The ABC of potato culture. How to grow them in the largest quantity, and of the finest quality, with the least expenditure of time and labor; carefully considering all the latest improvements in this branch of agriculture up to the present date ..

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GIFT OF
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MjAIN LIBRARY-AGRICULTURE DEPT

THE ABC

OF

POTATO CULTURE

How to grow them in the largest quantity, and of the

finest quality, with the least expenditure of time

and labor; carefully considering all the

latest improvements in .this branch

of agriculture up to the

present date.

FULLY ILLUSTRATED.
BY T. B./T^ERRY, HUDSON, OHIO.

Second Edition; Revised, and Largely Re-wntten.

A. T. ROOT,

MEDINA, OHIO,

1893.

Publisher's Preface to First Edition.

Dear friends, one great reason why I have asked Mr. Terry to
write this book on potatoes is the number of people that are at
this present time begging for something to do. In our factory
for the manufacture of bee-supplies, we employ from 100 to 150
hands, and it is not only daily but sometimes hourly that I am
besieged with applications for something to do. I have employed
as many as I could, and suggested means of employment to those
I have been obliged to send away. Many times these friends say
they have been everywhere, asking for employment. This mat-
ter has been on my mind for many months, and it has seemed
that the great problem before our American people was to find
something they could do, to earn the necessaries of life. Work
in factories is, to a certain extent, not permanent. The vicissi-
tudes of business necessitate cutting down the force, and some-
times stopping entirely. What shall the men and women of
America busy themselves with? How shall they earn their
bread by the sweat of their face? After having considered this
question prayerfully, the answer has come to me, u Go out into
the open fields, and ask old Dame Nature for something to do —
till the soil, busy yourself with domestic animals, bees, poultry,
and the like." After you have once learned to do this, you are
independent; that is, you are not dependent on any human being
for the wherewith to earn your bread. You are looking to God
the Father; and he has said, " Him that cometh unto me, I will
in no wise cast out." Neither myself nor friend Terry would
advise everybody to go to raising potatoes; but a great many are
so situated that they could, by this means, supply themselves
with this great food staple. A penny saved is a penny earned,
you know, and brother Terry tells you not only how to raise po-
tatoes without any very great expense of time and labor, but he
also tells you how to raise better potatoes than you are likely to
buy of anybody. Again, a great many are already raising pota-
toes; and if you want to know how they raise them, go around
about digging-time.

4 * POTATO CULTUKE.

." I re'me.HiibQr-of working, when a boy, for a neighboring farmer.
His good wife must have something for dinner for the harvest
hands; so she went out into the garden, and pushed the weeds to
one side, and hunted until she found potato-vines enough to
indicate where the potatoes had been planted. After working
among the weeds hard enough to have earned a panful of good
potatoes provided she had reasonable pay for the hard work she
did, she got a few little ones, to help make out a dinner. Poor
woman! my heart goes out in sympathy and pity as I think of it
now. After having worked hard to raise a large family of chil-
dren, grim consumption took her away. If I am correct, scarcely
one of the large family of boys and girls was content to remain
on the farm. My friend, may be your good wife or mother would
rejoice to see a nice thrifty patch of fine potatoes. What mother
is there who does not rejoice to see her growing boys relish their
food, especially after the boys have been at work in the harvest-
field? Well, don't you think you would enjoy it to help that
good mother by supplying her with an abundance of nice pota-
toes ready at hand ? Did it ever occur to you that it is fun to
raise potatoes? Why, my friend, it seems to me there are few
enjoyments in the world like seeing potatoes do their level best;
and when you have got so well acquainted with the nature of the
vegetable, so it is all under your thumb, as it were, what a thrill
of pleasure it gives one to be able to make them do their best,
and do it every time, whether we have drouth or extremely
wet weather! You may say it is impossible; that we are not
independent of the weather. My friend, we are independent of
the weather, to a great extent. If every thing is done as well as
it can be toward raising a nice crop of potatoes, we can be pretty
sure of a fair crop, even during the worst drouth, or iri spite of
frost or rain or snow. May be you think I am claiming a good
deal. Well, friends, the best way in the world to prove it is to
try following the directions given in this book, with a small
patch in the garden (if you don't do any more than that); you
will then be ready to extend operations a little until you have a
field of ten or twenty acres, as has friend Terry, every season.
Don't go into any thingr wn a large scale to begin with. Prove
yourself, and prove your soil; prove your knowledge and ability;
creep before you walk; and when you do walk, you will be able

POTATO CULTURE. 5

to go safely and surely. I am especially anxious that the boys of
our land shall like this book. The boy who can raise a good crop
of potatoes, and do it every time, is entitled to honor and respect.
He is a useful member of society, and he is sure of a job any-
where, under any circumstances; for the commodity that he
produces will probably be a staple so long as there are hungry
people waiting to be fed. His occupation is also an honest one.
Somebody has said, that an honest man is the noblest work of
God.

May God's blessing go with our little book, and it surely will
rest on all who learn to love these rural industries, and who learn
to see God through his works. A. I. ROOT.

Medina, O., April 20, 1893.

Author's Preface to Second Edition.

It is just eight years ago this month since the first edition
of this book was printed. In revising it now I am really
surprised to see how many things there are that I want to
change a little. My experience has come from many seasons'
work in the field, and much study. Really, the best of my
life has been spent in this line; but still there are some
points that I wish I had two or three more years' experience
on before writing these pages. Thus it will always be, how-
ever; and long before this edition is sold out, readers will
find it behind the times on some point, doubtless. There
will be little found in these pages that the writer has not
given to the public in substance, through the columns of
the papers for which he has written, such as The Country
Gentleman, Ohio Farmer, Practical Farmer, Rural New-Yorker,
National Stockman and Farm Journal. The object of this
book is to get it together into compact, convenient shape for
reference, and corrected to date.

Hundreds of people have written me during the past few
years to know whether I still thought thus and so, as stated
in the old edition of this book. Now, I sincerely hope that
all who buy this edition will also take the paper for which I
write weekly, The Practical Farmer, of Philadelphia; not
that it makes a cent's difference to me, but so I can at once
let them know about any thing I may wish to change. This
will relieve my mind ; because, if any point in these pages is
found to be wrong, it can be corrected at once. I assure
you, friends, that I feel a good deal of responsibility in writ-
ing a book like tlris. Many of you will not realize how much.
It may be quite a serious matter if some friend is led astray
on but a single p;>int. There was one point in particular in
the old edition, about which I wrote in perfect good faith ;

POTATO CULTUEE. 7

and still, during the past three years I would have given
$100 if I could have changed it in all books out. 1 know that
some lost money by taking my advice, unless they read the
papers closely.

The following pages will be written with all the care pos-
sible, and with one desire only— to do the reader some real
good. It has been thought best that I write in the first
person, as the book is largely a narration of my own experi-
ence. If this little work should lead you to think and study
more, whatever line you are pursuing ; if it should rouse
your ambition to try to do your very best ; and if this should
make you more prosperous and happy, as it certainly will,
you don't know how it will please

Your friend,

March, 1893. T. B. TERRY.

POTATO CULTURE

CHAPTER I.

Soils and Their Preparation.

The very best soils for potato-raising, perhaps, are those
varying between a sandy or gravelly loam and a clay loam,
although they can be raised, of course, with more or less
profit on lighter ones, on black soils, or almost any kind of
land, even on quite heavy soil if tile-drained. But, do not
risk them on heavy land that is not underdrained, as you
may lose more than the cost of draining in a single year. It
may be wise to think twice before deciding to tile-drain your
land in order that you may devote it to potato-raising— to
think whether it may not be more profitably used, all things
considered; but if you have determined to raise potatoes
any way, then underdrain thoroughly the first thing you do.
"Lock your barn-door before your horse is stolen." Hun-
dreds and hundreds of acres of potatoes are destroyed every
wet season by stagnant water. Underdraining would have
prevented this for the most part. Thirty dollars' worth of
tiles and labor to the acre might have saved $50 or even $100
worth of crops. Sometimes a half or even a third of $30
would have done the necessary draining.* Portions of the
field were wet, and the farmer could not get on to harrow
and kill weeds in season, and perhaps the seed rotted in the
wet spots. I have seen just this occur on large fields, and a
practical failure come from want of tile-draining on only a
part of the land. I have known of cases on land quite simi-
lar to rriy own, where the farmer met with failure for lack

* Witli friend Terry's permission, I want to suggest, right here, that
before you commence tile-draining, the investment of 40 cents in the
little book by W. I. Chamberlain, entitled "Tile Drainage," will enable
you to start your work right, and to save both money and labor in doing
it. See last pages of this book. A. I. ROOT, Publisher

POTATO CULTURE. 9

of about $15 worth of tile -draining per acre, while my land
the same season brought about $100 per acre. The draining
in this case would have paid for itself several times over.
The most of my land is a loam, but some of it is almost too
sandy or gravelly, and some too heavy. The heavy soil we
have tile-drained ; but still I find that, in a very wet season,
potatoes will rot some in spite of the drains. Last season
was the worst one we have ever experienced for excess of
rain. From the first of May until into July our ground was
almost constantly saturated. We happened to have a field
in potatoes that has -considerable heavy soil in it. We have
never lost any thing to speak of from water on it before,
since it was drained. Last year there were spots to the
amount of an acre, all together, where the seed never came
up, put in, as it had to be, with the soil too wet ; and the
average of the field was, of course, not satisfactory. No
water stood on the surface an hour after a rain. The drains
did their full duty, but the soil was kept saturated and pack-
ed, so potatoes could do little. For once, man was just
about powerless. I measured a half -acre on the best of this
field, where the stand was good, and dug but 91 bushels.
On a measured half-acre in another field, of lighter soil and
with natural drainage, conditions of fertility about the same,
we dug 157 bushels. There were portions of the first half-
acre that yielded as well ; but tile -drained clay spots pulled
down the average. In a dry season I get good returns where
the crop failed this very wet season. On an average 1 get
the most satisfactory crops, all things considered, on soil
that is not quite heavy enough to need underdraining to any
great extent. Such soils are light enough to work easily ;
the potatoes come out bright and clean, and still they are
heavy enough to be strong soils, and to hold manure^ well,
and clover does \ery well on them. The farrp^ vvno raises
only a few potatoes for his own use need not pay such par-
ticular attention to the soil, as, if half of them are likely to
rot from wet feet, he can plant a larger patch ; or if they do

10 POTATO CULT U BE.

not come out bright and clean, they are for his own use.
But the man who raises acres of potatoes for market should
grow them where they will come out looking nice, if possible,
as that helps to sell them, and he can not afford to plant
where there will be much danger from wet- weather rot or
seed rotting, or where it will take a very large amount of
labor to prepare the soil properly.

I have said considerable about having the right kind of
soil, you will notice. To my mind, in this age it is unwise to
try to make our land do what it is not best fitted for. I
could, I think, take the heaviest clay on'my farm and make it
good potato land. This is possible, but I think it far wiser to
use land for this purpose that is naturally about right, and use
the clay for what it is best fitted. Of course, it may pay to
change the nature of a garden-patch ; but I am speaking of
field culture. A friend who has heavy clay land, and keeps
a fine Jersey dairy, came here once, and was so impressed
with the fact that I was making money out of potatoes that
he asked my advice about his going into the business. He
was in the habit of growing two or three acres a year. After
getting all the particulars, I told him I not only would not
grow more potatoes, but I would never again grow even the
two or three acres he had been growing ; that it was far
better for him to extend the butter business, and grow feed
for his cows on the heavy land he had. I am sure this
advice was sound. Great success in potato culture will be
on soil reasonably fitted for the business naturally. The
business is changing, and the market is less and less sup-
plied with a few loads from every farm, and more and more
from great areas where the business has been gone into on a
large scale, under favorable conditions. On unfavorable
'soils there will be little profit in trying to compete with the
last-namea growers, except, perhaps, in a small way for
home market.

POTATO CULTURE. 11

Fall Plowing.

I do not think there is any thing gained by fall-plowing
sod land designed for this crop, unless one is troubled by
grubs or wireworms ; and there is a better way to manage
these— not to have them— that I will speak of in the chapter
on " Rotation. " If the soil is very heavy and lumpy, the frost
may pulverize it a little more than it otherwise would, if it
is turned up in the fall ; but such soils are not profitable
ones to plant potatoes on any way, you know. I have found
it just about as much work to loosen up and pulverize the
soil five or six inches deep, in the spring, where it had been
fall-plowed, as it would have been to plow it and pulverize it
both in the spring. This, for rather heavy soil. On light
soil, one might gain some time in the spring by fall plowing ;
but there is another serious question to consider, particu-
larly for farmers with light land. In this latitude, with our
open winters, and heavy rains of fall and spring, we shall
lose more or less fertility by having our land plowed. It
leaches downward with the water. In the far North, where
the land is locked up by frost most of the time, it will not
make so much difference. Farther south it will make more.
As a general rule, unless you have some good local reason
for doing otherwise, keep something growing on your land
just as nearly all the time as possible. This practically pre-
vents loss of fertility. Let the sod stand, with its live roots
in the soil, until the ground is dry enough to crumble off the
mold-board in the spring ; then if you are ready to plant,
turn it over and plant at once, and get something else grow-
ing. Keep land busy, as well as yourself. Doesn't it need
rest ? Yes ; but a change of work (rotation) is a rest to it,
and all it needs. Give it any more, and you lose. If you
have a corn-stubble to plant next year with potatoes, sow
rye or something to occupy the land till you plow for po-
tatoes. I had a half-acre of stubble land last fall that I
wanted to plant this year; and, not having rye, I sowed
thickly. I shall have a fine growth to turn under by

12 POTATO CULTURE.

the last of April. Some of that fertility I should not have
if I had not sown the wheat, and had its live roots constant-
ly on the watch to catch up any stray drop of fertility.
When I turn under the wheat it will quickly become plant-
food again, for the potatoes to use.

All About Plowing.

A deep soil, deeply plowed, is undoubtedly best for pota-
toes ; but this deepening should be done very gradually, say
an inch once in two or three years, until you get your soil as
deep as you can turn over with a plow. Drought is one of
the greatest enemies of the potato crop ; and a deep soil
will the best withstand dry weather. Again, potatoes are
naturally a deep-feeding crop. We have land we plow 8
inches deep, and some even more than this. The soil we
turn is now about twice as deep as when I began farming
here 23 years ago, and I feel certain 1 am working in the
right direction. I use an Oliver chilled 40 X walking-plow.
In fact, we have two of this size. It is the only plow I could
find at the time that did the work to suit me, and to the
depth I want. There are plows that will turn a smoother
furrow, and lay it over flat and nice ; but this isn t what I
want. I want lap-furrow plowing, the furrows on edge, and
just over a little, so they will not fall back, I do not want
the surface of sod turned over flat on to the subsoil, by any
means, but scattered through the soil, where the roots will
grow. A plow of this kind will not draw as easily as one
with a longer and less blunt mold-board; but it does the
right kind of work. Of course, there is a jointer on the
plow, and a wheel to regulate the depth. These are as
necessary to me, almost, as the plow itself. Without the
jointer, the grass on the upper edges of my lap furrows
would make trouble ; as it is, there is only mellow soil there.
The jointer, or little plow, attached in front of the large one,
cuts a furrow about two inches deep, and throws it into the
big furrow, where it is covered by the furrow-slice from the

POTATO CULTUKE. 13

large plow. The wheel gives uniformity of work all through
the field, and slightly decreases the draft. The plow prop-
erly set, with a wheel on, on such clean smooth fields as a
farmer should have, almost runs itself. The days of " hold-
ing'7 a plow are over. A mere touch now and then should
guide it.

In plowing in the spring for potatoes, one should be very
careful about tramping ground unnecessarily. Winter frosts
have made it loose— just right for potatoes. It is easily
packed too solidly when horses tramp on it, as it is usually
moist at this season. I got through " plowing around " years
ago. We back-furrow in lands ; and, if the lot is not too
wide, all in one land, so as to have no dead-furrows. It
takes a little more time, but we do more perfect work. Take
one of our strips, 16x60 rods. Beginning in the center, say
ten feet from one end, we go down and back, and so on
around, drawing the plow across the ten feet or so at the
ends, just plowing lengthwise. When within ten feet of be-
ing done on the sides, we plow the ends too, thus finishing up
the lot. In the fall we put in wheat without plowing. When
it comes around again in the rotation, we start plow ten feet,
say, from one end, and plow down one side ; stop ten feet
from the other end ; draw the plow across the end ; plow up
the other side ; draw the plow across the other end, and so
on. When done we plow the ten-foot head-lands all one
way, one at a time, drawing the plow back. Thus we get
land back level, and the horses hardly tramp on it at all
after it is turned. I wish I could harrow it with a balloon,
so the horses need not tramp it. I can't do this, but can
prevent tramping while plowing.*

You will notice that my lap-furrow plowing, with the
edges of the furrows up in the air, and the grass shaved off
and buried out of the way, is in grand shape for the smooth-

* For a more extended review of the matter of how land should be
managed in plowing, see Publisher's Appendix in latter part of this
book,

14 POTATO CULTURE.

ing-harrow to take hold of. This may help to explain why I
can do so well with it (see latter part of this chapter). What
would be the sense of turning a furrow over flat and smooth,
and then using a cutting-harrow to dig it up again, when
one can leave it up loose and save half the harrowing ? This
is just what we do. These matters will seem very simple
to experts ; but many are not experts, and this is the ABC
of potato culture, you know. I am trying to make every
point clear enough to be understood by a beginner. That
jointer pays in two or three other ways. Properly set, it
puts all sods under, so nothing will harrow up — a small
matter, some may think ; but sod is plant food ; potatoes
feed down in the soil; and if sods are on top, the roots can
not get them that year. See V Again, bits of sod are in the
way of using harrow, weeder, etc. Perhaps you think you
know all about as simple a matter as plowing a field, and
harrowing it for potatoes. Well, I hope you do; but I fear
a good many have not thought of every little thing that may
be done to their advantage. Success in the future, sharp as
competition is, must come from careful attention to little
details.

On my soil I have not found subsoil plowing to pay. I
have a plow, and have tried it faithfully It might do good
under some conditions ; but I would not advise any one to
go into it very largely until he has found by actual experi-
ence that it pays. It is possible that, with drainage and
clover-growing in regular rotation, my subsoil is in better
condition than the average. If so, I believe the other fel-
lows will do well to get the better condition in the same way,
without extra cost. Theoretically, subsoil plowing is all
right. It ought to pay. I was sure it would. But cold facts
have chilled my original ardor. The subsoil plow does not
pulverize much. It breaks up the clay roughly. If it were
possible to pulverize all the subsoil for ten inches, say, as
thoroughly and finely as I can the surface, and do it when
reasonably dry, I should like to try it on an acre. I am in-

POTATO CULTURE. 15

dined to think that right at this point is where common
subsoiling is lacking.

Harrowing.

After the ground is plowed in the spring, work it down
moderately fine soon after it is turned over, before.it has
time to dry out. It will work easier and better then than
ever again, particularly if there should be drying winds and
no rain. I have got caught this way, haven't you? I have
had to wait for a rain, or do a great deal of work to properly
prepare a seed-bed. It is not best to work down potato-land,
before planting, as fine and firm as you would land for wheat.
It is better to do a part of the working and pulverizing after
the crop is planted, and before it comes up. You kill two
birds with one stone, and you do not get the land packed so
solidly. Years ago I used to prepare my soil very thoroughly
before planting ; then alter planting we harrowed, say, three
times to keep weeds down ; and the result was, ground very
solidly packed before the crop came up. This was wrong.
Potatoes do best in a fine but loose, light soil. It must not be
packed as wheat likes to have it. I now prepare land partly
before planting and partly after, and keep all weeds down at.
the same time. There is less tramping and packing of the
ground, and still as perfect preparation, and weeds as well
kept down.

A favorite way with me to prepare a field for potatoes is
to attach three horses abreast to a Thomas smoothing-har-
row, which will be described in another chapter ; put a plank
across the three sections, and get on and ride. This weight
sinks the teeth in to the woodwork, usually, and does a large
amount of pulverizing at a rapid rate, in going once over the
ground, and it pulverizes quite deeply. The harrow takes a
sweep of some ten feet. All my potato-ground has been
prepared in this way, some years. The work is done soon
after plowing, before the ground becomes dry and hard.
This is the great point. After the lumps once become dry

16 POTATO CULTUBti.

and hard, the smoothing-harrow will not have much effect
on them— only to move them around a little. It can not do
much pulverizing unless you wait for a shower, and go on
just as it gets dry enough. The safest plan is, never to let
the lumps dry. If it is very drying weather, hitch on to the
harrow after dinner, and harrow down what you plowed in
the morning, and the next morning work what was plowed
in the afternoon. Many friends have wondered how I could
harrow land, that was at all heavy, with a smoothing-harrow.
They thought it would not touch hard clods. You have
here in this chapter the secrets. If a thing must be done
any way, why not do it just when and in the way it can be
done'easiest and best V Some one may ask, " Why pulverize
the surface soil? The roots do not grow at the top." Well,
there would be danger of cut seed drying up in a dry time,
if we did not, and fine soil acts as a mulch to prevent the
lower soil from drying out, arid, of course, the harrow-teeth
go down in so as to fine the soil below some also. Now,
after harrowing just this once, we have often rolled the
ground and gone on with the planting, and considered that
we were doing the best we knew how. If there are hard
spots in the field, that the smoothing-harrow will not work
down properly, if used on time, or if the entire field is in
such shape that more working seems to be needed, we go
over it with a cutaway, or disc harrow, crosswise, lapping
half, then use the smoothing-harrow again lengthwise, and
roll. If there is an unusually hard clay spot, we go over it
alternately with cutaway, Thomas, and roller, until it is fine,
just working that spot down by itself, when the rest of the
field does not need so much tillage. The first time over with
the smoothing-harrow, we go the same way we plowed, so as
to push the furrows over rather than tear them up. A set
of three-horse whiffletrees, for three horses abreast, is a good
thing, as you can go right along then, with weight enough
on to set the teeth well down. Elliott's three-horse evener
is simple, light, and cheap. I have one, and it is just the

POTATO CULTUKE.

17

thing to harrow and plow with. The die c and cutaway har-
rows are the best implements we have for working soil more
than can be done with a Thomas hallow. They should
always be used back and forth, lapping half; as then, with
careful driving, the land is not ridged much. We have both,
but rather prefer Clark's cutaway to a disc. We think it
draws a little easier, and digs deeper on hard ground, and it
does not ridge the ground so much. But both are good tools.
A cutaway, Thomas, and roller, are all the tools I need to
prepare potato-land ; and the same tools are now used to
prepare the potato . ., , stubble for wheat without

plowing. Let me jj|lj||i| \ advise that, if you use a cuta-
way or disc in pre- || \ paring potato-land, you do
not go lengthwise, !| 'ill f ^K^ as vour rows are to run,

ELLIOTT'S THREE-HORSE EVENER.

Price complete, for wag-on and plow, $4.00 per set; for plow and har-
row without wagon attachment, $3.00 per set. Address all inquiries to
Thomas Elliott, Tecumseh, Mich.

but exactly at right angles, or crosswise, and the slight
ridges made by harrows will then bother the least. I should
explain, perhaps, that my clover sod, on which no stock
ever runs, is very mellow, usually. With less favorable
conditions, more harrowing (the use of the cutaway) might
always be needed. Again, some years the ground seems
much more mellow than others. You get the point of why I
do as little tillage as will answer, before planting. But you
must not overdo it. Small-cut pieces of seed would dry up
if the surface were too coarse. In this chapter you will find
cuts of the cutaway harrow and a roller.
If there is danger of rain, do not roll ground any faster

18 POTATO CULTUEE.

than you. can plant, as the harrowed surface will dry off
after a rain quicker than the rolled one, and the water will
not run, but soak down wrhere it falls, as the potato-grower
always wants to make it do. As well as I know this, and as
many years as I have practiced it, last year I got caught.
My son rolled along just ahead of me, as I planted some five
acres ; and then, as the weather seemed very settled, I told

CUTAWAY HARROW.

The Cutaway Harrow Co., of Higganum, Ct., write us, under date of
April 24, that the retail price of the above harrow is $30.00. If ordered
directly from the manufactory, the price will be 10 per cent off on
board the cars at their depot.

him we would take the risk and roll around the rest of the
piece, and have it ready. Very soon the wet weather set in,
and I lost some money by not following the plan that I knew
was safest. Do not plant until your soil is in just the right
condition, or until you can see your way clear to make it
just right before the crop comes up. Thorough tillage pays.
Mr. C. A. Kellogg, of Geauga Co., Ohio, writes me that he

POTATO CULTURE. 19

put in a part of his potato crop one year thoroughly well,
and a part of it, for lack of help, not quite as well, and he
says he can see now, after digging, that, if he had paid $5.00
or even $10.00 a day for help to put in all his crop as well as
he did a part of it, he would have been the gainer. This
statement, coming from a farmer who raised 650 bushels of
potatoes from 9 bushels of seed, is worth remembering.
Large p lying crops rarely come without a good deal of work.

DUNHAM'S STESL LAND-ROLLER NO. 2.

The price of the above implement is $30.00. All correspondence
should be addressed to J. W. Dunham & Son, Berea, Ohio.

My friend could have got all the help he wanted, no doubt,
for $1.50 a day, and the difference between that sum and
$5.00 or $10.00 represents the profit he would have made by
doing the best he knew how. The extra labor required, if prop-
erly managed, does not eat up the extra crop, by any means.

20 POTATO CULTURE.

CHAPTER II.
Manures and Their Application.

If wanting to apply manure for the direct use of the potato
crop, I would leave my year's manure over until fall, and
then along in September or October, when most convenient,'
I would draw it out and spread evenly on the surface of sod
ground that was to be plowed the next spring for potatoes.
First, if following this plan, care must be taken that the
manure does not waste while being kept over. If it heats
much you lose ammonia ; if much rain falls on it, the more
soluble parts leach out. Cement floors in the stables, and
my covered barnyard, and manure spread evenly over the
yard, and tramped, and some land-plaster sprinkled on the
surface occasionally, will keep it perfectly for any length of
time. Without a roof over the yard you may pile it away
from the eaves and surface wash, mix the different kinds
together, encourage stock to tramp it by putting up rubbing-
posts on the pile, thus preventing excessive heating and
waste ; cover lightly with earth in the spring, and have a
pile in very good shape for fall use, without much trouble or
loss. I went to the trouble of drawing a large pile, thus
kept, out in the spring, and composting it with muck in
alternate layers, for several years. I did not get my pay for
the extra handling, to the best of my belief. The manure
spread on the sod any time in the fall will suffer no loss. It
will not be likely to wash away any during the winter, as
the soluble parts will have been carried down into the soil by
rains, and the grass or clover roots will take care of them.
Great pains should be taken to spread this manure as finely
as possible. We use a manure-spreader, which does the
work very perfectly. If spread by hand, one may harrow it

22 POTATO CULTUKE.

with a smoothing-harrow, or bush it ; and I would do this
most thoroughly even, if possible, until hardly a trace of the
manure could be found. Perhaps you may think I put this
too strongly, but I mean it all. In many cases the farmer
could realize double what he does from his manure by mak-
ing it so fine that every bit of soil would have some, instead
of its being turned under in lumps. I have traveled thou-
sands of miles this spring, and seen field after field thus
carelessly manured. Why, it seems sometimes as though I
must get off the train and go and show the farmer what he
is losing. I have spread manure as carefully and evenly as
possible in the fall ; and then, when it was rather coarse to
use a smoothing-harrow or bush on, I went over it three or
four times in the spring with the cutaway harrow. This
was on clover sod. You ought to have seen how nicely it
fined the manure, and worked it into the surface soil.
Manures so spread in the fall will be worked into the soil in
the best possible shape for potatoes, if you do your part. I
would not, as a rule, spread manure on plowed ground or
stubble land in the fall. It is a wasteful way, as well as the
fall plowing. In the spring, when you plow a sod manured
as above, in the way described in the first chapter, you will
have a good foundation for a potato crop.

I can not advise the application of fresh manure during the
winter and spring, for potatoes. No, it will be wiser to keep
it over and put on in the fall for another year. Fresh
manure is more liable to produce rot, in a wet year, and scab
is likely to be made worse by it, and the quality of potatoes
will not be as good. This is simply a general rule. There
are exceptions. I know men who follow this practice. It
seems to be all right for them. But I have learned not to
risk it, by bitter experience, and so have many others. I
once manured a iield with fresh manure through the winter
and spring. The yield was large, but they were badly scabby.
The" other iield, the same year, without any manure but
clover, gave an entirely smooth crop, as usual. I could have

POTATO CULTURE. 23

sckl the product of the last lot readily, at a good price ; but
in order to work in the scabby ones I had to take five cents
a bushel less for the whole lot, and hunt long for a cus-
tomer, and sort out some 200 bushels of the worst ones. You
don't know how this hurt me, to work off four or five cars of
potatoes in this way. You may safely draw manure out
fresh for corn ; but I would not take the risk for potatoes.
When a dry season follows the application of fresh manure
to potato-land, I have had the yield actually reduced by the
manure, and then so much was left that the wheat following
was overfed, and got down so badly that we wished we had
never put any on.

