led to believe that they have tried to keep

35

the seed over in the potato boll itself. This is all wrong,
and I do not believe it can be done in a satisfactory manner
by the majority of those who try it.

The seeds of the potato boll should be saved in the
same manner as are the seed from the tomato.

Take a small vessel and cut open the bolls and squeeze
the seeds into it, getting as little of the pulp as possible. The
vessel should not be filled more than half full of seeds and
pulp, but warm water should be added and the vessel con-
taining the seeds set in a warm place for 36 to 48 hours
until the mess ferments so that the little seeds will wash
clear from the pulp. Care will be necessary in doing this
work or the seeds will be lost. After being well washed
they should be dried. This leaves them clean and dry, each
seed a free atom. There are about nine hundred thousand
of the seeds in a pound. When planting some very fine
rich soil should be taken. Old rotted cow manure four or
five years old, well screened is good, as it will hold moisture
better than common soil. The seeds should be planted the
last of March either in a hot house, cold frame or even in a
box in the kitchen window, and should be covered very
slightly with the soil. This should be kept damp by fre-
quent watering or by a piece of woolen cloth spread over
the box until the seeds begin to break ground. With me
they come up about as quickly as weed seeds and it is rare
that any fail to germinate. They can be transplanted like
tomatoes, and will in many cases give tubers the first year
that will weigh a pound or over. This is contrary to the
common belief, but I have had a single little plant trans-
planted June 15th which yielded twenty-three market sized
tubers with a total yield in weight of four and three-fourths
pounds.

ORIGINATING NEW VARIETIES

Most new varieties are obtained from planting the true
seed of the potato, which is found in the potato boll, the
product of the blossom of the plant. These are as full of
little seeds as are tomatoes, and there may be from a few
dozen to several hundred seeds in each boll. Each separate
seed produces a different variety. There is much more
liability of the originators getting some new variety of value,
if care has been exercised in growing the boll from which
the seed has been obtained. Some varieties which grow

36

coarse, ill-shapen tubers, of very poor eating quality, seem
to throw nearly, if not all their vitality into producing seed
bolls. The varieties obtained from seed from bolls of this
pedigree are most sure to be nearly, if not all, of the same

Photo No. 8. A plate of early White Albinos. A better early potato it would be hard to find,

both as to quality and vield.

general characteristics as their parent. Probably not one in
thousands will ever be of any value to the general potato
grower. One wishing to originate new varieties should
take one of our best standard varieties, and by a proper
system of culture and protection from insects and blight,
so build up its vitality that it will produce potato bolls. This
is easily done in the Northern states, but might be impos-
sible farther South. One wishing to carry on this work
South of where our best varieties can be made to produce
seed, should get seed from these best varieties, which are
grown in the North, rather than waste their time with seed
from those varieties which produce tubers of practically
no market value.

Personally, I prefer to take seed bolls from a field
containing only one variety. This should be of large yield-
ing capacity, combined with very high eating quality, with
no other variety planted near them. Seed taken from such
a source will produce a greatly increased per cent. of valu-
able varieties.

The originating of the new varieties is of vital impor-

37

tance to the potato industry of the country, and the man
who brings out a new seedling, which is a decided improve-
ment over the older standard sorts, is entitled to a great
deal of praise and financial return. The originator has his
own troubles; a new seedling may give promise of being a
great acquisition and make good from the beginning, up to
four or five years old, and then go down in a single year,
proving worthless. If a new seedling proves good for seven
or eight years, and increases in productivity and quality each
year, the originator can feel reasonably certain that he has
something of value. The only proper way to test a new
seedling is in general field culture, side by side with the best
standard variety to be had. The seedling to be tested should
be at least two years old, and four or five would give a
truer idea of their worth. If they give larger yields then
the standard variety, and quality and other characteristics
are equal or superior, and give this result for two or more
years, the originator is reasonably safe in pushing its sale.
To the farmer, however, I would give this word of warn-
ing—don’t invest a large sum in any new seedling until it
has been tested out on your own farm in a small way; a
variety that will do well in one section may not in another.
Every large potato grower should test the newer produc-
tions. There will be so many of them that he will have to
cast aside that no large sum should be invested in any one,
until it has been tried and proven.

WHOLE POTATOES FOR SEED

The question of planting small to medium size pota-
toes whole, probably has occurred to every grower. It 1s
one that should be thoroughly understood and the source
from which the seed came be known in every case before
it is planted. Failure to do this is likely to result in a
loss in the yield of the crop. The size of the tuber and
the time, and condition it is in when planted, has much
to do with the results obtained. In testing out the value
of small-sized whole potatoes for seed, I have planted a
good many hundred bushels of them, and under certain
conditions, there is no seed we can plant that will give
us the results in yield and desirability that can be ob-
tained from medium-size potatoes planted whole.

Small tubers that are to be planted whole should
come from good, vigorous hills; this is of the first im-

38

portance. They can be selected from a bin, provided these
were grown from selected seed and the whole field was
vigorous and thrifty. If there were many spindling stalks
or weak hills in the field, the small-size potatoes should
never be planted that grew on it. A good, vigorous hill
seldom produces more than one or two tubers, small
enough to plant whole, and many times there will not be
one in several hills small enough for this purpose. The
weak, spindling stalks and hills, not having vigor enough to
produce large tubers, will nearly all be of the size needed
for planting whole. Thus it will be seen, unless care is
used in getting seed of this kind, we will be planting
tubers largely from the weakest hills in the previous crop ;
and as “like begets like,” our crop is sure to suffer. The
_best size of tuber to use I have found to be just about as
large as a medium hen’s egg, and with rows three feet
apart and seed dropped fourteen inches apart in the row
of a size will take about twenty bushels per acre.

If a potato of this size is planted when in a dormant
condition or before the sprouts have started, there will
usually be from one to three sprouts start from the seed
end. These start so much quicker and stronger than those
from eyes nearer the stem end, that they will use up the
plant food contained in the tuber, and there will be no
sprouts start from the other eyes. If tubers of too large
size are used, the quick starting sprouts on the seed end
will not use up all the plant food they contain and there
will be many weak sprouts start from the other eyes.
These would not amount to anything as tuber-producers,
and to all intents and purposes are simply as so many
weeds. It is not best to plant tubers of too small size, even
though they come from good, vigorous hills, neither is it
best to plant any potatoes whole after the eyes have once
started, as there are most sure to be too many stalks in
a hill. This can be varied in case of very early potatoes
where the side sprouts are broken off by hand, leaving
only one or two of the best on the seed end. The advan-
tages of planting whole seed when they come from thrifty,
vigorous hills are that they are certain to produce a per-
fect stand of plants, no matter how the weather may turn
after planting. The vines grow faster and the crop will
mature from one to two weeks ahead of cut-seed planted
at the same time and under the same conditions. The result-
ant crop will be smoother and rounder potatoes than usually

EE

39

grow from cut seed. Why this is so I have never been
able to determine. In planting whole seed, if desired,
more fertilizer can be used in the drill at time of plant-
ing, without injury to the seed, as there is no cut surface
for it to come into contact with. There is also less injury
to the seed by wire worms when planted whole, if they
are present in the soil, than is the case of seed cut.

GREENING AND BUDDING SEED POTATOES

In planting potatoes for early market, time can be
gained by budding or sprouting them. ‘This is especially
true for the small grower, who can spend the time neces-
sary to do this work just right. Many times the owner of a
small garden wishes to grow a few early potatoes for his
own table, and anything that can be done to hasten early
maturity is of value to him. While potatoes can be sprouted
or started for later planting, with a potato planter, the buds
or sprouts should not be allowed to get growth enough so
that they will be broken off in the machine. This is the most
sure to be the case if the buds are allowed to get much of a
growth. No potatoes which are to be planted in a planter
should be allowed to start their sprouts to the extent that
they will be broken off by the machine when planting. This
results in a loss of vitality, as a portion of the plant food
stored up in the seed piece has been used up. The second
starting of the bud will be weaker than the first, and cannot,
all other things being equal, produce as many tubers as will
the first budding of the sprout. In starting the sprouts for
early hand-planting, the potatoes should be brought into the
light and air, where it is reasonably warm. The stronger
the light, the shorter and greener the sprouts. For very
early planting, it is better to have the sprouts started in semt-
darkness, so that they will be a reddich pink in color and
thick and stocky. Such sprouts will push up through the
soil quicker than will the short, dark, green sprouts started
in bright sunlight.

Potatoes sprouted in this manner ought to be planted
when the sprouts are just right, as delay of even a few days
will allow them to get so far long that it will be almost
impossible to cut and plant them, even by the most careful
man, without breaking them off. Those who are intend-
ing to plant only a bushed or two in their kitchen garden, and
desire to get them as early as possible, the seed can be put

40

into boxes, whicl: should not be over five or six inches deep,
and placed in a light, warm place where the heat is not too
great, and sprouted there. Those who are to plant a larger
area, an available barn floor will do, provided light and
warmth enough can be obtained; or they can be spread out
of doors in a dry, warm, sunny place. In the later case
care must be taken to fully protect them from the cold
nights, as long as there is any danger of their freezing. As
very early potatoes are planted usually before the late frosts
are over, and as they would need to be sprouted from one
to two weeks before planting, the danger of sprouting out
of doors so early in the season is quite considerable. But
for the late or main crop there is no better way than spread-
ing them right out upon the ground. A place should be
selected, if possible, where there is a good turf and still not
but little grass. If there is no turf the sprouts on the under
side of the tubers will take root into the soil, which very
materially injures them for planting. On the other hand, if
there is too much grass to grow up around them, the same
thing will happen. Partial shade is better at first, if the
tubers are right from the cellar and hard and cold, but if
they have been exposed to light in the cellar for a week or
two it is all right to spread them right out in the sun when
first taken from the cellar. The point is, that too great a
change from a cold, dark cellar, where the tubers are hard
and cold, to direct rays of the sun, is not the best plan.
Potatoes handled in this manner will sprout and grow all
right, but the change is too severe for the very best results,
and if it is necessary to take them right from the cellar to a
place selected to spread them where they will get the direct
sunlight all day, it is far better to leave them in bags there
for a few days, turning the bags over once or twice in order
that all the tubers may green and soften somewhat before
spreading them out. They should not be spread over one
deep on the grass, and it is better if they are to lay there
several weeks to rake them over at least once a week. This
will expose the whole surface of the tuber to the direct rays
of the sun. It is claimed by many that the sun’s rays will
kill the scab fungus, and my experience is that it is at least
beneficial in this respect. I have seen many acres of potatoes
showing missed hills, from ten to fifty per cent, or even
more, which was wholly the result of neglect or want of
care or knowledge in handling the seed before planting.
The loss from a poor stand of plants to the potato growers

Al
of this country every year is enormous, and when we con-
sider that a large part of this can be overcome by a little
care in handling the seed before planting, it becomes of very
great importance, not only to the grower, but the consumer
as well.

To begin with potatoes intended for seed should be
stored in a dark, damp cellar, and kept as cool as possible
without any danger of freezing. If they can be kept per-
fectly dormant up to the time they are needed, with the
tubers dry, hard and cold, we have them in the best possible
condition to make a start for a good crop. With potatoes
in this condition, some two or three weeks before we are
to plant them, they should be taken from the cellar, put into
sacks, a bushel in a sack, and soaked for two hours in a
solution of formaldehyde. (See chapter Treatment for
Scab.) When the bags are removed from the solution they
can be placed upon the ground, where the potatoes are to
be spread and let remain there some four or five days, turn-
ing them over once or twice during this time so that all may
soften and green alike. Then spread them out only one
deep on the turf. If they are raked over about once a week,
so that the sprouts on the under side won’t send roots into
the soil, they will keep in almost perfect condition for plant-
ing all summer. I have had them keep in perfect condition,
treated in this manner, spread in the direct sunlight, until
spoiled by the frosts of October. Seed treated in this man-
ner will give a perfect stand of plants unless insects or mice
destroy the seed after planting.

Now if the grower finds his seed tubers starting badly
in the cellar long before it is safe to spread them out of
doors, the same process as I have described can be followed
by spreading under cover where there is light.

SELECTING AND CUTTING SEED

Having selected a variety that will thrive in his lo-
cality, the grower must select seed free of scab. Good,
smooth tubers, of an average size, will cut up into more uni-
form pieces, which is a saving of trouble, if to be used in
any of the planters. It is really of more importance to the
farmer, who is using a planter, that his seed be cut to a
uniform size, than that there should be a certain number of
eyes on each piece. Hand-cutting by one, who knows his
business, is to be preferred to any of the potato-cutting

42

machines, which mangle more or less and cause an uneven
stand. In hand-cutting, the knife should be ground very
thin, not much thicker than common writing paper, or just
as thin as it can be and stand the work of cutting. This will
allow the user to cut many more bushels in a day’s time, as
he will feel hardly any resistance as the knife passes through
the tuber, and the cut pieces will not be mangled. In cut-
ting potatoes large enough to make over four pieces, it is
better to first cut the tuber in half, as shown in the center
of photo No, 9 and if very large, into quarters. Either the
center or right hand tuber, shown in the cut, should be quar-
tered. In all three of the potatoes shown in the cut the
stem end is down. In cutting up either into halves or quar-
ters, cut above the eye. The eyes of a potato have roots
always running towards the stem end of the tuber. These
take the stored-up plant-food, which the tuber contains, to
the sprout. If these are cut off close to the eye, while there

Photo No. 9. Showing method of cutting seed tubers, the stem end being down.

43

might be a good-sized piece of the tuber above the eye or
towards the seed end, the sprouts would have no way of
getting the plant-food it might contain, as it has no eye roots
running towards that end of the tuber. In this case it would
not make so strong or thrifty a plant or yield the tubers it
otherwise would.

The potato on the ileft, shown in the cut, is a medium-
sized tuber, or what would be termed a good second. As
the reader will note, the stem end is cut off, cutting above
at least one good eye and taking about one-third of the tuber.
This usually allows from one to three or more good eyes on
this stem end third of the tuber, even in a variety possessing
but few eyes. The next cut is made by cutting from the
upper or seed end down towards the stem end. This makes
three pieces of a tuber of this size, and there will always
be plenty of eyes on each, and very evenly divided between
the three pieces. It also has the advantage of having them
of very uniform size, which insures much better work with
any of the planters. .\s it is no more work to cut potatoes
with this idea in view of cutting above the eye, and the pota-
toes will come up a little more vigorous, it is well to observe
it. With potatoes the size of the one on the left, cut as that
one is, it will take about twelve bushels of seed per acre,
with rows three feet apart, and dropped fourteen inches apart
in rows. Cut seed should never be left in bags or piles so
that there is any danger of its heating. Seed that has
heated even a very little is unfit to plant, and if it comes
up at all it is weak and spindling and beyond any possi-
bility of making a paying crop. The proper way to treat
cut seed is to sprinkle liberally with land plaster (gyp-
sum), as fast as it is cut, being sure to get all the cut
surface covered with plaster. This keeps them cool and
prevents dying out, and if spread out, not over six inches
deep until wanted to plant, will not hurt, even if cut a
week or ten days before planting, provided they are kept
in a cool, shady place. Sulphur is also good for dusting
the seed pieces-as they are cut. In fact I have used the
latter almost entirely these last few years, especially on land
where wire worms were known to be present. Sulphur is
not a sure deterent for preventing the wire worms from
getting into the newly planted seed, but where care has been
used to get all the cut surface well covered with the sulphur,
I-am sure that it prevents damage by this worm to quite an
extent.

44

If fertilizer is used, the land plaster or sulphur will
also prevent it from coming in contact with the cut sur-
face of the seed, which otherwise it might do, causing
decay to begin before the sprout starts, and many times
the seed altogether. This is more likely to take place
when seed is planted as fast as cut, and experience shows
that the best results come from seed cut from twenty-
four to forty-eight hours before planting, and liberally
sprinkled with the land plaster or sulphur at the time of
cutting. It will pay any grower to follow along this line
as far as possible.

The size of the cut pieces has much to do with the
vigor of the sprout, and a fairly liberal piece should be
allowed, especially if the weather is cold and wet at plant-
ing. With rows three feet apart and pieces dropped four-
teen inches apart in the row, twelve bushels of seed per
acre is none too much, but if the weather is warm and
the soil warm and moist, the seed can be cut finer, say
to ten bushels per acre, and a good, vigorous stand result.

A great many growers practice clipping the tip off
the seed end of the tuber. There is nothing to be gained
by this; in fact, in many cases, it is a distinct loss. Of all
eyes on the tuber, the one or two directly on the seed end
are the earliest and most vigorous, and the clipping of
these deprives the grower of the strongest and best eyes
on the whole potato. This may not possibly be true of
some varieties, but it certainly is of the greater number.
The general feeling of those who practice this is that
there will be so many stalks come from the cluster of eyes
at the seed end that there will be too many potatoes set
to grow to good market size. This is not true of potatoes
planted in a dormant condition, as one or two, usually
one eye on the seed or tip end, will start so much quicker
and stronger that all the plant food in the potato, if small
or from reasonable sized pieces will be taken, the other
eyes failing to make any growth. .

One of the reasons why the Author prefers the hand
over machine-cut seed is that it enables the one cutting
to keep a much better oversight over the tubers cut. This
allows him to throw out many which would not be
noticed by one running a cutter. There are so many dis-
eases of the potato which are spreading over the country,
some of them very bad, like “Stem Rot” and “Late
Blight,” that no tuber which shows any sign of disease

45

should be planted by anyone. The soaking of the seed
tubers in the formalin solution will kill the spores of most
of these diseases which are on the surface of the tubers.
It is a much more serious matter when one has the “Stem
Rot” or “Late Blight” fungus to contend with, as the
spores of these are inside of the tuber itself and cannot
be killed by soaking the seed. Therefore, any tuber, when
cut, which shows any discoloration which may be either
of these diseases, should be thrown away and the knife
disinfected before another tuber is cut. The writer keeps
a pint glass jar filled with a strong solution of formalin,
and dips his knife into it whenever he cuts into a tuber
which shows any discoloration from any cause. Such
discoloration might be harmless, and again with pur-
chased seed, it might contain the spores of one or more
of the worst diseases a potato grower has to contend with,
and by using the knife without disinfecting it, would
carry these spores to several other tubers. It is better to
have two knives for each one cutting, and when a potato
is cut into which shows signs of any disease, the blade
can be placed in the formalin solution and the other knife
be used until another bad seed tuber is cut into, when
that knife can be placed in the solution and the first knife
be used again. My own opinion is that it is better to do
this every few minutes, even if the operator has seen no
signs of diseased tubers. The cost of enough of the
formalin solution and the time taken to change knives is
so small as not to be even reckoned with, and it will make
many hundred hills difference on each acre planted, if
there is by any chance a few tubers with the stem rot or
late blight in the seed potatoes. As the formaldehyde
solution loses its strength very rapidly when exposed to
air, the writer uses a glass preserving jar to hold the strong
solution necessary to disinfect the knives. Keep the jar
covered at all times when not actually cutting the seed
tubers. When the cutting stops, even for the dinner hour,
the cover is put on the jar, having the rubber underneath
which makes the jar air tight. If care is used to keep the
jar covered at all times when not actually cutting pota-
toes, one mixture of the solution will do for several days’
cutting of seed.