I would never bother to put stable manure or compost in
the hill or drill in field culture. It takes a good deal of time
in the busy season of the year, and I think it is no better
than to apply it broadcast and finely pulverized in the fall.
If it is finely pulverized, and mixed with the soil, the roots
will find some of it as soon as they start, and they will surely
find it all in time, as, before the tops are nearly full grown,
it' you plant as near together as you should, little rootlets
can be found in every square inch of soil, searching for food ;
and it is better that they should find their food widely and
deeply scattered, as then, in case of drought, they are in
better shape to get all the moisture there is in the soil.
Manure in the hill may give a quicker start ; but it is the
steady, healthy, vigorous growth from beginning to end that
fills the basket the most times on an acre.

It is now no use for the great majority of growers to try to
get the earliest potatoes into market to secure the high price,
as some farmer living further south will have them before
you do, and ship them up and supply your market before you
possibly can Here in Northern Ohio, potatoes are now
sometimes lower in July than in November. We must strive
to raise the largest possible crop at the least possible cost.
Broadcasting the manure will help us, I think, to do this.

24 POTATO CULTUEE.

Manuring the Renovating Crop.

I have now given you what I believe to be the best way of
applying manure directly to the crop, and perhaps I shall
surprise you when I say that I believe a potato-grower can
do better than this. I have given the above because it
seems to be the best that one can do who follows the com-
mon practice of manuring the crop directly, and people will
be slow to change. The idea of putting the manure on to
the money crop, or the one taking the most hand labor, so as
to get profitable returns, has a strong hold on the minds of
our farmers. It had me once, but it has lost its hold. To
show you what I mean, I must go into the matter of rotation
a little before we come to it regularly in a later chapter.

We follow the best rotation I know of for a potato -farm
where no stock are kept — a three-year one of clover, potatoes,
and wheat. The clover is the renovating crop, you know.
It draws on the air and subsoil as well as on the soil, for
nitrogen ; and it pumps up mineral matter. If we can make
it big and strong enough we can get all the fertility we need
for pretty good crops of potatoes an4 wheat. If, now, we
use the manure to make the clover grow big (put it on the
young clover), will it not then be stronger and ranker, better
able to send its roots still more deeply into the subsoil, and
to gather still more nitrogen from the air ? Again, clover
is the safest food we can feed potatoes. It is least likely to
produce scab, or rot, or to do harm in a dry year. The pota-
toes so fed will be of as fine quality as can be grown. I
mean, of course, those fed on the clover-roots (a clover sod
turned under), and more or less of the tops. Again, the
manure can be put on at a time of year when we have the
least to do, and when, as a rule, the ground is hardest and
dryest, and when we shall do the least injury. Please turn
over and read the chapter on rotation and clover-growing,
and you may realize more the value of using manure on the
renovating crop. Since the writer began to practice and
preach this, one by one, some of the best authorities in the

POTATO CULTUKE. 25

land, have come to his side. I certainly believe I am exactly
right on this point, for my rotation. I was at an institute
at Franklin, Pa., the other day, and Secretary Edge remark-
ed : " The man who can get a big clover crop can do just any
thing he has a mind to." That is a good deal the way I feel.
Let me now give you the plan we are at present following.
Manure is saved with care, on cement floors and in a covered
yard. It is put on the young clover right after we get our
wheat in the barn. It is put on with as much care to have it
fine as I have advised above. It is put on the parts of the
field where it is most needed ; and much care is taken to do
this, as we never have enough to go all over. I notice
particularly, when cutting the wheat, where the manure
is wanted. Small clover may not need manure. It may be
small because the wheat was very heavy and kept it back,
and the land be rich enough. Where the wheat was thin
and the clover small too, a double dose is needed. You see
the point— we use our manure with the utmost care to help
us get a heavy growth of clover all over the field, on every
square rod, and then we are all right for our future money
crops. Some reader may think that manure put on the sur-
face in midsummer will lose much of its value by evapora-
tion. This is a common opinion, but not founded on fact.
I have often seen farmers draw manure out and put it in
piles, and not spread it until just as they were ready to plow
it under, so as to prevent any loss. Did they ever stop to
think that, if this world had been made that way, fertility
could not have been built up on the surface V There was no
one here for ages to plow under the manure of animals or
the growing vegetation ; no, they remained on the surface,
and eventually the soil became rich. You can not practi-
cally evaporate nitrogen, phosphoric acid, or potash, and
these are the three ingredients that we need in the manure.
Did you ever boil down any lye in a kettle ? Did the potash
evaporate? No; it remained in the bottom, and water
only went up into the air. Just so if you set a pan of water

26 POTATO CULTURE.

and potash out to slowly evaporate ; just so if you put in
nitrogen or phosphorus. These substances will not evap-
orate in the form given above. Under no combination of
circumstances can you evaporate any mineral matter. But
if you pile up your manure and let it heat, thus changing the
nitrogen into a volatile gas, ammonia, and you spread this
manure out, the ammonia will go to wa^te at once. But you
will lose only the trace that was present when you spread it.
After manure is thinly spread, practically no more will be
formed. The slight amount you lose is of little account.
Doubtless you would lose as much every day if you lett the
manure in a heading pile, where ammonia was constantly
forming. But practically I keep my manure from heating
and forming ammonia, by having it spread all over the
covered yard, and tramped so as to pretty much exclude the
air. The manure does not rot. I do not want it to. I want
to use it on the surface. It has two values I am after, and
at the same time I do not want any loss. The first value is
the actual plant-food in it. This, I have shown you, I shall
get without any practical loss. Then by using it on the sur-
face I get a mulching value. Little by little the rains leach
the plant-food down among the clover-roots, where it will be
taken care of. Meanwhile the refuse portions, straw, etc.,
shade and cover the surface between the young clover-plants.
It is a great law of nature, that bare land grows poorer and
shaded land richer. Our farming will become more and
more profitable as we learn to work in accordance with the
laws that are fixed by the great Creator of all. Do you think
this manuring will interfere with your having clean hay the
next year, if you want to cut the first crop for hay ? It does
not at all on my farm. The manure is so finely spread that
it decays so not a trace of it will rake up in the hay. I
feared trouble in this way, but have had none. But, re-
member, we have a manure-spreader, and it tears the
manure all into shreds, nearly, and the heavy growth of
clover furnishes moisture and shade, so it decays quickly.

POTATO CULTURE. 27

If poorly spread it might not only not decay, but would
smother some clover.

How much manure shall you put on ? Well, applied in
the above way, and for the above rotation, I would, if I
could, use enough to grow as heavy a crop of clover as could
well grow, both the rowen after the grain, and the first and
second crops the next season. The potatoes would stand
higher feeding, but the wheat would get down, and will some
any way. A gardener may often to advantage make his
soil richer than* is wise for one who grows grain in rotation
with potatoes. My friend J. M. Smith, of Green Bay, Wis ,
grows much larger crops than I do. His climate is more
favorable, any way, and then he manures very heavily and
rotates with garden crops which will stand it, and, in fact,
need it. But it would not do to put grain on his land, and
he does not have to grow clover to get cheap fertility, as he
buys quantities of manure cheaply in the city near by. Mr.
Smith averages, I think, over 300 bushels of potatoes per
acre. In this latitude, and grown in a grain and clover rota-
tion, L think one will do well who gets an average near to 200
bushels, and, say, 25 to 40 of wheat.

Comn.ercial Fertilizers.

I had half a notion to skip the fertilizer question entirely.
I confess I do not understand it. There are good men, and
true, who report wonderful results from the use of fertilizers
on potatoes, who consider them just as truly plant-food as
stable manure, and who say no other manure should be used
for potatoes, as fertilizers grow the smoothest and best ones.
Clover and fertilizers are spoken of as all that is necessary,
and good old manure takes a back seat along with the hoe
and scythe. I have no right to think these friends any less
honest or sincere than I am, but I can not agree with them.
I must be governed by my experience. Several times have I
tried fertilizers with great care, and you may rest assured

28 POTATO CULTURE.

the manufacturers would not send me a poor article. I will
tell you of one experiment.

S. C. rock phosphate, pure ground bone, and Mapes potato-
manure (a so-called complete manure for potatoes) were
used. Muck had been applied to the land, which contained
much nitrogen, and potash was abundant naturally, and so
in theory the rock phosphate was just what I wanted. The
complete manure, containing every ingredient necessary for
the growth of a crop, was certainly all right, but it might
cost too much, as some of the ingredients, might not be
needed. Experiments were made in three different lots, on
strips 50 to 60 rods long, using at the rate of 600 to 1000
pounds per acre. Great care was used in the measuring,
weighing, etc., that the experiments might be accurate. I
will not take space to give full details, but will simply say
that, much to my surprise, no benefit was derived from any
of them. There were slight variations in yield, but no great-
er than could be accounted for by the natural variations of
the soils. It was a wet season. The next year was quite
dry, and the same ground was in potatoes again, but no
difference in growth or yield could be seen on these plats.

The experimental rows in one case ran across a piece of
rather poor land, where the yield was much below the aver-
age. Here, I thought, surely I should see good results, but
was disappointed. Rotten stable manure will increase the
yield every time, even when the land is already quite rich ;
now, why will not a complete manure, containing all the
ingredients of stable manure, do the same ? Why did it not
show some effect on poor land ? Rotten manure would have
done so. That same season, by the use of stable manure,
freely applied, a half-acre was made to yield more than 200
bushels.

In spite of these experiments, when a circular came one
spring, with a picture of a fine large potato (450 bushels per
acre) grown with the potato-manure, and a little scabby one
(120 bushels per acre) grown with animal manure, I could

POTATO CULTURE. 29

hardly resist the temptation to order a carload of the fer-
tilizer— there was such a difference in the potatoes (in the
picture)! This is not told to condemn the use of all com-
mercial fertilizers, but rather to induce farmers to experi-
ment more, and know what they are about, and whether a
thing pays or not, and not to trust to theories and fine cir-
culars, or even the experience of others entirely. I have no
doubt that fertilizers in bags sometimes pay ; but do they
pay you ? that is the question. Figure and experiment
carefully, and see. A thousand pounds of complete potato-
manure, put oh an acre, would cost, in Ohio, perhaps $25.00.
It is a big question, whether you can not better get the same
amount of fertility, and in a shape that can always be de-
pended on, in $25.00 worth of wheat-bran and oil-meal, to be
fed out with your straw and corn fodder. Then you will be
your own manufacturer, and you will get the feed value for
your labor in the winter when there is not much else you can
do.

I am perfectly willing to go on record for all time as
advising this plan; but in regard to the use of fertilizers,
please remember me as cautioning you to kee;* your head
and know certainly whether they pay you before investing in
them to any great extent. They certainly can not always be
depended on like good stable manure. I do not stand alone
either in this view, by any means. At the best, fertilizers
are expensive for the mass of farmers, who get common
prices. My advice to such is, to do just as 1 have done—
arrange to save all the manure you do make, with great
care, and grow clover for all it is worth. I believe you can
thus avoid buying nitrogen, at least for a long time. In the
older-settled localities, mineral matter may be needed now,
or soon. When it is, experiment and get it in the best way
you can.

Granting that fertilizers are as truly and surely plant-food
as good stable manure, growers near large cities, who get
about two prices for their products, can well aiford to us

30 POTATO CULTUKE.

them. It doesn't follow, however, that the great mass of
farmers in Ohio, say, can afford to use them at the prices
they get.

Since writing the above, Bradley 's fertilizer book has
come to me. There is a beautiful picture of Chas. Hummers
potato -field, with baskets of fine tubers standing as dug— 350
bushels of large smooth potatoes per acre, from 1400 pounds
of fertilizer per acre! and Chas. Dibble's wheat— 37 bushels
per acre, and an average in the county of only 18! and friend
Collingwood, of the Rural New-Yorker, saying : u There are
many thousands of farmers in New York State who use a
ton of fertilizer per acre, plain business men, who ten years
ago were buying large quantities of stable manure, and to-day
you could not get them to pay 50 cents a cord for such
manure and haul it home !" How this excites me, with all
my adverse experience! I can hardly keep from ordering a
carload at once! But, alas! I am one of the " many thou-
sands" who can not show such results. If this book could
be delayed till fall, I would put 1400 pounds on an acre again
this year, and try it once more, paying the regular price for
it, so my report might be from a disinterested standpoint.

My farmer friends, be perfectly sure you are right in this
matter, and then go ahead. My old friend J. M. Smith,
whose opinion Uncle Sam has not gold enough to buy, said
at a late institute : " Fertilizers have never paid me on good
or poor land." Prof. Thoin, Director of our Experiment
Station, after a great amount of study, in his bulletin,
" Forty Years of Wheat Culture in Ohio," says: "These
statistics indicate that the wheat crops of Ohio have been
slightly increased by the use of commercial fertilizers ; but
it appears that the average cost of this increase has equaled
its market value."

TOMATO CULTURE. 31

CHAPTER III.
When and How Far Apart shall we Plant?

The ground having been properly prepared, and sufficient
available fertility arranged for, the next question that comes
up is, When shall we plant V No fixed rule can be laid down,
with any certainty that it will be the correct one for that
season, until we can tell beforehand just what the weather
will be. The plan which I stick to is, not to start the plow
until the ground is dry, and then plant as soon as I can get
ready. This rule followed out every year for my farm, and
the medium early potatoes I grow, gives, I think, the best
results. Of course, we miss it now and then, as we should
if we planted at any fixed time. But we think the average
results of early planting are best. I have had early-planted
potatoes injured by dry hot weather during the last two or
three weeks of their growth, while those planted a month
later lived through the dry time, and made a fine growth
during wet weather which followed the drouth, and yielded
double what the early-planted ones did.

In 1884, a killing frost the 29th of May cut down into the
ground half of our potatoes that were planted early and
were up high enough to cultivate. The other half, planted
a few days later, escaped the frost and yielded much better.
But such a frost comes only once in perhaps ten years, and
I will take the chances on it, and plant early, regularly.
With favorable weather right after, potatoes may not be
injured greatly by being frozen down. They will come on
again any way, side sprouts coming up from the main stem.
A slight frost, that only blackens some leaves, is of little
consequence. We seldom get a frost that kills the stems
into the earth, as mentioned above.

I have now given some of the objections to early planting.

32 POTATO CULTUKE.

There are many advantages. We are quite likely to have
showery weather here in July, and that is a good time to
have a crop ripen. It is a great advantage to have them
ripen slowly. Blight seldom injures the early-planted early
potatoes. They are out of the way before blight weather
gets around much. The crop is secured before the hottest
and dryest weather of the season, as a rule. The spring
moisture, by careful tillage and by having plenty of veget-
able matter in the soil (clover plowed under), can be made to
carry a crop through pretty well, even in a bad season. We
can get crops off during good weather and long days, and
get a grain crop growing in good season. An early crop is
very seldom injured by rot. There will be now and then a
year when the early crop can be carried through so as to
yield quite well, arid a dry hot fall injures the late crop
seriously. The early man has his crop made, and reaps a
rich harvest then. We have done just this thing, time and
again, while it is seldom that the late planting will give
much better results than the early. This is my best opinion,
from long experience and observation— that a skillful man
in Ohio will make the most in the long run by early planting.
But we do not sell early. We dig as soon as ripe, so as to
put in wheat, but sell when we can do best— usually, late
years, along in October.

In this latitude, Ohio, I would not plant at a medium time.
If not early, wait until late, and have potatoes ripen during
the cool weather of fall. Many large growers all over the
country practice this plan. They have one advantage— they
can sell from the field as they dig, and will lose less shrink-
age ; but they do not have as good weather to do their work
in, as a rule.

It must always be remembered, however, that it takes
land rather better fed, other things being equal, to grow
early potatoes. They ripen in less time, and before Nature
has had as much chance for making available plant-food.
You need to assist her a little more if you hurry her up. I

POTATO CULTUEE. 33

remember hearing a farmer, whose potatoes were badly cut
down by frost, say : " You will never catch me this way
again. I shall plant late after this." Well, perhaps a late
drouth may catch him next, and then he will never plant
late again. This is a very unwise way to do. Study over the
matter, and decide, according to your experience and what
light you can get, what plan it is best to follow in your
locality, and then stick to it through thick and thin. I have
had to endure being told I was in the wrong boat, two or
three times, and thoughtless persons made a great ado about
my short crops ; but I know my business, and dare to stick
to the best way.

About fifty friends write to me in the course of a year, to
assure me that it makes a difference what time of the moon
potatoes are planted. It is easy to see how one can be led to
think so. Very slight causes will change the yield of pota-
toes. A single shower and a few cool days at just the right
time may put fifty bushels on an acre. If this acre happened
to be planted at the right time of the moon, and others not,
how natural to attribute the result to a wrong cause! I
don't care any thing about the moon, myself ; but I do dread
a week of very hot sun, particularly if it is dry. If the ther-
mometer reaches 95 to 98°, the potatoes will suffer in spite
of all man can do.

Distance Apart.

In regard to the distance apart that potatoes should be
planted, two matters are to be taken into account. First,
the shading of the soil keeps it from drying out as much as
it otherwise would in dry hot weather. The moisture from
a shower will be longer evaporating. More of it will evap-
orate through the leaves of the plant, and less from the soil
directly, when the potato-tops cover the surface. The soil
will be enriched by the shading also, or the tendency will be
that way. Therefore it would seem best to plant near
enough together so that, in a fair season, the vines shall

34 POTATO CULTURE.

grow together, almost like a crop of clover, shading the sur-
face quite perfectly.

Second, the distance apart that potatoes should be planted
depends somewhat on the richness of the land. With wheat,
the richer the land the less seed should be sown, because it
will stool out more on rich land than on poor ; but with po-
tatoes, just the reverse seems to me to be true. The richer
the land, the nearer together we may plant. The idea is
this : There is only a certain amount of plant-food available
for the crop, therefore vary the distance apart as nearly as
you can, so that there will be just about enough potatoes set
to use up all this food in growing to a good nice size. If you
plant too far apart, the available plant-food will not be all
used up, and your tubers may be too large ; if you plant
too near together, there will not be food enough, and the
result will be smaller potatoes. Of course, as seasons vary,
you can not expect to be always right ; but you can come
nearer to it than if you put in your seed without any care or
forethought.

Now, with these two matters in mind, try to come as near
right as you can. For the medium-early varieties that I
grow, and my soil, drills about 32 inches apart, and a piece
of seed from 13 to 16 inches in the drill, seems as near right
as I can make it. This pretty much covers the surface, and
still is not close enough to make tubers smaller than my
customers want. If I wanted tubers larger, I would drop
pieces farther apart in the drills. Thirteen inches apart has
been our rule; but a variety like the Freeman, which is
inclined to set a good many in a hill, will, I think, do better
at 16 inches apart. They will average larger, and still not
too large. I tried them 32 inches each way, and some grew
altogether too large, and the yield per acre was not nearly
what it was with a piece every 13 inches in the drill. Of
course, the variety has much to do with the distance apart
they should be planted. Some of the strong-growing late
varieties would better be planted in drills 36 inches apar

POTATO CULTURE. 35

and will well cover the surface then. Varieties that have
small tops, and set few tubers, such as the Early Ohio, will
bear putting closer together, or using more seed than one
eye in a place, as we do. Still, Mr. J. M. Smith told us at
the great " round up" institute in Wisconsin this spring,
that he planted the Early Ohio, cut to one eye, as I do, about
13 by 32 inches, and he raises very large crops. But the land
is very rich, and he says the tubers grow very large. You
see, it is impossible for me to tell you just what to do ; but
perhaps I may set you to thinking on the right track. If
your land is poor, and you plant far enough apart to get
good-sized tubers, you see you will then lose part of the
benefit of the shading of the soil. Does it bother you to see
how to manage this V Only one way— make your land richer,
and then you can plant closer, and shade it more, and make
it grow richer still. Unto him that hath shall be given,
every time. It seems hard, but it is Nature's law. Oh there
are so many things that we must attend to, to do our best,
even about as simple a matter as growing potatoes! I have
been amused, many times, when they have put me down at
an institute, to talk on potato culture, when I asked them
what particular point, and they would say, " Oh! all about
it." Friends sometimes write me and ask me to write them
in a letter all about it.

I have a photograph of one of my potato-fields, taken when
the growth was at its best. I wish it could be reproduced
for this book, but the vines would not show plainly. The
other day it was shown to a number of farmers, and all but
one said it was a field of clover. Strangers, in riding past in
the summer, if they did not notice particularly, would think
it clover. It was an almost perfectly even mass of foliage.
This is my idea of what a potato-field should be. We have
attained to it several times, but not always by any means.
We came the farthest from it last year we ever did, perhaps,
on account of the excessive rainfall, which made poor spots
in the field. I would not care to show you a picture of last

36 POTATO CULTUEE.

year's field, if I could. But still we made some money, and
our loss was very small compared with that of some whose
land was not drained. We are as ambitious as ever to try to
get a perfect field this season.

Perhaps you do riot suspect from reading these pages how
much pains is taken to have every thing carefully explained
and correct. My way is, to write a chapter and then lay it
aside, and let it get cold. Then it is read and corrected, and
perhaps all or part is re-written. I have a way of asking
myself, first, " Is every word exactly true?" "Why, you
would not write what was false," you say. " Oh, no ! But
I should not be human if I did not sometimes paint a pic-
ture a little too brightly, or bear on to some point too
strongly." Second, " Can any thing said, although strictly
true, be misleading, or has any thing been omitted that
would have given a different color to the statements?"
When I can do no more, the manuscript goes to my partner
(wife), who reads it carefully, and returns with comments.
Eight here let me say that fully half of my little success as
a farmer and writer belongs to my partner, who takes care
of the home, and whom you hear of so little ; and she gets
her share of the returns, at least, if not of the credit always.

I am now ready to give you her comment on this chapter.
She quickly saw a matter that needed further explanation.
She says, " You say in the book, that the roots occupy all
the soil. Now, theoretically, would not hills equidistant
each way,. say 20 inches by 20, give potatoes the best possible
chance ? Would it not be better than drills with plants 32
inches apart one way and crowded up within 13 inches
of each other the other ? You urge the very best methods
all the way through, and should explain why you do not
carry it out in this case."

I entirely overlooked this point. An expert would under-
stand the matter, but it would not be as plain as A B C to a
beginner, by any means. Planting 20x20 inches would be
better than 13 x 32. Each plant would have its feeding-

POTATO CULTURE. 37

ground around it on all sides equally. It would not come in
contact with its neighbors at 7 inches on one side and 16 on
the other. But, practically, drills 32 inches apart are about
as close as I can use a horse to the best advantage. Some
do reduce the width to 28 or 30 inches ; but most large
growers do not come below 32. Thus from the necessities of
the case wre are prevented from planting in the best poss.ble
way. We shall have to let the roots in the drills fight a little
over their feeding-ground. Planting 32 x 32 is not best, as
shown in this and succeeding chapters; that is, in connec-
tion with the most advanced practices. Roots have a won-
derful knowledge of where plant-food exists in the soil.
Perhaps the roots along the drills will stop at 7 inches and
the others at 16. Who knows V If so, they will make it
average.

38 POTATO CULTURE.

CHAPTER IV.

Shall we Plant Deep or Shallow ?

With this question we must consider, also, whether we
will cultivate nearly level, or hill up ; for, if we plant shal-
low, it will be necessary to hill up more or less to prevent
the tubers from growing out of the ground. The majority
of farmers, probably, still raise potatoes by planting in a
shallow mark, and then hilling up with a plow of some kind
when they are about two-thirds grown. On undrained clay
soil, where there is danger of stagnant water injuring the
crop in a wet season, this practice had better be continued,
on the ground of choosing the lesser of two evils ; but in
good potato soils, moderately deep planting and very slight
hilling is undoubtedly the better practice. Even on tile-
drained clay soil, deep planting and nearly level culture
would not be the best plan in excessively wet seasons, al-
though averaging better, perhaps, than shallow planting and
hilling, all things considered. There are reasons, of course,
for this hilling up which is so universally practiced. Farm-
ers did not have smoothing-harrows, horse-hoes, and good
cultivators years ago. I am not an old man, but I can
remember when such things were unknown. The plow came
first, and was made a general-purpose tool. It would throw
earth over the weeds, and save hand-hoeing. It was, very
naturally, used for this purpose. Hilling up, in connection
with shallow planting, not only prevented tubers from grow-
ing out of the ground as much, and kept them out of water
on undrained land, but more of the stems of the vines were
covered in the earth, and from these covered portions were
sent out more roots and bearing stems. The practice was a
necessity with shallow planting. It increased the crop in
one way, and protected it, while injuring it somewhat in
another.

POTATO CULTUBE. 39

Nearly forty years ago I used to hill potatoes in father's
garden. Father used to insist on my making the hills large
and dishing, so as to ct catch the rain." When I began farm-
ing I remembered the lesson, and noticed, also, that other
people hilled their potatoes, and so I did likewise. If I had
been asked why I did so, I should certainly have preached
the catch- the-rain theory, with perfect assurance that it was
sound doctrine. But with all due respect to our fathers and
other people, I can not help thinking now that this plan
was not in accordance with common sense. Advocates of
this way seem to think the roots are all in the center of the
hill, right under the tops. JBut, what are the facts V If you
will wash out a hill in mellow soil, you will find, before the
tops are half grown, that the little rootlets have crossed and
recrossed all the space between the rows, and, of course,
they want their water as well as food, just as much there as
under the hills. If the surface of the ground is kept level,
or nearly so, a shower soaks in all over alike, and each root
gets its share. If the seed was put in moderately deep, and
the surface is kept nearly level, and constantly stirred, the
crop is in the best shape, not only for catchipg rain, but to
endure hot dry weather— one of its greatest enemies. Sup-
pose one hills up his potatoes with a shovel-plow, what does
he do V He piles the mellow earth, which should make a
mulch all over the surface, up about the hills. This is well,
perhaps, if he could get as much more to put in between the
rows again ; but instead he leaves this space (where a part
of the roots are), bare, hard, and exposed to the hot sun. If
he should cultivate it again he would injure the roots, which
are now at the surface (not a few also were entirely destroy-
ed by the plowing), and the soil in the hills will certainly dry
out more than if it were down nearly level, and protected by
a mulch of fine earth. Some think that the crop must be
hilled up, or they will grow out of the ground and be injured
by the sun. Alter raising many thousands of bushels with
but very trifling hilling, 1 do not find as large a proportion

40 POTATO CULTURE.

greened as when I hilled them up. We generally use a
horse-hoe once during the season, to throw a little earth
under the plants when they are about halt* grown, so as to
check the weeds which are just starting in the hills ; after
that the shade from the tops will keep them down. The use
of the cultivator, as many times as it ought to be used dur-
ing the season, will work a little earth toward the plants, so
that, altogether, perhaps, the hills are two or three inches
higher than between the rows when we are through culti-
vating.

I have hastily spoken of the level field catching the rain
best. Let us consider more particularly how important this
is. Suppose your field is somewhat rolling, and potatoes
well hilled up. A heavy shower comes along. Most sum-
mer showers are heavy. The water runs rapidly off the
higher portions of the field in the little ditches you have
made, and either leaves the lot entirely or accumulates in
the lower parts. This is all wrong. Where you want the
water most, it does not stay. See? Where you want it
least, in the low places, you get too much, perhaps, or you
lead it off the field entirely, and, later, your crop suffers for
want of it. And there is more or less fertility in the water
of every summer shower. It gathers ammonia, that has
escaped from the manure-heaps of careless farmers, as well
as that from other sources, out of the air as it comes down ;
and it is a positive loss of fertility to let water run off over
the surface of your field, and carry fertility with it. A part
of these losses, often nearly all, can be avoided by good
drainage first, natural or with tiles, and then nearly level
culture, and at the same time we may get every possible
advantage that ever came from hilling up, except on heavy
land in a very wet season, perhaps.

On my land I have settled on four inches deep as about
the right depth to plant. I would put seed a little deeper
rather than shallower. By managing rightly, with smooth-
ing-harrow and otherwise, there is no trouble, as a rule, in

POTATO CULTURE. 41

keeping a crop clean without any hand-hoeing, and to do it
more cheaply, as will be told of later on. So there is no need
of hilling any longer to keep weeds down. By planting four
inches deep, and the slight hilling spoken of, we get a depth
of underground stem sufficient for throwing off roots and
tuber-bearing stems, just as practically as though we planted
shallow and hilled up. It may occur to you, whether deep
planting and hilling would not be better yet, as furnishing
still more underground stem. No, not practically, because
you can not use any more plant-food than there is present,
and my plan will use it all up. We want a proper balance
in all these things. I should say right here, that I am writ-
ing with reference to drill culture, which I consider best,
and will speak of in another chapter. For hills three feet
or more apart each way, possibly deep planting and high
hilling together might give a better return than deep plant-
ing and slight hilling, notwithstanding the injury done by
hilling to roots, and waste of water, etc. But it will not, as
a rule, give as good results as proper deep drilling and slight
hilling. All good things need to go together. It is a deep
study, their relation to each other.

You will notice I do not speak of "level culture." The
term, although in common use, is misleading to those not
posted. Exactly level culture is not at all practical, except
during the first part of the season. A little earth must be
worked in under the plants, for reasons given, usually ; and
then, again, the expanding tubers will crack the soil and let
in light, to their injury, if the surface is entirely flat. I ad-
vocate exactly what I practically do, and have briefly given
you the reasons for our practice. I could fill page after page
with experiments in different lines, but they are dry reading
to the ordinary farmer. He wants conclusions— just what
to do— just what the man he is reading after is doing. This
I give you. It is not all right, doubtless, but it is the best I
now know. Reader, if you still hill up potatoes, as your
father did, can you not see from this chapter that my reasons

42 POTATO CULTURE.

for not doing so are founded on simple common sense, as
well as long practical experience ?

CHAPTER V.

Shall we Plant in Hills or Drills?

When the country was new and land cheap and rough, and
tools of the poorest kind, and farmers generally raised only
about what potatoes they wanted for their own use, hill cul-
ture was well enough ; but now there are many reasons why
the farmer who wishes to do the best he can should give up
the hill planting for good, and put in his crop in drills. It
requires less hand work to keep the crop clean if you can
work it both ways, is the usual reason given for planting in
hills. That was all very true a few years ago ; but now we
have so much better tools that it is possible to put in the
crop in drills, and keep it quite clean without any hand
work or hoeing at all, as a rule. The main argument, there-
fore, is easily disposed of. Another argument is, that it is
more work to drop the seed (there are more pieces to be
dropped) and more work to dig the crop. Yes, and it is
more work to mark out both ways than one way. However,
we have a machine to do the dropping now that never gets
the backache. It would just as soon drop three pieces a foot
apart as one piece every three feet. If the digging is done
by any of the patent diggers, the same rule holds good of
them. I asked a man once who had dug many thousands of
bushels with a fork, in my fields, where they were drilled,
whether it was any more work to dig an acre of my drilled
potatoes than it was to dig an acre where they were planted
in hills. He said it was not, for him. Now, he had got
the hang of it. In the drills he could throw out all the
tubers under one plant by a single motion of the fork,
usually, and three motions or movements would throw out

POTATO CULTURE. 43

the potatoes from as much ground as a hill would occupy.
And it would take about three movements of the fork to
throw out the hill, on account of the potatoes being more
scattered, and more of them.

Having disposed of some of the objections, let us look at
some of the advantages of drill culture. To accomplish the
most in the least time, by saving the time wasted in turning
around, the farmer wants his fields long and rectangular.
He can mow, plow, cultivate, and plant more, decidedly, in
a day, than he can in a square or irregular shaped field.
Now, drill culture works all right in fields of this kind, as
the cultivating is all to be done one way— the long way of
the lot. If you plant in hills both ways, think of the endless
job it will be to do the cross-cultivating, there will be so
much turning around. Again, with the planter or with per-
fect tools for marking, so the rows are straight, or very
nearly so, and of uniform distance apart, and with the best
cultivators and horse-hoes we have now, and the smoothing-
harrow and weeder, one can keep the crop as clean and well
worked by going once in a row where they are drilled as he
could 20 years ago by going twice in a row each way. In
fact, he can keep the crop as clean as any one can ask for, as
a rule, and as well worked, and in very much less time. My
best six-acre lots, or strips, are about 16 rods by 60, and it
would surprise a man who has been in the habit of cultivat-
ing a square six-acre lot both ways, to see how quickly we
can get over a lot of that shape, and do the work just as well
as he does. I can cultivate my six acres of drills nicely in
ten hours. If he cultivates his square lot both ways in three
days he will do well ; that is, if the rows are as close together
as mine are. Again, we get a rather better yield, all other
conditions being equal, by dropping one eye every foot than by
putting three eyes in every three feet, and the potatoes are
of more uniform size. After many years' experience in drill
planting I feel perfectly sure on this point — perfectly sure
that we get more dollars to the acre. It is quite easy to

44 POTATO CULTURE.

mark out drills one way that are very nearly straight, and
four or five inches deep ; but it would be much more work,
particularly in a long, narrow field, to mark them out both
ways. Then in showery weather, when planting in drills
one can plant right up as fast as he marks ; but if he has to
mark both ways he may get caught and have to do the job
all oyer again. Then if the planting is to be done by ma-
chinery it must be in drills, as no planter will probably ever
be made that can drop potatoes and row them both ways.
Potatoes will be planted by machinery in the future, as a
rule, by large growers, undoubtedly. As the planter is now
made I have my doubts about its being best to use it in all
cases ; but it will be improved to do the work rightly. But
of this more will be said in the proper place. Manufacturers
of the planter told me that, when first introducing it, the
worst trouble they had was that growers objected to drill
culture. I did not, for I had learned it was best for me, a
number of years before the planter came around.

In connection with the subject treated in the last chapter,
there is a point that may as well be brought up right here.
I can grow potatoes of a finer quality in drills than in hills,
unless the hills are hilled up in the old-fashioned way. in
other words, drill culture and nearly level culture should go
together. One may not always be advisable without the
other. Let me illustrate : I drop, we will say, a one-eye
piece every foot in the drill, in my drill culture. Perhaps
four or five good-sized tubers, not over large, but of quite
uniform size, are the result in each hill, or every foot in the
drill. Now, when they expand as they are growing, they
crack the ground, of course ; but, as there are not many in
a place, not very much. The little earth that our slightly
ridged culture puts under the plants prevents light from
getting down to the tubers, and they are not only not green,
but not even yellow. Potatoes are often ruined, when not
green on the outside. Now, suppose the potatoes were
planted in hills three feet apart each way, and three times

POTATO CULTURE. 45

as much seed put into a hill. It would not be too much,
perhaps, or more than is generally used. Say you have, as
a result, 12 or 15 tubers in a hill. Will they not crack the
ground very much, more? Of course. If it is nearly level
they must bulge it up considerably, and you must either hill
up decidedly more, or have your tubers injured. If the
light gets down into the soil in cracks, and tubers are near
these, they will be injured in quality.

A word more about hilling : Did you ever notice how the
tubers naturally grow in the soil V They form on the stems
about the plant, and, as a rule, the stem end (so-called) is
slightly higher than the other. Practically the tubers lie
about the hill in a nearly horizontal position. Now, in such
a hill as one can make in narrow rows, and with the tubers
forming, from shallow planting, in the raised hill, can you
not see that the ends of potatoes of the long varieties would
most naturally stick out of the hills on the sides, or nearly
so ? With deep planting and slight hilling, can you not see
they would just as naturally form in the soil, where the seed
ends would not stick out ? With a little study you can see
the reason why we do actully raise potatoes less injured by
exposure to sun and light, by nearly level drill culture than
we used to in hills. Of course, if the hills were far enough
apart to furnish plenty of earth to make broad enough hills,
the tubers would not protrude any more than in nearly level
drill culture ; but this plan would be wasteful of ground,
and wasteful of fertility and moisture, from the lack of shade.

With proper management, on suitable soil, drill culture,
deep planting, and very slight hilling, promise the up-to-the-
times grower of to-day the best returns it is possible to get,
and at the least expense.

46 POTATO CULTUEE.

CHAPTER VI.

How to Make the Drills and Fill Them.

The ordinary markers do not make a mark deep enough
for potatoes, if nearly level cultui e is practiced. They would
do better for corn. A light one-horse plow does very well ;
and by running it twice in a row, as I have known some
good farmers to do, a very fair drill can be made ; but they
can hardly be made straight enough so that the cultivating
can be done to the best advantage ; and then it is too slow
for this fast age, particularly if one raises very many acres.

Feeling the great need of a marker that would make nice
straight drills four or five inches deep, fast, and leave the
earth so the drills could be rapidly filled by horse-power,
and finding nothing of the kind in the market, the writer,
some years before the planter was offered to the public,
made such a tool for his own use. It gives excellent satis-
faction, and he believes that, by its use, he can put in pota-
toes on his farm in the best known manner. The planter
will be spoken of in the following chapter.

The marker consists of two light plows, one right hand
and one left, with the mold-boards toward each other, at-
tached beneath the axle of a two-horse sulky, so that they
can be adjusted at pleasure, and can be lifted out of the
ground, and fastened up at the end of the rows while turn-
ing around. Fig. 1 shows a top view of the main frame. A
is the pole ; B the axle ; C a cross piece ; E the doubletree ;
D, D, two pieces of wood of the same thickness sidewise as
the plow-beams, bolted under the axle and cross-piece, and
directly over the plow-beams. The pole is also bolted under
the axle and cross-piece, and is braced as shown in the cut.
F, F, are the draft-irons which run under C. One of them
is shown more fully in Fig. 5. The whiffletree is put on the

POTATO CULTURE.

47

hook shown at the end. The iron on the under side of C
(Fig. 5) is slotted for F to pass through. The line of draft is
changed by means of a bolt passing through different holes.

FIG. 1.— TERRY'S POTATO-MARKER, AND ITS ATTACHMENTS.

F goes under the bolt, of course. Fig. 4 shows the iron that
one wheel runs on. One of these is bolted to each end of
the wooden axle B, on the under side. In Fig. 2, K shows

FIG. 2.

the spring seat, without which no tool nowadays is complete.
A side view is shown of one piece, D, the top of which is
shown in Fig. 1. F is a side view of one plow-beam, and G
is one of the pieces of hard wood by which the plows are
drawn. There are four of these pieces, one on each side of
each plow-beam and of each piece D. Remember, that these

48 POTATO CULTUEE.

strips, D, D, are of the same thickness as the plow-beams.
Each one of these four draft-pieces is strongly braced ; one
brace is shown in the cut. A bolt runs through G, and
through a hole in the plow-beam, to draw by. A number of

— i

FIG. 3. FIG. 4. FIG. 5.

holes are bored in the pieces G, so that the plow can be set
to run deeper or shallower. The ends of these four pieces,
G, are shown in Fig. 1. There is only one piece, H, to each
plow. The ends of these are shown at the rear of axle in
Fig. 1. They are braced on the outside to the end of axle.
A bolt running through one of the holes, shown in the lower
end of H, holds a little block on which the plow-beam rests ;
and these blocks, one under each plow-beam, prevent the
plows from going too deep, while the weight of driver, on
the seat, keeps the plows down tight to the blocks. This
makes the marks always of one uniform depth. The handles
are sawed off the plows, and the two plows are bolted firmly
together by means of cross-pieces, the ends of which are
shown in Eig. 2. The seat, K, is attached to one of these
cross-pieces in the center, in line with the pole. Two of the
handles that were sawed off are bolted under M, and be-
tween the cross-pieces at the base of seat, and are used to
lift the plows at the end of the rows. A spring latch, at-
tached to the cross-piece at the base of the seat, catches on
a screw-bolt (shown at the rear end of pole in Eig. 1), when
the plows are raised, and holds them up. To let the plows
down, take hold of the handles, and press finger-iron under
side at I (Eig. 2). This is connected with the upper end of
spring latch by a piece of copper wire.

Eor making a mark to drive by (the first time through use
stakes, of course), a strip of wood is fastened by a bolt near
the end to the center of cross-piece M. In the other end of

POTATO CULTUKE. 49

this strip, the iron shown at Fig. 3 is fastened by a screw-
bolt, leaving it loose enough to turn easily. Having marked
to the end of the rows, step off the plows, raise them up by
the handles, turn the team around, then turn this strip
around, fasten with a pin, let down plows, get on the seat,
and drive on. The length of this strip, from the center of
bolt on which it turns, to the end where the iron is attached,
should be just twice the distance between two rows ; that is,
if rows are three feet apart, make the strip six feet long.
The sharp points of the iron make a plain mark on rolled
ground (and the ground should be rolled to insure even mark-
ing), and all the driver has to do is to keep the pole exactly
in line with his mark ; then if your first mark is straight, all
your rows will be straight and of equal distance apart. You
want a hoe at each end of the lot, if it is fenced, to dig out
the end hills with, as one can not mark quite to the fence.
The points of the plows should be set under the axle, and
the plows should be set to run on the points a little ; other-
wise, in going through a hollow they would ride on the heels
and make the mark too shallow.

The strips, D, D, in Fig. 1, are set as I use them, to mark
rows 32 inches apart. The rows can be made wider by set-
ting these pieces further apart, and using longer pieces to
bolt the plows together with. If you mark as deep as I do
(fully four inches), you can not well make the rows nearer
together than 32 inches, as there will not be room for the
earth to be piled between them. The wheels I use are 52
inches in diameter. The plows used were 10 — 0* Oliver
chilled. The slanting lansides make the marks nearly V-
shaped, and fairly good to drop in ; but a Y-shaped follower,
or cultivator-tooth, following in the rear of each plow, and
making a little mark along in the center of the furrow, to
drop the seed in, would help about getting the pieces in line.
Dropping in a furrow, one may vary the rows quite a little.
With me this marker is a tool made partly from other tools
not in use at the time. The plows and frame cost about $26.

50

POTATO CULTUBE.

The wheels and irons they run on, doubletree, whiffletrees,
and draft-irons, are taken from a two-horse sulky cultivator,
and the spring seat from the Eureka mower. All the joints
in the frame are simply bolted together, which makes it
quite cheap.

FIG. 6.— SECTION OF ROW.

The two marks, when made, look about like Fig. 6. After
the potatoes are dropped, all that is necessary to cover them
nicely is to level down the center-ridge X. A light scraper,

FIG. 7. — SCRAPER FOR COVERING POTATOES.

shown in Fig. 7, does this perfectly. Use doubletrees and
neck-yoke twice as long as the width between two rows;
the horses then walk between the rows (at P, P, Fig. 6), arid
not on the potatoes. The other pair of handles, sawed off
from the plows, are put on the scraper as shown at N. The
plank O, for rows 32 inches apart, should be about 64 inches
long; and 20 inches is about the right width. The pole
should be at right angles with the plank, both up and down
and sidewise. This plank should be of light wood, as it is
easier to bear down to make it take more earth, if it is too
light, than to lift up to make it take less, if it is too heavy.
The front bottom edge should have a piece of band iron
fastened on, projecting down a little below the wood. This
scraper carries a quantity of earth ahead of it all the time,

POTATO CULTURE. 51

and pulverizes and grinds it very fine, and covers the two
rows at once, in a most perfect manner, as fast as the team
can walk. At the ends, cover a few hills with the hoes,
beforehand.

To use these tools to the best advantage, one wants long
clean fields, and the land should be made mellow and fine-
just such lots and land as every farmer orght to have ; but
they will do good work on rough land. The marker will riot
tear up sods like a one-horse plow, as it is always held per-
fectly steady* When a man puts in his potatoes with these
tools he can have the pleasure of knowing, when he gets
done, that he has not only done fast work, but that the
marking and covering have been done in the best possible
m-inner. The rows are as nearly straight, and of equal dis-
tance apart, as it is possible to get them ; the furrows are of
uniform depth, and the covering is done as nicely as the best
gardener could do it with the fioe, and twenty times as fast.

A writer in a western paper once made fun of my straight
rows, and thought potatoes would grow just as well if they
were a little crooked. I imagine he never kept 50 to 75 miles
of potato-rows clean (perhaps he never saw that many). If
he had he would know hew much easier and cheaper it could
be done, to say nothing of looks, when the rows are straight
and of uniform distance apart.^

Those of my readers who have read the Rural New-Yorker,
or that valuable little book on u The New Potato Culture,"
by the editor of the literal, Mr. Carman, know of the Rural's
trench system. Mr. Carman has long advocated this plan,
and shown the increase in yield from following it. And
still he has never claimed to be able to tell just why it was
so. He has thought that, perhaps, it was partly because of
the extra tillage from plowing out the furrows to plant in,
and moving the soil back. If you notice closely you will see
that this plan of mine is essentially the same as the Rural' 's,
but adapted to field culture in a large way — made fast and
simple. The writer studied it out from his own experience,

52 POTATO CULTUKE.

long before he ever heard of the EuraVs plan, and used it in
a large way for years. The amount of extra tillage given
to the soil is great, and in the direction of loosening rather
than packing. The coverer is a great pulverizer and mixer,
bringing new particles of soil in contact with each other.
This I think to be a valuable point. I wish we could know
just exactly what it is worth. Alas ! it is almost impossible
for a farmer to make experiments in any line, so as to settle
absolutely any matter for a certainty. We have to live by
our business as we go along ; and careful experiments car-
ried through a term of years cost a good deal. A farmer
like myself, by long experience and observation, and what
experiments he can make, can give a very good guess as to
what is best; but how I should enjoy giving the rest of my
life to settling a few points in potato culture absolutely, be-
yond all question, and without regard to cost !

When visiting Prof. Henry fately, he told me of experi-
ments he was carrying on to settle one point in feeding pigs.
I was shown book after book of figures. He has spent
already three or four years, and expects to work some three
years longer, and he said the entire cost might be $10,000.

There is a little tool called the Victor potato-coverer and
cultivator, which has been in use in Western New York for
some twenty-five years, which is well worthy of notice here.
It is so simple and cheap that every farmer who grows even
two acres of potatoes can afford to have one, whereas he
could not afford a planter, or the tools described in this
chapter. It needs no description, as the cut shows just
what it is. One man and a team of horses will cover as fast
as the team can walk, whether the potatoes are in hills or
check rows. As a cultivator it is used just as the tops are
breaking through the ground, to throw another light cover-
ing of earth over them, thus killing all weeds in the hills or
between them. This practice of throwing a little mellow
earth over the sprouts just as they appear above ground is
quite common in some sections. In the fall of 1886 the

POTATO CULTUKE.

53

writer saw large fields in Western New York as clean as his
own at home, where no harrow or hoe had been used. They
were worked with this above-mentioned implement. Just
as the sprouts of the potatoes were breaking ground, the
coverer was drawn over the field. The little weeds were
smothered by the soil put over them, while the potato -tops
pushed right through again. I think this kind of cultiva-
tion ridges up the ground too much for best results ; still, I

THE VICTOR POTATO-COVERER.

saw large crops dug. If you want to cover a single row at
once, after hand-dropping, almost as good a way is to take,
say, a Planet Jr. cultivator, put on the side-shovels, turned
to throw earth in ; use two horses, so they will not walk on
the potatoes in the row, but between the rows, and you can
cover one row as fast as you can walk. Many an acre have I
covered in this way, when we used to plow out furrows one
at a time, and after we got beyond covering with a hoe.

54 POTATO CULTURE.

CHAPTER VII.
The Potato-Planter.

The writer felt pretty good after perfecting the imple-
ments described in last chapter for planting potatoes. He
could do good work, and fast. He could ride, and plow out
two rows at once, and make them very straight, and cover
two at a time, very perfectly, as fast as a team could walk.
He could get his potatoes down just as deep as he wanted
them, and still not tear up the sods as with a walking-plow.
When the manufacturer of the A spin wall planter came here
and tried to get me to use a planter, I did not feel like chang-
ing. He acknowledged that my machines were perfect, but
his would do as well, and drop seed at the same time, he
claimed. I was slow about desiring to try it, but finally did.
When I got on the seat and rode, while the machine marked
out a furrow, dropped the seed, and covered it, in a very
perfect manner, so far as I could see, and saved my paying
out any thing for help to drop, I felt that I had gone another
step ahead. I watched very carefully, and found the rows
could be made almost perfectly straight. The covering was
perfect. I followed the machine for miles, and watched its
dropping, and found that, if properly set, it would not miss
dropping a piece more than about once in 35 times, on the
average, which is better than some men will do. It dropped
two pieces rather often, however, thus wasting some seed.
If it was very high-priced, this would be an objection. The
machine has many advantages. It leaves the surface in nice
shape for harrowing down and killing weeds. It never gets
tired of dropping. The owner is quite independent of extra
help. He can set all hands to cutting seed, and rush in a
crop in catching weather. It does away with the hardest
job connected with planting. All these things I soon saw,

POTATO CULTUKE.

55

and I said then, and do now, that it is a very perfect and
wonderful tool. It will drill potatoes more perfectly than
any drill I know of will wheat or other grain. The planter,
along with digger, harrow, weeder, etc., has made potato-
growing on a large scale possible and profitable, just as im-
proved machinery made large wheat-fields. Potatoes will
be planted in the future by the planter. On light sandy
land it perhaps can not be improved on materially. On

THE ASPINWALL POTATO-PLANTER.

Manufactured by the Aspinwall Manufacturing Co., Jackson, Mich.
Price on board cars it Jackson, $65.00.

somewhat heavier soil, particularly in a wet season when a
crop must be planted when the ground is moist, my machines
will do better work.

The planter went so nicely at first that I did not experi-
ment in connection with my old tools at all. In time I got
to thinking, and did. The result was a wonder to me. The

56 POTATO CULTURE.

yield from the hand-planted was decidedly greater, in two
trials, on a moderately heavy loam. I did not understand
it, and said nothing about it for years, but kept on experi-
menting and studying. I can not give the reason, to a cer-
tainty, but here are my ideas :

The plow (?) of the planter is a sharp wedge. There are
some 800 pounds weight on it, to hold it down to press its
way through the soil (not plow and loosen as it goes). . In
moderately heavy soil, a little moist, it is easy to see how
this packing, and tremendous packing too, would be injuri-
ous to a crop like potatoes, and why my plows would do the
work better. Potatoes must have loose light soil to do their
best. In a wet year, like the last, potatoes came up quicker
and stronger, when put in with my machines— enough so to be
easily noticed by any one. This for my soil, which is, little
of it, light enough to be called sandy. A very light soil
would not be injured by packing, or helped, perhaps, by re-
plowing. Late years, whenever I wanted to do my best, my
old tools were used. Since knowing the difference, however,
I have planted mostly with the planter. It is so easy ! It
is hard to go back. I have sometimes felt as though I had
rather take 25 or 40 bushels less per acre than get help to
drop again; but, of course, that is not business. Again, in
a real dry spring, with my land quite dry, it does not make
so much difference. If nothing happens to prevent, we in-
tend to plant our entire crop by hand this year.

For years I kept this matter to myself. I feared I was
mistaken. This winter I have met some other growers who
were of the same mind. The Aspinwall people will, of
course, change their wedge marker to a plow, when it is
made certain that it would be better. There is no patent
on my marker and coverer. They are not made for sale. I
got one up for my own use, to do exactly what experience
said was best.

You will notice all through, that we try to avoid unneces-
sary packing of potato land when plowing, when harrowing,

POTATO CULTURE. 57

and when planting. Firmly packed soil is not best. Work
when dry, plant when dry, as far as you can. Weeks of
heavy rain, as we had last season, do injury that mortal man
can not correct, by packing the soil so solidly. The only
remedy in such a time is prevention in the shape of light soil
very full of vegetable matter. Then you can smile at the
rain.

Wife says, " Explain more fully why you intend to plant
by hand this year. You know it is not all on account of
your marker doing better, as a hasty reader might think
from what you say."

Very true. My seed will cost me more than two dollars a
bushel on account of buying Northern grown. I can get
along with perhaps a bushel less per acre, by hand-planting,
and I intend to drop my Freeman seed 16 inches apart in the
drills. When the planter makes a miss, set to drop every 16
inches, it would be more serious than when dropping every
18 inches ; 32 inches would make quite a break— more than I
want to see. It will take no more time to mark and cover
with my tools than to plant with planter. The only differ-
ence in expense will be about $1.00 an acre that the drop-
ping will cost. To offset this, if 1 get good droppers there
is the saving of seed ; gain from extra tillage, which doesn't
cost me a cent ; more perfect stand, and the enjoyment of
doing one's best. Now you have the whole matter before
you, and just as fairly as I can put it.

When I read of Mr. Hummel's yield with fertilizers of 350
bushels per acre, as told of in another chapter, and that he
planted with a planter like mine, I felt that any reader of
this chapter would say, " Well, that is good enough. I guess
the planter is as good as any thing." Then I noticed more
particularly, and found his soil was light and sandy.

There is consolation in this chapter for the small careful
grower who can not afford a planter. Very large fields will
always be put in with the machine, doubtless ; but we may
get the machine improved.

58 POTATO CULTURE.

CHAPTER VIII.
What Varieties shall We Raise ?

You will notice that, in the first seven chapters, we have
considered every point connected with preparing the land
and planting the crop. We are now ready for the seed. In
this and the three following chapters we will write of vari-
eties, selection, and treatment of seed, cutting of it, etc.
The best variety for one to grow depends on several circum-
stances. If for early market, you want very early ones— this
for the gardener with a home demand, or for growers who
want to ship to more northern markets. If to get off in
time for wheat, but not for the earliest market (what we are
doing), the medium early varieties, such as Beauty of
Hebron, New Queen, and others ripening at about the time
they do, will be best in this latitude. They can be gotten off
in good season for wheat, and, as a rule, will yield better
than extra early varieties, under similar conditions. If
planted in this locality these medium early ones put in quite
early will make a crop before summer drouth gets very
severe, as a rule. If you live in a region where winter wheat
is not grown, and you are in no hurry about getting them
off, and they can as well as not have more time to grow,
varieties ripening later, such as the Monroe Seedling, Em-
pire State, Rural New-Yorker No. 2, etc., may be the proper
ones for you to plant.

You need first to decide on your regular system or plan of
work, and then choose accordingly. I have growrn thou-
sands of bushels of the Monroe Seedling potatoes, and got
them off in reasonable time for wheat, and they are a medium
late potato ; but it is too close work, and we propose to keep
in the medium-early line in the future.

Now, perhaps, from the title you expected to find out the

POTATO CULTURE. 59

name of the varieties you had better plant. But this I do
not propose to tell you. In fact, I do not know. The same
potato varies greatly in different localities. For ten years,
perhaps, the Hebron did us grand service. We could find
nothing as good for some years. But I have sent some to
good growers, who were induced to try it again because it
did so well for us, and they have reported that it failed mis-
erably, as usual, with them. It has been a standard variety,
succeeding well quite generally ; but, you see, with notable
exceptions. With varieties not as reliable, there would be
much more variation in returns. I have sent potatoes
which yielded 300 bushels per acre with me, to parties who
never got one-third that yield, although other kinds in the
same lot gave large crops. These are undoubted facts, and
one had better be slow about going largely into untried
varieties. The Monroe Seedling potatoes were very satis-
factory with me ; but in Southern Ohio I find, as a rule, they
are a poor yielder, while in Western New York they do
finely. Try promising new varieties in a moderate way, and
find what is best ; and don't depend too much on the yield of
one year. A different season may give very different results.
Again, some new kinds soon dwindle out. I do not feel
entirely certain about any new variety until I have grown it
three years at least. Be honest with the old kinds when you
test something new side by side with them. See that they
are side by side, and treated exactly alike. How natural to
give the new kind the best place and extra care ! The same
attention might make your old variety surprise you.

I would not be understood as saying you never need any
thing new, or that your potatoes will not " run out " in time,
with the attention at least that it is practical to give them.
I know they will ; so don't hold on to them too long. As we
manage, at least, we need new blood from time to time. It
seems to me that getting seed of the same variety from a
locality more favorable for the perfect growth of potatoes is
for a time equal to getting a new variety. Good potato soil

60 POTATO CULTUKE.

in the far North is, of course, the place where the potato
does its best. There are places where 400 bushels per acre
are as easily obtained as 250 are here. I have practiced
changing seed in this way :

When the Hebron began to decline I sent to Northern
Maine and got my seed. Seed has also been bought in New
York State, in a good section. This year I have 20 barrels,
now in the cellar, of J. M. Smith, of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
They cost me $110, besides freight. I preferred to buy them
rather than to plant my own seed, as our season was not as
favorable here last year. There was no change made in
varieties. They are the same that we had many of last year.

There are some varieties of potatoes that may be forced
up to a higher yield per acre than others, that may be of
great value for high farming on rich soil, and worth little on
poor land. The Freeman, which has lately been introduced,
is one of these kinds, I now think. It will stand and pay for
much forcing ; but if you want to plant on white-bean land
I think I could name a coarse rank grower that would stand
the treatment much better. And that reminds me of an-
other point— quality.