PLANTING EARLY POTATOES IN A GARDEN
In treating on the planting, I shall take it up under

46

three divisions: First, taking up planting of the very early
varieties in a small way. Those who are growing a few
for their own table, and desire to get them very early, can
take more pains in planting them than can the larger grower.

The gain of a few days in the maturing of the crop
more than pays for the extra time and trouble necessary to
obtain this result. A warm, sunny slope to the south, or
better still, to the southeast, on land as little subject to late
frosts as can be selected, will, of course, be the best. It
should be well fitted by deep plowing as soon as frost is out
so the work can be done. Frequent workings with the har-
row, both to fine and lighten the soil, and also to warm it,
will, if it can be so arranged to have this work done without
too much cost, help gain a few extra days in maturing the
crop, and in this way prove profitable. If these harrowings
can be done just after the heat of the day, turning under the
top or warm soil and bringing up the colder soil underneath,
and followed for a few days, if the weather is warm, will
increase the warmth in the soil to quite an extent. A few
extra degrees of heat in the soil early, means a great deal
to the grower of early potatoes. When the soil is well
fitted, furrows should be opened quite deeply, and for these
early varieties, a distance of from twenty-six to thirty-four
inches between furrows is room enough. For extra early
potatoes, there is nothing that will force a quick growth any
better than fine hen manure, it being rich in nitrogen. If the
potatoes are liberally sprinkled with land plaster when cut,
and sulphur scattered along the rows at planting, usually
but little damage will result from scab from this use of hen
dressing, where potatoes are to be dug early. Later on, when
the potatoes have well started, some fertilizer containing
an abundance of phosphoric acid and potash to force tuber
formation and growth should be used. If hen manure is
used, it should be drilled along the furrow and mixed into
the soil, so the seed pieces when dropped will not come in
direct contact with it. The same rule would also apply to
commercial fertilizer; if circumstances make it necessary
to use barn or stable manure, it will do no harm to the seed
to drop it right upon the dressing.

The objection to this is in the labor involved to drill
the manure, and the ever-present danger of scab. Rot need
be but little feared on very early potatoes. The seed pieces
should be dropped about fifteen inches apart in the row,
some taking the time and trouble to place these with the

47

sprouts up. This is a needless waste of time and labor. |
have carefully tested this, and if there is any difference in
time of coming up, it is in favor of those pieces dropped
with the sprouts down. The first covering of this seed,
while it will depend somewhat on the nature of the soil,
should be light, not over one and one-half inches in the
heavier soils, and two and two and one-half inches in the
lighter, and the rows should be deep enough so that after the
seed is covered, there still should be a depression of some
two or three inches. If the seed has been well sprouted
and carefully planted, it will begin to break ground in from
one to two weeks, according to weather conditions. The
depression along the rows can be gradually filled in as the
plants grow. The .weeder can be used, if run lightly, but
care should be taken not to break off any sprouts from these
early potatoes, as the time taken for the weakened seed
pieces to throw another sprout will make it so late, that that
hill will be worthless when the others are ready to dig, and
for all practical purposes might just as well have been
entirely destroyed. If at any time there is danger of frosts
after the potatoes break ground, they should be buried up
with soil; this can be done very quickly with a horse hoe,
and if there is a depression along the row, they can be buried
up quite deeply without making too much of a ridge, and as
soon as the danger of the frost is over, the weeder can
be again used to smooth the field off level, killing out all
weeds which have started. This will put the field in con-
dition to be again buried if another frost threatens. Pre-
vious to the second burying, an application of fertilizer
should be scattered along the rows, and the second burying
should cover this fertilizer at least three inches. If this fer-
tilizer contains quite a per cent of nitrogen in the form of
nitrate of soda, it will give the plants a very quick start, as
they have at this period a well-developed root system. This
nitrogen would not be so much needed in case of potatoes
planted on hen manure, but a fertilizer containing a high per
cent of phosphoric acid and potash applied in the same man-
ner would be highly beneficial in this case.

The point in getting potatoes early, is to get them up
as soon as possible in order that they can develop root
growth, and still keep the tops small enough so that they
can be covered with soil at any time to protect them from
late frosts. In this manner, with a well-developed root
“system and the second application of fertilizer applied at

48

just the right time, the grower can produce a crop that
will catch the high prices of the early market. As the
reader will see, this method could not be used in large
fields where it is necessary to use a planter, but in a
small way it has advantages. Well-sprouted seed,
planted and covered lightly at first, practically insures
a perfect stand of plants. This, many times, will largely
make up for the extra cost of the labor involved.

Another point for the kitchen garden grower, is to
take medium potatoes of about the size of a large hen’s
ege and sprout them as above described. At planting,
break off all sprouts but one or two of the best and
strongest at the seed end of the tuber. In this way there
will not be one chance in a hundred of the seed rotting
in the ground, no matter how cold and wet the weather
may turn. Of all eyes on a potato, those on the seed end
are the earliest and strongest, and by breaking off all
but one or two of these we have the very earliest and
strongest eyes on the whole potato.

These having such a start will take out so much of
the plant food contained in the tuber that there will sel-
dom be enough left to start any more stalks. Whole pota-
toes, of the size above described, taken from the cellar
in a dormant condition or before the eyes have started
in the least, and planted whole, will seldom produce, on
an average, more than four stalks to each tuber planted.
This is too many for very early varieties, as the resulting
crop would be too many in number and of too small size.
By breaking off all but two or three, or if large-sized
tubers were wanted very early, ali but one, it would mean
but one strong, vigorous stalk in a hill which would pro-
duce the result wanted.

If the grower will take two bushels of medium tubers,
about hen’s egg size, from the cellar when they are in a dor-
mant condition, cutting one bushel of them either in halves,
thirds or quarters, as best suits him, and plant the other
bushel whole, side by side with these cut ones on the
same day, under the same treatment, he will find those
planted whole will mature or ripen from a week to ten
days ahead of those cut. The cutting of the tubers seems
to delay its maturing its crop. If we take a tuber of the
size of a hen’s egg and sprout it as we must to get a very
early start of our crop and plant it whole, all the eyes
which have gotten well started will produce a stalk, re-

49

sulting in too many stalks in a place, and to get both re-
sults tending to the earliness of our crop from both sprout-
ing and planting whole seed, we are obliged to break off
all but one or two of the strongest sprouts on sprouted
medium-sized potatoes and then planting them whole.
This is too much labor, except in a small way, for the
small grower.

PipLD PLANTING OF EARLY POTATOES

In planting early potatoes where the acreage is large
enough to make it necessary that the work should be done
with the planter, the sprouts cannot be allowed to start
as much as with the carefully hand-planted tuber. Still,
if the crop is desired early, quite a little time can be
gained by starting the sprouts in a warm, light place. The
long white sprouts which start in the cellar are of no use;
they only sap the vitality of the tuber, and cause the next
set of sprouts to be weaker, and they will not produce
the crop of potatoes the first would. The seed should be
kept in a cold, dark place where the temperature is about
thirty-five degrees, to get the best results. A few weeks
previous to planting, they should be brought into a warm,
light place and spread where the sprouts will start. I do
not prefer for the sun to shine directly upon potatoes put
to sprout, for the very early crop to be planted in a small
way by hand, as described under that head, but it is all
right for those which are to be planted through a ma-
chine, the sun will green and toughen the sprouts, and at
the same time soften up the tubers. Potatoes exposed to
direct sunlight will start their sprouts more slowly and
they will be stouter and less liable to break off. In other
words, direct sunlight will seem to put the potato in bet-
ter shape to start its sprouts quickly when planted in
suitable soil, and at the same time start them the least
before planting. As it won’t do for seed, which is run
through a planter, to have the sprouts but just well
started, owing to their breaking off, this is a decided ad-
vantage.

Potatoes warmed and softened by the sun, with the
sprouts just well showing in the eyes, will come forward
and be from one to two weeks ahead of the same seed
taken from the cellar or pit, and when cutting, this gives
a chance to throw away all impotent eyes and all tubers

50

in which the sprouts fail to start. This insures a much
better stand of plants. The ground should be well fitted
in order that the planter can do its best work. The depth
to plant early potatoes with a machine must, to a cer-
tain extent, be governed by local conditions. In sections
where there is but little danger of moisture becoming
short early in the season, they can be planted more shal-
low. The deeper they are covered the longer they will be
in coming up, and in many cases the weaker they will be.
If the crop was desired as early as possible, 1 should not
have them covered over two inches below the surface of the
ground when the ridges which the machine left in plant-
ing is leveled off. This ieveling off should be done as
soon as possible after planting. In order to be sure that
all seed is covered on an average of two inches after the
surface has been smoothed down, the planter must be
set so that there will be at least five inches of soil over
the greater part of it as the planter leaves the rows be-
fore leveling. This extra three inches should be worked
off at once, as it prevents both air, light and warmth from
penetrating to the planted seed, and delays growth and
would retard the crop many days. The top soil is the
warmest in the early spring, but we have got to keep in
mind the fact that later in the season, the soil deeper
down contains more moisture, and is in better condition
for growth of tubers than is that nearer the surface. We
must have even our early potatoes rooted as deeply as
we can, and when we have planted them only two inches
below the surface, we have made as great a sacrifice for
warmth and an early start of the crop as the exigencies
of the later part of the season will warrant.

In planting early varieties of potatoes, I have found
it best not to use over seven or eight hundred pounds of
high-grade fertilizer per acre, in the drill, at planting
time. Early varieties are not so vigorous, as a rule, as
the later or main crop, and the amount of fertilizer that
many times will not cause any appreciable damage to
the later kinds will do quite an amount of damage to the
seed of an early variety. The rows of an early variety,
with its usually smaller growth of vine, can be several
inches nearer together, most growers planting from
twenty-six to thirty inches.

In planting early potatoes, it is better to have fer-
tilizer of two different formulas. The one to be used in the

51

drill to have its nitrogen in a slower form than nitrate of
soda, as it is usually several weeks before the plants would
have root growth enough to readily use it. Nitrate of soda
is available over night when placed in damp soil, and
would be, in case of heavy rain previous to the potatoes
breaking ground, largely lest to the crop. When plants are
well up, so that the rows can be plainly seen, the balance
of the fertilizer to be used should be applied. In my ex-
perience, I have got the best results from applying this
along the rows and by hilling the plants, covering them
some three or more inches.

This second application of fertilizer can have nearly
half of its nitrogen content in the form of nitrate of soda.
The plants will now have a large root system, and can
use it, and it will cause them to make a very quick growth
at this time. This is of much importance, as the quicker
the ground can be covered with vines the less moisture
is lost by evaporation, and the more rapid growth at this
time the less real damage is done by insects, especially
that scourge to early potatoes, the flea beetle. The
quicker we can get our vine growth on early potatoes,
the better, and I know of no way to so rapidly push it
along as by an application of fertilizer along the rows,
containing quite a part of its nitrogen in the form of
nitrate of soda, after the plants have broken ground and
havea well-developed root system.

PLANTING THE LATE OR MAIN CROP

In planting the late, or main crop, but little difference in
the method is required over the machine-planted early crop.
The seed should never be allowed to sprout in the cellar or
pit, as these sprouts are of no use and result in a great loss
of vitality. If it is possible when one finds his seed stock
starting in the cellar before he can use it, it should be gotten
out into the sunlight and spread out, not over one deep.
Potatoes that have begun to sprout will keep in good condi-
tion to plant, spread out in the direct sunlight much better
and longer than in any other way. If they have been kept
in cold storage, at a temperature too tow for sprouts to
start, they will require considerable more time to break
ground than if they are warmed up a short time before
planting. The ideal way to treat any potatoes intended for
seed is to keep them at such a temperature that the sprouts

52

will not start, and then a short time before needing them to
plant to bring them into the light and sun. In the case of
the late or main crop, to expose them to direct rays of the
sun, spread out thinly just long enough to get the buds well
started. They can be spread out of doors on the grass, but
it is much better to have them under cover in a building with
windows enough to let in plenty of sunlight, as then there
is no danger of late frosts doing them damage. In cutting
such potatoes, all weak eyed ones can be readily detected
and thrown out, which would be impossible to do if cut right
from the cellar or pit. Seed handled in this way has all its
vitality to put into the sprouts which are to make our crop.

This one point in handling seed potatoes may make a
difference between a good profit and a no inconsiderable
loss. The method of cutting seed is described under that
head. The planting of the late or main crop should be deep-
cr than for the earlier planted. The reason for planting the
general early crop more shallow is because the ground is
cold, which is likely to cause a loss in the seed by rot and a
delay in coming up if planted as deeply as the later varieties,
which with an early crop is something to be avoided. With
the main crop it is different, as the planting is later and the
soil has had time to warm up, and, having been well pre-
pared, the planter should be set to drop the seed at least
three inches deep, even in the heavier clay loams, and four
inches is better in most soils adapted to potato growing.
About one-half of the fertilizer should be used in the drill
at time of planting, or at least up to one-half ton of high-
grade fertilizer per acre. 1 do not find it advisable to use
more than this in the drill, even on the vigorous late varie-
ties, unless.-medium-size whole potatoes are being planted.
In this case as much as one ton of high-grade fertilizer per
acre can be used in the drill without but little harm resulting
to the seed, especially if the seed has been Wel started by
exposure to the light and sun.

The main crop varieties, which, as a rule, are of much
larger growth of vine, need to be planted in rows farther
apart than the early kinds. The most of them in the State
of Maine are given from thirty-two to thirty-six inches and
about fourteen inthes in the row. With some of our best
late varieties I have been forced to plant as near as twelve
inches in the row, in order to keep the size down to that
which the market most demands. This might not be the
case in many sections where dry weather is likely to cut the

53

size down more than it is along the coast of Maine.

STABLE MANURE

Stable manure is but little used in Maine in growing
potatoes. It has a tendency to cause both scab and rot,
and should only be used on land intended for potatoes,
when such land is sadly lacking in vegetable matter.

As I have said previously, the potato demands a lot
of humus in the soil to do its best, and only when it can-
not be supplied in any other way is it advisable to cover
the field with stable manure. This, of course, refers to
applying manure directly preceding the planting of pota-
toes. :

On the other hand, stable manure seems to add to
or give more life to soil bacteria that are so essential
to crop growth. Land that is well supplied with this soil
bacteria to start with can and will produce great crops
for years on commercial fertilizers, provided there is
plowed under a goodly supply of the clovers, vetch or
other humus-making material.

Even if this is done, there is but little doubt that a
good application of stable manure once every few years
will give new life to crop productions far in» excess of
the actual plant food it may contain.

The question with the potato grower is whether or
not the application of stable manure will not cause a loss
in quality as well as making the tubers rough and scaby
to offset the gain of the few bushels extra yield per acre
which usually results from its use. The proper time to
apply it to land that comes in the potato rotation 1s after
the potato crop is taken off. In this way, by the time
potatoes are again platited in the field, there will be but
little tendency left from its effect to produce either scab,
rot or a loss in quality. When applied to the newly seeded
clover after a potato crop, it will help greatly to make
a vigorous perfect stand of clover. This insures a good
sod to plow under to furnish vegetable matter for the
next crop of tubers when the rotation comes around to
potatoes again.

I have grown as good crop of tubers as I ever grew
on barn dressing alone, free from scab and rot, and of
good quality ; but this is the exception, and the safer way
for the potato grower who seeks fine quality in his

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55

product is to use this valuable product of the farm in
growing some crop other than the potato.

COMMERCIAL FERTILIZER

Probably there is no crop grown today, by the North-
ern farmers, at least, that will give so great a profit one year
with another, when the plant food to grow it is bought in
the form of commercial fertilizer, as will the potato. For
this reason, more than any other, is the potato in the East-
ern states grown on plant food purchased in the form of
chemicals or commercial fertilizer. Probably ninety per
cent. of the potatoes grown in the State of Maine have the
plant food supplied to the soil in this form.

There has been a vast deal of discussion as to whether
a farmer can maintain or increase the productivity of his
farm by growing crops on commercial fertilizer alone,
many claiming that it cannot be done, while others, taking
no part in the discussion, have gone ahead year after year
and demonstrated its entire practicability. Many of the first
users of commercial fertilizer made the mistake of using a
few hundred pounds per acre in the production of grain.
This gave good results for a short time and then failed utter-
ly, even with much heavier applications than at first. The
reason for this was not generally understood at the time,
and is not today in far too many cases.

Commercial fertilizer will not supply any of the bac-
teria to our soils which are absolutely necessary for a soil to
be productive. More than this, it does not supply any vege-
table matter to the soil, which is also absolutely necessary
for what bacteria there are in the soil to live and thrive.
There is, I believe, a ground for belief that heavy application
of the strong potash salts (acidulated phosphate rock) and
nitrate of soda tends to kill out the bacteria by direct con-
tact with them in the soil. If heavy applications of these are
made every year and no stable manure used, or leguminous
crops turned under to bring a new supply of bacteria to the
soil, it is only a question of a very few years when the soil,
being deprived almost entirely of bacteria, will not produce
a paying crop of anything, regardless of the amount of plant
food it may contain. In addition to this loss of bacteria
which the soil will sustain, it loses also in its mechanical
condition, as well as in its water-holding capacity, becoming
heavy, inclined to bake after rains and, instead of having a
moist, lively look, is dry and dead looking.

56

The question then arises, Can the farmer, who is so
situated that it is not advisable for him to keep stock, grow
potatoes on commercial fertilizer year after year and main-
tain the productivity of his soil? There is no question but
what he can (see photo No. 10) ; but if his soil is deficient in
vegetable matter, and, in that case, of bacteria also, he has
got a longer, harder road to travel before he gets it back to
producing maximum crops. If it is well supplied with both
humus and bacteria to start with, each year will see it pro-
ducing more and better crops.

As practically all soils have a great deal of locked-up
plant food in them, some an immense amount, no matter
how run-out they seem to be, the increase in productivity
comes largely from the acids formed by the decomposing
vegetable matter breaking down and making this available
for the growing of crops. That the bacteria aids in this
decomposing of the vegetable matter and the forming of
these acids, which break down and liberate this locked-up
mineral plant food, there can be no question. That they
directly take part in the process is open to doubt.

One of the chief objects of the potato grower who is
using commercial fertilizer wholly in growing his crop is to
get and maintain this vegetable matter in his soil, in order to
get satisfactory results from the fertilizer applied. The
amount to be used per acre should not be governed wholly
by the amount he expects the potato crop he will raise will
take off. For this reason, the most successful potato grow-
ers are applying many more pounds of phosphoric acid and
potash than any crop of tubers they may raise can possibly
remove. :

There are certain sections where potash seems to be
needed but little, even in growing potatoes, while phosphoric
acid is needed in large quantities, although the potato crop
itself needs but comparatively little phosphoric acid. These
facts make it impossible for one to give any set rule as to
the formula another should use in making up or selecting 2
fertilizer for his potato crop. This should be, however, se-
lected or made up with due consideration as to what the
crops which are to follow the potato in the rotation will need.