As a rule, varieties of inferior quality are large yielders,
and the kinds of high eating quality are not • the most pro-
ductive—at least, under ordinary conditions. You must
select quality to suit your trade. In the fall and winter, the
late varieties, of rather inferior quality, sell in large markets,
by the car, at top quotations. Let them have what they
want. To retail customers I would furnish a higher quality,
and show them the difference and get a better price. It can
be done when people find out the difference between a Snow-
flake, Hebron, or Freeman, and a Burbank or White Star.
Plenty do not know, and still much will depend on the way
they are grown. Don't grow too many varieties. Folks say
to me, " I suppose you grow a great many kinds." No, that
is not business— not for market. We have rarely grown
more than two varieties. We shall grow but one this year.

POTATO CULTURE. 61

To sell in market you want a kind that is known and in de-
mand. In our markets, almost all early potatoes except
Early Ohio sell as Rose or Hebron. Every thing that at all
resembles them goes under that head. All long white pota-
toes in the fall are Bur bank.

Is it possible to so select seed and care for a variety that it
will not run out? J. M. Smith thinks so. He has had the
Early Ohio for many years, and thinks it improving rather
than otherwise. I had a talk with him about this but a few
days ago. Northern latitude, rich soil, and a splendid culti-
vator are giving their legitimate returns. Another friend,
T. Greiner, of La Salle, N. Y., thinks that his Ohios are
improving. Mr. Carman, of the Rural New-Yorker, thinks
potatoes may be so managed as not to run out. Against
such authorities my opinion has little weight ; but I must
think that, if they live long enough, the Early Ohio will be a
potato of the past with them. Ten years ago I thought that,
by selection, I could keep my Early Rose from running out.
They were kept up a long time ; but I had to change my
mind. I believe we can keep up corn by selection. It is the
seed of the plant. Potatoes are not the seed. I know they
can be improved, and kept up longer by what man can do.

This book earnestly advises doing what we reasonably can
to keep varieties up. They certainly run out much sooner
than they need to.

62 POTATO CULTURE.

CHAPTER IX.
Selection and Care of Seed.

My usual practice has been to use for seed, only nice,
smooth, perfect-shaped, well-matured tubers, in size varying
from medium to large. Very large overgrown ones, and
those that have prongs on, or are otherwise ill shaped, are
carefully excluded. In short, I use for seed just such pota-
toes as I should like to have the crop all be in the fall. The
best time to select these is at digging time, when they are
first thrown out of the ground. I have even gone so far as
to follow the digger, and select the best potatoes from the
best hills— hills perhaps where the yield would be double the
average of the piece. With this much care in the selection
of seed one need not be as much troubled about his seed
running out. It certainly will not run out as quickly. Some
good authorities think it would never deteriorate, as I have
told you. What farmer would think ot sowing his wheat-
screenings for seed, or planting the corn from the poorest
ears he could find? Not one. They select their best corn,
or, at least, a good average, and sow good wheat, or clean it
up and sow the best. Why not do as well by the potatoes ?
But how many there are who do not? The low average
yield of our potato crop, considerably less than 100 bushels
per acre, is a disgrace, and there are many causes for it ; but
perhaps no one cause is more certain than the selling and
eating of all the best and planting the culls, which are fit
only for pigs. But thousands do just this. With many
farmers, " seed potatoes " means small ones. I have had
them come here and ask if I had any, and write for them ;
but I think there are fewer and fewer each year planting
such " seed." I know the tubers are not the true seed, and
on this account it has been claimed that it makes no differ-

POTATO CULTURE. 63

ence ; but I know it does— yes, I know. Like begets like, to
a greater or less degree, although not always directly. As a
man sows, so shall he reap, has no footnote making an ex-
ception of small-potato planting. With such " seed " the
variety will run out sooner, and yield less meanwhile, as a
rule. Under very favorable circumstances there might be
no difference in a single year. But no man on earth has
better seed than my oft quoted friend J. M. Smith. On ac-
count of scarcity of a certain variety, he planted last spring
about two acres with small potatoes (not very small), prop-
erly cut, of his own growing, side by side with large seed cut
fine. Result, 25 bushels per acre less ; smaller average size ;
and this on rich land averaging bOO bushels per acre, and
with perfect cultivation. I tried some small potatoes whole
last year with worse results. Careful experiments settled
this matter for me many years ago. I tried it over last year
only from lack of better seed. Little potatoes — littler,
weaker eyes ; littler, weaker plants ; a poorer start, a poorer
pocketbook in the end, every time. JSI otice, I say , u in the
end." I would be understood as saying the tendency, as a
rule, is toward deterioration. There may be exceptions. If
you should plant a whole small potato and only one stalk
grew up from it, it might be as good a hill as you would get
from a one-eye piece from a large fine tuber. Yes, under
some circumstances it might be better. But as a rule we
get several sprouts from the small tuber, and hence smaller
potatoes, and not as fine, as from one good stalk from one
good eye. If we cut the small potato, then we get such a
weak plant from the small eye, and little piece to feed it,
that we are behind again. But more will be said on this
point in the chapter on cutting seed.

Selecting the best seed from the best hills at digging-time
paid me. I would still do it ; but we use a digger now.
When we dug with forks it was practical : it is not so now.
The best we can do now is to select the best part of the field
and pick cut the best potatoes from that place. This is bet-

64 POTATO CULTURE.

ter than to take from the bin, and far better than to take
the culls after all the best have been selected out. Again,
the small grower, who can not afford machinery, you see,
has an advantage, if he will do his best. I am glad to bring
out these points.

Care of Seed.

After being picked out, the tubers for seed may be care-
fully taken to the cellar, without the sun being allowed to
shine on them, and stored in barrels. These barrels should be
covered with old carpets, and then every care taken to keep
the cellar as near the freezing-point as possible, and not have
the potatoes actually freeze, from the day they are put in
till they are taken out to plant. By taking care to open the
cellar cool nights, and shut it up tight during warm days,
one can keep it quite cool in the fall After cold weather
comes, keep a thermometer in the cellar, and open up and
let in cold air whenever the temperature inside gets above
35° or 36°. Do not be afraid of freezing the potatoes ; for if
they are in barrels, and covered up, you can safely let the
thermometer fall to 28° for a short time. You know pota-
toes do not freeze as easily as water. But when the ther-
mometer gets to freezing, you had better take down a kettle
of coals, or light your oil-stove, and let it burn till the mer-
cury gets up to 33°. I should like to keep the temperature
between 33° and 34°, if possible, all winter, and I have gone
to a good deal of trouble to try to keep it so. The object is,
of course, to keep the tubers from sprouting. At the same
time, your apples and other vegetables will keep much the
better for this low temperature.

Of course, you know your cellar and you will not run any
risk from keeping it so cold that it will freeze during a cold
night. We see it stated that potatoes will be injured for
seed if kept colder than about 40°. Well, I know just what I
am writing about, as I have kept hundreds and hundreds of
bushels below 35° for months at a time, and they grew per-

POTATO CULTURE. 65

fectly. I wish I had a dollar for every time I ever went
down cellar to see to the temperature. It was, often, a
number of times per day. The barrels with seed in should
be set up off the bottom of the cellar a few inches, on strips,
so cold air can pass under them. Use tight barrels, and
cover from the air all you can. The tubers should be entirely
dry and cool when put away. I would not move them
till ready to plant. I have tried handling and shoveling over
to prevent sprouting, on hundreds of bushels. I would not
do it again. It injures the sprout and often causes it to
throw out side shoots. These are not as good as a new
sprout from the eye direct. So, don't move seed. Keep it
from sprouting if possible ; but if they do sprout, let them
alone until ready to plant ; then break the sprouts off close
down and let new ones grow. If you could spread the seed
out thinly, in the light, thus causing sprouts to grow tough
and stocky, and then cut carefully and plant by hand, not
breaking off the sprouts, this would do. But the machine
will break off the sprouts, even under these circumstances.
There is some gain to the early gardener by the above plan
of sprouting. They come up quicker. In our field culture
in this latitude we do not want to hurry them.

Burying Seed.

For several years I have, I know, kept my seed better by
burying it. This for Northern Ohio. It would not be as
practical 300 miles south. It may not be needed 300 miles
north. We had quite a heated discussion over this point at
the great Wisconsin round-up institute, on "Potato day."
It was a convention of the shrewdest growers in the State.
Some claimed they could do better in that climate to keep
seed in the cellar. Very likely. The cold comes sooner and
lasts longer than here. The trouble here is during the last
month or so before planting-time. We can not always keep
early potatoes cold enough to keep sprouts back. A cold-
storage building would be the perfect place for keeping them,

66 POTATO CULTUKE.

where ice could be used in the fall and spring. Quite likely
I should have built one before this, if I had been at home
winters instead of away attending farmers' institutes. I
should enjoy being able to keep seed perfectly, every time.

But now about burying the seed. As we dig early to put
in wheat, we put potatoes on the bottom of a cool deep cellar
first, as it is cooler there than they would be if buried at
that time. When the earth gets cooler than the cellar, early
in November, we select a dry place to bury, where no water
will stand. Better if it is on the north side of buildings, or
hedge, or trees, so it will not thaw as readily when the south

Cross-section of my seed-potato pile when finished for winter. P,
potatoes; S, S, straw; E, E, where we took earth for covering-; A,
surface of ground.

wind blows. We draw out on a cold morning, when cloudy
and near freezing. The ground is then cold, and we can
cool off the potatoes. I should like to have a cold wind
blowing. We put them in a long narrow pile. Tor 100
bushels we make the pile about 30 feet long and 4 feet wide,
and pile up as high as possible on this base. Pile right on
top of the ground, not in a trench (see cut). Then we put
over a good layer of forkfuls of straw, laying around the base

POTATO CULTURE. 67

first, and then above, and lapping over, and finally " topping
out" with a layer of forkfuls. The object is, to put the
straw on so as to shed water. We have always accomplished
this without covering the pile with boards. Then we put
about four inches of earth over the straw. This earth
should be taken out 2-fc feet back from the base of the potato
pile, all around, leaving this base to build the cover on. I
mark out, right around, with a line, and cut it down with an
old ax. When this earth (4 inches) is frozen partly, and
before there is any risk of a heavy freeze, we put on another
layer of straw, in the same way as at firsthand then some ten
or twelve inches of earth. Care is taken not to cover any
more than enough at the base, so as to make the pile steep
enough to shed water well. We top out well with earth ;
pat down the sides smoothly with shovel, then don't think
any more about it till some cold day, say in the latter part of
February, when the pile is bare of snow and the ground
frozen solid (clean off snow and let it freeze if necessary).
Then draw out a big lot of straw, or clover haulm is better,
if you have it, and cover the pile all over, and 4 feet out all
around, deeply, two feet at least. This will keep the frost
in. Sun and wind can not get at it. Rains will wet the
straw, and then dry out before another storm. The other
day, when wife and I were out walking about the farm,
without any wraps, it was quite warm, and the frost was all
out of the earth, and the ground was well settled. I ran my
hand down through the straw on the potato pile, and the
earth on the under side was as hard as the day we put it on
—not thawed the least particle. You see the point— get the
potatoes cold as soon as possible, and keep them so. Mulch-
ing will keep frost in till into April. This is less work than
so much attention to the cellar, with me ; and for several
years, with the exception of one warm winter, we have had
perfect success. That winter we did as well as we could in
the cellar, or better, perhaps. No ventilation whatever is
given the pile. The first years we put in tile ventilators

68 POTATO CULTURE.

every few feet. They are of no earthly use for dry, cool
potatoes, dug weeks before and taken from the cellar to the
pile. They might be, if potatoes were freshly dug. About
that I do not know.

Notice the two dead-air spaces, made by using two layers
of straw and two of earth. This makes the protection from
cold and from changes of temperature much greater. Put
up as I have described, with perhaps a little heavier covering
in colder latitudes, I should feel entirely safe from frost in
an unusually cold winter, and from too much covering for a
warm winter. We hear of this objection. I do not think
there is any thing in it. Cover enough. Then if the pile is
in proper shape, and potatoes in right condition when put
out, and earth ditto, deep covering can do no injury in a
warm winter.

After putting on the first covering of earth, you can spread
some chaif around the base of the pile to prevent the earth
that you want to use for a second covering from freezing ;
otherwise, some cold day, when you must finish covering, to
protect the potatoes, you might find hard shoveling.

This selection and care of seed is a good deal of trouble ;
but the time seems to have passed when we can raise a large
and paying crop of potatoes or any thing else without
trouble. I have heard old men tell of planting a field and
plowing it out only once, perhaps, and in the fall they could
kick out the potatoes, 400 or 500 bushels per acre. We can't
do it now, and I think these old farmers must have had
pretty long chains and small baskets to measure with. One
of these men, who bragged of having raised some 500 bushels
per acre, once came across my lot when we were digging a
load of Early Rose potatoes. He stood silently by for some
time, but at last exclaimed, " That beats any thing I ever
saw in the way of potato yield ! " They were turning out
not quite two bushels per square rod, or at the rate of 300
bushels per acre. An acre of potatoes yielding 500 bushels
is a sight not often seen in this locality. I have dug small

POTATO CULTURE. 69

patches that yielded at that rate, but never a whole acre. I
would go a long way to see such an acre. But, to return to
our subject :

Why all this great care to keep our seed potatoes from
sprouting ? There has not been any thing said about this.
We have tried to explain why good tubers should be used.
Well, the first sprout that starts from the eye of a potato is
the strongest and thriftiest one. If it is allowed to grow
in a warm cellar, and is broken off at planting-time, the eye
will usually throw out two or more sprouts the second time,
smaller and weaker ; and the result, particularly under un-
favorable conditions of soil and season, will be too many
stalks in a hill, and weaker vines and smaller tubers. If the
seed is sprouted twice, the third sprouts which start will be
still more numerous and more feeble. All this, of course, is
as a general rule. Did you ever stop to think why the
Creator arranged this so V Well, there is a natural law, of
course. In a piece of potato there is only just so much
nutriment for a sprout to use. It takes some to grow the
first one. There is less for the second, and far less for each
one when it is divided between the two or three sprouts that
usually start. But why was the eye made to start more
than the one first sprout ? Why, it wouldn't do to arrange
so that careless farmers would lose their seed entirely. They
might literally starve. So the second sprout is to help such
out, but is weaker, so as to punish them for not tending to
their business. The Creator gave man dominion, and he
reaps just exactly according as he takes it, as a rule.

Of course, you always remember that very favorable con-
ditions of soil and season may overbalance poor seed. A
man may even plant small potatoes that have sprouted bad-
ly, in a very rich garden soil, and, with favorable weather
and good care, gather a bountiful harvest. On the average
he has done very well. The same experiment in a poor sea-
son, made side by side with good seed, might show very dif-
ferent results. With strong healthy plants from good seed,

70 POTATO CULTURE.

and with favorable conditions of soil which we can control,
we may be able to raise a good crop in spite of unfavorable
weather which we can not control.

Years ago, one warm winter we were unable to keep our
seed in the cellar from sprouting considerably. They were
early potatoes. I well knew the risk of planting such seed,
and, early in the spring, I sent to the Northeast and secured
seed that would not sprout before we could get it here and
in the ground. But I did not send for enough. It was quite
an expense. The season might be so favorable that it would
make little difference. Well, when we planted the last six-
acre field our imported seed ran out about in the middle, so
half was planted with our sprouted seed. The season was
dry instead of favorable. All summer it was easy to see
where we had made a mistake. In the fall we had about an
even hundred dollars less from the three acres where our
sprouted seed was used. There was no difference in condi-
tions, except that the change of seed might have had some-
thing to do with the result. My impression is, it was largely
the condition of the seed. The conclusions in this book are
founded on numerous actual experiences such as this, in
every line, which are seldom given, as it would greatly in-
crease the size, without doing the working farmer, for whom
it is written, any good.

Since the above was written we have opened our seed-pile
and taken out part of them. Last fall we drove stakes down
arid laid boards, 6 inches wide, up against them, on edge, 4
feet apart, to pile our potatoes in between. We think it an
improvement. It is easier to get them out, and less trouble
to build the pile. This has been a very cold winter, and I
was anxious to know whether our pile was all right before
this book went to the printer. The outside layer of earth is
frozen now (Apr. 1), solid. We had to chop it into blocks
with an ax and then turn these over by use of a bar to get
in. The under layer of earth was frozen way through, solid-
ly, on the west side, and partly on the east. If it had not

POTATO CULTURE. 71

been opened I doubt whether all frost would have been gone
by May 15. But the pile was very solidly frozen when cov-
ered. It was very cold weather. Not one single tuber could
we find that was touched with frost.

In a former chapter mention was made of buying 20 bar-
rels of seed this year for my own planting, that were grown
in Green Bay, Wisconsin. I bought them and paid for
them ; but since then, at the urgent solicitation of a friend,
I have let him have 10 barrels of them, and in their place we
will plant five acres or so with small potatoes, which we have
in our pile. We will cut off the seed end and throw it away,
and split the rest of the potato into two pieces, lengthwise
probably. We preferred to pay $55 for 10 barrels of good
seed, and the freight, rather than to use these good small
ones we had, that would cost us nothing. We did not wish
to make the change, but still we may not lose by it, on ac-
count of the high price of good seed. This explanation is
made that you may know why we, for the first time in many
years, will risk inferior seed. We were under many obliga-
tions to the friend in question, and I do not know where any
more good seed of the same variety can be obtained.

Some are getting seed potatoes from the South instead of
the North. They are called second-crop seed. Potatoes of
the first crop are planted after they get ripe, and another
crop is grown that fall quite late. These, of course, will
keep over the winter in pretty good condition. I have
known them to be left in the ground all winter, and then
dug in the spring. It is claimed these make as good seed as
Northern-grown first-crop potatoes. I should prefer the
latter, if not sprouted at all; and still I have had large
yields from the southern second-crop seed. As far as my
experience goes, the quality of the crop from the northern
seed is rather better than that from the other. It is claimed
that the southern seed gives an earlier crop ; but I failed to
see any particular difference. Perhaps if digging for early

72 POTATO CULTURE.

market, before they were ripe, there might be some gain. I
judged by the time the vines died down.

Wife suggests that I should tell the object of making a
seed-pile long and narrow instead of round and large, as is
the more common custom. It is, that they may cool through
quicker and be kept cooler. The center of a pile is nearer
to the outside, and the outside cold can work in under the
pile more, and still, with the protection given, they can not
freeze.

I may tell you another thing right here that will help you
some time. Mr. Smith sent me the ten barrels of seed about
April 1. If I put them in my cellar they would sprout before
we could plant. Looking out ahead, I covered the freezing-
cold earth, a square rod of it, with straw some three feet
deep, in March. When the- potatoes came we moved the
straw, placed the barrels on the almost ice-cold ground, and
covered deeply with straw again. I have since opened them,
on a cold morning, and found the temperature of the potatoes
to be 36°, and no advance in sprouting. " Where there is a
will there is a way.7'

POTATO CULTURE. 73

CHAPTER X.
Prevention of Scab.

Suppose, now, you have selected fine tubers for seed, and
have kept them perfectly, so not an eye has started a sprout.
There may be here and there spots of what is called scab on
them. This is very common now. Or perhaps there were
more or less scabby potatoes in your crop the year before,
from which your smooth seed was selected. Or, again, you
may be so unfortunate as to have nothing but scabby seed,
and badly scabby too. You may have some new and costly
variety that has scab on, and still you want to use them for
seed. In all these cases, what you want to know is, will
these potatoes do as well for seed, or does that law of " like
begets like " hold good in planting scabby potatoes ? It
does, according to our best present knowledge. It is only
very recently that we have seemed to get any real light on
this point. What we know now, or think we do, is not,
perhaps, absolutely a settled fact. Some among our scien-
tific authorities still dispute it; but I feel quite certain that
Prof. H. L. liolley, of North Dakota Experiment Station, is
correct in his conclusions, that the first cause of deep scab is a
plant organism, of very minute character, which attacks the
surface of the young growing tubers, eroding, irritating, and
blackening the adjacent tissues — a sort of u bacterioid lun-
gus-like affair." This would seem certain, because pure
masses of the scab-plant, grown on nutrient gelatin, free
from all other germs, when transferred to the surface of
healthy growing potato-tubers, will invariably produce the
disease at the point of application.

Knowing this much you will readily see that scabby seed
will, under ordinary circumstances, produce a scabby crop.
As it is a germ disease, if you selected smooth potatoes out

74 POTATO CULTURE.

of a scabby crop, or handled all in the same boxes, yon may
possibly and even likely have got the disease germs on your
selected tubers. Again, another thing has been learned :
The disease will remain in soil where once it has been. How
long, we do not know. That it will stay, all ready for busi-
ness, three years, I know. The fungus, as we will call it,
lives along, waiting for more potatoes to work on. Now,
don't you see what we practically want ? First, something
that will kill those germs on the seed, if any are present ;
and, second, something to end the germs in the soil when
these are troubling us. Sometimes these germs in the soil
do not come from raising potatoes directly. They certainly
originate in some other way. The tendency will be toward
getting them in the soil by continuous growing of the crop
on the same land. There is less danger of all such troubles
where regular rotation is practiced. But we once cleared oif
some timber, grubbed out the stumps, and put in potatoes
without any manure, and on one place the tirst crop was
scabby, and every succeeding one has been, no matter how
nice seed was put in. Two years ago we plowed up land
where we had grubbed out an old orchard. It had certainly
had no potatoes on it for forty years ; but on part of the land
they were horribly scabby. How did the disease get there ?
Well, it is easy enough to think how it might. Some cow
might have been fed parings of scabby potatoes, and left her
manure in these places. I simply give you this as a hint of
how much trouble we may be put to in the future by this
fungus. By feeding potatoes to our stock we may fill the
manure with the germs, and then scatter it over our land.
As stated in another chapter, fresh manure is more likely to
cause an increase of scab than old rotten manure. I have a
strong impression that horse manure is worse than cow
manure. But on most of these points we are yet in the
dark. We have no certain known way yet of destroying
germs that are in the soil. I have met a number of growers
who have faith in the use of lime for this purpose. Years

POTATO CULTUEE. 75

ago, Prof. M. C. Keed, of this place, then State Geologist,
told me that, in his garden, where potatoes had been grown
so long that it was full of the disease, liming the soil for two
or three years, and using only smooth seed, he got rid of the
trouble. I have seen no account of long-continued and care-
ful experiments that prove this. But Prof. Bolley has shown
pretty conclusively that the germs on the seed may be de-
stroyed. This, of course, is a much simpler matter, as we
can get directly at them.

Killing Germs on Scabby Potatoes.

I will now tell you what I know about this. You remem-
ber my telling of growing some horribly scabby potatoes in
my orchard lot two years ago. I expected something fine
there. I had planted a new and high-priced variety— very
high. I could not afford to lose them. To replace them 1
should have to pay some $12 or $15 a barrel. I had heard of
Prof. Bolley 's experiments in this line. Director Thorne, of
our Experiment Station, kindly obtained reports for me,
and Prof. Bolley as kindly advised me by private letter on
points about whicli I was in doubt. The result was, that I
treated some forty bushels or more of these awfully scabby
tubers, according to directions, and obtained a smooth crop
— made the seed as good as though it were smooth, by killing
the fungus growth that was on it. I worked with some
little fear, because, if I failed, I should fill some five or six
acres of soil with the disease. Of course, the seed was plant-
ed in land that had never produced any scabby tubers to
speak of. Otherwise it would have been of no use to treat
the seed.

We first picked out three good tight flour-barrels, and
soaked them up until they failed to absorb any more water.
Then while these were soaking I went to a druggist and
bought seven packages of corrosive sublimate (mercuric
bichloride), two ounces in each package. This he pulverized
finely in a mortar before putting it up. Next I bought three

76

POTATO CULTURE.

CUT SHOWING POTATOES NOT TREATED WITH THE*
TURE.

CUT SHOWING POTATOES FROM THE SAME FIELD AS ABOVE, WHICH

WERE TREATED WITH THE flBBMR|fc MIXTURE TO PREVENT

SCAB.

The above cuts were kindly loaned us by Prof. H. L. Bolley, of the
North Dakota Experiment Station at Farg-o, N. D. A full report of
these experiments will be found in the Bulletin for December, 1891.

POTATO CULTURE. 77

wooden-pulp pails (common wooden pails would do, but
they woull absorb poison. Crocks would do; but no metal-
lic vessels should be used). Coming home I put two gallons
of hot water in each pail, and a two-ounce paper of the
sublimate in each one. This I stirred with great care until
dissolved (in the evening), and let it stand until morning.
Then we put 13 gallons of water in each of the three barrels,
and emptie 1 into each one a pail of the sublimate solution.
This was allowed to stand in barrels some four hours, being
thoroughly stirred often. Meanwhile we got out the pota-
toes, putting a bushel at a time into a wash-tub, and wash-
ing them with our hands through two waters, to get off all
earth, and clean out scab holes as much as possible, so
poison would be snre to reach all points. Having the pota-
toes washed clean, enough to fill the three barrels, we put
them into the solution, and let them stay one hour and
thirty minutes. Meanwhile we washed some more. At the
end of the 90 minutes we put a potato-box cover (just a plain
board large enough to cover the top) over one barrel, tied a
rope around under the barrel and over the cover ; put in a
stick and twisted it up, to hold the cover tightly, but leaving
it open on one edge about an inch. Then two of us tipped
the barrel over quickly on the edge of a large wash-tub, and
poured out the poisoned water. We then emptied out the
potatoes, put in fresh ones again, and poured the water back
in from the tub, and so on with other barrels. We used the
same water but three times ; but we see no reason why it
could not be used until worn out. It would be poison as
long as any remained.

All this was no small job, because the sublimate is a pow-
erful poison. I just stood over the barrels and pails with all
my wits about me to see that there was no carelessness.
There is no danger from the poison if you do not get it into
your mouth ; therefore I saw that every mouth was shut
when we were pouring it. It would do no harm to a cut
finger. This is the same strength of solution that is used in

78 POTATO CULTURE.

surgery, one part to a thousand of water. If you should cut
yourself when cutting poisoned potatoes, it would help the
cut to heal instead of doing harm. But be exceedingly care-
ful with the dry sublimate, and that no treated potatoes
are eaten by man or animal. I was greatly relieved when
the last of the poisoned water was emptied on bare ground
(not grass), far from any well or spring, and the last tuber
was in t.he ground.

This was work enough ; but really our troubles had but
begun. When the tubers had been treated, what were we to
do with them V We could not safely put them in any thing
that had had potatoes in before, you see, because the germs
are microscopic, and we might get some back on. We did
put them on the grass in the dooryard, and covered them—
with our canvas covers, or old carpets we use for such pur-
poses ? Not much. Danger of germs, again. We actually
had to get some sheets and old blankets from the hofcse.
Then we cut the seed right there, after scalding the knives
and pans we used, and put the cut seed into some new grain-
bags that had never been used, as the only perfectly safe
thing we had. For dropping by hand we used the poisoned
pails. We were just about to put some seed into the planter
when we thought in time, and thoroughly cleaned it out
with boiling water first. Some of the best of the seed,
washed but not treated, gave us a product about as bad as
the seed. Always treat seed before cutting.

This is but a single experiment, but agrees with several by
Prof. Bolley. Without extreme care, you can see an experi-
ment in this line would be of no use. There was no injury
to the sprouts of the potatoes. I tried it on some that were
started.

The question is often asked, whether the scab can continue
to increase after the crop ripens. I do not know ; but from
what I can learn I think not to any extent. Prof. Bolley
applied the germs to a growing potato in the form of a letter
L, and they did not extend much, but showed about the

POTATO CULTURE. 79

same L on the ripe potato. He says we must bear in mind
the effort always made by a living tissue to heal a wound,
in order to understand the form the scabs assume. The
ultimate form is the result of a continuous formation of
layers of cork below the area of disease, because of the irri-
tating, eroding action of the parasite. It seems as though
this action must stop as soon as growth is over. If so, some
growers are greatly mistaken. For example, one market-
gardener told me he always dug his Early Ohio potatoes the
moment they were done growing, as, if left in the soil till
fall, they would be a mass of scabs.

Later.— I have just got from friend Boot 25 new bushel
boxes to handle my seed in this year, after treating it. I
think it will be advisable to go to the trouble of treating it.
There may be some germs on my own or purchased seed, no
matter how nice the tubers may look. I have just bought
12 oz. of corrosive sublimate also, for $1.50.

80 POTATO CULTURE.

CHAPTER XI.

Cutting Seed.

Shall we cut it, or shall we plant whole V shall we cut in
halves, quarters, two-eye pieces, or one-eye V Some say one
way is all right, and others say that is wrong and theirs is
right. Experiment stations say one thing and practical
growers another, perhaps. What shall we do, any way V

Well, friends, this matter does seem to be pretty badly
mixed up. Let us try to explain it a little. Perhaps all
these good people, with so many different minds, are right.
Didn't you ever think of that ? Truly it is simply a matter
of conditions and skill— that is all. Well, no— not quite ;
variety has a little to do with it. If you have poor land and
rather poorly prepared and small seed that has sprouted, you
would be right, perhaps, in planting whole potatoes. If you
are two or three steps higher up, and have pretty fair soil
and seed, and tend to the crop moderately well, a quarter of
a potato, or possibly two or three eyes on a piece, may about
suit you. You may find it as well as to use more seed. Or,
perhaps, the whole potatoes, if not too near together, and if
you do not grow for market, may still give you more bushels,
big and little. But if you have rich land and good seed, and
make a business of growing them, and tend to it too, with
most varieties one-eye pieces the proper distance apart may
make you the most money. Now, isn't this simple and
plain y and I think it is just about true.

There are not many men, probably, who have cut potatoes
to one eye as long as has the writer. He wasn't born with
the knowledge that that was the best way for him, but rather
happened on to it at first, and then went to thinking and
studying over it and all the points connected with it, and
experimenting. When he found there was something in it,

POTATO CULTUBE. 81

he began to tell others about it. At first we.were laughed
at and pitied for our greenness by many, the same as when
we began haying a month before the rest, and had dried
grass instead of hay that we must feed with grain. But we
had studied arithmetic, and had a little common sense, and
were able to figure out that we were on the right track, and
went right along. In due time our turn came for a great
big laugh. We have lived to see people, who once honestly
pitied us, plant large fields in the same way.

My first experience was with the Early Goodrich, I think ;
then, soon after, with the Early Bose. The seed cost a high
price, and we cut it very fine, and gave the- best of care.
The result was a surprise in several ways. For example, we
cut the Bose down to one-eye pieces, mostly. Toward the
last, however, as the seed more than held out to plant the
piece we had prepared, we planted one row with quarters,
one with halves, and one with whole tubers, but not very
large. Now, of course the last row made the greatest show
at first, and the one-eye rows the poorest. Every one who
looked at the piece, myself among the rest, judged the yield
would be according to the growth early in the season. I was
pretty green then, some 23 years ago. Well, at digging-time
didn't we have some beauties where the one-eye seed was
used ? I picked out some that weighed two pounds each,
the more seed, the smaller they were ; and the yield from
one-eye seed gave 25 per cent more merchantable tubers
than the average of the other rows. Now, people thought
that was all right enough for garden culture and a high-
priced variety, cutting so fine ; but how crazy they thought
me when 1 began to carry out the same idea in field culture !
A man wanted to put in a piece on shares. I furnished seed,
and it was rather small too. I hadn't then learned about
that. I insisted that they be cut to one eye. After planting
most of the piece with these little pieces his heart failed
him, and he came and told me he was afraid it would be a
failure, and begged that he might plant the rest of the piece

82 POTATO CULTUKE.

with whole small seed. Of course, I consented, but on con-
dition that he would divide the land in the fall and not the
potatoes, and give me my share from where the one-eye seed
was used. He readily agreed to this ; but at digging- time
he was almost angry when I held him to his bargain. I had
seen to it that the conditions for success were present for
such fine seed, and the one-eye seed gave the best returns,
particularly in size and uniformity.

Well, we kept at work in the same line until we had whole
fields and thousands of bushels growing according to our
notion. Shall I tell you about some of the first good laughs
we had V

Potatoes were very low, and slow sale, folks said. About
the middle of July I took a sample of large fine ones (we had
no other kind), in the buggy, and wife and I drove to Akron
— twelve miles. I spent all day trying to get an order for a
load at 40 cts. Finally one man said if I could bring a load
equal to that sample he would take them. He was sus-
picious. He kept the sample. When did I laugh V Why,
when he saw the load, and said, " There, gentlemen " (to
passersby), " is something finer than you ever saw in this
market before." When a neighboring grocer came to me,
not I to him, and wanted a load, when I could not possibly
keep up with orders, while at no time did common potatoes
sell for more than 25 cents a bushel, then did I laugh all the
way home, and wife and I after I got home. Yes, we did.

Again, the Snowflake potato came around. Every one
wanted them ; but as ordinarily planted they grew too small.
They, like the Freeman, are inclined to set too many, any
way. But they were well suited to my one-eye cutting. I went
to growing them largely. When I uncovered the first load on
Market St., in Akron, and the grocers crowded around me,
and I set my price with a little fear that I had put it too high,
and quicker than a flash one man said, u I want 500 bushels ;
here is $50; " when another man took 1000 at 15 cts. a bushel
above market price ; when I had unloaded my load, and the

POTATO CULTURE. 83

grocer insisted on my taking full pay and keeping the $50 as
a payment on the rest, so anxious was he to get them, then
did I laugh, friends, away down in my boots. It was sweet
to find that I wasn't so green and silly as some had thought.

Another year, when I took my first load to a very particu-
lar grocer, but one wTho would pay .well for an extra nice
thing, 30 bushels from 16 square rods, and there were bushels
of tubers that would weigh one pound each, and he gave a
low whistle and exclaimed, "If those are only as nice to eat
as they are to look at ! " and when he would not order any
more until he had tried them, and sent a mess home for din-
ner, you hardly see where my laugh came in, do you ? I will
tell you. When I got home and found the message which
had fl-'.shed past me, u Bring another load of those potatoes
as qivck as you can." I had nearly 2000 bushels of that
kind, and within three days they were all spoken for at my
price.

When I met men drawing their potatoes back home, un-
even in stze, not the best quality, perhaps dirty-looking
things, unable to get a bid on them, at a time when we were
overworked, making two trips a day, 48 miles in all, to sup-
ply the demand, and these men would say, "Terry, you are
the luckiest man I ever knew," don't you suppose I laughed ?
And then a feeling of pity came over me for these poor
brothers; and as soon as they were out of hearing I said,
" There was no luck about it." Wasn't I right V

From what 1 have written you will gather one advantage
of this way of cutting, this light seeding. If the seed has
not sprouted, few tubers in a hill ; and nearly all of them, if
they are not planted too close together, grow to a quite uni-
form large size. Of course, you understand this is with all
the necessary conditions of soil, etc., present. There are
almost no little ones. Some years we have not picked them
up at all, there were so few. It would not pay. If large po-
tatoes are worth $1.00 a bushel, or even 75 cents, we pick up
small ones, as they will then sell for enough to pay us. They

84 POTATO CULTURE.

are worth some seven or eight cents a bushel to rot on the
land as a fertilizer. I should not like to hire men to pick
them up to sell at 15 or 20 cents. They are not often worth
that to us to feed out.

With this fine cutting there is quite a saving of seed to
start with. This will be of little account to a farmer grow-
ing only enough for his own use ; but to a large grower it is
worth looking after. The amount varies some with varie-
ties, as some have more eyes than others, and the size of the
tubers makes a difference ; but say seven bushels of average
seed will plant an acre in drills. If you cut two eyes on a
piece it would make about 84 bushels difference this spring
in the amount of seed required for my field. At a dollar a
bushel, or even 50 cents, this amounts to a nice little sum
that is saved or made to start with. At what my own seed
will actually cost me this year it will be nearly $200. That
will pay for a little extra care ; so will $50. Then the crop
should have the care, any way, just the same, if two-eye
pieces were used.

I told you in a former chapter of another valuable point in
favor of light seeding in drills. Scattered along in the drills,
a few in a place, they do not grow out of the ground as
much, nor crack it open as much. They must be kept down
in the earth, for highest quality, some distance from day-
light. This way of seeding gives the best chance for this,
and for nearly level culture, which is also usually best.
Don't think one-eye seed was all that caused those good
laughs. No, no ! It was one good point. There were others.
With a single weak link in the chain, however, the laugh
might have been on the other side. Yes, even with one-eye
seed, and more particularly with it, perhaps.

Let me illustrate : Years ago I was sick one spring— too
sick to know or care about business. I had, perhaps, the
best man to work in the potato-field that was ever on this
farm. He had good seed and good soil, and horses and tools ;
but he planted one-eye pieces on soil a quarter prepared.

POTATO CULTURE. 85

Dry weather followed, and few came up. The skill to man-
age was not there ; or, perhaps, it was rushing hard work
and lack of thought. When I got around I had the piece
harrowed and sown with Hungarian grass seed. This is the
only time one-eye seed has failed on my farm. How easily,
from such an experience, one might decide against it ! But
the only trouble was, that whole seed was best suited to the
potato caliber of the man at the helm, and he planted fine-
cut seed.

Five years ago we decided to again test one-eye pieces side
by side with two eye ones, thinking that possibly results
might be different now, after growing potatoes so long on the
same land. We are not trying to carry our point at all, but are
always ready for the truth and the best way, even if we have
some pet notions trod on. Fine large tubers were chosen
and cut, and the rows planted right through the field. I
confess I was a little anxious when Adam got them nearly
all picked up, and kept looking over that way, from where I
was digging. When he waved his hat and shouted, " Just
exactly the same ! " well, I couldn't help feeling just a trifle
glad. We dug one row at a time, and picked them up and
stood boxes on the row, so no possible mistake could occur.

When a plant comes up from these one-eye pieces, of course
at first it is smaller and weaker than where large seed is
used ; but if it came from good seed, and is well cared for, it
will make use of all the available fertility there is in the soil,
and turn it into good even-sized tubers What more can
you ask for ? Of course, you can manure your crop with
potatoes, if you want to, by using large seed -and getting
some extra little ones. Pretty dear manuring. It takes
about 50 bushels of potatoes to give as much fertility as
there is in a load of good stable manure. A ton of potatoes
contains but $2.02 worth of fertility,, at market rates of fer-
tilizers. They are mostly water. But the extra food in the
mother-potato may be worth a little more to the plant than
stable manure, possibly, as a starter.

86 POTATO CULTUEE.

I have hinted that the soil must be fine where little pieces
of seed are used. If it is fine it will, in the spring, nearly
always be moist ; then the little pieces will be safe— just as
safe as whole tubers, if the soil is well enough drained, and
light enough so they will not rot. In extreme cases, where
ground was very dry, I have rolled right after planting, for
greater safety ; but I dislike to do it, as the packing of the
soil is bad. The harrow will not take hold as well afterward,
to kill weeds— another bad matter.

It is always safest to plant cut seed as fast as it is cut. I
should prefer to have it go into the ground without drying.
I never dry by rolling in land-plaster. That is no gain on
my land. I have known serious failures from cutting large
quantities beforehand. If we cut a few hours ahead, we put
the pieces in bushel-boxes (they are cool, of course, being
brought from the cellar or pile), and cover and set in a cool
place. Keep from all wind and sun.

This matter of fine cutting may be carried much farther
than I do, but not practically for field culture. By splitting
the eyes into several pieces, and very fine culture, it is
claimed, and I do not doubt it, that 42| bushels of potatoes
were once grown from a pound of seed by H. C. Pearson, of
New York State, for which he received a prize of $300. I
have never gone as far as this ; but two years ago Mr. Wm.
Henry Maule sent me a barrel of Freemans (165 pounds),
which were then selling at $3.00 a pound, and asked me to
grow as many as I could from them for $1.00 a bushel. We
first cut the tubers into one-eye pieces. These were pretty
large, as the " Freeman has few eyes. Then most of these
one-eye pieces were cut in two, right through the center of
the eye. We planted on clover sod mostly, without any
other manure, dropping a piece every 32 inches each way.
We were not after yield per acre, but all that would come
from that seed, with all the room each piece could use. We
covered in this way If acres with the seed. They never
lacked for fine tillage, much of it with hand-hooks or prong-

POTATO CULTURE. 87

ed hoes. We dug 305 bushels. We knew friend Smith had
a barrel too, and expected he would beat us, but he did not.
He was but a few bushels behind. He grew them on less
land, however. I think now, if we had cut to one eye and
spread over only an acre, we should have done as well. Our
soil was hardly rich enough for the half-eyes. It was a close
race for life with the flea-beetle when they first came up,
they were so small.

It is sometimes said that all the eyes will not grow on
some varieties of potatoes. I have never found any kind
where they would not, if properly cut. There may be such.
We have grown in this way the Peachblow, Early Goodrich,
Early Kose, Early Ohio, Clark's No. 1, New Queen, Thor-
burn, Burbank, White Star, Empire State, Monroe Seedling,
Beauty of Hebron, and others, and in a large way. With
the single exception of the Early Ohio, one eye furnished
enough seed for our soil. To get a full crop of that variety
we should have to use more seed or plant nearer together.
It doesn't seem to suit our soil, any way. With any of the
above varieties, and hand planting, missing hills are almost
unknown. We certainly have had acres where there was
not one; but, of course, this was from prime seed, very care-
fully cut. If you plant a whole potato, a part of the eyes
may not grow, usually, or sometimes ; but when cut so there
is but one on a piece, it never forgets what it was made for,
with us.

It doesn't make any great difference how you cut when
one-eye pieces are wanted, only so you have about an equal
quantity of pulp in each one, and the pieces are rather
chunked and not too thin. The most simple way seems to
be to take the tuber in your left hand, with the stem end
down. Then, with a very thin-bladed knife in your other
hand, you are ready to begin. You can get a little help
from the cut. perhaps. If you should cut the first piece off
as shown by the line at the lower left-hand side, you would
have a one-eye piece. But you see it would be rather thin.

88 POTATO CULTURE.

Again, this heel eye is usually a weak one. It often makes
a weak plant. It is usually safer not to count this eye, but
cut above the next one. Say you cut about as shown by the
line on the lower right-hand side, but continuing cut right

FIG. 1 — HOW TO CUT TO ONE

across the tuber. Then you go on and cut the next piece
with an eye on it, turning the potato as you work, and let-
ting your knife run with about the slant shown by the side
lines, taking care to get pieces about all of a size. I am

POTATO CULTURE. 89

aware this is a hard matter to explain. Fig. 2, of a partially
cut potato, will give you a better idea, perhaps. Now, when
you get up to the top and have a piece about like that be-
tween lines A, B, left, which is about the same size as your
other one-eye pieces, there will be, perhaps, a single eye by
itself, sometimes two, and then a cluster of eyes. We cut
off that cluster of eyes, as shown by the line, and throw it
away ; then that piece is as good as any. If there are two
single "eyes we leave them. If the cluster of eyes were left,
sometimes several sprouts would start, instead of the one
from a single eye, and the result would be a number of small
potatoes ; I have seen as many as twenty or thirty.

Now let me say, right here, that we have no iron-clad rule
that every piece shall have only one eye on. Our rule is,
that pieces shall be of a good fair size. Nearly always, with
good-sized seed, one-eye pieces will be all right ; and particu-
larly is this true with some varieties. But you know some
kinds, like the potato shown in Fig. 2, have many eyes on.
In such a case, where a piece would be pretty small with but
one eye on, I would cut two. Practically we seldom do this.

FIG.[2.— MANNER OF USING THE CURVED KNIFE.

The knife shown above is a patent curved-bladed one.
Some like them, but I do not. We can not cut as fast as
with a straight blade. The curved blade pushes hard. We
tested the matter carefully, and found the pieces grew no
better, although slightly more chunked. The knives we use

90 POTATO CULTUKE.

we got of Mr. Root. They are cheap and good, with the han-
dle extending on to the back a little to protect the fingers.
Grind them down, before beginning to cut, as thin as you
dare. They will then go through the potato much easier.
The back should not be much thicker than the edge. We

KNIFE FOB CUTTING POTATOES.

Price lOc; by mail, 13c. Sold by A. I. Root, Medina, Ohio,
always wind a rag around the forefinger to protect it. With
such a knife, one who is used to it should cut from eight to
ten bushels to one eye in a day of ten hours, and do it nicely.
Of course, it will go slowly at first. A woman will usually
cut faster and better than a man. They are more used to
such work, and have more patience^ I have seen a young
lady cut a bushel an hour right along, whe're the seed was of
good size.

If you want to cut small potatoes, Mr. L. D. Olds, of Wis-
consin, who is pretty good authority, cuts off and throws
away the seed end, as I do. and splits the tuber lengthwise
into two or three pieces, according to size. I have cut them
to one eye, but would not advise it for field culture. The
pieces are too small.

The truth is, I do not want to advise at all about this
matter of cutting. I have given you facts and my practice.
It is so easy not to grasp the whole matter, for one not ac-
customed to it, that he had better be slow and careful about
making radical changes, until he knows he is right, as I did,
and hasn't got the wrong practice for the man and condi-
tions. Do not understand me, friends, as hinting that you
may not be as smart as I am. You may be much smarter,
and still not have the experience in this line. I do riot want
to lead you one inch astray, but, rather, to stir you up and
set you to thinking and studying and experimenting to find
out the very best.

POTATO CULTUKE. 91

The Aspinwall Potato-Cutter.
Several letters have been received lately, asking about the
Aspinwall potato-cutter, which was brought out last season.
The manufacturers have kindly sent me one for examina-
tion and experiment. It will cut potatoes better than some
men would, just as the planter will drop more accurately
than some would. It is not perfect, but it is quite wonder-
ful how well it will do. Where men are planting by ma-
chinery, and large areas, it will be used. If a man were
planting 100 acres it is doubtful whether he would get his
seed cut much better than this machine will do it. But it
does not come up to real nice expert cutting. The pieces
are of good shape, but vary too much in size. However, the
cutting can be done much faster than by hand. At one trial
I cut ten nice medium-sized Hebron potatoes. There were
30 good (except uneven in size) one-eye pieces ; 16 good two-
eye pieces ; 13 pieces that had i, H, or 2i eyes on ; 4 pieces
with no eyes on. Of the latter, two were stem-end pieces,
and would be as well out, and would have to be picked out
by hand, as the screen would not let them through. Two of
the pieces, without any eyes on, were large center pieces.
This is a fair average of work done. One good piece in 30
had no eye on at all. The seed end is cut off and screened
out fairly well. The misses would not be a very serious
matter, any more than the misses of the planter. Large
growers will take the chances, doubtless, because they can
cut faster. A miss of one piece in thirty means perhaps five
bushels short per acre, on a 200-bushel crop. At 30 cents a
bushel this would hire my seed nicely cut to one eye. But
there is another more important matter to me. Those 10
tubers gave only 59 pieces that would grow. We would have
made about 82 good one-eye pieces, of quite uniform size,
from the same tubers. Thus the seed would go over 33 per
cent farther. At a dollar a bushel this would about twice
pay the cost of hand- cutting. My seed will be cut by hand,
I assure you. This is all I can say about the cutter at present.

92 POTATO CULTURE.

CHAPTER XII.

Cultivation.

All questions connected with the putting in of the crop
have now been considered. We will suppose you have the
best varieties for your soil and circumstances, and the best
of seed, properly cut, and planted on suitable land, all well
drained, and fitted and fed in the very best way. You have
done rightly so far, but you must not stop giving the crop
your most thoughtful attention daily, right along, for two
months or more yet. After that you may take it easy for a
while, and leave the rest to Providence. But don't you trust
in Providence in the slightest degree during these two
months, until you have done all you can yourself. Then go
to bed at night and don't worry a particle, but sleep soundly,
in the full assurance that a kind Father will give you your
reward in proportion to the efforts put forth. Would that I
could impress on every mind the importance of spending all
your energies in faithful work, and none in worrying. And
still it has been a hard lesson for us to learn. One year it
was very hot and dry. We began digging potatoes for early
market ; and, getting only about 90 bushels per acre, we felt
pretty blue, although we got 90 cents a bushel for them. It
seemed as though they would soon go down to 40 or 50 cents ;
and although we had never before tried so hard to do our
best, we were not going to get even a fair reward. Yes,
friends, I can well remember now that I thought Providence
was treating us pretty hard. But how did it end ? We kept
on working the dry hot surface in our fields, even after we
began marketing; and some sprinkles of rain came and
helped us out a little. Prices advanced instead of going
down, and the potatoes turned out better and better. Soon
we were getting $50 a load for potatoes, or more, and going

POTATO CULTURE. 93

with a load every day ; and the net profit on the last six acres
dug would have bought twice -as many acres as the crop grew
on. Actually, I did not dare tell my best friends how we
were making money, because I knew they would think I
was excited and exaggerating. I could tell you of many such
lessons. Could I live my life over it seems now as though I
would just do my best, and never worry a bit. But, friends,
there is a great deal for you to do before you fold your hands
and say you have done what you could ; and every year we
are finding more and more that we can do. Nature wants
to help you ; but she has her fixed laws, which she will not
change one iota. She has given us brains to study out such
matters; we must use them or take the consequences.
Providence will never keep weeds from drinking up the
moisture or eating the plant-food. She will never keep the
surface of the soil stirred for you, although she has arranged
so that, if you do these things for yourself, in the best way
and on time, your reward shall be great.

How we Care for the Crop.

I will now tell you briefly how we care for our potatoes,
beginning right after planting ; then later we will talk over
some of the whys and wherefores of our practice.

If the planter was used to put in the crop, the drills all
show plainly, so one can cultivate as well before the potatoes
come up as after ; in fact, better. Going over the land so
much with horses and planter has packed it pretty solidly
between the rows, and so we cultivate deeply and thoroughly
the first thing— tear up the soil just all we can. Within a
week or so after planting, we harrow the field lengthwise
with the Thomas smoothing-harrow, using two horses and
taking three rows at once, and keeping horses between rows.
That is, we harrow the drill between horses, and one each
side. Within four or five days, say, we harrow lengthwise
again ; and then, after about as many more days, crosswise.
It is well to drive fast, as the harrow then levels the ridges

94

POTATO CULT U BE.

THE THOMAS SMOOTHING HARROW, WITH THE TEETH SET

SLANTING.

THE THOMAS SMOOTH ING-HARROW FROM THE OTHER SIDE,
SHOWING THE TEETH SET STRAIGHT UP AND DOWN.

Price of the above harrow, $15.00; seat, $2.00 extra. Address all com-
munications to the Herenden Manufacturing Co., Geneva, N. Y.

POTATO CULTURE.

95

better. These three harro wings should make the surface
entirely level and clean and fine. I would not ridge up much
when planting with a planter. You must get the ridges,
whether high or low, leveled down before the potato-sprouts
get up. Look out for this. It will do to put earth over a
sprout, but it will not do to harrow it away from a sprout
and leave it up in the air two or three inches higher than it
ought to have grown before the leaves come out. When
planting by hand we harrow about the same, but we do not
cultivate before they come up, as we can not follow the rows.
One must be on the watch to do this harrowing at just the
right time. Once in a great while he can not manage this
any way, even on drained land. If a shower is likely to
come in a few hours, and you harrowed only three days be-
fore, perhaps it may be best to harrow again ; for, before the
earth dries after the rain, the weeds may get out to daylight.
The rain may continue some days. You must not take any
risk, but always strive to keep the upper hand.

BREED'S WEEDER.

Price $10.00. Address all communications to the Universal Weeder Co.,
Boston, Mass.

I like to have the last harrowing done just before the
plants come out in sight. Here and there one may be out,
but I should like to have the great mass of them come up
soon after the last harrowing.

96

POTATO GUI/TUBE.

Years ago we used the Thomas also, after the potatoes
came up. Now we have a better, lighter tool for this pur-
pose— Breed's weeder. As soon as the rows show plainly,
we use this implement with one horse that walks between
the rows, drawing the weeder, which, in clean mellow soil,
harrows the surface lightly between the rows and in the
hills or drills, two rows at a time. If the soil is packed by
rain we cultivate first and follow with the weeder. The
wreeder is a very light harrow. It will not take hold of hard
ground much. If we cultivate first it can, of course, take

IRON AGE COMBINED HARROW AND CULTIVATOR.

Address E. S. & F. Bateman, Kirkwood, Camden Co., N. J., for prices
and all information.

hold better of the little that is left. For this early cultiva-
tion, when plants are small, we use the Iron Age cultivator
with its fourteen little light teeth. You can go fast, and
throw no earth. It is important that the weeder be used
when the earth is just dry enough after a shower, and not too
dry. There will be, perhaps, half a day when it will do its
best ; then the earth gets too dry. What shall you do after

POTATO CULTURE. 97

that? Why, as we do— have enough weeders to go over
your field on time. We have two, and can stir the surface
of our field in less than five hours, if necessary.

If it is cloudy, and not drying very fast, we have done this
way : My son and man cultivate each with his horse and one-
horse cultivator, and I follow with the weeder. As they
take a row at a time, each of them, and I two at once, you
see I just keep up with them, and we can go over a dozen
acres in a day, and cultivate and hoe them most perfectly.
We continue to use the weeder until the tops are quite large.
When it pushes them over so as to do real injury, one or two
teeth can be taken out over the rows, but we have not done
this. We can use it about as long as it is needed, without.
When the tops shade the earth under them where it can not
be stirred with the cultivator, the weeder is no longer needed.

You will notice we use the cultivators in connection with
the weeder, even if the latter on fine soil might do alone.
One can hardly overdo this matter of tillage, and there is a
great deal in having the surface fine, as well as freshly stirred.
Don't you forget this. You may tear it up roughly on half
a field, with cultivators having large wide teeth, and I will
use these implements on the other half, that just rake the
surface, leaving it fine and level, and some years, at least, I
will leave you away behind. After we stop the use of the
weeder we continue the cultivation, narrowing up the culti-
vator as the tubers begin to grow. I like the Planet Jr.,
with the IHnch steels, for this purpose.

In the cut you see the Planet Jr. as it is usually sold, with
wider teeth in three places, and side-shovels on, which are
used to throw a little earth in under plants. With these on
it is called a horse-hoe. For simply stirring the surface
after potatoes are well started I take all these 5 teeth off
that are shown in the cut, and put on 5 teeth that are only
li inches wide. You can buy these narrow teeth as extras,
and you should not think of doing without them.

About the time the tubers are beginning to form, or just

98 POTATO CULTUKE.

before the potato-vines begin to lop over, we have found it
best to use the Planet once with side-shovels on, as in cut,
throwing a little earth in under the plants, for reasons given
in a former chapter. For this purpose we go twice in a row.
All other cultivation is done only once in a row. The rows
are so straight that we do almost perfect work on each side
at once. Now a very important point : The first cultivation
after the plants break ground should be deep— as deep and

PLANET JR. CULTIVATOR.
Price $5.50. For sale by A. T. Root, Medina, O.

thorough as is possible with a strong horse. Then give them
the soil to grow in, and let all after cultivation, without any
exception, be shallow— about H inches deep is all that I will
allow.

I consider the time when cultivation is done as important.
We aim to never let a crust form after a shower, but get on
and stir the surface just as soon as a horse will not do injury
by packing the moist soil. We must be careful and not

POTATO CULTURE. 99

start too soon, and be ready to rush things just the moment
the conditions are right. If it rains again in 24 hours, no
matter ; we cultivate again as soon as it is dry enough. If
it is dry weather, and does not rain at all, we cultivate again
within a week any way, as the earth settles together and
needs it by that time. No attention whatever is paid to the
number of times that we cultivate ; we just do all we can
for the crop.

At an institute in Wisconsin I heard one of the most suc-
cessful dairymen in the State report that he never said to his
cows, " How little can you get along with in the way of
food V " but, " How much can you possibly make use of ? "
Thus do we try to take care of our potato crop. With our
long rows, and tools, tillage is cheap, and it pays, if properly
done and always on time. We do not try to get along with
one cultivator, but have three at least— one for each man on
the place. I seldom need to do any cultivating myself, but I
must have a tool ready so I can when we get in a tight place.
Suppose it rains Friday night, and the soil is not dry enough
to work until 10 o'clock Saturday. My son and mm could
not get over our field by night. Three of us could, and then
I could go to church Sunday and feel entirely easy, as though
I had done my part — as though I had not been u slothful in
business," but " serving the Lord." We do not stop cultiva-
tion as long as a horse can get through between the rows ;
and a horse that is used to it will go through without doing
much damage when the tops fairly cover the ground. The
old rule, to stop cultivating at blossoming-time, was all right
for the tools and culture of that time. With our shallow
culture, and narrowing of cultivator toward the last, we can
do no harm under any circumstances, and may do some good.
As long as any soil is exposed to the sun, it is better to keep
the surface lightly stirred. When the vines cover all, then
shade will take the place of cultivation.

I haven-t said any thing about hoeing by hand. We do not
do any, except in some extremely wet seasons, or at the ends

100 POTATO CULTUEE.

of the rows where the tools do not do good work. We keep
our crop pretty clean, and have for many years, by working
in the line given above. Of course, we do not keep every
weed down. Here and there one (some wet years quite a
few) will come up in the hills. These we pull when they
show above the tops of the potatoes, if the soil is wet, or cut
them off if it is dry so pulling would disturb the tubers. But
we haven't done very much in this line for some years. We
have no iron-clad rule on this point, except that our potatoes
shall be well cared for. This can be pretty thoroughly done '
by machinery, rapidly and cheaply ; but if hand work is ever
necessary, they get it.