Probably a 4-6-10 formula is more largely used by the
Maine potato growers than any other combination. I refer
to this not as a guide for the grower in other states to fol-
low, but to the fact that there is no section of the country
where run-out, abandoned farms are now being brought up

wae eT

57

to a state of productivity so rapidly as they are in Maine.
This shows that this formula is not only giving the Maine
farmer the largest yield of potatoes per acre of any state in
the Union, but is adapted to his general rotation as well.
That the phosphoric acid and potash can be varied to suit
different sections and given even better results than the
majority are now getting seems probable. But for a general
formula a 4-6-10 will probably suit as many different soils
as any, where the land is to be put into a rotation, including
potatoes, and its productivity increased. However, a 4-6-10
fertilizer usually carried quite an amount of what is known
as filler, which the purchaser has to pay freight on, as well
as handle, and it is far better and cheaper to buy a 4-8-10
fertilizer, as there can be but very little in a fertilizer of this
high analysis.

The amount of plant food removed from the soil in a
crop of three hundred bushels of potatoes is, according to
the best authorities, about 58 pounds of nitrogen, 27 pounds
of phosphoric acid and 80 pounds of potash. As heat and
cold, dry or wet weather affects the availability of the plant
food in a fertilizer, we have to apply much more potash and
phosphoric acid than a crop will take off, in order to have
what the crop needs available at the time the crop most
needs it, if a maximum yield is to be obtained.

The larger part of the best farmers not only in Maine,
but in most other sections where potato growing on com-
mercial fertilizer is made a business, use a ton per acre of a
fertilizer of a 4-60-10 analysis. This means that they are
applying 200 pounds of potash, 120 pounds of phosphoric
acid and 66 pounds of actual nitrogen. With a crop of three
hundred bushels per acre, there are left in the soil 120 pounds
of potash, 93 pounds of phosphoric acid and 8 pounds of
nitrogen. Nitrogen is the most elusive element we have in
our fertilizer, and it is not economy to apply much more in
any one season than the crop we expect to grow that season
will use. The margin between what a crop of this size
would take off in nitrogen and the amount we have applied
in the ton of fertilizer is so narrow that if the crop depended
altogether for its nitrogen on what we applied in this way,
its growth would suffer. This would be especially true in dry
seasons. As potatoes should always be planted on land con-
taining more or less decaying organic matter, nitrification is
going on, furnishing enough available nitrogen to make up
all that the crop will need to do its best.

58

The office of nitrogen to the plant is to promote vine
growth, and an abundance of this element causes a heavy,
dark green growth of leaves and vines, and in case of a fer-
tilizer not well balanced up with phosphoric acid and potash
might, and in most cases will, produce much vine growth,
with few and small tubers. If either element was to be
lacking, it had better be nitrogen, especially towards the last
of the season. On the other hand, plenty of available nitro-
gen early in the season, to promote vigorous growth of vines
to cover the ground and prevent evaporation of moisture
and check the germination of weed seed, usually results ina
good crop. Potash and phosphoric acid promotes and de-
velops the formation of tubers, which takes place later in the
season, the tubers growing until the vines are entirely dead.

The vast importance of ready-mixed fertilizer to the
potato growers of Maine, and the unquestionable fact that
the farmers, especially the potato growers of the Central
Western states, have got to begin their use in a very few
years, makes the question of how and what to buy of great
interest. The plowing under of clover and the use of barn
dressing has been practically all the fertilization given the
potato in many sections where they have been largely grown.
This form of fertilization is unbalanced, for there is but lit-
tle phosphoric acid and potash returned to the soil in the
barn dressing, especially where the liquid part of it is allow-—
ed to drain away, as it is on so many farms.

There certainly will come a time when phosphoric
acid and potash will have to be applied, or the growing of
potatoes will become a failure. This failure will show
fully as much in the quality of the crops grown as in
the quantity, as the tubers will grow rough and scraggy
in appearance and be more often afflicted with scab. This
condition can be almost entirely overcome by good seed,
a proper handling of the soil and the intelligent use of a
properly made commercial fertilizer. I presume the
knowledge the Maine potato growers have of commercial
fertilizer has cost them millions of dollars, and it is pretty
safe to say that any section just beginning their use will
pay alike penalty. In the first place, no farmer, if he
needs a complete fertilizer and wants to get his money’s
worth, should buy a cheaper grade for any crop than a
4-8-10. It is also true that in a section just beginning to
use commercial fertilizers that a grade as high as a 4-8-10
is scarcely sold at all or even heard of. Now, to make a

Ss9

fertilizer of the above grade, it will take of the very best
concentrated materials that can be bought some 1920
Ibs., leaving only a chance for 80 lbs. of filler. The farm-
er thinks this high at $42.00 per ton, and in many cases
will turn around and buy a 2-4-5 and pay $25.00 per ton
and think he is getting a bargain. The facts are, he is
only getting just half of the amount of plant food he
would in a ton of 4-8-10. In other words, he would have
to buy 2 tons of the 2-4-5 to get as much plant food as
he would get in one ton of the 4-8-10, costing him
$50.00 instead of $42.00, or eight dollars more.
If this was all of the extra cost, it would not seem so bad,
but he has got to draw and handle that extra ton of weight.
which means, if he is some miles from the railroad, several
dollars more.

There are practically only three things that a farmer
wishes to buy when buying commercial fertilizers ; these are
nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash, and it is well to look
at the sources from which these come. Taking nitrogen
first, there is nitrate of soda, which is a salt mined from the
Chilean nitrate beds; meat tankage, dried blood, sulphate of
ammonia and cottonseed meal. These are all good forms.
Then we have other and more inferior sources, like ground
leather scrap, wool waste, hoof and horn meal, and some
others which it is not necessary to mention.

The user of fertilizer should remember this one thing,
that no plant can take up its food, whether furnished by
barn manure or fertilizers, only when that food is in solu-
tion. It has got to be dissolved in water before it can by any
possible means be taken up by the plant roots and used to
build root or stock growth.

Nitrate of soda is the most quickly available of any
form of nitrogen. Just as soon as it comes in contact with
damp soil it begins to dissolve, and as soon as dissolved it is
ready to be used by any crop. For this reason, it is not best
to have any of the nitrogen content of a fertilizer in the
form of nitrate of soda when any of the fertilizer is to be
applied either before or at the time of planting potatoes.
Every potato grower knows that it is from two to five weeks
after planting potatoes before there is any root system to
take up free nitrogen. Therefore, if any of the nitrogen
content of the planting brands of fertilizers is in the form of
nitrate of soda, the potato grower stands a fine chance of
losing a part of this high-priced element of his fertilizer by

60

having it washed from his soil by rains long before the po-
tato plants can get any root growth to feed upon it.

Nitrate of soda is all right to use in a potato fertilizer
for a part (not over one-half) of the nitrogen content for
the hoeing or top-dressing brand, as this will be if properly
used, applied after the plants have broken ground and got
more or less of a root system.

The next quickest available form in which we can buy
nitrogen is dried blood. ‘This, being organic matter, must
decompose or rot in the soil before any of the nitrogen
which it contains can become water soluble or available for
plant food. This decomposing or rotting will not take place
to any appreciable extent until the soil temperature reaches
or goes above fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit. Thus it is per-
fectly safe to have at least a part of the nitrogen content of
the planting brand of a potato fertilizer in the form of dried
blood.

Sulphate of ammonia would come next in availability,
and while some claim that it is not as good as the organic
forms of nitrogen, a certain portion mixed in works all right
in the planting brand.

Meat tankage, especially the best grades, where they
contain a certain amount of finely ground bone, are a fine
source for a large part of the nitrogen content of either
brand. For here, as in dried blood, decomposition must take
place before the nitrogen can become available, and with a
percentage of the tankage ground bone, which takes much
longer to rot, there will be nitrogen becoming available all
through the crop-growing season. This is of more impor-
tance than a great many give it, as a potato crop needs some
nitrogen, even in the later part of the season, if we are to
feed it so as to have it do its best.

Ground leather scrap, wool waste, hoof and horn meal,
while they are sources from which nitrogen can be obtained
by the commercial fertilizer manufacturer to make a good
analysis, are but little, if any, good to the potato grower.
Take, for instance, ground leather; while it gives a very
good nitrogen analysis, something like seven to eight per
cent., practically none of it would become available for any
crop. Probably there is not any of our soils which were
once good, no matter how worn out and unproductive they
may seem at present, but what contain nitrogen enough to
produce many maximum crops were it available. What,
then, is the use of any farmer or potato grower to buy fer-

61

tilizer that has any part of its nitrogen in these unavailable
forms, like ground leather?. The chemist in his laboratory
with his powerful acids can find and determine the amount
of nitrogen they contain and make a good showing on the
fertilizer bag; but the plants, working in their soil labora-
tory, are unable to break down and liberate it for their use,
and it is of no more use to them than any of that other
locked-up nitrogen which even many of our poorest soils
contain.

The nitrogen analysis on the fertilizer bag does not tell
the whole story, because it does not differentiate between
the plant food sources of nitrogen from those for analysis
only. For this reason, a fertilizer manufacturer can give as
high an analysis as a 4-8-10 goods, and by using these in-
soluble and unavailable forms of nitrogen make a saving in
cost to him of between five and seven dollars per ton. T ‘hus
the honest fertilizer manufacturer, who is putting out goods

containing actual plant food nitrogen, has got to face the
competition of those less scrupulous, who use the insoluble
forms, at many dollars less cost per ton to manufacture, but
who are allowed by laws in many states to have the same
guaranteed analysis on the bags.

There must be in the near future either a change in the
fertilizer laws of the several states or the user will have to
depend upon men whom he knows to be personally honest to
make up fertilizer for him. This has been the experience of

Photo No. 11. Showing the works of the Union Chemical Co., North Wales, Pa.—the home of the
Ideal Potato Manure—planting and top dressing brands—two brands with the same analysis,
but different in the nitrogen contents—the only brand made to meet the requirements of the

growing potato in a conservative, scientific manner.

62

the writer, who, knowing the market prices of the highest
grades of chemicals, has gone to an independent fertilizer
company and had what fertilizer he and his associates need-
ed made up out of honest materials, and paid an honest price
for them, regardless of the fact that he could buy the same
analysis of many manufacturers at a saving of about $8.90
per ton, but who do not, and will not, state the sources from
which the different plant food elements are taken.

Again, most fertilizer manufacturers have but one
brand; that is, they do not differentiate between what they
expect the potato grower to use when he plants his crop and
what he should use later on, when the potatoes have broken
ground and have a root system. Therefore, many of them
use nitrate of soda as part of their nitrogen content, which
would be all right for crops which quickly form a root sys-
tem, but which may and many times does cause a loss to the
potato growers, as I have above pointed out. This loss
would be greater on sandy soil or any soil underlaid with a
loose or porous subsoil.

The most practical way is to have the potato ferti-
lizer in two brands, both a 4-8-10, but with no nitrate of
soda in the planting brand, but in the hoeing or top-
dressing brand, which is to be applied after the vines break
ground. Quite a percentage of the nitrogen should be in
the form of nitrate of soda. There is one independent
fertilizer company, the Union Chemical Works, of North
Wales, Pa., which is today putting out a potato fertilizer
made up in these two brands. As far as the writer’s
knowledge goes, they are the only manufacturers of ferti-
lizers in the country who have recognized that there is as
much science in feeding food to plants as there is in feed-
ing livestock. Mr. Warren Fretz, of Bedminster, Pa., who
has probably done more to build up the potato-growing
industry of Pennsylvania in the last few years than any
other man, after carefully going over this matter several
years ago with the writer, originated and had brought out
the two brands made by the above company, and known
as the Ideal Potato brands. Both of the same analysis,
but differing in the make-up of the nitrogen content.
Photo No. 11shows a view of their factory. These brands,
rightly used, have given some of the best yields obtain-
able, both in Maine and Pennsylvania, for several years.

There is quite a fad in some sections among potato
growers to buy chemicals and mix their own fertilizer, some

63

claiming a great saving in cost. Those making this claim
are almost invariably those who have been buying the cheap-
er brands of fertilizer, and paying much more for them than
the analysis would warrant. Again, home-mixed goods of
the same analysis seldom give as good results in the field as
do those mixed by the manufacturer. For instance, the
farmer buying chemicals in comparatively small amounts
seldom gets his material in as many different forms as the
manufacturer has at hand. In the case of nitrogen, for an ex-
ample, the grower who buys chemicals seldom gets his nitro-
gen from but two sources, usually nitrate of soda and tank-
age, while the fertilizer manufacturer, having other sources
readily at hand, makes up part of the nitrogen content out of
these, thereby coming much nearer to giving the growing
crop a steady, moderate supply the season through. Then,
again, a well-equipped factory will get the materials better
mixed and in a more even manner than the home mixer.
The home-mixing fad seldom lives but a few years in a
place, and it is safe to say that the percentage of home-
mixed fertilizer used by the potato growers of Maine is so
small as to hardly be reckoned with. Maine, more than any
other state, grows its potatoes on commercial fertilizer, and
had there been any great saving in home mixing the Maine
potato grower would have been at the fore in the home-
mixing idea years ago. The safest way is to get the high-
grade fertilizer, buying of reliable firms.

CULTIVATION

Many farmers have an idea that cultivation begins after
the crop is planted. My way of thinking, this is not so.
Cultivation of the crop begins as soon as the soil prepara-
tion starts, and if the soil has been prepared as I have
described under “Preparing Land for Potatoes,” cultivation
is half done before the potatoes are planted.

There is no way in which the soil directly under the
rows can be fined and loosened after the potatoes are once
planted, hence, if this is not done before planting, it can-
not be done at all, and of all the soil in a potato field, there
is none which should be in better shape for crop growth
than that directly under the rows.

After planting there should be at least two deep culti-
vations. A two-horse double cultivator will do deeper and
better work and more of it in the same time and get up near-

64

er to the rows without disturbing the seed than can be done

with a single-horse cultivator. As soon as a field is planted

with the pianter the cultivator should be started, 1emniitg

it as deep and as near the rows as is safe to do without

disturbing the seed. The wheels of the planter will have

packed down the soil between the rows, and this cultiva-

tion will loosen it up, allowing heat and air to better pene-

trate it. As soon as this cultivation is finished the weeder,

brush-harrow or plank drag, should be used to work the

ridges the planter left over the rows down level. This |
|

Photo No. 12. Showing a properly fertilized field of potatoes—photo taken July 8, 1912. Photo
No. 13 shows the same field ten days later. Field of Dr. GC. M. Twitchell.

extra soil over the rows prevents the air and heat reaching
the seed and is of no value to it. On the contrary, it will
retard the starting of the sprouts, and in case of rains
may seriously injure them, causing a weak, spindling
growth. We do not want any more soil over our seed than

65

we are obliged to have until the plants are well out of the
ground, especially when we are planting from three to
four inches deep after the ground is smoothed down level.
For this reason the ridges over the rows as left by the
planter should be left after planting only long enough to
guide us in our first deep cultivation. This should be done
as quickly as possible after planting.

The field should be gone over every few days with
the weeder, until the sprouts get near enough to the sur-
face so that some are broken off, then its use should be
discontinued until the vines are well enough established
so that the weeder will break off but few, if any. Many
continue the use of the weeder regardless of this breaking
off of many of the sprouts, and perhaps in a hot, dry time
the use of the weeder will do the balance as much good
as the harm it has done to those it has broken off. One
of my fixed rules is never to run my cultivator so as to
break or cut off any portion of the root system; or to
break off a sprout with the weeder or any other implement
where I want a plant. If the seed piece has vitality enough
to send up another sprout, it is weaker and later in ma-
turing, and in case of early potatoes, a practical loss.

When the potatoes are well up, so that the rows can
be plainly seen, give them the second deep cultivation,
running the cultivator well up near the rows, but being
careful not to run near enough to cut off any portion of
the root system. This will kill all the weeds between thie
rows, but there will be many along the rows which we
cannot get with the cultivator. The plants are now ready
to receive the second application of fertilizer. If the
nitrogen in this second application can be largely in the
form of nitrate of soda, as the plants now have a root
system in a condition to take it up, it will force a very
rapid growth. (See Photos Nos. 12 and 13.) For apply-
ing this second application of fertilizer the planter can be
used by taking off both plows, but leaving on the fertilizer
attachment and the disk covers. We can now drive right
over the rows, drilling the fertilizer right along, and with
the disk coverers burying the fertilizer, weeds and pota-
toes. If the potatoes have come up stocky and strong,
they will push right up through this loose soil with which
we have buried them up. All little weeds will be killed by
this process. (See Fig. 14.)

The disk coverers should be set wide enough apart

66

to make a broad, low hill or ridge, throwing some three
inches of soil around and over the plants and fertilizer
which we have drilled along the row. The vines will at
once send out one or two new sets of roots above this

Photo No. 13. Showing the marvelous growth of potato vines in ten days time when
properly fertilized and protected from insect injury. Photo taken July 18, 1912 on field
of Dr. G. M. Twitchell, Monmouth, Maine.

fertilizer; in a very few days the earth around this fer-
tilizer will be found literally full of new white feeding
roots which the plants have sent out.

This burying process is, as far as I am able to learn,
a distinct Maine practice. I am not in favor of extreme
ridge or hill culture, but have never been able to get as
large crops and of as good tubers unless hilled moderately.
With this method, there is little, if any, root pruning,
which I believe to be, one year with another, one of the
worst practices a potato grower can indulge in. It is far

——— .

—" Te

67

better to make two applications of our fertilizer, and it is
a waste of nitrogen in the fertilizer to apply a portion of
it broadcast before planting if any portion of the nitrogen
is in the form of nitrate of soda. There is no way so
economical of labor and time as this method of applying.
Both the fertilizer and burying can be, and is done, with
one driving over the field. This burying of potatoes,
especially early varieties, should be done when they are
just well up, so that the rows show plainly. On _ the
later and more vigorous varieties it can be done without
injury even when they are from four to six inches high.
(See Fig. 14) Many of the plants on this field were six
inches or more high, and as the field contained more or
less witch-grass and many small weeds, the potatoes were
buried from four to six inches. This method kills out all
the weeds and grass and causes the potato to send out
new root growth. The plants will force right up through
this covering in about two days’ time. Time required is
about one and one-half hours’ work per acre. Figure 15
shows the same field at the last spraying, September 16,
1909. On early kinds, burying when too large hurts their
growth, especially if covered too deeply; for this reason, on
early varieties it is advisable to so adjust the machine that
they will not be entirely buried unless the weeds have got
a bad start, when everything should be covered out of
sight and deep enough to kill all weeds. The growth of
weeds or the cost of hand labor to remove them would be
more than the probable damage done the potato vines by
burying them; much depends on whether the potatoes have
come up strong and stocky; if weak and spindling, they
will not stand so deep covering without injury. Vigorous,
stocky plants will shove right up through several inches of
loose soil and in about two days’ time. If some of the
fertilizer falls on the leaves, no particular harm will be
done; the plants shove up through by making new growth
from the centre, and all leaf growth covered remains buried
and performs no further leaf functions to the plant.