I have tried to give you our practice ; but a little preaching
has been worked in, I notice. We will now consider more
fully

SOME QUESTIONS CONNECTED WITH CULTIVATION.

What do we Cultivate for?

To keep weeds down, and the surface mellow and fine, so
as to let air in and check evaporation from below. These
are the main reasons. By " cultivation " I mea.n, of course,
all stirring of the soil— harrowing as well as the work done
by the weeder and different cultivators. Have you ever
stopped to think how much damage weeds do ? There is no
question on these points ; they eat up plant-food and deprive
your potatoes of it just as certainly as a rat eating some of
the oats fed your horse cheats the horse out of some of his
food. If you let them grow they will eat, and you pay the full
bill in potatoes. And, what may be still more important
some years, weeds will drink. And do you know how much
they will drink ? Prof. Hunt told us at an institute this
winter that weeds that would weigh one pound (dry weight)
had evaporated from the soil 300 pounds of water. Think of
this when you let weeds grow, particularly in a dry year.
Potatoes need abundant moisture; weeds rob them of it.
Are you going to let the tramps eat and drink at your ex-

POTATO CULTURE. ,101

»,''",' ''.'"•'.

pense? Are you going to treat them better than you do
your own family? Alas! some farmers do. Shame on
them ! Let us do all we can, friends, to show them more
businesslike and manly methods. With drained soil and
proper food, and persistent, systematic effort, we can keep
weeds practically down, never let them see daylight (nothing
short of this is perfect), and still we shall only be giving the
crop the tillage that it needs and that it will pay for. The
weed-fighting has really cost nothing to speak of. What did
Providence give us weeds for? Partly to oblige us to till
well, perhaps.

After a shower the surface of our fields dries off ; and if the
soil is in the least heavy a crust forms. This is hard, and
quite impervious to air, and the evaporation from this un-
broken surface is great. There is not usually rain enough
during the season to supply a crop of potatoes with all the
moisture they need. There is, however, much moisture ac-
cumulated in the subsoil below. This works up toward the
surface by what we call capillary attraction, the same way
that oil rises in your lampwick. In this way a crop may get
considerable moisture over and above what comes directly
from the clouds during the growing season. There is a limit,
of course, to this supply, and we may save it from waste, not
only by keeping weeds down, but by having the surface
lightly stirred. This loose broken surface acts as a mulch,
just as effectually as though you had put some straw on the
top of the ground. The water works up through the firmer
soil below and supplies your crop, but it is prevented from
reaching the surface, to any extent, where sun and Wind
would drink it up, by your mulch of loose earth. On good
soil a man who is as saving as possible in this line may get a
fair return, even without any rain at all. It is simply won-
derful what man may do. But he must do it : Nature will
never do it for him. God furnishes the rain and the brains.
You are a free agent to use one or both or neither, as much
or little as you please. Do you see now why we are so anx-

102. 1 POTATO CULTURE.

ions to stir the surface after a shower V why we harrow the
field as soon as it is i lowed V why we have the surface cov-
ered with second-crop clover all winter before plowing (one
reason), all in this same dhection of saving moisture ? We
had a tremendous rain the other night, but it did not run at
all on my clo /er-tields, where we shall plant potatoes this
year. It soaked down, and part is stored up to draw on
when needed.

1 hope it will not seem like bragging when I say we have
sold thousands of bushels of potatoes to farmers, during dry
years, who planted the usual quantity of land in the spring.
Why did they have to come to us in the fall ?

It is true, that stirring the surface causes the soil actually
stirred (say an inch or two deep) to dry all the faster; then
this dry loose surface prevents the waste, for the most part,
of the large quantity of moisture below. And do not forget
that air in the soil is necessary to the growth of plants. You
give it a good chance to enter when the surface is loose,
instead of dried and baked. During a wet time, cultivation
is not needed on well-drained soil except to keep weeds
down. When t bowers come daily, tillage may stop ; but be
sure to stir the surface right after the last one. Better do
th.3 work for nothing five times than miss having it done at
this one important time. It would be easy to grow potatoes
if we knew beforehand what the season and the weather
would be. The best we can do is to be always prepared for
the worst.

The amount of tillage that will pay depends somewhat on
the fertility of the soil. For example, my friend J. M.
Smith, who manures tremendously for garden crops, does
not cultivate more than half as much as I do. Excessive
fertility will take the place of tillage partly. Such soil will
not lose moisture as rapidly by evaporation. Mr. Smith's
tillage would be a partial failure some dry years on my ordi-
nary farm land, which is not any thing like as rich as his.
So we are both right in our practice.

POTATO CULTURE. 103

I have said that all cultivation, after the first time through,
is shallow — only about H inches deep. Now, I want you to
know that I am «&ow£, and tending to th's m tter. I know
that no careless man is " riding " the cultivator and sinking
the teeth three or four inches. 1 will have i o boy work in
this line, but a good man, and he is plainly told that he might
ten times better be sitting in the shade than running a cul-
tivator deep in my potato-field. Roots pass all through the
soil, searching for food. The soil was made for them to
grow in. The more they can have, the better But practi-
cally they can get along without H inches of the surf ce
pretty well, and we must have about that much to move
to keep weeds down and check evai oration. We do not
need more, and it is senseless waste to taSte it. Deep culti-
vation diminishes the feeding-ground, or destroys masses of
fibrous roots and puts the plant to the expense of growing
them over. I prefer to have my vines growing tubers. With-
out having to stop to repair damages. This matter of d:»m
age, however, will be governed somewhat by the weather,
that follows the tearing-off of the roots. If it s hot ;<nd dry,
it will do more damage than if wet and showery.

I have a neighbor who is a first-class farmer. One year
our potato-fields were side by side. We both planted at the
same time, in the same way, the same variety of potatoes,
lie began planting next to my line, while I began on the side
of my field farthest from the line. We were a' out a week
planting. This made my potatoes next to his about a week
behind. They came up Liter and kept just so much behind
in spite of the best care we could give. I couldn't get ahe id
of my good neighbor in tillage. Really my Held averaged
about like h's, but it troubled me to have them a little be-
hind where they were side by side — don't you see V I u.sed
to go out every evening and look at them, but his kept the
start they had. One day when I was cultivating I looked
over and saw a young man cultivating in the next field. As
I watched him it seemed to me as though he was bearing

104 POTATO CULTURE.

down on the cultivator-handles. At night I went over and
looked, and he had done just that thing. The wheel on the
cultivator was properly set, and the frame expanded as wide
as would answer, and then the man had put his weight on
enough so the rear teeth on each side had gone down, close
to the drills, some four or five inches. For an instant I felt
glad, for now I knew the race was mine ; and then better
feelings prevailed, and I was sorry that such a mistake had
been made. It did not rain for some time, and was quite
dry, and those potatoes came almost to a standstill, while
mine grew right on as before. The damage done in that one
day was very great. I have told this bit of experience only
with the hope that it will help to impress this point on your
minds. There is no theory about this. I know that I am
right.

You will notice I speak of one-horse cultivators only. I
have tried the sulky cultivators, three of them. As made
now they do pretty good work, but not quite as good as we
can do with one horse ; and in our small fields the damage
from turning at the ends is considerable. With one tr« lined
horse, scarcely a hill is injured. We are small farmers,
doing our best. If living on a great farm where 100 or 200
acres of potatoes were planted, we might leave a head-land
to turn on, and use sulky cultivator, and ride. One would
not get along any faster, however. We do a row at a time,
the same as they do, and have one less horse to tramp the
ground.

The Iron Age cultivator and harrow combined is the nicest
tool I ever saw to use in the fruit-garden to cultivate straw-
berries. Put the cultivator end of the teeth down, except
the two next to the row. Have these two with the harrow
end down, and not slanting back, but perpendicular, and
raise them about an inch higher than the others. You can
then run, actually, within an inch or two of newly set straw-
berry-plants and not throw any earth over them. The
harrow-teeth will move the leaves around and not hurt

POTATO CULTURE. 105

them, and stir the surface so as to prevent weeds starting,
leaving very little to be done with the hoe. We fix it much
the same for potatoes when they are small.

The picture (p. 94) shows the Thomas harrow as we use it
for harrowing the freshly turned sod, except that we generally
use three horses. When harrowing potatoes, one should
never ride. The harrow is heavy enough. There are other
smoothing or slanting-toothed harrows (slanting backward)
made. I have always used the Thomas harrow, and prefer
the old style, teeth not reversible. The patent has expired
on this harrow, but you will not be likely to make as good a
one as you can buy. If I could have but one harrow, it
would be this, and next the Cutaway, for digging up hard
ground, as pictured in another chapter.

Now, friends, probably 200 farmers have written me ask-
ing me to give all dimensions of frame, teeth, etc., and the
slant, and all particulars, so they could make a smoothing-
harrow. I simply can not answer such questions. The
spirit is willing, but the body gets tired beyond endurance
before piles of letters of that kind. With the consent of
your most sincere friend the publisher, Mr. A. I. Boot, you
have been given pictures, and address of manufacturers of
the tools I would buy — the best I know of ; and this is done
without one particle of pay from them. It is done to help
the introduction of good tools in this line of potato culture,
and it is done for you. Don't ask us to do any more. While
I am about it I may as well say that neither for love nor
money could any implement get itself advertised in this book.
We are using every tool named, and tell you just what we
know they are.

Breed's weeder will be of little use to you on hard, heavy,
stony, or rough land. Don't buy it for such conditions. On
a light, clean, mellow soil it will do at a rapid rate just about
the same work you do with a steel garden-rake in the garden-
beds. A first-class farmer will be delighted with what he
can do with it, under such circumstances. It will not root

106

POTATO CULTURE.

up weeds that have got well started, but should always be
used on entirely clean soil, to stir the surface to prevent
weeds from ever seeing daylight. All other tillage-imple-
ments should b3 used in the same way. You want to
remember that the weeder and harrow get over a good deal
of ground in a day — 12 to 20 acres in 10 hours, so one may
go over it several times during a season, and still the cost
will be much less than the work could be done for by hand.

PLANET JR. CULTIVATOR WITH 12 TEETH.

Price $7.00. For sale by A. I. Root, Medina, O.
The handles on the weeder enable one to bear down or lift
up, according to the condition of soil. When there was much
bearing down to do I have sometimes tied on a weight ot
some 30 pounds. I have given you a picture of the Iron Age
14 toothed harrow and cultivator simply because I have used
it one season. I have lately learned that the Planet Jr.
people have made a 12-toothed harrow and cultivator, which

POTATO CULTURE. 107

is quite similar, and probably just as good. I shall try one,
any way, this year, as we need another ; and Planet Jr. tools
have always kept at the head, we have found ; and another
thing I notice in their 1893 catalogue is, that they have got-
ten up some "depth regulators" to goon the rear teeth,
to keep them from going down too far. I shall try them,
certainly. They will be as valuable as the wheel, which
regulates the depth in front, if they work as well. Only a
year ago a certain manufacturer of cultivators wrote me,
saying they would be glad of any suggestions that would
help them to improve their tools. My answer was, to get up
something, a wheel or slide, to use in the rear to prevent
the teeth from going too deep, as the wheel did in front.
Their reply was almost insulting. Perhaps if the Planet
regulator works well they may wake up to the fact that the
writer was not as silly as they thought.

This subject of cultivation is a very important one. There
are ever so many points which, if followed out fully, would
each make a chapter as long as this. This chapter is hardly
more than suggestive to start you to thinking and studying
in these different lines. I am afraid friend Root will be
wanting some points explained more ; but there is not room
to much more than make statements of facts, as already we
have given 50 per cent more space to this subject than was
occupied in the old edition.

108 POTATO CULTURE.

CHAPTER XIII.

Bugs and Blight.

Where the Colorado beetles and their larvae are trouble-
some, most growers spray the vines with a mixture of Paris
green or London purple and water. Some few use the poison
dry, mixed with land plaster. There are machines of all
kinds for applying the solution, from a knapsack sprayer, to
be carried and operated by a man, to a cart drawn by a
horse, which sprinkles several rows at once. Either of these
plans ends the beetles and larvae. We bought a machine,
and began using Paris green and water— one of the very
first made for this purpose. Before that we had sprinkled
the potatoes with a garden-sprinkler, or a hand-broom and a
pail of poisoned water. Now, so far as I am concerned I
should prefer to drop this matter right here. The way we
have actually done for the last dozen years or more is not
according to the fancy or practice of many growers. But I
might as well tell the truth, perhaps. I disliked to have
poison around all summer, particularly when the children
were young. Our land is right around the house, our home,
and I did not feel quite easy about having the wind blowing
over a dozen acres of poisoned tops and then right through
our grounds. I felt as though if too much Paris green would
kill potatoes, a little would injure them. (A careless man
killed two acres dead one forenoon.) I asked Prof. Lazenby,
of the University, what he thought about this, and he said
he thought I was surely right. Again, I must put on poison
myself, or be right with the man doing it. I could not afford
to run any risk of carelessness. Also, if a rain came just
after I had worked hard to spray a field, I might go and do
it over.

All these things together led me to experiment a little

POTATO CULTURE. 109

with hand-picking, and we found that, by going at it sys-
tematically and on time, we could actually prevent all dam-
age from these pests at less expense than we were at when
using poison. Exact figures were kept, so I knew this.
Then I was released, for cheap hands could pick bugs, and
no injury was done to vines. The larvse did not have to eat
the vines to get the poison and die. Let me give you an ex-
ample or two of how I have been " sat down on" in regard
to this point. At the " round-up " institute, in Wisconsin,
on " Potato day " I was called for my experience. I touched
this matter very lightly, and spoke of the injury that I
thought was done to vines from using poison. Mr. Smith
had just been telling of his big crop of some 1700 bushels on
4 acres. Instantly one sharp friend called out. : " Smith, did
you use poison on that big crop of yours ? "

" Yes, sir."

"All right ; that is all I want to know. That was a good
enough crop for me, injury or no injury."

Friend Carman, in his book, " The New Potato Culture,"
says : " When writers advise us to gather the beetles by
hand, we want to tell them that, if they would practice this
advice for one season, they would not care to offer it again."
That is a little hard on me, isn't it V But I think we have
tried it 15 seasons, and two years on 24 acres, two on 18, and
the rest on about 12. The trouble with Mr. Carman was,
that he tried it in a small way, I presume, and perhaps in a
locality where there were many small patches within flying
distance. I tried it on a farm, away from any village. I
would never undertake to pick beetles off on a little gar-
den-patch, particularly in town.

Mr. Carman prefers using poison mixed with plaster,
rather than in water. Briefly, he says the poisoned water,
for the most part, does not settle or dry upon the edges of
the leaves ; but the poison collects, as the water evaporates,
near the center, or mid-veins, or depressions, so that the
beetles may eat up the best part of the leaf ere they encoun-

110 POTATO CUJLTUKE.

ter the poison, and so the leaves are for the most part
destroyed. I agree fully with this ; but hand-picking pre-
vents the eating of the edges of the leaves. Again, he says :
" Stir the water as we may, the upper portions will always
hold less than the lower portions, where the insoluble heavy
powder collects in larger quantity in spite of constant stir-
ring. The leaves of the potatoes are harmed by this." This
I believe, and always have. But did you ever hear the
caution, when applying the poison dry, " Keep to the wind-
ward; don't breathe the dust"? Did I want my (at that
time) little children playing to the leeward of 12 acres of tops
white with poison and plaster V

PAN FOR HOLDING LARVAE.

Our plan has been to pick the beetles just as soon as the
plants break ground, and keep at it persistently for a time,
thus preventing the laying of many eggs. In this way we
have had but little trouble with the larvae. We have picked
the beetles in quart glass fruit-cans. They can not crawl
out of these handily. For gathering any larvae that may
hatch, we use a pan with a handle attached, as shown in
picture, so we do not need to stoop. The pan is carried in

POTATO CULTURE. Ill

the left hand, and a long paddle, made of a light barrel-stave
(which is just the right length), is used in the right hand to
gather the larvae in from a row on each side. We have a tin
pail, holding six gallons or more, with a tight cover, at the
end of the field. Into this we empty beetles or larvae. A
dose of boiling water at night fits them for the fertilizer-pile.
I should say that beetles and larvae are not nearly as numer-
ous as they were ten years ago— probably not one-fifth as
many. Our neighbors pick beetles too ; and this destroying
the foes and leaving the friends may have helped us some.
When poison is used, the foes of the beetles may be destroy-
ed too.

At first we hired children, partly, to pick the beetles.
Late years it has been done by a man from town, who is not
able to do heavy work, and doesn't need to, and still who
enjoys getting out in the field and pure air. He has taken
the job for his board, and it was not a heavy one. Again,
we must keep just so much help anyway; and machinery
enables us to care for the crop so rapidly that there is time
that could be devoted to this purpose, if needed, that would
cost us little.

Strong-growing varieties, fertile soil, potatoes always on
fresh land (rotation)— all these things help. Bugs eat the
weak little plants worst. You have seen it. Nature is down
on the underling ; " survival of the fittest ;" " unto him that
hath shall be given." Do you say those cattle are not doing
well because they are lousy ? You are twisted. They are
lousy because they are not doing well. Care for them bet-
ter. Care for your potatoes better. Some authority has
recently declared that yellows in peach-trees was caused by
lack of fertility. Bugs would do precious little harm here to
an acre of potatoes fed so they would grow into a solid mass
of vines in six or seven weeks after coming up, even if not
one was picked off.

We observe the habits of the beetles. They fly only on a
warm day, and come from where they were the year before

112 POTATO CULTURE.

to the new field. We watch the outside on such days. They
always alight near the edge. Three or four times a day we
run over the outside rows.

The Blight.

We have not had very much trouble in this line. But we
raise early potatoes as a rule. Once, many years ago, we
practically lost our late crop in this way, while early ones
yielded some 240 bushels per acre the same year. Within
the last few years it has been found by our experiment sta-
tions that spraying with what is called the Bordeaux mixture
will prevent injury from blight, more or less. Prof. Goff
says this blight is not the same disease that causes rot at all.
I am inclined to think this blight has been present more or
less for many years, but is on the increase lately in potato-
sections. It is simply a blight, or rust, that attacks the foli-
age and causes it to die before its time. Unless one noticed
carefully, he would think the potatoes had ripened, perhaps.
Our early potatoes may die in 75 to 100 days from the time of
planting. When they grow the full time the crop is much
increased ; 10 or 20 days cut off at the last end diminishes
the yield decidedly. We do not, however, have weather
suitable for this trouble to thrive in until near the end of the
season, for early-planted early potatoes. From what we
know now, if I grew late potatoes I would spray them every
time. It is a question whether it will pay on our early ones.
I asked Prof. Green, of our station, last year, what he
thought about it, and he doubted whether it would pay me
to spray. And still I am inclined to try it this year. If I
can keep my potatoes green a week longer, I believe it will
pay. Prof . Goff gave us the figures at the "potato insti-
tute," on the cost. He thought $5.00 an acre would cover it,
about half for material and half for labor. Spray three or
four times, beginning when plants are about six inches high,
and spraying once in two weeks, or of tener if it rains very
hard. Prof. Goff says the Bordeaux mixture of itself will

POTATO CULTURE. 113

help about keeping bugs off, and you know Paris green can
be put in at the same time, if you wish. It seems to me that
the coating of leaves with the mixture would be injurious to
the vines, somewhat ; but perhaps it is better than to risk
their dying from disease.

Did you ever hear how the value of this mixture was dis-
covered ? It was not studied out, but hit on by accident, as
is often the case. Of course, the mixture is named after the
city of Bordeaux, in France, where it was discovered. As I
remember, some one was troubled by schoolchildren eating
his grapes as they passed along. So he got some whitewash
(lime) and put in some sulphate of copper and sprinkled on
his vines to protect them from the children. But he had
done far more than he had arranged for. It turned out that
the grapes on the sprayed vines failed to rot, as they did
elsewhere, and experiments soon showed that an important
discovery had been made.

I have thought it best not to give the formula for the
Bordeaux mixture. This will not reach readers in time for
use this season, probably. By another year some change
may be made. You can learn how to prepare it, from latest
experiment-station reports and the papers.

Since writing the above I noticed in the papers that our
Experiment Station had arranged for an exhibition of spray-
ing-machines on their grounds, and went there to see them
work, and learn what I could. I went with an impression —
that I had better spray my potatoes this season. I now in-
tend to do so. I have figured on the cost pretty carefully,
and it will not take many bushels per acre to cover it. It is
mainly the cost of material, as we can manage to do the
work at odd spells ; and they make the mixture so much
weaker now that the cost is not large, and the sprayers can
be managed so as to waste very little— spray the plants only.
My pencil tells me to get a knapsack-sprayer, and I think I
shall. They cost only one-fourth or one-third as much as
the carts. Of course, one can not get over the field nearly

114 POTATO CULTURE.

as fast ; but there is more than this to think of. On a large
farm, with 100 acres of potatoes, and head-lands to turn on,
I would get a cart, as well, perhaps, as a sulky cultivator.
In our little fields the damage from the horse and cart turn-
ing right on the vines at each end while spraying the field,
and some four times during the season, from the time the
tops are six inches high until they are full grown, would
more than pay all the cost of getting the mixture put on by
hand. This is the way I figure : In my lots the turning on
vines would decrease the yield on six square rods, at ends,
about one-half. That is, we should lose about three rods
per acre. A man can spray four acres a day with a knap-
sack. I did it years ago, and others tell me they have lately,
and that it is not very hard work to run it. I tried the
machines at Wooster myself. This would cost me, at $1.50
a day for labor, and spraying four times, $1.50 an acre for
hand-spraying. Now, I had rather take the three rods of
potatoes and pay the $1.50. My potatoes generally bring
more than 50 cents a square rod. And then the looks ! I
shouldn't want Mr. Boot to come along and see the vines all
trodden down at the ends, and half spoiled. I don't want
to see it myself, and don't think I shall.

Prof. Green very kindly told me all about the spraying
business. We must begin spraying while the potatoes are
small. It will not do to wait till the disease appears. There
are more or less germs in the air at all times. These lodge
on the leaves, and get a foothold. When they once do this
you can not do any good spraying. The spraying is to coat
the leaves with a mixture that will prevent the germs from
taking root. Hence you must begin when the plants are
about six inches high, and then in ten or fifteen days spray
again, to coat any new leaves that have grown out, and so
on until growth practically ceases. I do not know what
make of knapsack I had better get. There is probably not
much difference. I \\fant one large enough to carry mixture
enough to go down and back on my sixty-rod rows. Strange

POTATO CULTURE. 115

as it may seem, I could not find out from the many present
at Wooster how many gallons were needed for an acre.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Use of Bushel Boxes.

At last we have the crop grown. We have carried it
through bugs and blight, scab and drouth. We have done
our best from beginning to end, and now we must arrange
for securing and handling our crop. The next four chapters
will be devoted to this part of the business. When we first
began growing potatoes they were handled in the old way,
of course. When picking up we would carry them together
into heaps, in bushel baskets ; or we would drive along with
a wagon and empty the baskets into the wagon as we picked
them up. The potatoes had to be picked up by hand from
the heaps ; from the wagon we could shovel them up. As
we went into potato-growing more largely we found this
part of the business was behind. It cost us too much to
handle the crop, and there was too much lifting, and the
potatoes suffered from so much handling too. Well, the
result was the making of a lot of bushel boxes. For several
years we used these for marketing early potatoes in the city,
as long as the skins slipped at all, and it saved us much work
and made us some money.

First take a look at the box. The first ones made were 13
inches by 16 by 13, all inside measurements. The sides and
bottoms were made of f stuff and ends of |. Hand-holes
were cut in the ends, as shown in the picture. The upper
corners were bound with galvanized hoop iron, to make
them strong. Getting only a few, so, the price I paid at a
box-factory was $25 to $30 a hundred. The publisher of this
book, my friend A. I. Root, saw, some eight years ago, that
they were a good thing, and went to making them on a large

116

POTATO CULTUKE.

scale, and has sold many thousands at very low prices ; and
his boxes are very light and nice. One of my neighbors
thought one man could make boxes as cheap and good as
another, and had some made here in town, where, of course,

OUR BUSHEL BOX.

they did not make a business of doing such work. Another
sent to Mr. Boot, as I advised, and got his boxes much
cheaper, after] paying freight, and they are ever so much
lighter and neater. Take my advice : You had far better
send to Mr. U. for boxes in the flat than to try to make them
yourself, or get them made where the manufacturer has not
had large experience, and hasn't the knowledge of just what
is wanted. If you don't take my advice, after you have
lifted three or four pounds of unnecessary weight a few
thousand times you may come across some of Mr. Ttoot's
boxes, and see where you have missed it.

Now, when digging for early market my men just laid the
tubers in these boxes as they would eggs (no throwing in) ;
and as fast as one was filled a cover was put on. These
covers are simply pieces of inch-thick board, cut about 15 by
18 inches. Potatoes that were dug one day I took to market
the next morning, on a spring wagon, of course, with a can-
vas cover over them to protect from the sun as well as rain.
They were set off at the grocer's, and then put by him into
his delivery-wagon and taken to his customers. They thus
reached the consumer just about as nice and fresh as
though he dug them out of his own garden. This was quite
a new departure, and boomed our business greatly for a

POTATO CULTUBE. 117

time. The boxes were left at the grocery, and empty ones
taken back ; and with best customers they were left in the
consumer's cellar until he wanted another bushel. I remem-
ber once leaving 30 boxes at a grocer's while I went on with
the rest of my load to another place. When I came back he
had delivered every bushel to his customers, who had orders
in for them. They were dug in the afternoon, immediately
covered, and by 11 o'clock the next day they were in the con-
sumer's cellar, 12 miles away, without any handling or bruis-
ing, and I will warrant they gave satisfaction. There is
plenty of demand for nice things at paying prices, while
ordinary goods are dull at low prices. The sized box spoken
of is right to set in an ordinary three-foot-wide wagon-box,
as two boxes endwise just fill across the wagon-box. (Mr.
Koot, I notice, now makes them a little shorter, which is
handier. ) The box on my spring wagon is a little over 12
feet long, so 20 boxes can be set in the bottom, and two deep
make 40, our usual load for two horses. But they can be
set three or four deep, if desired. The boxes hold a bushel
level full, so they can be set one on top of the othei% Do
not round them up, or you will cheat yourself. They hold a
full bushel when a straight-edge drawn across the top just
touches the potatoes.

With plenty of these boxes rny men dug right along while
I was gone to market, and 1-5 minutes was time enough to
load my wagon in after I got back. There is some dead
weight to carry, but it pays twice over. The potatoes are in
the nicest possible shape, and your customers will soon find
it out, and there is no chance for quibbling about measure.
There is just a bushel in a box every time, while baskets
vary in size, and can easily be heaped too much or too little,
thus giving a chance for unpleasant words between buyer
and seller.

Later in the season, after the potatoes are ripe, and there
is no longer any need of handling them so carefully, I drive
through the field, and two men will empty 50 or 60 boxes

118 POTATO CULTURE.

into my wagon in a very few minutes, and the boxes are left
ready to be filled again. This, for drawing to market. If
drawing to cellar or barn or pile, for storage, we would set
the boxes right into the wagon, and, after emptying them,
put them back in and return to the field and scatter them
along as we drive down toward the back end ; then turn
around, and two men will put filled boxes in as fast as I can
possibly set them up, and in a very few minutes another load
is on. We have handled a good many thousand bushels in
this way. For field work I consider boxes far better than
sacks, although some use the latter. They will wear out
fast. Our boxes have been used some 15 years, and are not
used up yet. But when it comes to loading a car from
cellar or barn, I prefer sacks. We shovel a bushel, as nearly
as we can (where a load is to be weighed), into a two -bushel
sack, give the top a twist, and toss them into the wagon.
It would surprise you, perhaps, to see how quickly two men
will toss 100 bushels into our wagons, while I load them, in
our barn, and how quickly I put them into the car while
they empty them. One man at home can fill sacks for two
more loads while we are gone. This is the best way I have
found to load potatoes on to a car. I have drawn them
from the field to the cars in boxes, but it is almost too much
dead weight, and boxes are in the way at the car after they
are emptied. Perhaps I may as well say right here, before 1
forget it, that you want nice wooden shovels for handling
the crop, if they are put into the wagon in bulk, or for tak-
ing them out of the cellar.

You will find these boxes equally nice for handling apples,
and for several other purposes. They are just the thing
when we are planting, too, to handle the seed and cut pota-
toes in.

Now we have the handling improved on, we want wagons
for drawing the potatoes to market, handling the boxes, etc.,
to match. We will take up this subject next.

POTATO CULTURE. 119

CHAPTER XV.

Suitable Wagons for Handling ; Potatoes are
Bulky, etc.