There are two advantages right here, as any eggs
of the potato beetle which have been laid on the little
plants previous to this burying will be destroyed. In
some cases these will be the greater portion laid on the
field during the season. Another is the fact that the
plants will send out a new set of roots from each joint
of stalk which is below the surface of the soil we have

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69

thrown up around them; this enlarges the root system.
The applicaticn of fertilizer at this time, and placing it
where the plant can immediately feed upon it, more
than offsets any temporary check any good viporons
stalk will sustain when small by covering it with loose
soil, even to the depth of several inches. The cultivator
should be run through between the rows immediately after
this burying of the plants to loosen up the soil between the
rows and prevent evaporation of moisture. If little weeds
spring up along the rows again, a second hilling is some-
times adv isable. Only enough soil should be throw n up and
around the plants at this time to smother the weeds and to
form a dust mulch; usually it is not advisable to make this
second covering. The grower should be governed by
weather conditions and the growth of weeds in making this
second hilling; it must always remain largely a matter of
individual judgment.

The last working of the field should be with the culti-
vator narrowed up so as not to tear down our ridges an‘l
run very shallow, just enough to form the dust mulch be-
tween the rows. This system of cultivation might not be
applicable to many sections where dry weather is the rule
every summer. In the worst drouth we have had for years
here in Maine it has given fully as large crops as any sys-
tem of level culture where the cultivator is run very close
to the rows when the vines are from six inches to a foot in
height. This is many times done when the teeth of the
cultivator are loaded with the feeding roots of the potato
at the end of every furrow; this is root pruning and de-
prives the plants of just so much feeding capacity. With
the soil thrown up around them, if done when and as it
should be, there will be no root pruning. On the contrary,
there will be thrown out from the stalks many more roots,
greatly increasing the plants moisture- gathering capacity
and more than offsetting any saving in moisture there might
come from level cultivation. Each grower will have to
figure this out for himself and for his own particular soil
and climate. My province is to set down the facts as far
as my experience and knowledge goes and not to
argue for either the level or ridge system of cultivation.
Potatoes grown in the ridge system are more easily dug
than with level culture, and in a wet season are not so
likely to rot. There are less sunburned tubers, and a mod-
erate ridge system of cultivation would seem, one year with

7O

another, to have more advantages than either level or ex-
treme ridge culture.

INSEE CiIECID ES

In treating of insecticides, I shall take them up under
three Cinieene. Wiz cadkas Green, Arsenate of Lead and.
Bug Death, setting down in an impartial manner the ob-
jections and liimtations of each, giving those not familiar
with them a chance to decide for themselves.

The use of the deadly arsenical poisons has grown
to such proportions that thoughtful men may well pause
and ask whether or not there will come a time when the
soil itself will become so impregnated with arsenic as to
kill all vegetation.

A few years ago any one advancing such an idea
found himself ridiculed by many of the State Ex. Sta-
tions, the Stations claiming that the arsenic was, for the
most part, insoluble, and that there could be no danger
from this source.

I have only to cite the Orchards of Colorado to prove
how wrong was the advice given to the farmers of this
country by so many of the Ex. Stations. The loss to the
orchardist of Colorado alone will already run into the
millions, for there is hardly an orchard in the state fifteen
years old which has not suffered severe loss by trees
dying from arsenical poisoning. Tens of thousands of
trees have already died, and whole orchards are rapidly
becoming worthless, simply and wholly from the arsenic
which has been sprayed upon them to kill insects. What
condition the soil will be in to produce other crops after
these orchards are entirely gone no man can tell for a
surety. That it may become actually worthless for crop
production of any kind is the opinion of many, and this
seems plausible. The insolubility of the arsenical poisons
in any soil has been proved a myth, not by the Ex. Sta-
tions, which advocated their use, but by the orchardist
and farmer in his field work. No more severe indictment
of many of our so-called scientific men could have been
conceived than is shown by these dead and dying orchards
of Colorado and their ruined owners. That the potato
grower who uses arsenical poisons to fight the insects
on his vines may and will come to the same condition is
only a matter of time; but in the case of the potato there

bbb HNL by

in photo No. 14,

Ti

is a far more insidious danger, which I have described
under the causes of the running out of the potato. Al-
ready this has done untold damage to the vitality of the
potatoes East of the Rocky Mountains.

Here is another severe arraignment of the Ex. Sta-
tions. For the last fifteen years they have known that
it was not necessary that these deadly poisons be used
for this purpose, yet I have to learn of the first instance
where they have come out openly and told the potato
grower the truth. Fifteen years ago there was a concern
in Massachusetts which started making the insecticide,
called Bug Death, which contains no arsenic. They care-
fully tried this out on every garden plant, and found
that used in liberal quantities it was equally as effective
as any arsenical poison, and containing no arsenic it was
harmless to any plant or animal. They then submitted it
to the Ex. Stations of several of the New England states
for trial, thinking that the Stations would gladly welcome
the use among the farmers of any material which would
make it unnecessary to use the deadly arsenical poisons.
To their intense surprise they were met by ridicule. A
notable instance of this was when the Director of the
Maine Ex. Station devoted nearly nine pages of a bulletin
issued at that time for this purpose.. Not in a single
instance did the manufacturers have an offer of co-opera-
tion from any Ex. Station; neither was there the slightest
disposition on the part of any of the Ex. Stations to offer
their services to the manufacturers to the end that a bet-
ter insectide might be obtained than what was first brought
out.

If there has been any effort made by any Ex. Station
in the country along the line of getting any insecticide
which will kill insects, and not in any manner injure
the plants, the author has never heard of it. On the
other hand, every effort has been made by the Stations
to block the sale and retard the use of such when put
upon the market. I know of but two states in the coun-
try where an institute speaker dares to speak favorably
of Bug Death for killing insects without danger of losing his
iob on the force. These states are Maine and Pennsylvania,
and what is more significant, and what gives a sinister look
to this whole opposition, is the fact that in these two states
the Farmers’ Institutes are not to any degree under the in-
fluence of the Ex. Stations.

73

I have a personal knowledge of a case where the
director of Institutes frankly told the speaker that he had
done the best work of any man he had every employed along
the speaker’s particular line, yet, because he answered
some questions from the audience favorable to the use of
Bug Death for combatting insects, that speaker was dropped
from the force, and to this day has never been called back
to that state. More than this, the Station knowing the stand-
ing of this speaker on this subject, insisted that the Institute
director allow them to have a man from the station on the
force to spy upon him, and report to the Station his re-
marks, and that the question which he answered which re-
sulted so disastrously for him as an Institute speaker in that
state was instigated by the Station’s spies.

The author was talking potato culture to a New
Hampshire audience several years ago, and had spoken
favorably of Bug Death as a means of fighting potato-eat-
ing insects when he was interrupted by Prof. E. Dwight
Sanderson, of the New Hampshire College, an Ex. Station,
who demanded to know why, if what he said was true,
Wocds, of the Maine Station, had made such an unfavor-
able report on it. My reply was that if Woods had made
any such report as he had without knowing whether or not
he was right, it did him no credit, if he had made the re-
port which he had sent out knowing that it was false, it
looked black for Woods, and in either case it did the Sta-
tion no credit. A lively discussion followed, and so many
people supported my position by reciting their own experi-
ence, which tallied with my own, that the Professor saw
that he would be entirely discredited if it went on. He again
took the floor and acknowledged that as far as potatoes
were concerned he had no personal knowledge of what the
material would do on potatoes, but had simply taken the
Woods report from Maine, and to save himself from being
utterly discredited for attacking the speaker on a subject
he had to acknowledge he knew nothing about, he made
this surprising statement, that as far as potatoes were con-
cerned he knew nothing of its value, but he would say that
for the striped squash and cucumber bug that it was the
best and only thing he had ever found that he could suc-
cessfully combat this pest with. By acknowledging that
when used for this purpose it afforded complete protection
against these pests he saved his self-respect before that
audience.

74

Here was a man who every farmer and every con-
sumer was helping to support; also the Institution of
which he was a part, and neither he nor the Station has
ever, to the writer’s knowledge, made public to the peo-
ple this knowledge, which is worth thousands of dollars
to New Hampshire aloné. This is a typical cases, ime
farmers and consumers of this country are taxed to sup-
port the Ex. Stations, and yet knowledge which is vital
to the production of crops is withheld, because it did not
originate with the Stations themselves, and does conflict
with some of their preconceived theories. I do not mean
to charge this to be true of all the Ex. Stations. There
are some who deal plainly with this matter, and I advise
any of my readers to write to William P. Headden, of
the Colorado Ex. Station, Fort Collins, Colorado, asking
for his bulletin No. 131, printed in July, 1908, and No.
157, printed in May, 1910, on arsenical poisoning of fruit
trees. These should be read by every erchardist in the
country.

With a few exceptions like the above, 1f my readers
doubt the influence that the Ex. Stations have over the
speakers at Farmers’ Institutes, let them closely follow
any speaker in any state where the Farmers’ Institutes
are connected with the Ex. Stations, and see if the
speakers are not continually praising the Stations
and urging the farmers to insist that their legislatures
appropriate more money to them. Note, also, in far too
many cases the type of men employed as speakers. Are
they men who have made a success of farming in any
of its branches? No, they are men who work the farmers
to get them to vote more money to the Stations, and the
actual problems of the farmers are a side issue.

Now that they have led the orchardist of Colorado
to the point where the loss to the state runs into the
millions, if it has not entirely ruined for generations to
come large tracts of the best agricultural land in the
state, will we see any halt along this line of booming
arsenical poisons on the part of the Ex. Stations in states
not yet affected.

To answer that question we will have to inquire as
to the ownership of the arsenic mines in this country.

It is very little use to lock the stable door after the
horse is stolen, and what good will it do the potato
grower to inform him a few years hence that he has

75S

ruined his fields by the use of arsenical poisons? He will
know that then without being told. The proper mission
for the Ex. Stations is to inform him now of means to
fight his insect pests without any danger of poisoning
his soil, and a further and more insidious danger in the
case of the potato of weakening its producing powers by
Sapping its vitality year after year. Right here I know
of no way that I can bring these facts more forcefully
to my readers’ attention than by quoting from the above-
mentioned bulletins.

I deem this question of arsenical poisoning to be
one of the most important that confronts the agriculture
of our country today, and that the Colorado Station
should have the thanks of the whole country for the work
it has done through William P. Headden. The Colorado
bulletins on this subject, Nos. 131 and 157, are so val-
uable that I would like to quote them entire, but space
forbids, and I will have to content myself with the fol-
lowing extracts: “The number of trees affected. * * *
One man stated that in the last few years he had lost 50 per
cent of his Ben Davis. * * * * J visited one orchard
in which there was a large number of affected trees; in other
orchards there are only a few. The total number of af-
fected trees in the orchards of the Western Slope is already,
unfortunately, large. I have already clearly indicated my
conviction that the cause of the trouble is arsenical poison-
ing; that there are some trees suffering from other causes
is quite certain, but the cause of the greater portion of the
trouble is the arsenic, which has acculated in the soil. The
expression of this conviction is not a hasty one, for I am
fully alive to how much it means to this state and all other
orchard-growing states, where similar soil conditions prevail,
but it is for the best interests of orchardists that they should
know the facts pertaining to the death of their trees and the
conditions of their soil.”

“The Accumulation of Arsenic in the Soil.’—The num-
ber of sprayings applied varies from two or three to nine
during the season. * ™ * * The amount of lead
arsenate used ts from four to six pounds to cach 100 gallons
of water. The average orchardist does not consider the
amount of arsenic thus applied to a single tree a very large
quantity. * * * * Practically the whole of this
eventually finds its way into the soil. * * * * It is
not done one year only, but every year, * * * ¥* so

76

that we would expect to find a considerable accumulation of
arsenic in the soil, especially in the soil at the base of the
trees. This corresponds to the facts as found by analysis. In
one sample taken beneath the head of a twelve-year-old apple
tree, and representing the soil to the depth of five inches, I
found arsenic corresponding to 30.6 parts of arsenic acid to
each milion parts of the sow. * * *—We find, im
fact, what was from the beginning patent; namely, that the
arsenic does accumulate, and 1s already present im our or-
chards in dangerous quantities, if it, by any means, should
become soluble.

“The Arsenic Is Taken Up by the Trees.’—It is alto-
gether correct that the spray material applied is a compound
of arsenic, either difficulty soluble or insoluble in water, as
calcic arsenite or lead arsenate. It is also true that literally
hundreds of trees have already died or are sick, as, I believe,
beyond hope of recovery. * * * * We have seen that
the arsenic is accumulating in the soil, having already
reached as large an amount as 66.33 parts of arsenic acid in
a million of soul. * * * * Further, we have shown
that in these dying trees arsenic 1s present in the roots, the
trunk and branches varying up to 12.77 parts per million.
* * * * TI have stated my conviction that many trees
have been killed by arsenic, and that others are hopelessly
sick. I will give some reasons for my belief. First, tt 1s a
well-known fact that soluble arsenical compounds will kill
plants. It has been found that Herbicide, a preparation
found on the market, is essentially a solution of an arsenical
compound. Both white arsenic and arsenic acid have been
shown by various experiments to be deleterious even when
present in very small quantities, one part per million in
solution.

“Second. I took some green house plants, coleuses,
daisies and geraniums in two and a quarter and three inch
pots, and added from 0.05 to 0.5 grams, approximately from
3-4 of a grain to 7.5 grains, of sodic arsenite, and the
smallest amount used sufficed to kill the plants.

“Third. I know of two trees, one killed outright,
* * & * and the other partially killed. It was my good
fortune to see this tree when the affected limb was still on
the tree with the dead and blackened leaves clinging to 1.
Inquiry elicited the statement that it had been killed by ar-
senic, as the other tree had. In the case of the tree that had
died, they had made arsenite of lime under it or near it, and

iat et

9 LF

had probably spilled the arsenite of soda. In the case of the
tree, one limb of which was dead, they had been more care-
ful with their sodic arsenite. Having some left over, they
determined to get rid of it, and emptied it into the ra mele
ditch near the tree. This was one day in June. Two. days
later the limb was sick. I saw it in October when the limb
was dead and had the appearance of having Pees dead for
some time. * * * * J measured the distance from the
trunk of the tree to the irrigating ditch, * oe Ci
found it to be 12 feet. An examination of this tree showed
that a section of the bark from the base of the trunk up into
the big limb was brown, sunken and in appearance like the
bark in the trunks of affected trees. The wood beneath this
bark was dead and colored brown. * * * * The con-
dition below the surface of the ground was even still more
striking, or the bark was destroyed and the little that re-
mained was very dark, in places black. We dug out this root,
following it to the irrigating ditch, to the point where the
sodic arsenite had been emptied. * * & * The killing
of the bark and woody tissue was in this way traced from
the point at which the sodic arsenite was introduced into the
ditch through the small roots into the large one, thence into
the trunk, the limb and even into the branches. The course
was direct, and the flow of the poisonous solution was con-
fined to a comparatively narrow channel. * * * * We
have not simply assumed that the placing of sodic arsenite
in the ditch and the dying of this branch of the tree two days
later are wholly conclusive as to the cause of death. I have

examined the wood of the branches and the root, and and
an abundance of arsenic in both. In this case I ‘recovered
the largest amount of arsenic found in any sample,
* * * * corresponding to 34.5 parts of arsenic acid in
one million parts of the tissue. The other portions of this tree
were apparently in good condition when I last saw tt.
* * * * T have given this case in some detail, because I
believe it to be as conclusive proof as can possibly be ad-
duced that soluble arsenic compounds not only produce death
when introduced into the circulation of the apple tree, but
will produce the effects which we find preceding the death of
our apple and pear trees. In both cases we have the killing of
the bark, the staining and destruction of the tissue and the
killing of the trees. * * * * J have now given the rea-
SONS for my conviction that the arsenic which has accumu-
lated in our soil from the use of arsenical sprays used in

78

combatting the codling moth and other fruit, leaf and bark-
eating insects is the cause of this trouble. To restate them
succinctly, we find the arsenic already accumulated in the
soil to an extent far beyond the danger line for solutions as
established by competent experimenters. We find it also in
the tissues of the plant, where it is not normally present. We
have proved both in the case of herbaceous and woody plants
that soluble arsenical compounds will cause their death. I
regret that I can see no other conclusion than that the cor-
roding of the crowns, the killing of the bark, the staiming
and final destruction of the woody fiber, the early dropping
of the leaves presaging the early death of the tree and its
final death a few months later are caused by arsenical
poisoning.”

All of the above quotations have been taken from
Bulletin No. 131, dated July, 1908. I will now quote
from Bulletin No. 157, May, 1910:

“T gave in Bulletin 131 a definite experience with a case
in which it was charged that arsenic, lead and copper had
been the cause of the death of trees, grass and even of
animals eating the grass, and I am fully convinced that there _
is great danger of our adding arsenic enough in the form of
materials used for spraying to jeopardize not only the life of
the trees, but bring about other conditions of a most serious
character. I have heretofore been very careful not to con-
demn the practice of spraying, but simply to call attention
to the dangers accompanying the practice, and particularly
the excessive application of these poisonous preparations to
the trees, and eventually to the soil. * * * * Up to
the present time we do not know of any other practical and
effective means of protecting our fruit against the codling
moth than some form of arsenic, and so far as we now see
we must continue to use this means. This, however, does not
mean that we cannot improve the practice in several ways.
kk still greater improvement would be to obtain
some substance which would furnish our fruit the desired
protection, but which would be entirely free from the serious
objections which apply to the use of any arsenical prepara-
tion. This is not an impossibility. “~ * * * The
assumption that the arsenical preparations used for spraying
are insoluble in water is not justified, and yet this is a condi-
tion which they must fulfill in order that they may be safely
used. Further, conditions may, and im some cases certainly
do, exist in the soil which makes them more soluble than they

Photo No. 17. Showing the effects of arsenical poisoning on potato leaves from Paris green. No

Potato plant can produce a full crop of tubers when suffering from injury of this kind.

80

are in pure water. I have met with many men to whom it
was a matter of some surprise that the arsenic might accumu-
late in the sou, though they knew that the amount of soluble
arsenic in the soil might increase with the years.”