One can not handily put a large load, or what a good team
can readily draw on hard roads, or an ordinary farm wagon.
You will find few wagons in this town that will hold 40
bushels, with the top box on. You will find hardly a single
one that would take on 50 or 75 bushel boxes, unless the hay-
rack were used. Now, when the roads are good our horses
can draw 50 to 75 bushels of potatoes to the depot as well as
not, and it seemed to us a simple matter of business to
arrange at once so we could put on a big load handily. Po-
tatoes are hard to handle, and, of course, we wanted our
wagons so fixed that we wouldn't have to lift them very high
to put them in. We studied up for ourselves something of
this kind some twenty years ago. We have had them in
almost constant use all these years. They suit us perfectly,
and we should be lost without them.

Our wagons are ordinary ones. Our device for carrying a
large load is simply a light, neat, portable, flaring top box.
It is no higher to lift over than a common top box. It can
be taken off or put on in one minute, and it will hold a big
load. We have two wagons. On one we have drawn 66
bushels of potatoes in bulk, although 60 fills it pretty well.
The other wagon holds 20 per cent more. We find them just
the thing for drawing any bulky articles. For sawdust,
bran, ears of corn, stove wood, etc., they are complete.

Fig. 1 shows one side-board, 18 inches wide, for a ten foot
wagon-box. Fig. 2 shows one of the three sets of irons that
are on the side-board. The inside iron is one inch by one-
half inch. The outside iron is one inch by one-fourth inch,

120

POTATO CULTURE.

and the brace is a round rod one-half inch in diameter. This
is amply strong enough to hold all the wood one can pile on,
a big load of hay, or all the potatoes that can be headed on.

7

FIG. 1.— HOW TO MAKE THE TOP BOX.

These irons are bolted to the side-board, and simply slip on
to the side of the wagon-box, one on each side. If the top box
is to be used very much, it is best to put some thin plates of

\ /

FIG. 2. FIG. 3.

THE END-BOARD OF THE TOP BOX.

band iron on the wagon-box, to prevent the side-board irons
from wearing into it, and to prevent splitting. For a 12-foot
box I use four sets of irons on a side. Never fear but that
they will hold all you can pile on. I drew from sixty to
seventy bushels at a load six days in a week one fall. Fig.
3 shows the back end-board, which has two wooden cleats on

FIG. 4.— ADVANTAGE OF A FLARING-TOP BOX OVER ONE
WITH STRAIGHT SIDES.

it to prevent splitting, and wrhich fits in between two wooden
cleats on the inside of each side-board, and is held in place
by hooks which hook into eyes on the side-boards.

POTATO CULTUEE. 121

In Fig. 4 the plain lines show a cross-section of box, top
box, braces, and top of load. The lower dotted show, at a
glance, how much less a common top box of the same height
would hold, while the upper dotted lines show how very high
the common top box would have to be in order to hold as
much. Still, the dotted lines show the kinds mostly in use,
arid the high one, or double top-box, will cost more than my
kind, and is much harder to load into. The brake-handle
comes up through a hole in the side-board near the front,
and two pieces of boards are nailed together to set around
it, so as to keep potatoes from interfering with its move-
ment—a simple little device that any one can study up with-
out a cut.

It is stating the case very mildly to say that these top
boxes have been worth hundreds of dollars to me during the
twenty years they have been in use on my farm, for drawing
potatoes and other bulky articles ; that is, that I am that
much better oif than I otherwise would have been.

I do not want any one to overwork his horses. I assure
you we do not. But it worries me greatly to see a farmer,
who is in debt and sadly in need of larger profits, go to town
with 50 per cent less load than he might just as well draw,
simply because he does not study to do his best. I have no
top boxes for sale. There is no patent on them. Any
wagonmaker can get up a set from these pictures and the
description. When the roads are bad we sometimes use
three horses abreast to draw these big loads. I have moved
my entire crop, alone, in this way, either to the depot (2|
miles) or to Akron (12 miles), without paying out any thing
for help. I got along almost as fast as if two teams and
wagons had been used, and saved the wages of a driver.
Yes, friends, I have done all these things myself, and many
more that won't get into this little pamphlet. I am not
talking to you about something that I know of only at arm's
length. Week after week and month after month have I
rode on these wagons and driven these three horses abreast.

122 POTATO CULTURE.

Perhaps as much has been made by the three-horse business
as from the big wagons. Suppose two horses will draw 3000
pounds of load. The wagon weighs, say, 1000 more. Each
horse then draws 2000 all together. Now, if you put on a
third horse, and the wagon is strong enough to carry it, this
horse will draw 2000 pounds more, and that is all load — no
more dead weight. See V In other words, two horses draw
3000 pounds of load and three horses draw 5000 pounds. If
you can earn $3.00 a day with the two-horse team, you can
make $5.00 with the three-horse team. This have I done
week after week, alone, with my own hands. Thus have we
worked up. In 1883, when we had the greatest crop of
potatoes ever grown by us, nearly 7000 bushels, we actually
received a thousand dollars more for them by drawing them
to Akron, direct to retail dealers, than we could sell them
for on track at our station to large dealers. We sold some
to try it. A thousand dollars more than regular carload
rates is a pretty nice sum ; but without businesslike arrange-
ments for moving them we never could have got them there.
Friends, do you remember I am writing about a little
fifty-acre farmer, who has only 35 acres of land he can plow,
and part of that not very good V Our cash sales that year
reached nearly $3000 ; but that was our very best year.

Now, friend Eliott's three-horse whiffletrees that are
shown in another chapter are just the thing for using three
horses on a harrow, as told of. They can be used on an
ordinary two-horse pole, he says. I have not tried them in
that way, as I have a " direct-draft " three-horse pole, of my
own make, which is far better. Like the side-boards it seems
perfect. I have driven it through the most crowded streets
of Akron and Cleveland. It is business to use it for draw-
ing large loads long distances, or short distances when the
roads are bad. We simply take off the common single pole
and put on our double one, which is made to fit right in the
place of it. The double pole is an extra-heavy pair of thills.
One horse goes in the middle and one each side. You can

POTATO CULTURE. 123

use the three-horse whiffletrees on top of the thills, and then
you have a perfect direct draft. The two poles are each
ironed at the end, the same as a single one, and we use two
three-foot neckyokes, the middle horse taking one end of
each. Put your best horse to back in the middle, and you
will have no trouble in handling a large load. The brake, of
course, holds back going down hill. Each pole is about the
size of a heavy carriage-pole. Three horses hitched this way
will draw as much as four when two are ahead of the other
two, and are far easier handled. I have never bought any
regular three-horse reins, but use two-horse ones by putting
on, temporarily, two extra check-reins made of hitching-
straps.

Now, for drawing potatoes to market before they are ripe
one must have a spring wagon. It is always better to have
one. The potatoes are bruised less, and look nicer. I could
not have carried the Akron market by storm, as I once did,
without springs. No, sir. Your produce must not only be
nice, but look nice. My great wagon was not only painted
and striped in those days, but it was varnished ! A huge
load was put on, standing up high in the middle, so every
one could see the nice tubers. Without springs they would
have jolted down flat, and looked mussed and wretched.
There was a high spring seat for me to ride on, with a large
umbrella attached, to keep off sun and rain. A clean heavy
canvas cover was over the potatoes. Just before we en-
tered the city this was often laid forward so as to show
the load. It made people look. It advertised me and my
product. How could any dealer stand back when there was
a crowd around my wagon looking at the free show V It
advertised his business, don't you see, to have a load that
had attracted attention all through the city seen standing,
and being unloaded, at his door.

But we had many ways for our money in those days, as we
were but just getting on our feet, financially, and we used
bolster springs of different styles under the boxes of our

124 POTATO CULTURE.

ordinary wagons because they cost but little. They were not
very satisfactory. I would now get a good platform-spring
wagon for marketing. In just drawing to the depot, now,
for shipping, we do not use springs.

Wife says I must explain about how we came to have so
many potatoes in 1883. She is afraid some reader will think
that too big a yield, knowing that our custom has been to
grow potatoes on only a third of our 35 acres of plow land.
Well, in the spring of 1883 we decided to build a new house,
and that, of course, meant other expenses increased. We
were anxious to furnish it as soon as possible, and we had
barely enough to pay for the house alone. We have made it
a rule to live within our income and pay as we go, as far as
possible. So we decided to push a little extra and plant
some 18 acres of potatoes. Then a severe freeze cut all
wheat in this section down to the ground, and we feared it
was killed. For fear of this we plowed up half our wheat in
the spring and planted potatoes ; so we had twice as much
land occupied as usual, or about 24 acres. The season was
wonderfully favorable, and the average yield was nearly 300
bushels per acre. On our best iand it reached 400, by actual
measure, before witnesses. I am tempted to tell you that
some people thought us a little queer when we hired all work
done connected with the building, even the drawing of the
lumber down from the depot. Well, we tended to our busi-
ness and reaped a large reward. We might have fussed
around and saved $200, perhaps, on the cost of the house,
and lost $1000 in the potato-field. After paying all running
and living expenses that year, we found ourselves ahead
about $1700 in clear cash. The house was well furnished in
the fall, and every thing was paid for, cash down.

POTATO CULTUBE. 125

CHAPTER XVI.

Digging; When shall we Dig?

If you are selling in market, dig as soon as the potatoes
are large enough so they satisfy buyers— that is, if the price
suits you ; and generally you will not be able to do better by
waiting. I have often heard farmers say they dug a piece
early and sold them. If they had left them until ripe there
would have been a much larger yield. They also hesitate
about selling early potatoes at a good price, because they
would grow so much more if left that it would more than
make up for any decline in prices. Usually this is a mistake.
My potatoes have turned out the most bushels when dug
just before they are fully ripe. They are plump and heavy ;
and as they ripen they do shrink some. I believe that the
heaviest shrinkage in weight of potatoes takes place within
a month, about ripening time, and it doesn't make very
much difference whether they are in the soil, pile, or cellar.
Shrink they will ; and after that time, if properly stored at
a low temperature, the shrinkage is not so very great. One
year we were obliged to pile a good many potatoes, as the
teams could not market them as fast as dug. Some piles
were dug before much shrinkage had taken place, and it was
a surprise to me how much they fell short when we came to
handle them a few weeks after. We sold one big carload—
657 bushels— when we began digging, just when the tubers
were the plumpest and heaviest, by weight, at 37 cents, and
the piles later in the season at 40 cents ; but the 37-cent ones
paid us the better.

I remember once drawing some very fine plump potatoes
to Akron just when they were at their best. The skins
slipped a little, but I had them on springs and in boxes.

126 POTATO CULTURE.

The grocer who bought them put two or three loads into
the cellar to keep. He was greatly surprised to see how
much they had shrunken when he used them, months later.
When we were drawing to market we always sold all we
could when they were about in the above condition. They
looked their best, and were fine to eat ; but I always told
people that, it' they bought to store, they must expect heavy
shrinkage.

But now suppose you do not want to sell by the load in
early market. You want to store the potatoes, or load on
cars in bulk and ship. In this case, we in this latitude
always dig as soon as the potatoes are entirely ripe. This is
when the vines are all dead and the tubers separate readily
from the roots. We do this, even if it is in August ; and if
we do not want to ship we store them until we do. There is
nothing gained by leaving them in the earth any longer, and
there may be loss. I don't know about the scab increasing
after the potato is ripe, but I do know that wire worms,
white grubs, etc., continue to put in their work ; and if they
are numerous they may almost ruin an early crop left in the
ground until fall. Again, after the vines die down, the sun
may find its way into cracks, and the light injure the tubers
some. They are certainly safer and better off in a cool cel-
lar, protected entirely from light, than in the hot earth dur-
ing August and September. You can keep them all right if
properly stored. Of this we will write in the next chapter.
There may be this single exception : If the potatoes are rot-
ting it is generally considered better to leave them in the
ground until the trouble is over. If you dig and pile them
while rotting badly, you will get diseased tubers in with
the sound, or the disease in the sound ones will be hastened
on by the piling, and you may have no end of trouble in
picking them over, and perhaps lose about all. A friend at
Cazenovia, N. Y., wrote me last summer that he had dug
some, and they were rotting right down ; and, having had
no experience, he was at a loss what to do. I wrote him at

POTATO CULTURE. 127

once to let them be in the ground. Later he told me that he
did just as I told him, and was largely the gainer. We have
not had much experience with rot. One year we lost per-
haps 1000 bushels in this way, in August. As soon as it
came I stopped digging and selling, as it was almost impos-
sible to tell sound from unsound tubers. About the first of
September the diseased ones were all soft, and the trouble
seemed to have stopped spreading, and we went on digging,
selling, and storing. I took all risk on those sold, when they
followed my directions, and no trouble ever came of it.
This was the genuine rot, as bad on dry upland as anywhere ;
but our crop was so large that year that we hardly felt the
loss. It was the great large choice tubers that rotted,
though. Whenever the season is such that our richest land
produces 300 bushels per acre, or more, we are apt to find
traces of rot. With a big crop, on overrich soil, I should
want to dig as early as possible, and sell for immediate eat-
ing. A young man wrote me the other day about a very
rich, heavily manured piece of land, asking what variety he
had better put on. He said old men all told him his crop
would rot down. I told him his best chance was in planting
Early Ohio, early, and digging them the moment they would
go to market, and rushing them right off. He might thus
get ahead of rot, his neighbors be taught that, where there
is a will there is a way, and he might make a good deal of
money.

Where potatoes are followed by wheat, as in our rotation,
we need to dig as soon as they are ripe, to get them out of
the way ; but there are advantages all the same. Besides
those spoken of, we have better weather and longer days
than late in the fall. I might say a word more in regard to
shrinkage. When we dig as soon as the skins stop slipping,
there will be about 10 per cent shrinkage between then and
the following spring. Of course, this will vary with season
and variety. In a wet season, with a large growth, they will
shrink more than in a dry year with a small growth. But

128 POTATO CULTURE.

now if we dig as soon as ripe, and store temporarily until
October, and then sort over and measure or weigh out a
hundred bushels, there will be no practical loss in shrinkage
on them until they begin to sprout in the spring. This in
our cellar, which is kept cold, or in the pile in the field where
seed are kept.

How shall we Dig?

This depends on how many you have to dig, and the con-
ditions. There are a great many cheap diggers on the mar-
ket, sold all along from $10 to $50 or more. They do a sort
of half-way work. With conditions right, some do fairly
well. The great trouble is, as a rule, they do not take the
potatoes all out clean, and leave them on top ready to pick
up. You can pick up what you can find, plow around in the
soil with your fingers not a little, and then, when you get
through, harrow the field and pick up some more ; and then
if vou should plow it you would get another crop. This is a
little hard on this class of diggers, but it is about the truth.
However, circumstances make some difference. With a
clean field and high hills, which we don't want, many of
these cheap diggers would do pretty well, particularly if the
soil were mellow ; but not one will do perfect work, so far as
I have seen— that is, take every single tuber out and lay it on
the surface handy to pick up, and clear from soil. Few men
have tried as many diggers as the writer. Day after day
have I bothered over them, often with the manufacturer
here in person, and that when I had a good digger in the
field ; but I have been anxious to find a good cheap digger
that I could recommend to small growers. I am through
trying. If a small grower myself, I would dig by hand with
the four-tined fork. An expert can dig half an acre in ten
hours, where the crop is kept clean and the soil is mellow.
I give you a picture of such a fork in the hands of a young
man who once worked for me some five years. He dug my
crop in 1883, at a cost to me of just about one cent a bushel

POTATO CULTUBE.

129

(just the digging, not picking up). One week he dug from
180 to 190 bushels per day, for the six days. His best day's
work in nine hours (he had to stop before night to cover up
piles with straw, as I was absent), taking rows right through

THE BOSS UNTATENTED POTATO-DIGGER.

the iield as they came, w.as 223 bushels. It took two good
men to pick up after him and pile the potatoes, as we did
then. Of course, the ground was clean and mellow, and the

130 , POTATO CULTURE.

yield large, nearly 400 bushels per acre, where he did his
best day's work ; and the man was a real expert. He dug
nearly all of my 24 acres alone, getting done by the middle
of October, besides helping some at other work. I know just
how hard it will be for some farmers to believe this ; but it
can easily be proven, and isn't exaggerated in the least. I
have seldom had a young man who, after a year or two of
practice and showing,, could not do pretty nearly as well. I
saw last fall not a few fields where weeds were mowed off (a
regular weed sod), and raked into windrows, and dried and
burned, or drawn off before digging. Under such conditions
my boss digger might have thrown out 50 bushels a day, as
he was very quick and strong ; but I doubt it. I have seen
less than 25 dug by an ordinary man — not on my farm.

I wonder whether I can tell you how to use the fork so as
to help you any. Set it into the ground just back far enough
to never " stick "any tubers, and just deep enough not to
miss any, and then, with a quick curved and backward flirt,
scatter the earth and leave all tubers in sight. The ground
should be mellow, so this can be done without putting the
foot on the fork. With one-eye seed, in drills, my boss dig-
ger would walk right along and nearly always throw out a
hill clean with a single motion. He had excellent judgment,
skill, and great strength. It was very seldom that he
" stuck " a tuber, and it seemed to hurt him when he did,
and he wouldn't leave a bushel in the ground on ten acres.
I consider the fork as far ahead of the hook or any other
implement, for hand-digging, and with good help I would
to-day take it in preference to any cheap digger I have used.

A Successful Digger.

Eight years ago I wrote that we should soon have a suc-
cessful digger — it was only a matter of time. Soon after the
first edition of this work was issued, one was brought out
that, although not perfect, was good enough, so we used it
to advantage. Soon another was introduced, made on the

POTATO CULTURE.

131

132 POTATO CULTURE.

same general principle, and I feel entirely justified in saying,
after several years' actual use, that it is the most perfect
digger on earth to-day. This is the Hoover. You see from
the picture that it is somewhat complicated and costly, and
it takes power to draw it. These are the objections. They
are nothing to me, but important to many. I can use it,
and never break down, because I see to it that every thing
is right, and tight and well oiled. I understand every part
thoroughly; can detect the first click, if any thing goes
wrong. The cost is nothing to one growing as many pota-
toes as I do. The interest and wear are very little by the
side of money saved by doing the digging all myself, and
having nothing to pay out, and being able to hurry up the
work. Two strong horses might draw this digger on light
soil ; in fact,* I have thus drawn it ; but to go right along on
heavier soil, or when dry, and to let it down so as to get
under all tubers and not cut any, one wants three or four
horses. I use four— one team ahead of the other, so we can
take oft' the front team and use them on the wagon to draw
in a load and bring out more boxes from time to time, leav-
ing the other team with the digger.

Now, just what will this digger do V On my land, except
on two or three little hillsides, it will go right along, unless
it is too wet, and take every potato out of the earth, shake all
earth off and leave the tubers in a nice narrow row on top,
where they can be picked up faster than after the best hand-
digging. You see, soil, potatoes, vines, stones, and every
thing go up over the machine, as the shovel runs under the
row, and an endless chain runs up over and around the
grate. The earth works out, and the potatoes are left abso-
lutely on top. There is an arrangement for turning weeds
and vines to one side, in the rear ; but I know nothing about
this. I took it off as soon as the machine got here. We
don't raise weeds, neither on paper nor in practice. The
vines are dead before we dig, and do no harm going over
with the tubers. Now, this is for varieties we grow that do

POTATO CULTURE. 133

not spread much in the soil. The machine would not dig
the old Peachblows clean. We have dug an acre in two
hours, with long rows and conditions all just right ; bnt this
is faster than the average. The machine is all iron, and I
do not think it would answer for digging before potatoes are
entirely ripe ; but this I do not know from experience. I
have found but one variety of potatoes that were injured,
when ripe, by the digger ; these were so soft and tender and
large that it bruised them some, and we put a stick under
the grate, on the axle, so as to stop all shaking, and with
care dug them pretty well in this way, the soil being quite
fine and mellow.

On level or moderately rolling land that is clean, free from
stones, and fairly mellow, I can do a job that would do your
eyes good— well, you may almost call it a perfect job, and
still, once in a while I cut or bruise a tuber, but not nearly
as many as I should by digging with a fork. You may call
the work practically perfect. Of course, the machine has no
business in a field full of large or fixed stones. With my
stone-shields on I can go through any gravelly place, or
through sm ill stones, almost without trouble ; but I would
not advise the use of such costly machinery where all land is
of this character. We have but little gravelly soil. In such
the wear and risk would be too much. The machine is
strong, and thoroughly well made ; but if yon do get a stone
in, and bring four horses to a sudden stop, sooner or later
you will break something, as you can see. I can not advise
its use on a side hill that is at all steep, where rows run
along the hillside. It will go straight up the hill all right,
no matter how steep, and it will go down a moderately steep
hill.

Now I have told you the whole truth. With this machine,
and plenty of oil and gumption and power, and reasonable
conditions and long rows, I can make ten experts stir them-
selves to keep up with me with a fork. If the men are just
ordinary hands, not used to digging, and the soil is a little

134 POTATO CULTURE.

hard and dry, 20 of them may get discouraged before night,
if they agree to dig as much as I. This, of course, is for
very long rows, where every thing is clear, and I can go
right along steadily, and waste little time in turning. 1
made this statement at the Wisconsin Potato Institute, and
some growers thought it too strong ; but one man, who raises
100 acres, stood by me. I know what I am saying, because I
watched what men did on neighboring farms last fall— men
just picked up by the day. I could make a stronger state-
ment than the above from what we did. I never feel quite
as much as though a farmer is somebody as when on that
digger, with soil in just about the right condition. Doing
the work of 20 men ! Why should I not feel important ?
And it costs me almost nothing. I do all the digging, with
the aid of the horses, which would stand in the barn if I dug
by hand, and nearly all I save is clear gain. And then, 1 am
independent. I don't have to pay men, and beg them to
come too. It is pretty hard to get men to dig potatoes here
now, and it is as a sort of special favor to you if they come
at all.

Now, where a man has other work for his horses at the
time, the digger will not, of course, pay as well. If we were
drawing to market with two teams, as we once did, I should
not feel as big over my digger. That year, when we had
nearly 7000 bushels, and my man dug them at a cost of one
cent a bushel, and by straining every nerve we hardly got
the crop all to market before winter, with all our horses, it
would not have paid me to stop to dig with a machine. We
were not ready for it then : we are now. I want to be fair,
and give all sides. One more point about the digger : I don't
want to lead you one inch out of the way by what I say.
With the stone-shields on, the digger will of necessity clog
up with earth some after a shower, when soil is moist. If
there are no stones, take the shields off and you can go when
quite wet; but then, a gravel hill may bother by furnishing
little stones to drop into the chain. Now I believe you have

POTATO CULTUKE. 135

all the facts and the whole truth about the digger. Be sure
you read carefully, and remember all I say, and then study
out for yourself what is best for you.

CHAPTER XVII.

Storing, Sorting, and Sprouting.

As we are situated, storing over winter to sell in the spring
is not wise, no matter how high they may promise to be.
We believe in selling at the best price we can get in the fall.
I have never seen a fall when I could not sell for a living
profit. 1 have known prices to go down in the spring so a
carload in the city would barely pay the freight. I will not
take such risks. In the spring, it is now or never ; in the
fall, there is a long time before the new crop comes in, and
ruinous breakdowns in price are not as likely to occur.
Again, there is shrinkage, extra labor, interest on capital
lying idle, danger from rot, frost, fire, etc., to take into ac-
count, where potatoes are kept over. And with us a more
serious matter would be the marketing in the spring on soft
roads, and when we ought to be at work at our farming.
Do not imagine that the writer has not tried the wrong way
as well as the better one, and lost by it. Those who are near
good markets, where they can go in and retail their loads,
may be able to sell partly in the spring to advantage. We
are not all situated alike. We prefer our money to be in the
bank before freezing weather. Again, one near enough to a
station, where potatoes were bought for shipping, so he
could move them in safely in very cold weather, when there
was a scarcity in market, or who could load a refrigerator
car and go with them to market, might make holding pay.

Growers must often store temporarily in the fall before they
can market their crop. The simplest way is to put about 50
bushels in a round heap, and cover with straw deeply enough

136 POTATO CULTURE.

to exclude all light, and carefully enough to shed all water.
This can be done. We have had many piles thus covered in
years past. Lay forkfuls around the base of the pile first ;
then a layer above and lapping down over the first, and so on
up. placing a large forkful on top, and a little earth on it to
hold it.

I once sold a carload of potatoes to a shipper, and it rained
very hard when the car was about half loaded. He was
much put out, as he thought we could do no more loading
that day, and he was decidedly surprised when we opened a
pile and showed him the tubers all dry as ever. If they are
to be left in the field until there is danger of frost, throw a
slight covering of earth over the straw. In this locality it is
not safe to trust them under straw alone, much after the
first week in October. I once lost a good many the 16th of
October, where no earth had been put over the staw. Hard
freezing as early as this is, of course, an exception ; but we
must look out for it. I know a grower who dug and piled a
large quantity of potatoes, covering with straw all right and
putting a heavy coat of earth on at the same time, and they
all rotted down. Don't do this way. We have never had
any trouble by handling potatoes carefully and having them
reasonably dry when piled, and not putting earth over until
they had been dug some time, and putting no more than 50
bushels together. Of course, if there were any rot among
them we wouldn't store in this way. I think we h id one
year forty piles out in this shape. But a man who grows
potatoes largely had better arrange as soon as he can to store
under cover. It is less trouble. Let me relate a little ex-
perience that made this very clear to me :

Four hundred and fifty bushels were put in 9 piles, and 450
bushels were put into the cellar. After they were stored I
turned off my men. Soon a buyer came and bought them
all. 1 loaded them and drew them to market, and I was
exceedingly glad when I got those piles all loaded. I could
load quicker and easier from the cellar, every time. In the

POTATO CULTUKE. 137

Held they had to be all handled with the fingers : in the cel-
lar we could use a shovel. My son, then quite young, did
the shoveling, and helped me lift the basket on my shoulder ;
and as the door was eight feet high I could walk right out
without stooping. The boy liked it better in the cellar too ;
his ringers didn't get so dirty and cold, when shoveling, as
when he was picking up. If the cellar had been about five
feet and a half high, and the stairway poor, my testimony
might have been different.

By the use of boxes, and as my cellar is arranged, I can
put a carloa'l into the cellar easier than in piles, when you
take into account the covering of the piles ; and then I have
got through doing very much picking up, with cold fingers
oftentimes, out of piles outdoors, when I can shovel them up
under cover. We have a house cellar where we can put in
2000 bushels, on a pinch, and also a barn cellar that will hold
1000. But for storing large quantities temporarily we use
the basement of our barn, which was built with this object
in view. It saves bringing potatoes upstairs out of the cel-
lar. We darken the windows by covering with building-
paper, and pile the potatoes right on the earth floor from
three to four feet deep. We have often had a solid pile of
this kind about 11x60 feet. The barn cellar is on a level
with the basement floor, and just as handy. As we are sel-
dom able to sell by the car as soon as we can dig our early
potatoes, we dig and put them right into the barn as fast as
possible, and then when wanted they are ready, and mean-
while they are safe, and a buyer can see them. It is little
trouble to store them ; we can rush in a good many in a day
with digger, boxes, and about three men besides myself. If
they are sorted in the field (little ones not picked up) we can
shovel them up in the barn when we sell, as the floor is quite
smooth. This beats covering piles and outdoor picking-np
in the late fall. If we want to save little ones — why, we
pick up every thing after the machine, and then sort at our
leisure in the warm barn, either letting in a little light, if

138 POTATO CULTURE.

potatoes are for seed, or using a large lamp, it1 they are for
eating. Many are afraitl of piling up potatoes in this way
early in the season. All I cm say is, we have put in thou-
sands and thousands of bushels, and never had any trouble.
But for sprouting, I would not store any differently in the
cellar to keep over winter. To cool them off and keep them
so, it is necessary to have a temporary floor up six or eight
inches to put them on, and then board partitions a few
inches from the walls, to allow the cold air that you let in
to settle and circulate under the pile. When they are right
on the earth the natural warmth of the ground will keep the
temperature higher than a large pile of early potatoes will
stand without sprouting e:irly. For seed, or for our own
eating, I prefer to store in tight barrels and cover up, if the
quantity is not too large, and these barrels should be up
from the earth several inches, to allow of a free circulation
of cold air underneath. When stored right on the earth in
large piles, as we do in our barn, they will be wet, more or
less, on top ; but this does no harm unless there is disease in
the tubers. It is a natural process. The warmth from the
earth keeps the temperature of the pile up somewhat, and
colder night (or day) air coming in over the surface causes
the warmer air that rises from the tubers to deposit some of
its moisture on the top potatoes. It is not "sweating," as
some call it. If we open the doors and let a warm wind
blow through, the top of the pile is quickly dried. If we
open up in a very cold night (for fall) the top of the pile will
be very wet in the morning. So when we take potatoes out
of a cold cellar and market them on a warm day they will be
as wet as though taken out of water. The warm air is
chilled when it touches the cold potato, and can hold less
moisture in suspension, and simply must leave it on the
potato. These simple natural processes should be under-
stood.