“The Number of Trees Affected.’ '—Under this caption,
im Bulletin 131, I stated that it would be difficult to obtain
data on which to base even a rough estimate of the number
of trees suffering from this trouble. I have visited many
orchards since I wrote the above statement, and am now con-
vinced that it is difficult to find a fifteen-year-old orchard in
Khe state wholly free from this difficulty. * * * * J
am convinced that the number of trees already seriously af-
fected by this trouble are not numbered by hundreds, but
rather by tens of thousands. * * * #

We have been using arsenical sprays in the various parts
of our country for various purposes about 40 years. We
have been spraying our apple orchards about 28 years, and
in Colorado we have been spraying 18 or 20 years. The
question is what has been the effect of this in regard to the
amount of arsenic in the soil. The answer 1s given above,
i. e., that even in Colorado we have increased the arsenic
content of our orchard soils at least tenfold, and im the
older states it must be even worse if they have been nearly
as zealous im spraying as we have been.

But few people consider the real character of the sprays
used, and we cannot expect the ordinary orchardist to con-
sider the possible results, and there has been an abuse of the
Pio aee The practice in this sense has been a dangerous one.

“Trees That Have Not Been Sprayed.’—I introduce
this subject for the simple reason that through this clatun
for certain trees I found some very instructive and interest-
ing cases. Itis avery common thing for persons to state that
“those trees have never been sprayed.” I have been decewed
by this statement so often that I now pay no attention to tt
at all. I have examined too many trees that “have never been
sprayed,” and found arsenic, copper and lead present, which
I consider as establishing a strong presumption that the tree
has been sprayed. In this instance, however, I know the
owner personally, and he was so positive, and his statement
was corroborated by at least one other member of the family,
that when I saw the trees, which I thought were surely not
sprayed, I did not know what to think. I at once saw that I
had to examine at least two of the trees, for if these trees
had not been injured by arsenic, then I had at last found an

81

anstance of apple trees with corroded crowns and all the
other conditions which I had been attributing to the irritant
action of arsenic which were not due to this cause. I took
samples of the corroded roots of two trees, and found
arsenic without any trouble. I knew that my friends had not
tried to deceive me, and was certain that an explanation was
to be had. I suggested to them that potatoes might have been
grown between these trees and had been sprayed with Paris
green or possibly lead arsenite. This proved to be the case,
and while the trees had not been sprayed as apple trees, they
had been sprayed with the potatoes.

At this time it is impossible to learn whether these trees
had ever had the poison applied directly to the body of the
tree or not. A few points, however, are established: That
the crowns of these trees were girdled, the roots were cor-
roded, arsenic was present in the woody tissues of the trees.
The trees have since died. They were never directly sprayed
as apple trees, but potatoes were grown between these trees,
and were sprayed with Paris green in the earlier years of the
orchard, and later with disparine, a trade name for arsenate
of lead.”

I have examined a number of samples of apples and
pears from Colorado and other states, namely, from Cat-
forma, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Tili-
nois, and found them all to contain arsenic. Some of these
samples were bought in market, but for others I am indebted
to the officers of the respective Experiment Stations, and it
is a pleasure to acknowledge my obligations to them. I may
state in this connection that the above fact 1s not the only one
indicating that other states where spraying has been dili-
gently practiced are suffering as we are, but not to the same
extent.

The author has quoted largely from these bulletins of
Prof. William P. Headden, for the results shown tally
with the author’s own experience as to the danger of the
use of arsenical poisons. I believe there is as much dan-
ger today in Maine from the use of Bordeaux mixture as
there is from the arsenical poisons in poisoning the soil.
In many parts of the state there are potato growers who
use from 25 to 40 or more pounds of copper sulphate per
acre each year in spraying with Bordeaux mixture. That
this amount of copper sulphate can be used without danger
to the vitality of the tubers grown when used year after
year I do not believe. Five years ago I had a barrel con-

82

Dr. G. M. TWITCHELL, Auburn, Maine.

One of the foremost thinkers along agricultural lines in the country today.
For thirty years devoted entirely to study of and experiments in agriculture.
Never with a thought of personal gain but that he might in some way serve

his brother farmers and aid in promoting the one industry most vital to the
enduring life of the nation.

83

taining about fifteen gallons of copper sulphate water, one
pound to the gallon left at my last spraying in September.
This stood at one side of the potato field on the sod
ground. This was an old turf composed mostly of red
top and June grass, and was very thick. The barrel con-
taining the fifteen gallons of copper sulphate was upset
by some one, spreading over a place several feet across.
The grass and turf was entirely killed out as far as the
water reached, and there has been neither grass nor weeds
of any kind grown on this spot in the five years since.

That the result of using Bordeaux mixture where a
potato rotation of once in three years is practiced, espe-
cially the amount used by many, can fail to be anything
but harmful to crop production in the near future goes
without saying.

It is through the leaves that the potato plant is enabled
to store starch in its tubers and make quality. Dr. G. M.
Twitchell, of Auburn, Maine, who is one of the foremost
Institute speakers Maine ever produced, has set this out far
better than I, a plain farmer, can do.

Dr. Twitchell Clearly Explains this in the
Following Article

With natural increase in interest in potato growing,
there follows the necessity for a like increase in attention to
the subject of spraying, for the reason that is the only path
by which we can insure a healthy, normal or satisfactory
crop. Being in business for a livelihood, it behooves every
farmer to consider what may be the conditions ten, twenty or
thirty years hence. Population will have doubled by that
time, but not cultivated area, hence you must prepare for in-
crease of crop per acre. Going still further, we find that, in
the study of food by the public, the time is at hand when
the value of any food product will be determined, not by the
mere fact that it is a food product, but by the actual ‘food

value enclosed within its skin or shell. The potato grower
358 be preparing for the day, not far distant, when price
alized will be fixed by food content in the product, when
his potatoes must carry a higher per cent. of starch, that be-
ing the element which insures quality. To get this, more at-
tention must be given to protection of the leaves, as well as
soil, from any and every agent which might detract from
the perfection of the tuber. No man has yet learned the

84

secret of maximum production. A great undiscovered coun-
try opens before the aspiring grower, but to enter he must
know that his soil is free from harmful minerals, and his
vines protected throughout the season from all insect pests
and fungus diseases and certainly from the possible mjury
to leaf and stalk by the use of arsenical sprays. Infinitesimal
damage to leaf structure, damage revealed only by the mag-
nifying glass, will reduce the starch content in the potato,
as well as yield per acre. The relation spray solutions hold
to financial net returns to the grower are not realized. It is
a sad mistake to figure upon the basis of first cost. Final
yield and food value alone can determine. Arsenic kills,
therefore use arsenic, is the sum total of the advice given by
those set to aid the farmer. If there was no other agent, or
combination of agents, which will protect, without injury, the
danger from pest and disease might justify this cry. So far
as known, no attempts have been made by the scientific
workers to find any other effective, yet absolutely safe agent,
for the farmer to rely upon. It has been fully demonstrated
that it is practically impossible to use Paris green without
doing injury, yet, in view of this fact, this agent is today
being urged as most effective and economical.

Arsenate of lead is far preferable, less injurious, and
protects for a longer period, but both have value only from
the arsenic they contain, and this is an indestructible
mineral, finding its way into the soil, never to be removed,
and increasing with every year’s use. Some day this must be
reckoned with by the potato grower and orchardist, hence, it
becomes vital that we rely upon agents free from all possible
danger to crop or soil, and promotive of growth and quality.
For eight years I have used nothing but Bug Death on pota-
toes, garden crops, also on all fruits, and also for pests on
apple trees and fruit. When some machine is perfected, so
that as thorough work can be accomplished in dust-spraying
apple trees as are now available for potatoes, and all small
fruit and vegetables, I am forced to believe that protection
will be complete and the delicious apple can be offered the
purchaser absolutely free from all taint of arsenic.

Economic conditions, growing more exacting every
year, force a constantly increasing study of this problem of
quantity and quality, and, if it results in more complete mas-
tery of the subject of preparation, care and fertilization, it
must also lead to as critical study of the safest, surest means
of protecting growth and leaf development that greatest

85

value may inhere in the finished product. Here is where
the net profit of the future grower is to be found and the
business established. The day is near when guarantee of
starch content will open wide the door to a market the value
of which cannot be estimated. It is showing itself in the
demand already active for graded potatoes, packed in
bushel boxes, every potato wrapped in paper. ‘The step is
short from here to that of guaranteed quality based upon
per cent, of starch.

To obtain this it behooves the grower to give close at-
tention to the insecticide he uses and think of cost only as
related to quantity and value of the perfected product.

GEOOM. TWITECHELL.

PARIS GREEN

Paris green is today the most universally used of either
for killing the potato-eating insects. It is a copper com-
pound of arsenic and a deadly poison, and should never be
kept where children or stock can reach it. Its action on
foliage is harmful; many farmers who have applied to po-
tato fields a little too strong solution of Paris green have
killed them entirely. Others have noted when a weaker
solution was used that their fields turned a lighter green,
losing their thrifty appearance and becoming a ready prey
for blights... Many farmers claim that it is the cause of the
late blight or rot; this is true only in the sense that its use
so weakens the plant that the power to resist this disease is
lowered. Its depressing effects on the vines are greater if
the leaves have been more or less eaten by insects; this is
specially true of the work of the flea beetle, which it does
not kill to any appreciable extent.

The reader will get a better idea of the injury done the
potato plant by Paris green by referring to Figure 17, show-
ing injury due to arsenical poisoning.

Some authorities claim that this is wholly due to the
free or water soluble arsenic which the green contains, and
that the addition of lime will prevent all injury. To a cer-
tain extent, this is true, and the user should always use more
or less lime in any mixture containing Paris green which he
sprays upon his potato vines. That this injury can be wholly
overcome by the addition of lime has not been the experi-
ence of one of the greatest potato experts I have ever known.
Neither has it been true in my own case. That its use on

86

potato fields will, in time, impregnate the soil to the extent
that it will impair the growth of vegetation seems plausible,
in view of the recent developments in the orchards of Colo-
rado. It must be remembered, however, that the amount
used per acre of orchard was several times the amount usu-
ally used on a field of potatoes ; and in the case of potatoes,
where a rotation is followed, bringing them on the same field
only once in three or four years, it would take a much longer
period of time for the soil to arrive to that stage now found
in some of the poisoned orchards of the West.

In the one point of killing the Colorado potato beetle
there is nothing much cheaper than Paris green, and the
potato grower using it in a spray mixture should add a
pound or two of lime to every pound of Paris green. If

Photo No. 18
Showing the diamond slot 4-row duster applying Buz Death to a 25-
acre field of potatoes on the Johnson Seed Potato Co.’s farms, Richmond,
Maine, season of 1912. Note the fine condition of the vines. This field
was never sprayed with Bordeaux Mixture and kept green many weeks
longer than fields nearby, which were thoroughly sprayed with Bordeaux.

37

Bordeaux mixture is used, the lime in the Bordeaux will be
sufficient, the Paris green being added to the Bordeaux at
the rate of one pound to each acre of potatoes to be sprayed.
Paris green has no fungicide value, and its addition to the
mixture is simply to combine an insecticide with the Bor-
deaux. Used in this way, it will adhere better to the vines
than if used alone. Those who use it in a dry form will get
the least injury to the potato vines by mixing it with land
plaster (gymsum) at the rate of one pound of Paris green
to fifty of plaster, dusting over the plants with any of the
dusting apparatus that will do the work.

That it is not more generally used in this way is because
of the fact that most of the machines on the market have
not been a success in distributing it as it should be.

For one who desires to use Paris green, mixed with
land plaster, will find the Diamond Slot two and four row
duster (photos Nos. 18 and 19) equally as effective for
putting on this mixture as for applying dry Bug Death.

The plaster has a beneficial effect on many soils. Paris
green varies greatly in its killing strength, also in the water
soluble arsenic it may contain, but this variation is not so
wide as to cause the great difference in the killing of the
potato bugs which so many farmers complain of. One
pound per acre ought to entirely kill the bugs, if evenly ap-
plied, but I have seen many potato growers who had to apply
from three to four pounds per acre at an application, and
even the second and third application of this amount would
not clear the vines of bugs.

I am inclined to the theory that under certain weather
conditions it makes the vines distasteful to the bugs, and
they pass through a period of time when they do not eat
enough to kill them, while the vines growing new leaves soon
give them a new feeding ground free of the poison. I have
noted this same failure both with arsenate of lead and Bug
Death practically as often as I have with Paris green; and
as all three are effective in killing these pests when eaten by
them, I can account for their seeming failure in no other
manner.

The heavy amount spoken of above, however, should
never be used, as the injury to the vines is too gre at, and
may result in the entire loss of the crop.

The potato grower using Paris green should use as lit-
tle as possible of it, and get as even an application as possi-
ble over the entire plant. With the Paris green and plaster

Photo No. 19

o-row duster at work in the author’s home potato field, se
r very evenly over any plants in rows—2 acres of potatces an hour can be easily gone over

Showing a tw ason of 1912. This two-row duster will distribute
Bug Death or any fine powde
with it, doing fine work,

ae

89

mixture, the evenness of the application is apparent at a
glance, and a minimum amount of the green can be used.

ARSENATE OF LEAD

Arsenate of lead was the result of the demand for some
poison as effective as Paris green, but without its injurious
effects on foliage. It was used largely by the old Gypsy
Moth Commission in Massachusetts for the spraying of
trees infested with this pest. It has two advantages over
Paris green, in that it will adhere much better to the leaves
during rainy weather and that the injury done the vines-is
not so apparent. In my experiments with it, the loss in yield
of tubers by its use was not over one-half that caused by
Paris green.

One objection to it is that it is slow in its action in kill-
ing the bugs. I have seen fields after the third spraying
with it literally swarming with larvae of the potato beetle.

It is more costly than Paris green and is equally danger-
ous to stock, and, as more pounds of it are used per acre, is
open to the same objections as a soil poisoner as is Paris
green. However, if I were obliged to go back to the arsenic-
al poisons as a means of killing the potato-eating insects, I
should use arsenate of lead in preference to Paris green,
making several sprayings within few days’ time, when the
slugs were hatching out. In this way insects could be gotten
rid of, with a minimum of injury to the plants by arsenical
poisoning. As it has to be applied in the form of a spray,
it is not so available for those not equipped with some spray-
ing apparatus as is Paris green or Bug Death, either of
which can be applied in a dry form.

BUG DEATH

Bug Death is entirely different from either of the pre-
viously discussed insecticides. It contains no arsenic,
and while it will kill many kinds of insects, including the
potato beetle in all its stages of growth, it is entirely harm-
less to stock or human beings. There is absolutely no dan-
ger of stock getting poisoned with it; no more than there is
with road dust lime or ashes. But its chief value lies in the
fact that it affords the potato grower, the market gardener,
the fruit raiser and all growers of flowers a safe means of
fighting a greater part of the insect pests, without the least

90

danger of injuring the foliage. There are hundreds of
thousands of country people who need and have been look-
ing for years for something along this line, which can be
easily and quickly applied without any danger of injuring
tender plants.

The author has been using Bug Death on his potatoes
and garden truck for fourteen or fifteen years, using some
seasons over a ton of it, practically all of which he applied
himself, either with a horse-power sprayer or dusting it on
dry. From this long experience, I feel safe in speaking
very positively of the value of this material to any one
needing an insecticide. In the growing of seedling pota-
toes, which have a very tender foliage, which is certain to
be injured by the application of arsenical poison, and
which are most certain to be injured by Bordeaux Mixture
itself, I have been able to keep them in much better con-
dition by the simple method of dusting them lightly with
dry Death Bug five or six times during the season. This
in spite of the fact that some of our scientific men in the
State Ex. Stations ridicule the idea of Bug Death being a
fungicide. As far as first cost, it is not as cheap as either
Paris green or arsenate of lead, as much more of it has to
be used. The retail price is $7.50 per hundred pounds, and
100 pounds is none too much to use on an acre of potatoes
during the season, and in many sections will give as good
results as is possible to get with Bordeaux Mixture, no mat-
ter how well made and thoroughly applied.

Bug Death can be applied in water through a sprayer,
but I have never been able to get as good results in that
manner of applying as I have in dry form. It is a decided
improvement to Bordeaux mixture where one needs an in-
secticide with the Bordeaux. Used in this way, 15 to 20
pounds per acre at each application for three or four appli-
cations will give almost perfect protection both for the flea
beetle, that scourge of the potato growers, and the Colorado
beetle also. Fifteen to twenty pounds of Bug Death, added
to enough Bordeaux Mixture to thoroughly cover an acre,
makes a thick, heavy mixture, which will not wash off the
vines when once dried on. In fact, after trying all kinds of
tnsecticides, I unhesitatingly claim that Bug Death and Bor-
deaux Mixture gives the greatest protection, both for insects
and blight on the potato, of anything yet produced as a spray
mixture.

In spite of this, all things considered, I prefer to dust

91

the Bug Death on dry, especially the early part of the sea-
son. There are several reasons for this; first, there is sure
to be more or less injury to the potato vines from the
Bordeaux Mixture itself, varying in the time of showing
according to weather conditions, but usually showing here
in Maine in about six weeks from the time of the first
application.

By dry dusting with Bug Death early in the season to
keep the vines free of all insects, those who live along the
Atlantic coast and near ponds and streams, where foggy
weather is apt to make blight conditions very bad, can delay
the use of Bordeaux Mixture usually into August, and thus
to a large extent escape the injurious effects of the Bordeaux
But sections with these conditions form but a small part of
the potato-growing area of the country, and in most cases
the use of the dry Bug Death will give all the protection
needed, both for insects and blights.

The matter of getting water is a serious one to many,
and costs a lot of hard work to any one spraying. Again,
when spraying, work should not be begun in the morning,
when the vines are heavily laden with dew, but with the
dry dusting’ many acres can be gotten over with the dry
duster before it would be best to start the sprayer. Photo
No. 18 shows the Diamond Slot four-row horse duster.
As it is but a few seconds’ work to fill this machine with
the dry powder, four or five acres an hour can be easily
gone over, thereby allowing the large grower to get over
a large field long before the dew would be dried off enough
to start a sprayer.

Photo No. 19 shows the hand or two-row duster. This
machine will apply dry powder like Death Bug very evenly
over the vines, and two acres an hour can be easily gone
over with it, doing fine work. This photo was taken Sep-
tember 5th, 1912, and shows the author and a part of one of
his potato fields. This field has been gone over twice with
the two-rowed machine, applying a total of 80 pounds Bug
Death per acre in the two applications.

The photo showing the Diamond Slot duster applying
Bug Death on a 25-acre field of the Johnson Seed Potato
Co., Richmond, Maine, was taken August 30th, 1912. This
field had nothing but dry Bug Death applied for either in-
sects or blight, and was on September Ist, 1912, the finest
field of growing potatoes of its size I have ever seen, and I
have seen some of the finest fields grown in Aroostook

92

County, Maine, where soil and climatic conditions combine
to make of a potato field a thing of beauty.

To sum up, those wishing to use something besides the
deadly arsenical poisons will find Bug Death will free the
vines of both the Colorado and flea beetle, and give practi-
cally the same protection against blights as Bordeaux Mix-
ture. In addition, it will be found to be a positive benefit to
the plants, which will be shown in the darker green of the
foliage, and an increased yield per acre, varying from ten to
sixty bushels.

Photo No. 20 shows the plant where Bug Death is
manufactured. I want the reader to note photograph No. 4.
showing an experimental plot of one-seventh of an acre on
an old, run-out piece of land, planted without any commer-
cial fertilizer or barn dressing, but which was heavily dusted
three times during its growing period with dry Bug Death,
a 100-pound keg being used, or at the rate of 700 pounds per
acre. This amount was used not because it was necessary to
kill or keep off insects, but to see the effect this heavy
amount would have on the plants themselves.

FACTORY IS 360 FEET IN LENGTH AND HAS A YEARLY CAPACITY OF
3000 TONS OR MORE OF BUG DEATH.

Photo No, 20

Showing the Danforth Chemical Co’s plant, Leominster, Mass., manufac-
turers of Bug Death, the only Insecticide made which does not contain
arsenic.

93

There was absolutely no question but the large growth -
and perfect condition of these vines was due, to a great
extent, to the heavy application of the Bug Death. I have
noted the same effect times without number on many garden
vegetables, especially melons, squash, cucumbers, tomatoes
and eggplant. Many times the beneficial effects are so great
as to be far beyond the small amount of nitrogen Bug Death
contains could have.

There is a process in the economy of plant life, not
yet investigated by the Ex. Stations, whereby a combi-
nation of materials different than those used in the
composition of the arsenical preparations which will in
certain stages of atmospheric conditions allow the leaves
of plants to which it is applied to draw, in some-at-pres-
ent unaccountable manner, plant food either from the
air or soil.

In no other way can I account for the vigor of growth
which so many times follows an application of Bug Death
to growing plants. The writer has strongly urged the Ex.
Stations in many states to take up this work, as it is of vital
importance to the whole agriculture of the country; but, so
far as my knowledge goes, I have yet to hear of the first in-
stance where any effort has been made along this line,but the
sole effort on the part of the Ex. Stations has been to push
the sale of arsenical poisons, regardless of the effect on both
plants and soil. If the farmers of the country want the Ex.
Stations to work for their interest along this particular line,
they will have to exert a stronger influence over them than
has been the case in the past.

BORDEAUX MIXTURE

The general spraying mixture used on potatoes as
a prevention of blights is Bordeaux mixture. It has been
condemned by so many potato growers who have used
it that there can be but little dowbt but what it is not all
the early advocates of its use claimed for it. Probably it
has been more generally used by the potato growers of
the State of Maine than those of any other section of the
country. That there is a stronger feeling in the state today
that it is not all that has been claimed for it would hardly be
denied by any one familiar with the existing conditions.
Potatoes rotted badly in Aroostook County in 1907, de-

94

spite the fact that spraying was general. In 1908, the
season being dry and unfavorable to the spread of the
spores of the disease, very little rot was found in the
county. The crowning year for rot coming the next, or
1909, when those best able to judge claim that one-third
of the crop rotted, many farmers losing nearly their
whole crop, and resulting in a loss to the county, esti-
mated by some to be around five millions of bushels. Some
claim that the best-sprayed fields rotted the worst, while
others claim, with equal vehemence, that spraying saved
their crop, one probably being as near right as the other.
Too many farmers have reported that their sprayed
felds have rotted badly, while those not sprayed rotted
but little, if at all, to waive them aside without consider-
ation. That there are reasons back of all of this not yet
understood there can be no doubt.

From my experience, I am inclined to believe that
the vitality of the seed planted many times determines
whether or not the crop can be saved by spraying with
Bordeaux mixture. In writing this I have aimed to keep
my own experience in the background, putting down as
far as possible only known facts. But one experience of
my own along this line might be of interest to the reader.
I planted one five-acre field several years ago with seed
which I knew to be lacking in vitality. This field was as
thoroughly sprayed as it is possible to do the work.
Eighty gallons of Bordeaux mixture was used per acre
at the first applicatiou, two hundred gallons each at the
second and third spraying and one hundred and thirty-
three in the fourth, the last application being September
?th. Late blight or rot spread on this field after the sec-
ond spraying, many leaves being affected all over the
field. The third spraying seemed to check the spread
for a time, owing partly to cooler weather. The fourth
application had little effect in checking its spread, it being
about as bad in one portion of the field as any other. The
vines were thoroughly covered with the Bordeaux, yet
the blight spread, and there was quite a per cent. of rot-
ten tubers. Had there been a few days of as hot weather
as we usually get in late September, there is but little
doubt but nearly all the tubers would have’ rotted. If
Bordeaux mixture gave no better protection to fields in
general than it did to this one, it would be of but very
little use to the potato grower. On the other hand, I am

-,

95

satisfied that had this field been planted with strong,
vigorous seed that the spraying given it would have en-
tirely prevented the blight and rot.

There is a question whether the action of the Bor-
deaux mixture itself is not weakening the vitality of our
potatoes, despite the protection it usually gives against
blights. I have yet to examine a field in September that
has been kept thoroughly sprayed during July and Au-
gust that does not show leaf injury caused by the Bor-
deaux. This shows in a burning and browning and harden-
ing of the leaves, and in some fields is a very pronouced in-
jury. The later in the season the vines remain green
the more this burning of the copper sulphate shows.
Yet, when well made and intelligently applied, it will in-
crease the crop of tubers in most any kind of a season,
especially in the more Northern states. The making of
Bordeaux mixture has a great deal to do with its eff-
ciency in protecting the vines, and no doubt there are many
using it who do not mix it in such a way as to get the best
results. The old formula of six pounds of blue vitriol and
four pounds of lime to forty-five or fifty gallons of water
is seldom, if ever, used now by the potato growers in
Maine. This did not carry enough lime, and the injury
spoken of above caused the use of more lime and less vitriol.
The five-five fifty formula is used by many, while five
pounds blue vitriol and six pounds of lime and fifty gallons
of water probably is an even better one. The ready
mixed Bordeaux mixture or ready mixed dry Bordeaux
has not seemed to give as good results as the home-made.

The new process lime manufactured for the making
of Bordeaux does all right, but more of it should be used
than of common lump lime. Seven to eight pounds of this
should be used to five pounds of blue vitriol to get the
same effect as six pounds of common lump lime well and
properly slacked. As the new process lime costs more
per pound, and more of it is needed to the same effect, it
is more costly to use. For the small, and many times to
even the large grower, the easiness with which it can
be mixed up will save enough time to more than make up
for the added cost. It is a good plan for any potato
grower who plans to spray his crop to have a supply
of this new process lime on hand. Many plans of making
and mixing Bordeaux mixture have been given to the
public, showing how the diluted lime water is contained

96

in one barrel and the diluted blue vitriol water in another,
both being run into the spray tank through pipes or hose,
where they mix together as they enter the tank. These
are all right as far as they go, where water is handy and
can be pumped up to a height which will allow this to be
done. This is seldom the case in actual field work with
the average grower. Probably ninety per cent. of the
water used to make Bordeaux mixture has to be drawn
to a greater or less distance to get it to the potato field.
If the distance to get it there is more than a few rods,
the quickest and most economical way is to haul it in
large barrels on a farm wagon rather than in the sprayer
itself. In this case it is much better to slack the lime and
dissolve the blue vitriol in that section of the field where
the greatest saving of time can be made when spraying.
Stock mixture should always be made even for a few
acres, and as both the lime and vitriol will keep indefi-
nitely until mixed together, much time can be saved by
so doing.

The following steck solution will make five hundred
gallons of Bordeaux: Get two large barrels, holding fifty
gallons each, dissolving in qne of these fifty pounds of
blue vitriol. There are two ways of doing this. One is to
put the vitriol in a coarse sack and hang it into the barrel
near the top, so that the vitriol will be only partly covered
by the water. This is the usual way, but is not so satis-
factory as the following: Get or make a box about twelve
inches square and ten to twelve inches deep, tacking on
the bottom of it a piece of brass or copper wire netting
after removing the bottom. Nail two cleats along oppo-
site sides near the top, so that the box can be set into the
barrel resting on the cleats. This will bring the box down
into the barrel some eight or ten inches, according to its
depth. Pour the fifty pounds of blue vitriol which is to
be dissolved into the box, and fill the barrel with water
by pouring it through the vitriol. More than one-half
of the vitriol will be dissolved in just filling the barrel,
and as the bottom of the box is down in the water, the
balance of the vitriol left in it is in the best possible posi-
tion to dissolve quickly, and in an hour or two all will be
found ready for use. If the box is made with copper
nails and the netting tacked on the bottom with copper
tacks, the box will last for years, and will save many
hours of time as well as wasting of blue vitriol. We now

97

have fifty pounds of vitriol dissolved in fifty gallons of
water, or one pound of vitriol to each gallon of water. In
the other barrel we will slack sixty pounds of good lump
lime. Pour two or three pails of water in the barrel first,
then turn in the sixty pounds of lime. A good stirring
paddle should be at hand, for the lime will begin to boil
in a very few minutes. Care should be taken that this
does not spatter into one’s eyes. More water will have
to be added, always keeping enough in so the lime will
slack without burning. Ten to fifteen minutes will slack
this to the consistency of a thick paste. If this can be
done the night before wanted, it is better letting it set
until morning before filling the barrel up with water, as
it will slack better to be kept hot for a few hours. When
needed, fill the barrel with water. This gives us sixty
pounds of lime in fifty gallons of water.

When ready to spray, first fill the sprayer at least
half full of clear water, then add five gallons of the blue
vitriol water. If insecticides are to be used, they should
be added at this time. Next, add five gallons of the lime
water, give the pump a turn or two to start the agitator
and stir the mixture, and if the sprayer is not quite full,
fill it by adding clear water. This will make as good
Bordeaux mixture as one can get, and at the lowest price.

As the operator uses the lime water out of the lime
barrel, he can add more water, always keeping in mind
to use all the lime the barrel contains in using the fifty
gallons of blue vitriol. The object in adding more water
to the lime is to so dilute it that it will readily pass
through the strainer in the sprayer tank. This aiso does
away with trying to strain out the coarse material, which
we always find in our lime which settles in the bottom of
the barrel. Thoroughly sprayed with a Bordeaux mix-
ture made in this manner five or six times during the
season by going over and back on the rows at each spray-
ing, potatoes will seldom be badly hurt by blight and rot.
When this does occur, the chances are that there are
other and obscure causes that are back of it, like poor,
weak seed, which should never be planted.

SPRAYERS

A sprayer should be thoroughly well built, with large
pump capacity and a strong agitator working close to the
bottom of the barrel or tank, keeping the mixture in perfect

98

suspension. Most machines are now made to spray four
rows at a time, and on rough, uneven land this is as many
as it is advisable to try to cover at once. On large, smooth
fields, free from stones of any great size, six rows can be
covered at a time, provided the pump has a capacity enough
to keep the working pressure up to where it should be. A
working pressure of at least 75'to 90 pounds is needed when
the machine is working in the field with the spray turned on,
whether spraying four or six rows at a time.

A sprayer that will not develop and maintain this de-
gree of pressure day after day either is out of order or is
lacking in pump capacity. The pump should be made entire-
ly of brass and copper, and the plunger should be so made
that the wear of both plunger and cylinder can be taken up
by putting on the plunger leather or canvas cups. These
will make the pumping capacity of the machine as good as
new. Two or three days of continuous work will so wear
these cups that the pressure will begin to fall, and many
times before the operator realizes it, he will be doing in-
ferior work, and another set of cups will need to be put on.

A sprayer needs a good deal of attention to keep it in
first-class working condition. Many have fitted up for
spraying their potato fields, and then for inferior work done
have not received the returns they looked for, and therefore
condemned the process. This is almost always either the
fault of the operator, who fails to understand the proper
working of the machine and keeping it in perfect working
order, or of the machine itself.

Bordeaux Mixture is hard on the life of any sprayer,
on account of the lime used in its making, and in the hurry
of the work many fail to properly strain the mixture as it
goes into the sprayer tank. This results in clogged nozzles,
impatience on the part of the operator and unsprayed por-
tions of the field, allowing both insects and blights to get a
start. I have not yet found any nozzle equal to the vermorel
for the potato field.

The pump should be fitted with two leads of pipe, a
return pipe to the tank and the one leading to the nozzles,
both being fitted with a stopcock. When starting for the
potato field, after filling the tank, start the pump and open
the stopcock leading back to the tank. This allows the agi-
tator to thoroughly stir the mixture while the pump is pump-
ing it back into the tank. When the potato field is reached,
shut off the stopcock leading back to the tank, allow the

99

pump a few strokes to get up as much pressure as wanted
_ and then turn on the stopcock leading to the nozzles. An
allowance should be made of a few feet in entering the rows,
in order that the nozzles may all get working in good shape
by the time they get over the first hills when entering the
rows. A little practice on the part of the operator in turn-
ing the spray on or off will enable him to spray the end hills
when entering and leaving the rows as well as any part of
the field.

A first-class power sprayer will be fitted with a waste
gauge leading back into the tank, and so arranged that by a
turn with a thumb nut the amount of pressure can be easily
changed. This waste gauge should be set at all times so that
it will give up and relieve the pressure on the pump before
breakage occurs on any part of the machine. It also should
be fitted with a pressure gauge, allowing the operator to see
at all times the amount of pressure his pump is under. A
good strainer should go with every machine, fitted with
brass or copper wire screen of thirty meshes to the inch.
This is fine enough, so that if nothing passes into the spray
tank but what goes through this size mesh there will be no
trouble in clogging of the nozzles. Some sprayers are fitted
with a strainer containing a screen of too small surface,
which is easily clogged up when filling the tank, especially
when straining in the lime.

The aperture in the spray tank should be large enough
to take a strainer containing at least twenty-five to thirty
square inches of wire screen. This will allow surface
enough, so that with a reasonable amount of care on the part
of the operator there will be but little, if any, trouble in
rapidly filling the tank. All of these things are of impor-
tance to the grower. Many times, with a small screen sur-
face strainer, it will take longer to fill the tank with the mix-
ture than it does to apply it to the potato field. This is a
useless waste of valuable time at a season when every mo-
ment is precious, and causes a slighting of the work which
would not otherwise happen. With a good four-rowed horse
sprayer, kept in condition, as perfect work can be done on
large areas as is possible for the small grower to do with a
knapsack sprayer. Photo No. 15 shows a four-rowed horse-
power sprayer at work.

SPRAYING
The importance of spraying potatoes as a preventive of

100

blight is overlooked in many sections. This is especially
true in the case of late blight or rot. There is hardly a sea-
son, even when there is no late blight, that the extra yield
from sprayed fields will not more than pay all cost of spray-
ing. This being the fact, spraying becomes a system of crop
insurance which the careful grower feels that he cannot
afford to neglect.

Spraying, to be effective, must be carefully and thor--
oughly done. In ill-planted fields, with crooked rows and
rows of varying distances apart, no perfect work can be
done. The spray should be forced all through the vines,
coating the under as well as the upper side of the leaves and
stalks. Spraying is a preventive, not a curative necessity.
For this reason, it should be begun before the blights are
established on the plants, and this holds true for the larvae
of the potato beetle as well. To do this work effectively
demands much of a sprayer. The nozzles should not be set
to point straight down, but a little forward or backward.
The larvae of the potato beetle likes to get into the crown of
the plants, feeding on the tender new leaves growing there.
To be effective, our spray must be forced into the crown of
the plant, while, at the same time, we want angle enough
so that it will be forced among the stalks and under the
leaves, coating both leaves, stems and stalks with the mix-
ture. We should have pressure enough to have our spray
come out of the nozzle just like a jet of steam. The nozzles
should be as near the rows as they can be and get spread
enough to the spray to cover the whole of the row. Many
make a sad mistake here in not adjusting the nozzles to the
size of the plants they have to spray, and really cover only
a narrow strip through the center of the row. Others have
their nozzles too high, and, while they cover the rows entire-
ly, the spray has no force to it when it reaches the plants, and
consequently it is not forced among the stalks. In this way
the stems, stalks and under side of the leaves get but little
benefit from the spraying, although to the careless observer
the work looks to be perfectly done.

There can be no real, thorough spraying in going one
way over the field. Some advocate, where the pumps are
powerful enough to furnish plenty of pressure, the putting
on of double nozzles, one pointing forward and the other
backward, will give the same result in one driving over the
field. While this is all right in theory, it doesn’t work out as
well in field practice, partly because it applies too much mix-

101

ture at once, without giving it any chance to dry on; and,
again, the operator, unless he has had long practice, is almost
sure to fail to have the pressure up at times when he enters
the rows. This leaves the ends of the rows unsprayed, even
with double nozzles, as double nozzles cannot spray with no
pressure behind them. With the sprayer in good working
condition, the operator, if returning on these rows, even
with single nozzles, is certain to have plenty,of pressure as
he leaves them. In this way, the ends of the rows which he
failed to spray on entering will at least get a more thorough
spraying than if he had gone only one way, even with double
nozzles. To go both ways with double nozzles takes too
much mixture per acre and makes spraying too costly. The
best results are obtained with the minimum amount of mix-
ture by using single nozzles. Going over the field and let-
ting the first application dry on, and then reversing, reaches
both sides of the hills, and the small crown leaves, where the
tiny slugs have congregated, have got two sprayings at dif-
ferent angles, which is practically certain to cover them and
kill all the slugs.

Spraying should begin when the vines are from six to
eight inches high. Fine caps should be used on the nozzles
at this first application, as it saves material, and a sprayer
holding sixty gallons can then be made to cover an acre, go-
ing both ways. If insects are plenty, the second application
should follow the first in a very few days. It is sometimes
better to make the first three sprayings inside of ten days’
time, if the weather is very warm and slugs are hatching
rapidly. These should be killed before any damage is done
the vines. At this period of rapid growth the foliage is in-
creasing so fast that plenty of unsprayed surface can be
found in the crown of the plants by the little slugs as they
hatch out. For this reason, three sprayings are sometimes:
_ needed to entirely rid a field from slugs. If this work is
done as it should be, there will be but few bugs left to bring
out a crop of slugs later in the season, and in the subsequent
sprayings an insecticide may and probabily will not be
needed.

A field allowed to become badly eaten by either the flea
or Colorado beetle is much more likely to be attacked by
either the early or late blight than one kept free from them.
This is also true of arsenical poisoning, which is much more
likely to injure the plants if badly eaten by insects, especially
the flea beetle. The free arsenic, acting on the raw, freshly

102

eaten edges left by these insects, seems to be much more
harmful to them than it is to uneaten foliage. After the
first three sprayings, the others can follow along at intervals
of ten days to two weeks, according to weather conditions.
Dry, cool weather is unfavorable to blight, and the period
between the sprayings can be longer, while moist, hot weath-
er, being favorable to the spread of the late blight or rot,
would necessitate a shortening of the time between spray-
ings. There comes a time in the period of the growth of the
potato when it seems to be the most susceptible to disease,
especially the late blight; this is just when it is passing out
of the blossom stage of its growth. If we can get it through
this critical period without harm, it is a comparatively easy
matter to keep the vines green until late in the season in the
more Northern sections until killed by frost. This means a
greatly increased crop, as the last few weeks the vines re-
main green is when the potato makes the most profit to the
grower.

For this reason, it is advisable when the potatoes are
passing out of the blossoming stage to use more gallons
of mixture per acre than at any other time. On vines that
thoroughly cover the ground not less than one hundred
and twenty-five gallons per acre should be used at this
time, and I frequently use more. Spraying should never
be stopped because the vines cover the ground and will be
broken and more or less trampled upon when driving
through them. Vines that have got to this stage of
growth will not be cut off badly by the wheels of the
sprayer going over them. The rolling of them down by
the wheels, while it looks bad, will hardly even bruise
them except on side hills where the sprayer slides more or
less down hill. When this happens a few will be cut off,
but the damage done is infinitesimal compared with the
good done in preventing blights and promoting growth of.
tubers. No one should hesitate to spray, even if the vines
are so rank and tall that the rows can hardly be made out;
a growth of vine of that magnitude certainly needs the pro-
tection given by a thorough spraying.

THE, FLEAS EE ADIgE

There is no insect that does greater damage to po-
tato vines at times than the little black flea beetle. I
had much rather have the Colorado beetle to fight than

Photo No. 22

This shows the injurious effect of the flea beetle.

this insect is one of the most destructive the potato grower has
to contend with. Bug Death is the

to combat this ravaging and destructive insect.

The injury of

most successful insecticide

104

this little pest. In fact, he does far greater damage be-
fore attention is attracted to his work than any other
insect I know of. In my section of Maine there is an
early brood, which usually comes the last half of June
in great numbers. Frequently potato fields will show
practically all their leaves eaten, as shown in Photo No.
22 by the time the plants are five or six inches high.

Fully one-half of the surface of the leaves have been
destroyed as far as their use to the plants is concerned
before the grower realizes what is being done. This could
not happen with the Colorado beetle without being seen
long before one-half of this damage could have taken place.

Potato vines eaten in this manner are much more
susceptible to arsenical poisoning and the early and late
blight and other fungous diseases. There is sometimes
an August brood in Maine, and in some cases these are
so plentiful that even a vigorous field of vines, which
completely cover the ground, will be ruined by them in
a very few days. Not only do they eat the leaves full of
little holes, but eat in many places part way through,
thus making little depressions. It is the settling of the
Paris green into these little depressions, partly eaten
through the leaves that causes the target-like marking
shown in Fig. 17 of injuring due to Paris green or ar-
senical poisoning, and makes arsenical poisoning so much
more pronounced on a field that is badly infested with
the flea beetle. Its ravages also have a decided effect in
causing the early blight ; so much so that it seems reason-
ably certain to claim that the early blight would seldom,
if ever, cause much loss to the grower unless the plants
suffered a loss of vigor through the ravages of this pest
and arsenical poisoning.

Again arsenical poisons do not kill this pest to any
great extent, or, at least, do not seem to lessen their rav-
ages. Hence Paris green should not be used when the
vines are afflicted with the flea beetle unless it becomes
necessary to use it to kill the Colorado beetle, as the Paris
green, settling in the little holes, partly eaten through
the leaves, helps along the injury to the vines and makes
a bad matter worse. Bordeaux mixture, thoroughly ap-
plied, will keep them partly in check by driving them away.

There is no way I have ever found to protect my
fields from the flea beetle like dusting them with dry
Bug Death when the plants are damp either with dew or

105

right after a rain.

I have never been able to determine whether or not
it was fatal to them or simply drove them away, but it
makes but little difference to the potato grower, pro-
vided his fields are kept free from them, which the Bug
Death wil! do far better than anything else I have ever
used,

Tribe COLORADO) BERTIE

The Colorado beetle is probably the best known of
all the potato-eating insects. It seems to have been a
native of Colorado, hence its name. When the settlers
carried the potato into its home it seemed at once to form
a particular liking for the foliage of this plant, and at
once began to spread East in search of its new-found
food. It reached Iowa in 1861, and Wisconsin in 1862,
Illinois in 1864, Michigan and Indiana in 1867, Ohio in
1868 and Pennsylvania in 1870. Twelve years later it
reached Nova Scotia, and has been a pest over the whole
eastern portion of the country ever since. That it will
ever disappear hardly seems probable, although it varies
in number greatly in different sections at different times.
It flies readily in bright, hot w eather, but the distance it
can cover in this manner does not seems to be known.
From my observation, I believe it never flies in damp,
cool weather, and the approach of evening or a sudden
shower will precipitate it to the ground, regardless of
where it may be. It can frequently be found “washed up
on the shores of lakes and ponds, sometimes in countless
numbers, a sudden cooling of the atmosphere causing
them to fall into the water in their flight across where
they have miserably perished.

They winter by burying into the soil, coming out
with the first real hot days of spring, and sometimes ap-
pear in such numbers on a potato field, where the plants
are just breaking ground, that all growth made for sev-
eral days, or even weeks, are eaten by them. It is at this
stage of the growth of the plants that they are the hard-
est ta combat, as there is so little leaf surface that it is
practically useless to try to poison them. They mate at
once, and egg laying commences within a few days if the
weather remains warm, the little potato plants frequently
having several hundred eggs on them when two or three
inches high. If these plants can be covered up with

106

soil, it will spoil these first egg clusters, and in the case
of very late planted potatoes many times will be all that
is needed to free a field from them. The work cf fighting
them should never be delayed until damage is done the
plants, as it will result in a loss of crop that will
amount to many times the cost of the labor and material
needed to rid the field of them. What to use in this work
is described under Insecticides.

TREATMENT FOR SCAB

Scab is a fungus disease (Oospora scabies), growing
on the surface of the tubers, causing rough pitted patches, or

Photo No. 23
Showing scab.

a

107
in badly infested soils these patches cover the whole surface
of the tubers, oftentimes making the whole crop unfit for
market. (See Photo No. 23.) Some varieties of potatoes
are much more susceptible to scab than others.

The American Giant is noted for its scab-resisting
qualities, but its cooking quality is such that in most mar-
kets, if bought at all, it brings a much lower price. As a
general rule, the better the quality of the variety the more
likely it is to be attacked by the scab fungus. This is not
always true, however.

This disease is widespread and is carried to soils which
are free from it by planting infected tubers. One of the
methods of controlling scab is to plant seed free from it.
With a system of crop rotation which will bring potatoes on
a field only once in three or four years, little or no trouble
will be experienced from its attacks. The scab fungus will
not thrive in an acid soil, and although it may be present
or even scabby potatoes planted in such a soil, the resulting
crop would be free enough from it to sell readily in the
market. We can lime a soil and sweeten it up to that point
where clover will thrive, and still not have it sweet enough
to prevent growing potatoes on it by reason of scab, if we
will be sure to have the seed we plant free of the disease so
as not to plant the scab along with the potatoes.

If it becomes necessary to plant any seed showing
spots or patches, as shown in the cut, it should be disin-
fected. One of the methods to do this is to soak the tubers
before cutting in a solution of formaldehyde. This is com-
monly called the formalin solution. It is not a very costly
or time-taking job if gone about in a businesslike way. There
are several methods of doing this, but the following will
suit the farmer who plants up to 100 or 150 bushels of seed:

Get five large barrels holding from fifty to sixty gallons
each and set them in a row out of doors, putting into each
of them 35 gallons of water; add to this one pint of for-
malin of the standard 40 per cent. solution to each barrel.
Put the potatoes into coarse bags (bran sacks are best for
this purpose), tieing them near the top. This allows the
potatoes to spread out in the bag, and by so doing three
bags, holding one bushel each, can be gotten into each barrel,
and the 35 gallons of the solution will completely cover the
potatoes. The five barrels make it possible to have 15
bushels of potatoes soaking at a time. This is about all one
man can attend to at once. Let these soak from one and

108

one-half to two hours. While this is going on, more can
be sacked up and got ready to put into the barrels, as soon
as the first lot is removed. In this way one man will pick up
out of a bin and soak about 100 bushels in a day’s time. The
cost of the formalin should not be over a dollar and a quarter
for the five barrels, and each barrel should soak at least 40
bushels of seed. When the potatoes are removed from the
solution it is better to turn them upon the ground, one
bushel in a place, and throw a bucket of clear water over
them to rinse the solution off, as it makes them nicer to
handle when cutting. When dried they can be picked up and
put in bins again until needed for planting.

All bags, boxes or baskets used to handle the potatoes
after being soaked should be previously dipped in the for.
malin solution to kill any of the scab fungus which might be
on them; and if they are to be put back into a bin, a bucket
of the solution and an old broom will allow the operator to
thoroughly disinfect the bin before putting the potatoes
back into it. When a soil becomes badly infested with scab
it is a serious matter, and if the disease is to be eradicated
it can be more quickly done if potatoes are kept off of it for
some years and green crops grown and plowed under to set
up a slight acidity, which will help to kill it out. Lime,
ashes or heavy application of barn manure tends to sweeten
the soil and promote its growth.

Sulphur has been used by many to dust over tlie seed
when cut, and also scattered along the row when planting.
With some this seems to be a perfect remedy, while with
others it seems to amount to very little. That the condition
of the soil itself has much to do with its effectiveness 4s no
doubt true. Some authorities claim that spreading seed
potatoes to sprout where the direct rays of the sun will
strike them will kill the scab fungus.

When the scab fungus is in the soil, any treatment given
the seed will not insure a clean crop, but only makes certain
that we are not planting the disease along with our seed.
Many times it may be present in a limited way in a soil
favorable to its growth and not get to affect the tubers
enough to hurt their market value from one season’s plant-
ing unless the scab in good, vigorous condition is planted
on the seed.

Land that is reasonably free from it will usualiv grow
good market crops of tubers if a rotation is followed which

109

will bring potatoes on the ground not oftener than once in
every three or four years. This is most sure to be the case
if stable manure is not used on the field; but the humus-
content kept up by plowing under green crops or a clover
sod, and chemicals or commercial fertilizer used to supply
the plant food needed by the potato crop.

One having scab on his seed potatos should read the
chapter on “Selecting and Cutting Seed.” If this is fol-
lowed thoroughly and the knife disinfected as stated, the
grower will have but very little trouble either with scab or
many other diseases which now make potato raising on some
soils a risk.

LATE: BLIGHT -OR. ROT

The late blight or rot probably causes more loss to
the Northern potato grower than any other disease which
attacks the plant. As far as known, it lives through the
winter only in the tuber itself, and many times it can be
easily detected when cutting potatoes to plant, although
it might be present in many of the potatoes cut and not
detected even by an expert. It may affect only a small
portion of the tuber, and, in cutting, the portion affected
might not be cut through and, therefore, would not show
even to the most expert observer.

If, when cutting seed, the cut surface shows black-
like threads running through the tuber, it should be dis-
carded, as this is more than likely to be the late blight, or
rot, in the dormant state in which it passes the winter.
It also can sometimes be detected by sunken spots on the
surface of the tubers. These are usually irregular in
shape and vary from mere spots in size to covering nearly
the whole surface of the potato. These usually appear
during the winter while in storage, and in some cases
quite a percentage of a bin of potatoes will be found
showing these spots in spring, when at digging time no
trace of rot was found on the tubers in the whole field.
When infected seed is planted and the soil and weather
conditions become favorable to the growth of this fungus,
it spreads to the surface by the roots and stalks. I have
frequently found the whole root system and stalk below
the surface of the ground badly affected when the thor-
oughly sprayed top showed no blight whatever, and a
slight pull would break the stalk off just below the sur-
face of the soil.

This is one reason why early spraying for the late

110

blight or rot is necessary, as it may be working towards
the surface on the roots and underground stems when
infected seed has been planted, and even the most critical
observer could not detect it in the field unless an infected —
hill should happen to be dug out. If any seed piece
planted was badly infected, the sprout or stalk springing
from it is likely to come up weak and spindling. On the
other hand, many seed pieces may be so slightly infected
that the vigor of the sprout will apparently be but little
impaired, and the field make a splendid growth and ap-
pearance.

If at about the time the plants are going out of blos-
som and sometimes before, if the weather becomes hot
with frequent rains, the spores of the blight reach the
surface, and if the vines are unprotected, they spread very
rapidly over the leaves, and in a few days’ time will turn
a fine looking field into a mass of blackened, dying vines,
with a very offensive odor.
lf no rain falls from the time the vines become infected
with the spores until they are entirely dead, and the
unripe tubers in the ground have ripened off or hardened
up, there is little danger of it. Tubers after they are
thoroughly ripe seldom rot in the soil unless it becomes
very wet. Again, a field that shows but little blight on
the vines, perhaps none to the average grower, and keeps
green until frost may have its tubers rot badly. This
comes from the spores of the blight being washed from
the leaves down upon the unripe potatoes, which they
immediately attack. ;

A field can have its vines so slightly affected by the
blight spores that the casual observer would not detect
it, and still there be enough to wash down upon the unripe
tubers and cause a bad case of rot in case of heavy rains.

A field can also become infected with blight by the
spores being brought to it by the wind from a field per-
haps miles away. In this case, it is usually detected on
the leaves near the top of the plants. A leaf showing a
portion turned black and drooping, with a white mold
on the under side, can safely be diagnosed as affected
with the late blight. If good, vigorous seed has been
planted and the vines kept thoroughly sprayed with Bor-
deaux mixture, or thoroughly dusted with Dry Bug
Death, see photos Nos. 18 and 24, beginning when they are
only six to eight inches high, there is but little danger of

Photo No, 24

Showing the O. K. Champion Potato Digger No, 2 at work on the Johnson Seed Potato (Co’s farms, Richmond, Maine.
This is one of the lightest draft, cleanest digging potato diggers on the market.

tt OTLAS wonder potatoes yield 430 bushels per acre in 1912,

112

the grower losing his crop from the late blight or rot. Ii
blight is once allowed to get well started on a field, there
is but little hope of saving the crop.

The above-mentioned photographs show a part of a
25-acre field of potatoes on the Johnson Seed Potato Com-
pany farms at Richmond, Me., in 1912, which had noth-
ing in the way of insecticides or fungicides applied to it but
Dry Bug Death, and were in the best of condition on
September Ist of any field in that section. The vines
remained green until late in October, the last photo show-
ing the digging of the World’s Wonder October 22nd,
1912, the yield being practically 430 bushels per acre.

HARVESTING THE CROP

Potato harvest at best is hard work both for teams
and man. The old hard work of hand digging is largely
done away with by the modern potato digger, which will
do fine work if cultivation has been thoroughly and prop-
erly done unless heavy and frequent rains keep the ground
in muddy condition. This may and frequently does hap-
pen, and where the crop is on a clay loam soil no potato
digger made will do good work or, in fact, do any work at
all in mud. When these conditions do overtake the grower
there is nothing left but hand digging with the potato or
tined hoe.

The elevator diggers are most used and most practical
and there are several makes on the market. As in showing
the various other machines used in the fitting of the soil
and the growing of the potato, I call the reader’s attention
to the photo No. 24 of the O. K. Champion Potato Digger
No. 2 at work on the Johnson Seed Potato Co. farms at
Richmond, Maine, taken October 22nd, 1912. This digger
is manufactured by the Champion Potato Machinery. Co.
of Hammond, Ind.

This machine is of light draught and is easily drawn
by one pair of good horses, and if cultivation has been
done as it should be one man and a pair of horses will
dig an acre easily in from two to two and a half hours,
leaving the tubers all or nearly all on top of the ground
ready for the pickers.

The form of the rows has much to do with any ma-
chine doing good work. The practice of the Maine
grower, almost without exception, is to ridge his rows, but
not too high or wide. This forms an ideal chance for any

113

digger to do its best work. If the rows are ridged too wide
and high, no machine can handle the soil and separate the
tubers out without a draught much too heavy for one pair
of horses. This is especially true if the ground is in any
way too wet. Thus, if level cultivation, or wide and high
ridged rows confront the grower a large four-horse digger
might have to be used, as it has a much larger separating
capacity.

Such a machine, when the ground is in proper condi-
tion and the rows have been ridged about right, is not
nearly as desirable for many reasons. First, the draugl't
is much too heavy for one pair of horses, and a four-horse
team, outside of the extra expense for the extra horses,
will trample upon and cause more or less loss of tubers.
Again, with fine conditions for digging, the soil will leave
the machine too quickly, leaving the tubers to pass over
the elevator with no protection from bruising unless the
machine is run at a much greater depth than is necessary
or desired.

A digger which requires four horses is unnecessary in
most cases 1f proper attention has been given to ridging as
it should be done.

With most late varieties which grow a large top which
usually entirely covers the ground the rows should be not
less than 34 to 36 inches apart. In ridging, planted this
distance apart, it won’t do to take the soil from centre to
centre, as a too large ridge will be thrown up to work
properly through any digger which can be drawn by two
horses when the ground is wet.

Therefore the Maine growers’ practice is to make a
medium sized ridge as shown in Photo No. 14. This will
work nicely through a smaller or two-horse digger and
leave the tubers as clean and nice to pick up as can a larger
machine which costs much more to operate. That a very
large ridge may, in some seasons at least, be the means of
producing a little larger crop of tubers I am inclined to
believe. That this increase in yield will be enough to offset
the extra cost of digging has not been my experience. Dif-
ferent sections of the country have different methods of
handling the crop after being dug. The Aroostook county
method is to pick into barrels, drawing these from the fields
on low wagons or jiggers. This is a type of wagon little
seen in most other sections of the country, but it makes
a rapid, easy way to get the crop to the storehouse. Other

Showing the Aroostook type of storerouse.

114

Photo No. 25

heat passing up between the outer and inner walls.

sections use bushel boxes or sacks, which can be much
more easily loaded on the high wagons used in many of
the potato-growing districts, but for those sections where
the crop is to be stored for winter or spring shipment there
is no cheaper or easier method than having the pickers
dump the tubers into barrels set at proper distances along
the rows and drawing the filled barrels to the storehouse
with the low wagon.

STOREEOUSES

Storehouses for the keeping of potatoes are a neces-
sity where the crop is largely grown and not all sold from
the field as dug. It is pretty safe to assume that new

This depends on artificial

115

seed would not have to be brought from the North every
year in many sections where it is now done were the
growers fitted with proper storehouses. Once in two
years would be as often as new seed would have to be
obtained throughout Pennsylvania and as far South as
the Southern border of this state west through Ohio, In-
diana and Illinois.

There are two ways to build a frostproof potato
storehouse. The one most generally used in Aroostook
County, Me., see photo No. 25, is to have a chance in the cel-
lar or basement for a stove with double walls to the building,
with the outer air space opening into the cellar or basement.
Thus a very little heat will keep this air space above the
freezing point, and with another air space between this and
the potatoes, where the air is dead, potatoes can be kept free
of frost with but little cost for heat, no matter how low the
temperature may go outside.

Aroostock County, Me., gets a temperature from 30
to 50 degrees below zero every winter, but there is seldom
any loss of tubers in the storehouses there by reason of
frost. Such a house needs constant attention in cold
weather, and is not the best form for the grower farther
South. Some writers claim that a dry, cool cellar is bet-
ter than a damp one for the keeping of potatoes. This is
not so. The cellar should be cool almost to the freezing
point, but there is less loss in weight if it is damp. For the
grower as far South as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois, a house with a cellar under ground is, in my
opinion, far better. Such a house is shown in photo No.
26. The upper part of this building is used for the storing
of farm implements, fertilizer, sacks, etc.

The cellar walls should be either of stone or concrete,
and the ceiling over the cellar should be plastered with
concrete in order to keep the moisture away from the
timbers. Unless this is done, the timbers will not last
over from six to ten years. With a building as shown in
the photo, the potatoes are drawn from the fields into the
building and dumped through scuttles into the bins below,
care being taken not to bruise them in so doing.

After the potatoes are in, the cellar should be cooled
down as fast as possible until the desired point is reached.
This can be done by keeping it closed during the day
and opening it nights, when the temperature outside is

116

cooler than in the cellar. If the cellar is dug into the
hillside, and proper precaution taken to keep water from
coming in, there is no need of any floor, but the potatoes
can be dumped right upon the earth bottom of the cellar.
They will keep much better than on a wooden floor. I
have seen many such that were cemented on the bottom.
Unless this is necessary to keep water out, it should not
be done, as it makes the cellar too dry for the best keep-
ing of the tubers.

The nearer underground such a cellar can be the
more even the temperature, and if the cellar is kept closed
as spring approaches, the tubers can be kept until well
into the spring before sprouting. The darker the cellar is
the better will the tubers keep their quality; but some
way must be provided for light when it is desired to re-
move them.

Such a cellar as the above will keep tubers without
freezing with no artificial heat whatever. The writer’s
own cellar has now been built ten years, and I have seen
the glass go to 25 below zero, and hang around the zero
mark for weeks at a time without a tuber being touched
by frost.

Where a building is not needed over the cellar for
storage of farm implements, a reinforced concrete roof
can be made with scuttles to dump the potatoes through
to get them into the bins. These can be raised as high
as wished and the whole roof covered with soil and grass
allowed to grow upon it. The roof should be made water
tight by a thin coat of cement before being covered. Such
a cellar should be dug into the side of a hill or knoll, al-
lowing teams to drive over the cellar easily to dump into
it, while on one side or end it should be on a level of the
bottom of the cellar, allowing a team to be backed right
into the cellar when the doors are opened, or, at least, al-
lowing the potatoes to be taken out on the level. This
saves lifting both in storing and removing from the cellar.

By having a storehouse on the above plan, a grower
can keep his seed stock in much better condition, and
many times, by so doing, he can produce enough larger
crops to pay for the whole cost of building such a cellar.

Again, if buying Northern seed, by having a proper
chance to store and keep it, he can purchase in the fall,
when it is usually cheaper in price. He is then sure of
having his seed on time in the spring, which means

117

much in many cases, as delays often occur in getting
seed from the North in early spring.

MARKETING THE CROP

The marketing is largely a matter of color, size and
quality. A roundish white potato with a shallow eye 1s what
most markets demand today. These should be well sorted
and graded as to size. It is uniformity of size that takes
the eye of the buyer.

There always should be at least two grades, and if
there are many large tubers of a pound or more in weight, it
is many times advisable to make three grades. The first
grade should be all nice, smooth tubers, practically free from
scab, prongs or any form of roughness. The largest of
them should not be much if any over 12 to 14 ounces and
the smallest not below 5 ounces. This is as great a variation
in size as ought to exist in any lot which the grower expects
to have graded as firsts and to bring the highest price.

All above this grade in size that are good and smooth
will usually sell for a higher price per bushel than could
be obtained if both of these grades were mixed together.
There is almost always a good market for these large tubers
if they are smooth and nice in appearance and are good
clear through. The fear that they are hollow or black in the
centre or core is about all the reason the buyer has against
them; but in their favor they have large size, which readily
commends them to the maker of potato chips or the hotels
or restaurants where fried potatoes are served. Large tubers
are peeled with less labor and waste. Could nice, clean stock,
running from 12 ounces up to two pounds, always be ob-
tained, there would certainly be a good demand for it at
good prices. In the third grade would be all those below
hve ounces in weight down to those of the size of large
hen’s eggs that were good and smooth. Many prefer this
grade for baking purposes, as they will bake quickly and the
ilavor is equal to any.

The average grower does not have enough of either of
the last two grades to establish and maintain a trade in them,
and in an average neighborhood there are so many different
varieties grown that it would be impossible to work this in a
co-operative way. Still there is no question but what pota-
toes graded and put upon the market in this way would
return to the growers more money and give the consumer

118

better satisfaction.

Any section where potatoes are largely grown ought
to have a co-operative organization among the growers,
not only for marketing their crop, but in the purchase of
- seed. This organization should have a building ample for
its needs with facilities for loading cars right at its doors.
The growers should draw in their potatoes and have a
corps of experienced men to sort and grade them. The
cost of this would be a little more perhaps than the grad-
ing in the field; but the extra price would much more
than offset this extra cost, as no field-sorted stock is ever
perfectly graded. By this method the men doing the
grading having no interest in one man’s lot above that of
another would grade uniformly, something absolutely
needed to build up a reputation and get prices above the
general market.

By having such an organization the varieties planted
can be limited to those best suitéd to the locality in point of
quality, yield and market demands. Any section which can
establish and maintain a reputation for choice, well-graded
stock not only obtains the highest price at all times, but has
a demand for its product even when there is a glut in the
market. This point alone is many times of the greatest
value to the grower, enabling him to dig and dispose of his
crop at good prices even in an overstocked market.

The prices cbtained by the Long Island, N. Y., potato
growers above the general market prices well illustrate
this point, as they frequently get from fifty cents to a dol-
lar more per barrel than the general run of potatoes are
selling for. There is hardly a section where potatoes are
grown, where a right system of intelligent and broad-minded
co-operation in selecting a few varieties best suited to that
particular locality and having the product grown, properly
sorted and graded, in which the returns could not be in-
creased at least 10 to 15 per cent.

THE HOME GARDEN

A chapter on “The Home Garden” seems out of place
in a work on the culture of the potato. Yet nearly every
grower of potatoes is directly interested in a ‘“Home Gar-
den,” from which his table can be supplied with the
choicest of fruit and vegetables. The high cost of living
is something that every one must face, and there is no

119

spot upon a farm where more can be got for the time
and labor expended than a properly laid out Home or
Kitchen Garden. I believe the neglect so often noticed
on many farms of any pretense along this line is, to a
large extent, due to the inability of most farmers to fight
the garden insects in a quick, economical manner.

Nothing has been tendered them but arsenical pois-
ons by most agricultural writers and Ex. Stations, and it
was pretty nearly an even chance for the grower whether
to let the insects kill his garden truck or for him himself
to kill both truck and insects by an application of some of
these poisons, usually Paris green.

This was particularly true of squash, cucumber and
melons, to say nothing of eggplant and many other vege-
tables of the garden. Hence.I shall confine myself almost
wholly to those plants and vegetables whose growing is
the most hazardous by reason of insects.

One of the most delicious of the products of the gar-
den are Melons, both Water and Musk. These need light,
warm soil, and in the more northern states at least the
spot selected should slope to the South or Southeast, as a
greater degree of heat will be obtained, and heat and sun
are essential to their growth. The land should be finely
cut up with the harrow before plowing, and a heavy ap-
plication of barn dressing be applied and plowed in, but
not very deep. The writer uses a high-grade potato fer-
tilizer, with a part of its nitrogen in the form of nitrate
of soda, running at the rate of one-half ton per acre into
the rows with the potato planter, the disk coverers cover-
ing this, and with the leveling attachment following, the
rows are smoothed down level and all done at one going
over with the planter, the rows being six feet apart for
watermelons and a little less for muskmelons. This
might not be room enough in the south, but is plenty for
Maine conditions. The great trouble with watermelons
in the North is to get the seed to come up quickly. The
seed is usually so dry and hard that in our Northern
States there is not heat and moisture enough to germinate
the seed properly, and a poor stand of plants is usually
the result. After many trials with different methods, I
have used the hot-water idea for the last five years with
not a single failure. Watermelon seed are so hard that
soaking them for a day or two in tepid water is not
enough. Again, there seems to be more or less germs of

120

Photo No. 26

Showing the frost-proof cellar type of potato storehouse. This type is
far better for the more southern sections, as potatoes can be kept much
later in the season without sprouting.

different diseases that live through the winter on the
seeds ready to attack the plants as soon as they begin to
sprout. Five years ago it occurred to me to use hot
water at first when I put the seeds to soak. This can be
almost scalding hot when poured over the seeds, but the
seeds should not be allowed to stand in scalding water
but a very few seconds, just long enough to kill any
germs that might be upon them, but not long enough to
injure the vitality of the seeds themselves. This is no
job for the heedless or careless man; but in my experi-
ence of only five years, when I have used the hottest water,
I have got the best results. After this scalding process
the seeds should be put into real warm water and allowed
to soak for from two to four days, the water being grad-

Photo No, 27

Showing the development of the vines of the Norcross potato trained over a trellis.

wo-year

The fore part
seedling on the originating grounds of the Johnson Seed Potato ¢

of the picture shows

‘o., Richmond, Maine.

122

ually brought down to about the temperature of the air
and soil conditions out of doors. In planting, I follow
the rows as left by the potato planter, and with a round
pole from one to one and one-hali inches in diameter laid
upon the row and with the foot pressed into the loose
soil. This makes a depression about one inch deep, with
the soil packed in the bottom. This will insure moisture
along the bottom of this little row where the seeds are
to lay, and seeds that have been soaked must not be
planted in dry soil where there is no moisture. A little
care and these pole furrows can be got very straight.
I plant Watermelon Seeds not over 4 inches apart along
these rows, and cover not over one inch deep. I have
never failed in this manner from having a perfect stand
of plants, except once on one variety, where the seed was
bad. This leaves our melon rows only an inch or so wide
when the plants first break the ground, and the cultivator
can be worked so closely to them that the cost of this
part of the work is very small.

When the plants get well started, thinning should
begin. There is always danger from cut worms, which
is the reason the seed is sown so thick along the row, for,
with any method of fighting the cut worm, he is most
sure to get a good many plants before the worms can
be all killed. After all danger of insects is by the plants
should not be left nearer than three feet apart in the rows.

The most active enemies to melon plants both water
and musk are the flea beetle and striped squash bug, both
cf which can be entirely controlled by the frequent appli-
cation of dry Bug Death. The same duster as is shown in
photo No. 18 can be used only now, but one row at a
time can be dusted, the rows being so far apart. By nar-
rowing up the width of the dust the machine will drop
there will be but very little waste, and it is only a few
minutes’ work to cover an acre of melon plants in this
manner.

They should be dusted early in the morning or late
at night when damp with dew. There is another pest
sometimes called the wilt beetle, which causes the plants
to wilt and die, and which may not attack them until the
vines have made quite a growth. There will be but lit-
tle trouble with this pest if the vines are kept dusted, as
they should be, with the Bug Death, as long as the ma-
chine can be used without too much damage to the vines

123

by the wheel running over them, and by the time this
will happen the vines will be largely out of danger.

One of the surest watermelons to grow in the North-
ern States is the Coles Early. It is a good eating melon,
but too tender for shipping; but that is no drawback for
the “Home Garden.” The ‘Halbert Heney” is the sweet-
est and finest flavored melon of them all, and, while
small, will grow most years as far North as central Maine
if on light, warm soil and in a sheltered place.

The Keckley Sweet is another fine melon, much
larger than the Halbert Heney and nearly as good fla-
vored. I have grown specimens of the Coles Early to
weigh 32 pounds and Keckley Sweet 25 pounds here in
Maine, which is larger than needed for home use.

In the case of muskmelons, where the seeds are thin,
and in some cases have split open more or less, it will not
do to use the water as hot, as it will upon the harder
shelled dry watermelon seed. The two objects in using
hot or nearly scalding water on watermelon seeds is,
first, to soften up the hard shell of the seeds so that
they can sprout quickly, and, second, to kill the germs
of any disease that might be upon them. With musk-
melons the last is the only reason, as there is but little
trouble in getting a stand of plants if the seed planted
is good, and with thin-shelled seed like muskmelons care
must be used in order not to kill the germ of the seed
when scalding to kill the germs of any of the melon
blights which may be upon them.

Cut worms and the flea beetle like muskmelons much
better than watermelons; hence, when planting musk-
melons, the seed should not be dropped over one and one-
half to two inches apart in the rows. This seems like a
great waste of seed, as these should be thinned out to not
less than 30 inches apart in the row after all danger from
insects is past. The cost of seed is not very great, and
with both water and muskmelons the time of planting
is very short in our Northern states, and if the first plant-
ing fails to give the proper amount of plants needed the
whole season will have been lost. There can be no set
time for planting either, as the ground must be warm
before it is any use to plant melons. Asa rule, May 25th
comes as near as any date can be specified, but I have
planted a week earlier with fine results, and with the Gran-
ite State Muskmelon as late as June 15th, and got fine

124

ripe melons weighing four and five pounds by September
8th, but the Granite State melon is the only one I have ever
had that will do this. In fact, I have never planted any
of the other varieties after the first week in June and re-
ceived any crop.

The Granite State is the most sure of any of the
muskmelons, and if planted side by side with the “Miller
Cream” for a few years will take on the good quailty of
the ‘Miller Cream,” while still keeping its old shape and
size. Next to the Granite State would come the “Miller
Cream.” This is the finest eating melon I have ever
tasted when grown to perfection. It should be planted
never been able to have it grow properly planted later
as early as the ground and weather will permit, as I have
than June Ist. The Granite State will make a good crop
in any season I have ever seen here in Southern Maine,
but it is the only one that will. The “Miller Cream” will
in about four years out of five, and so will some of the
“Netted Gens” or “Rocky Fords.” It is but. little use to
plant anything but the “Granite State” and “Miller
Cream” as far North as Maine, but these two are all one
needs or desires.

SQUASHES

In planting squashes, the same general system of
preparing the soil is followed as in planting melons.

What barn or stable dressing that can be spared is
spread over the patch, and either harrowed or plowed
in, and some commercial fertilizer used in the drill the
same as for melons. In fact, I find this to be about the
best method for most garden crops, as much time is saved
and all vegetables will get a quick start. The squash
rows are run six feet apart, and the seed is pushed into
the soil about 1% inches with the fingers and about two
feet apart in the row. ‘There is not as much danger from
cutworms with squashes as with melons, but if they are
known to be present the seed should be planted thicker.
Four feet apart in the row is about right to leave the
squash plants. The flea beetle does not attack the little
squash plants as they do muskmelons, but the striped
squash bug will be a great deal worse.

If the little plants are dusted two or three times with
Bug Death none of them will be lost. I do not think I

125

ever lost a squash plant when kept dusted with Bug
Death, and if dusted with it before the bugs come they
will not light upon the plant at all. Hence it is very im-
portant to dust them as soon as the plants break ground.
With plants as scattered as they are in a squash patch,
the best way is to take a piece of cheesecloth or burlap
and make a small bag, putting a pound or so of the Bug
Death in it, and with a little jerk or shake over the plant
it will be well dusted. This should be done early in the
morning or at night when the plants are wet with dew.
With this method I have gotten nearly three tons of fine
squash from one-eighth of an acre of ground, and it is
rare that the yield w rill be less than six tons per acre.

Squashes should never be planted near melons, as
they are apt to spoil the flavor of the melons.

CUCUMBERS

Cucumbers are planted in the same manner as mel-
ons, with the seed dropped as thickly in the rows, but
only thinned to one foot apart in the row, and the rows
can be as near together as three feet. I like the drill
method for all garden truck, and by keeping the seeds in
a straight line when they are small, there is but very little
of the soil which cannot be stirred by the cultivator,
keeping the garden free from weeds with the least possi-
ble amount of hand labor.

Bug Death should be dusted on the cucumbers as
soon as they break ground, for the flea beetle will get at
these plants nearly as quickly as muskmelons. Many
who raise cucumbers for the pickling factories claim that
several dustings with the Bug Death after the vines get
to a bearing age will piolong their fruiting season from
two to three weeks. Unfortunately, the writer has never
grown cucumbers in a large way, but only for his home
use, but they grow and bear fruit until killed by frost. If
the claim of those who grow them for the pickling fac-
tories is well founded, it is certainly worth the trial for
this purpose, as the vines can be dusted with the same
duster used for potatoes and with very little waste of the
Bug Death if the rows are in drills.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, allow me to thank you for your atten-
tion and say that the methods, both in the home garden and

126

potato growing, which I have had the pleasure of bringing
to your notice, have been worked out in the field by myself,
and do assure you that if you will follow to the letter my
instructions, the result will be a good paying crop of tubers
in most any season, wet or dry, from Maine to Michigan.

I have many points herein in the culture of the potato
mostly overlooked by potato growers, thinking it of too
little importance, and which, to my mind, lead to a real loss.

The methods of preparing the soil are correct. If the
seed is handled as I have above outlined, there will be
almost a perfect stand of plants in any season; and the
method of fertilization keeps the plants supplied with plenty
of available plant food well balanced the season through.
Thus you have the whole scheme—very simple, is it not?
Yet I venture to say that there will be thousands who read
this book who will so improperly fit their ground and fer-
tilize that there will be weeks at a time in a dry spell when
their crops cannot get a tenth part of either the water or
plant food absolutely necessary to make a normal growth.

Feed your crops as you know you must feed your
stock, and the increase will be accordingly. If the author
is wrong, get after him.

Yours truly,
EA. ROGERS
Johnson Seed Potato Company,
Leominster, Mass.

INDEX

Introduction

General Conditions

Rotation . :

Soils for Potatoes .
Underdrainage

Preparing Land for Pie:
How to get Humus

Winter Vetch

Winter Rye

Two Main Causes of the Weesanes of ie Potato .

Potatoes for Seed .

Varieties.

Saving Potato Boll Seed
Onginating New Varieties.

Whole Potatoes for Seed . :
Creening and Budding Seed Potatoes
Selecting and Cutting Seed :
Planting Early Potatoes in a Garden
Field Planting of Early Potatoes
Planting the Late or Main Crop
Stable Manvre

Commercial Fertilizers

Cultivation

Insecticides

Paris Green ,

Arsenate of Lead .

Bug Death

Bordeaux Mixture

Sprayers .

Spraying . :

The Flea Beetle .

The Colorado Beetle

Treatment for Scab

Late Blight or Rot

Harvesting the Crop

Storehouses

Marketing the Crop

The Home Garden

Conclusion

>
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Met . J. B. HAINES, ADVERTISING
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1218 CHESTNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA

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