All light must be excluded from the cellar, unless potatoes
are covered from it, or the eating quality will soon be ruined.

POTATO CULTURE . 139

Light will turn them green so they are unfit for food, but it
will not injure them for seed. A thermometer should al-
ways be kept in the cellar, so that you may know when to
let in cold air and when there is danger from frost. An oil-
stove is the thing to raise the temperature slightly, when it
may be necessary. I met a good many farmers this last cold
winter who lost potatoes in the cellar or pile. There is no
busiifess about such management. "Bury them, as described
in chapter 9, and they are safe. Buy a fifteen-cent ther-
mometer and a little oil-stove, and tend to the matter, and
they are safe in the cellar. I know one man, who is sadly in
debt, who lost 82 bushels of Freeman potatoes last winter,
the product of a barrel that cost him $15. I would have
paid him $164 for the potatoes this spring.

But now some will say it is not safe to store potatoes large-
ly in a house cellar, where a family lives above. That de-
pends, It is safe in our cellar. I would just as soon sleep
down there when it is full of potatoes. Still, we do not
intend to store there regularly, in large quantities, but we
have it ready for an emergency. Our cellar is plastered
overhead, and building-paper (air-tight) put all over the
floors above, under the carpets. The draft of the stove can
not draw any air out of the cellar through the floor, as it
often does where less care is taken. Then we have a venti-
lating-flue running from the cellar to the top of the main
chimney (43 feet from the cellar bottom), by the side of a flue
that is always warm from being used for the heating-stove
above. This warms the air in the ventilating-flue so as to
create a draft that keeps the cellar all right; and an east
window is open except in the coldest weather.

Sorting and Sprouting.

We tested a new variety for a seed company last year, and
put the product, 90 bushels, into the cellar when we dug
them, they agreeing to pay us $1.00 a bushel for them. They
failed to keep their contract ; and this morning, as the tubers

140 POTATO CULTUKE.

were beginning to sprout, we sorted them up and took them
to town. They were early potatoes, and sprouts will start
in the cellar by this time (Apr. 7). Some of them were an
inch long. When we dug the potatoes they were not sorted
at all, but picked up, little and big together, as we were to
have 50 cents a bushel for the small ones. The season is
forward, and we are full of business outdoors, and I dreaded
this potato job; and, but for the Hoover sorter and sprouter,
I should have dreaded it much more. For three of us to sit
down and sprout and sort those 90 bushels by hand would be
a job that I shouldn't like to take for a day's work. I have
done such work, but I always dread it and avoid it when I
can. Now I am ready to tell you how easy the machine
made it for us. We put it in position, with the pile of pota-
toes at the hopper end, and room for working and piling
boxes at the other end. Then my man Fred took up a big
wooden shovel full (nearly a. peck) and placed it on the hop-
per. r : I turned the crank with my right hand, and took hold
of the shovel with my left, and fed slowly. My man filled
another shovel and placed it, and took from me the empty
one, and so on. At the other end my son Robert sat on a
box, with a bushel box in front of him, and under the end of
the sorter. His work was to watch for poor, rough, or cut
large potatoes, as the box filled up. The sorter took out the
small lones, and Robert moved the boxes back as they were
filled, and placed others. In this way we were all busy. It
was not hard for any one, and we kept a steady gait right
along. A perfect job was done at the rate of 40 bushels an
hour. Now, this is an exact fact by the watch. The pota-
toes were as well sprouted as one need ask for, and sorted
too, with the overlooking by Robert. With four horses and
our work outside waiting ,Jthat sorter was worth one-third its
cost to us easily this morning.

We have, of course, some 20 bushels of eating-potatoes to
sprout from this time on, as we always keep early ones to
eat, they being of better quality. If the sprouts are left to

142 POTATO CULTUKE.

grow long, the potatoes are injured ; and they used to get
left, for it was a job we all dreaded. Now it is fun. We can
run them through the sprouter in 20 minutes, or less ; and if
sprouts are not allowed to get too long it will take them off
nicely. If they get too long and tough, they do not break off
well. It would pay me to keep a sprouter just to sprout
what we eat. I dislike mean jobs, and to set my son and
man at them ; and as for letting my wife or daughters do
it— well, they would if necessary, but I am glad to say it
never is.

For sprouting only, one can run potatoes through very
fast. He can sort faster than we did this morning ; but we
were taking time to do as perfect a job as possible. To do
nice sorting one must turn very slowly, and not put in too
many at once, and also block up the lower feet an inch or so.
Properly managed, the sorter and sprouter will do all you can
ask of it in the spring. But at digging-time in the fall, when
the skins are not very tough, it bruises our potatoes too
much. This may not be the case with all varieties and
under all circumstances. I can tell only what I know. We
sort by hand in the fall. There is no trouble about bruising
in the spring. Of course, the sorter takes out all loose soil.
I wanted to take the whole season for rewriting this book,
and write of each point as we were at work in that line. It
would make the matter more interesting. But the publishers
could not wait. In this matter of sorting and sprouting I
have been able to do as I wanted to — do the work in the
morning and sit down and write in the afternoon just what
we actually did.

POTATO CULTUKK. 143

CHAPTER XVIII.

Potato-Growing as a Specialty.

If the raising were confined to a smaller number of farms,
and those who did raise them planted a good many and made
a business of it, it seems to me, for several reasons, as
though they would make more money, and there need be no
loss to those who now raise an acre or two, if they should
give up the business to those who go into it largely, for they
can turn their attention more to some other special branch.

The day has passed when there is any necessity for such a
diversity of crops — when it is necessary for a man to raise
almost every thing he wants, on his own farm. It was neces-
sary once, when the country was new, and there were no.
railroads or markets, and not much money ; but now let it
go, to a certain extent, along with the stage-coach and
scythe, and let us improve in this respect as much as we have
in our means of communication and in our agricultural
implements.

When I speak of the potato-grower as a specialist I do not
mean that he should grow just potatoes and nothing else,
but, rather, that he should make that his leading crop — his
main source of income. Other crops must be grown with
them, of course, to make up a rotation.

Let rue give some of the reasons why the large grower of
potatoes, who makes this his chief business, can make more
money. First, he can afford to have all the tools and con-
trivances that are made for saving labor, and taking the
best care of the crop, and marketing it in nice shape, such as
have been spoken of in previous chapters. The man who
raises only two or three acres can not afford all these expen-
sive labor-saving tools, and therefore can not make as much

144 POTATO CULTUKE.

money, for he can not put in or care for his crop as cheaply,
nor can he market it in as nice shape. Again, the specialist
can not only have the advantage of all the best tools, but,
what is still more important, he can use them just when
they ought to be used, as that is his business, and there is
nothing else to interfere. With a great variety of crops to
care for, and perhaps a dairy besides, this is often quite im-
possible. There are times, in this locality, when a single
day's work with the whole farm force, each man with a
cultivator and horse, just exactly at the right time, would
be of very great advantage to the crop— possibly almost the
making of it. The specialist can put in that day's work.
Also the large grower has a chance to concentrate most of
his energies and study in one direction, rather than scatter
them thinly in many directions. Instead of being a jack at
all trades, and particularly good at none, he can have a
chance to excel in one direction. If he will improve that
chance, and push his specialty to the utmost, he will find
that it not only pays in dollars and cents, and develops his
thinking faculties, and makes more of a man of him, but he
will get rid of a great deal ot the worry, as well as loss, of
having too many irons in the fire. Money is not the only
thing to live for. But I do not advise a narrow specialty, or
any particular plan. This chapter is written with the hope
that it will set the reader to thinking and studying, not to
give him any particular directions. Each farmer must ar-
range to suit his own local circumstances. On my farm,
only wheat and potatoes are now raised to sell. We buy
every thing we want, except potatoes, milk, a little garden
stuff, and the berries from our fruit-garden. We do not fuss
to make even our own butter, but use on berries the cream
from our one cow, and otherwise. Of course, we raise our
own hay for the horses and family cow ; but we do not raise
the oats for the driving-horses. There isn't a pig, a chicken,
a calf, colt, nor sheep on our place ; so you see I practice
what I preach— or, rather, I am preaching what I have prac-

POTATO CULTURE. 145

ticed for many years, and found to be the easiest way for me
to make a good living, with the least worry, from my farm,
and I find it the pleasantest way too. There is a pleasure
about doing one's very best, as the specialist has a chance to
do, and the profits from such work are larger. Could any
man living support a medium-sized family, and live com-
fortably, pay his hired help liberally, and all other running
expenses, and get ahead over a thousand dollars a year,
actual cash saved, from 35 acres of plow land and 19 acres of
poor pasture, by following 'ordinary mixed farming? I
couldn't. I could hardly live, let alone getting ahead any.
Thus I was forced to go into farming of a different character,
or be poor all my life.

But I would not have you think that the specialty of itself
will ever help you any. It will not. It only gives you the
opportunity to excel — to do your level best — in one particu-
lar direction. Nor would I have you think that potato-
growing is any better specialty than many others. It is not.
An average crop of potatoes pays no better than an average
crop of wheat or corn, for a term of years. If it did, every
one would rush into the business and bring the price down.
It is the big crop of potatoes or corn or wheat, or the big
yield of milk, that pays. It does not make so much differ-
ence what the crop is, only so it suits your taste, soil, mar-
kets, and other local circumstances.

With 10 acres of land rightly situated, I think I could get
quite independent by growing strawberries, like my friend
M. Crawford. Again, I might keep a dairy on 50 or 100
acres, and make choice butter, and get $100 from a cow, as
does C. P. Goodrich, of Wisconsin.

I think I speak within bounds when I say that the potato-
specialist, who has soil and markets favorable, can, after he
has had a reasonable amount of experience, make twice as
much money out of the crop as the average farmer does who
follows mixed farming and raises two or three acres each
year. Then why shouldn't he do it, and buy other things he

146 POTATO CULTURE.

may need ? Because he is only a farmer must he be a drudge,
and do a certain way whether it pays or not, just because his
father did, or his grandfather, years ago when times were
altogether different ? Would he go to New York in a stage-
coach now, in preference to a palace car, just because his
father used to do so V If I, making a business of it, and
having soil suitable to the crop, can make money growing
potatoes, and A, with a clay farm and a good spring, can
make money making fancy butter and raising choice pigs on
the skimmed milk, why isn't it a sound business policy for
him to buy his potatoes of me, and for me to buy his butter
and pork ? We are both gainers by the operation. Why
must he fuss with an acre or two of potatoes, on soil unsuit-
able, and in which there is no profit, when he could spend
his time pushing his specialties, and make a profit by it ?
Just because father did so, and he knew, I suppose, or on
account of the old saying, " You mustn't have your eggs all
in one basket." But those words do not scare me at all.
That saying belongs to the days when Ohio was the t; Far
West," and it took almost all summer to go out there and
back. If a man raised too much of one thing then, he was
in a bad fix on account of the poor facilities for exchanging,
and the lack of markets and the scarcity of money. But,
how different it is now ! The whole world is one market
to-day. We can sell almost any thing for cash, and with
the cash we can buy almost any thing we want, right at our
doors.

All this, friends, is no theory at all with us. We have
done this way some twenty years as a matter of business.
From having potatoes just barely pay cost of production, as
they usually do, finding them well suited to most of our soil,
we have worked in that line until we made them pay 100 or
even 200 per cent profit, and then bought other things we
could raise on the farm, but would pay little or no profit,
where we fussed with them in a small way. I hope you get
the point. For example, dairying is a good business if fol-

POTATO CULTURE). 147

lowed as I do potato-growing ; but there would be 110 profit
whatever in our making butter from two or three cows, if
the labor of my wife were counted, as it is with me. She
would have to go through with all the operations of dairy-
ing every day in the year, the same as though enough were
being done to amount to something ; and then, could she
afford the best implements and conveniences? could she
have ice and the separator, and the Babcock tester, and a
power churn arid worker, etc.? Of course, not. Then why
not extend and push our potato and wheat growing, and
drop the dairying entirely, and let some one else extend and
push that ? That is business. That is sensible. That is
what we did some twenty years ago. That is what has paid us.
I have in mind a man who is now working very much as
we did when we first came on the farm. He has cows and
young cattle, and pigs and chickens, and raises, or tries to,
every thing he needs for himself and stock that will grow on
his place. At any rate, it looks so to me. He and his fam-
ily work very hard early and late, and have for many years,
and they just barely live, as he has told me. Every year
they put in two or three acres of potatoes. The soil is not
suitable for them at all. They plow out the furrows with a
one-horse plow, the father holding while the son leads the
horse. Then they drop them by hand and cover with a hoe.
When the weeds get to show green all over the field they
cultivate up what they can between the rows, and day after
day work hard to hoe out those in the hills. Often the clay
soil dries and bakes after a shower because they are so driven
with work that it is impossible to tend to any thing on time.
Well, they get through some way, and dig them out by hand,
late, in the mud; and 'labor, interest, and seed, fairly paid
for, would have bought more than they harvest. This pic-
ture is not overdrawn in the least. Now, friends, you may
talk against specialties all you please ; here are the facts :
That man is growing poorer and poorer growing potatoes,
while we are making money right along. He has no business

POTATO CULTURE.

to plant a single one. If all his efforts were concentrated on
his cows, and food to keep them, be might soon be indepen-
dent. At any rate, he would have a chance to be. Now he
has no possible chance. If he makes a little something in
some line it is overbalanced by losses on something he should
not have fussed with. We have been just as poor, and work-
ed just as hard, and just so contrary to sound business prin-
ciples. Little by little we found out better.

As said before, no narrow specialty should be followed.
We need a rotation and steady employment. It will not do
to raise patatoes only, year after year. Specialty farming is
sound and sensible ; but it has its limits. It must not be
carried too far. In the next chapter we will try to show
just how far it can be safely and profitably carried.

POTATO CULTURE. 149

CHAPTER XIX.

Rotation and Clover.

You all know, of course, why a rotation of crops is needed ;
why we can -not to advantage grow potatoes right along
year after year on the same ground. The land gets tired of
growing one crop only. The ingredients used by it become
exhausted, or some of them do, and then enemies to the crop
increase greatly when it is grown continuously without
change. A short rotation, where each crop occupies the
ground but a single year, helps greatly about warding off
damage by all the various pests. They hardly have a chance
to get a foothold before their feeding-ground is torn up, and
perhaps a crop put in that they do not like. Such troubles
as the scab and blight are doubtless made worse by growing
crop after crop on the same land. But a great advantage
that comes to us from rotation is the chance it gives us to
bring in what is called a renovating crop once in from three
to five years. A renovating crop is one that gathers up fer-
tility and leaves the soil richer than it was before, in avail-
able fertility. Clover is our. most practical plant for this
purpose in this locality, and over a large part of the country.

There are many thousands of farms in this country where
far greater prosperity would come from systematic attention
to this matter of rotation and clover-growing, whether pota-
toes are grown or not. In the far East they grow grass
(some clover in it perhaps) too exclusively oftentimes. Land
is left seeded, and mowed till it hardly pays for the labor.
In the West there has been too much continuous grain-
growing and too little seeding down. And, again, in travel-
ing thousands of miles both east and west, month after
month, I could not help noticing that most fields are seeded
with timothy and comparatively few with clover. -Well, it

150 POTATO CULTURE.

is a change and rest to seed down with timothy. It is rota-
tion, but not renovation in the slightest degree. Timothy
feeds on the soil exactly as wheat and corn and potatoes do,
and leaves it just so much poorer. Timothy eats nitrogen,
as the Rural New-Yorker lately put it, while clover gathers it.

Now, clover in regular rotation, in the place of timothy,
if you do your part, and on any soil where it is reasonably at
home, will do just this: It will give you about twice as
many tons of hay per acre, it' you want feed ; it is worth
about one-third more per ton to feed out, and about one-
third more as a fertilizer. Or, if you take into account the
fact that there is twice as much of it, the clover is worth
three times as much as a fertilizer per acre as the timothy,
above ground, without counting the roots. The roots are
also worth far more than the timothy roots, as a fertilizer.
Now the question comes up that is all important— Where
does the clover get this excess of fertility V If from the soil
directly, as does the timothy, then we gain nothing in the
end, as we are only running our land down faster. But at
last it is known that this is not a fact. The clover has the
ability to absorb, through a peculiar growth on its roots,
free nitrogen from the air. At market rates for nitrogen,
there is in the air resting on a square rod of your farm more
than $97,000 worth. We need not worry about the supply
giving out, you see.

Of course, clover can get no mineral matter from the air.
It must get that from the earth, as other crops do ; but there
is this difference : Clover is a deep feeder. It sends its roots
down far, and gathers up and brings to the surface. Perhaps
it gets what naturally exists in the subsoil, but it also lays
hold of what is constantly leaching down with the water of
heavy rains, and what has got below the reach of more
surface-feeding plants. It gathers up escaping nitrates as
well as mineral matter, and practically all comes to the sur-
face again, where other crops can get it when you plow the
sod under. But let me stop right here to say it does not

POTATO CULTURE. 151

lie there long. You must get something else to growing at
once to eat up the stored fertility * or it will get away from
you. Nature does not wait long. In another chapter I
wrote of sowing wheat thickly on half an acre of stubble
land last fall, that would otherwise lie bare all winter. Well,
we have plowed it lately, the wheat being about a foot high
and as thick as it could well grow. The sod was very heavy
and tough. If we had left that land b'are from October till
May, the fertility that fed that wheat would largely have
leached down beyond the reach of my potatoes this year.
The clover that would be sown there in a year or two would
pump it up again, more or less of it; but as it is, I get it
now. Further, clover has done its best in the way of draw-
ing from air and subsoil at the end of two seasons' growth
(one with the grain it was sown with). To make the most
of it as a renovating crop, one needs to turn it under then, or
in the spring following, and turn the accumulated fertility
into money by putting in some suitable crop. Here is where
many fail. They let the clover grow along and run out, and
much of the work done by the clover is lost.

I might speak of the benefit that comes from shading the
ground by having it densely covered with clover, practically
all the time for two seasons. I can not give it to you in dol-
lars and cents, but it is working in accordance with nature's
law, that covered shaded land grows richer, and large profit
will come from it.

This is a great subject, to which a whole book of this size
could well be devoted, and [ can, in a single chapter, only
touch the matter here and there in a way, perhaps, to set
you to investigating. Let me briefly put figures to some of
my first statements.

My land will grow about 2| tons of timothy hay per acre,
in. one cutting, and usually there is not much aftermath.
In clear clover (the common variety) it will grow not less
than H tons (dry) per acre after the wheat is removed in the
summer. We have often had two tons. This we clip oft'

152 POTATO CULTUKE.

twice with the mower, and leave all on the surface to shade
and enrich, and thus all going to seed of weeds is prevented.
The first crop the next season we cut for hay, and it will, I
think, never fall below two tons per acre. It is more apt to
be three tons, but I do not want to exaggerate in the least.
The second crop, which is left on the surface to plow under
in the spring for potatoes, we will call H tons per acre, al-
though it is more often two. Now, at these lowest figures
we produce 5 tons per acre of dry clover, in the rotation, and
while the timothy would give but about half as much. All
of this could be saved for hay, and have twice as much to
feed out as of timothy. We once did this. Science tells us
that this clover hay, cut when in full bloom, and well cured,
is worth about a third more to feed than timothy. Having
fed it for many years I can say this is also true in practice,
for cows and horses and young cattle. I certainly have $1000
in cash to show for what I have saved on horse-feed by using
clover instead of timothy— the value of grain actually saved,
while the horses did just as well. Now as to the fertilizing
properties :

A ton of timothy hay is worth as a fertilizer, on a basis of
market rates of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash, $5.48 ;
a ton of clover, $8.20. This is from the highest authorities
in the land. It is essentially correct, just as certainly as
that 2 and 2 make 4.

Let us now put these figures together and see what they
mean, assuming that the root-growth of timothy and clover
is worth about the same per ton dry as the top growth,
which is not far from right. Two tons and a half of timothy
hay per acre, and we will say 2i tons of dried roots and stub-
ble (this last I think too high, however), would be worth as
a fertilizer, at market rates, $27.40. This I would get by
growing timothy. Some would be wasted by feeding out,
even on tight floors and with every care, but so would some
of the clover, and we must not stop to carry the matter to
the end. Five tons of clover hay per acre and three tons of

POTATO CULTURE. 153

dried roots (about right for our crop) would be worth, on the
same basis, $65.60. I said the clover above ground would be
worth about three times as much as the timothy, as a fer-
tilizer; 2i tons timothy would be worth $13.70; 5 tons of
clover would be $41 . Do you see V

Now, in the light of these figures do you want the $27.40
or the $65.60 V You can take your choice ; and, if you help
yourself all you can by choosing the $65.60, you can have
twice as much hay to feed, and hay worth about one-third
more per ton— that is, on suitable land. In this chapter you
can find to a great extent the foundation (next to draining)
of our little success. I tell you in all seriousness, that this
is not theory. We have proven science to be right, or rather,
I may say, science has to a certain extent proven us right ;
for long before it was shown that clover could draw nitrogen
from the air, the writer, from his experience, insisted that
it must be so. Some eight years ago Prof. Henry said to me :
" I believe you are fight, but I can not prove it." Now it is
proven. We have taken a farm that was badly run down,
and made clover pump up and draw down a good many
thousand dollars for us. As yet it has found mineral matter
enough. Some time it may need to have that applied.
Prof. Roberts, of Cornell, said to me last winter: uYou
have solved the nitrogen question." I think so ; and that is
the most serious, because most costly. In the East, mineral
matter, particularly potash, is needed now with the clover,
or, rather, to enable the clover to do its best. Now you may
see more clearly why we use our manure on the young
clover, the renovating crop, or the wisdom of so doing.
With that $65 worth, more or less, of fertility per acre, we
are all right ; don't you see V If the manure can help us to
get it, why, that is the way to use it. It makes the clover
stronger to pump up and draw down from a supply beyond
the reach of ordinary crops.

Now you may see why fertilizers show no results on my
clover land. On an acre, the clover furnishes fertility equal

154 POTATO CULTURE.

to about one and a half tons of Mapes complete patato-
manure, costing (this year) $41 per ton, and 1 have got it
without any loss of use of the land for a crop, and at almost
no cost— only care and attention. I believe I haven't told
you that, since writing about fertilizer, I have bought 1400
pounds of Mapes potato-manure, to use in experiments on
an acre of ground, this year. (The publishers calling for
this book a few chapters at a time, as fast as written, makes
it quite possible I may repeat some things, from not having
the manuscript all- before me. If so, you will know the
reason.) Now, in the light of the above figures you can see
why Mr. Mapes wrote me that it would seem almost like
carrying coals to Newcastle to put fertilizer on my clover
land. It will probably so turn out, as it always has ; but I
want to know this, and am intending to use a large amount,
you see.

There are many points I should like to speak of about
clover, that have been jumped over. Here is one : I said
timothy feeds in the soil directly, etc. Notice the timothy
sod, or the red-top or blue-grass sod, or a wheat or rye sod,
for that matter. If a heavy growth, the soil is full of roots,
enough to hold it together as you turn it over, and it takes
an implement like the cutaway harrow to make a seed-bed.
Now notice the growth of clover roots. The tap-root goes
right down through the soil, taking only enough to support
it till it gets down. Then it sends out its fibrous roots, far
and deep, to gather up fertility, which is stored in the large
tap-root, near the surface and in the top. When I plow a
good clover sod, on any reasonable soil, it all falls to pieces,
mostly from the absence of fibrous roots. The Thomas
smoothing-harrow will take hold of it nicely, if not too dry.
The clover has practically given the soil a rest, and shaded it.
If you will drain land that needs it, and then grow clover
systematically, and help it all you can, in many cases it will
just put one more farm right into yours. Without any more
plowing or working, or seed, taxes, or labor, to speak of, you

POTATO CULTURE. 155

may draw on the farm down below, that now lies idle and
useless, like coal in the mine waiting for man to nse it. On
my own farm, former owners had to scrimp to get along,
while thousands of dollars that I have easily pumped up were
lying within three feet of the surface.

My Rotation.

After many changes I have settled on a three-year rota-
tion, of clover, potatoes, and wheat. This is the best I can
study up for our circumstances. No stock is kept, further
than our horses and family cow. We have at present a work
team ; another team, one of which is a good driver, and a
road-horse that wife can drive, and a pony that belongs to
our son. For several years we have kept no more stock
than this, and grew only potatoes and wheat. We cut just
what clover we want to feed out. As we feed horses in the
barn most of the vear, this takes considerable — about all of
the first crop of clover. The clover that grows after the
wheat is removed is clipped, and left to go back to the land
and feed the potatoes directly. Meanwhile it shades the
ground and thus enriches it. We usually mow it twice, when
it is from 8 to 12 inches high.

The first crop the next season is mostly cut for hay, early.
The second crop we harrow down with the Thomas harrow,
when about knee-high, just before it falls down, in lands, the
way we will plow in the spring. Thus it plows under easier,
covers the surface more evenly, and it is prevented from
ripening as quickly. It continues to grow much longer (more
fertility gathered), as it tries to grow up again and form seed,
the object of its existence. I think I make it grow a month
longer by this breaking flat down. It is best done when wet
with dew. This clover is not plowed under till spring, you
will notice ; more shading, and live roots in the soil to pre-
vent waste, and no surf ace- wash. No animals are allowed
to pasture on the clover at any time during the rotation. We

156 POTATO CULTURE.

can not afford to tramp the land. We have a permanent
pasture for cow and horses. We might (and do some years)
save the seed from the second-crop clover, putting the haulm
back to plow under. At present prices it might pay. At
$4.00 or $5.00 a bushel it did not. It was worth more to have
the shade of the clover on the surface, and some to plow
under on every square foot of surface, for a crop that brought
me as much money as potatoes do, than it was to save for
seed. We could never spread the haulm back evenly over all
the land it grew on. And then the clover would die and stop
its food-gathering at least a month sooner. This is for pota-
toes, you remember, with a crop worth from $80 to $120 or
more per acre. I could afford to feed them well. It does
not follow at all, that one could afford to sacrifice the seed
for corn, that brings much less per acre.

Now, this is the way we have been farming for some time.
What we have done has paid. We have had a good income,
and were not overworked. There has been enough to do
during the eight months from April 1st to December 1st, and
still not so much that we could not attend to our fruit-garden
and lawn and flowers, and have a reasonable amount of
time— yes, quite a little of it— for recreation. Myself and
one good man could do most of this, if I should work as hard
as I once did. But I do not pitch right in now, except at
times ; and my son, and a man for about seven months, do
the most of the work. We have to hurry rather more than I
like, to get potatoes off, ground -fitted, and wheat in on time.
However, if the weather is good we can do it. We have done
it with medium late potatoes, but intend to keep to moder-
ately early ones after this. There is no better preparation
for wheat than working the land all summer in potatoes,
unless the fall is very dry. In effect, we plow in the spring
for wheat, and work it all summer (the old summer fallow),
incidentally growing a crop of potatoes meanwhile— a profit-
able way of summer fallowing, and just about as good for the
wheat. The potatoes draw largely on the potash in the soil,

POTATO CULTURE. . 157

and the wheat on the phosphoric acid ; and thus between
them they keep a fair balance.

This is a good rotation — one that I can not improve on,
perhaps, for onr circumstances ; and still there is just a pos-
sibility that I am growing clover too much. I see no trouble
as yet; but you notice clover is growing on the land two
seasons out of three — one in the wheat. This maybe too
much. A four-year rotation might be better: under some
circumstances it would be.

Now, of course, if one had some rough permanent pasture
he might keep sheep, say, or young cattle, that would not
take up his time in the summer ; cut and cure all the clover
that we let go back to the soil directly, and thus have some
work to do in the winter. If he will tend to the potatoes,
etc., most thoroughly, and keep the farm all up in nice
shape, and every thing in perfect repair, he will never lack
for work. Some think that, with so few crops, there would
not be enough to do. Well, ask my hired man. It is doing
a few things thoroughly well that will pay in the future : half
doing a great many things never will any more. The world
is running over full of ordinary — plenty of room for experts,
however, in any line.

Rotation for a Dairy Farm.

Potato-growing and dairying will go fairly well together,
under some circumstances— say when there is a father and a
grown son, one of whom can take charge of the dairying and
the other of the crops. This will give a chance for an excel-
lent four-year rotation. It would be this :

1. Clover manured for corn.

2. Corn for the silo, followed by rye.

3. Potatoes on the rye sod.

4. Wheat seeded with clover, and perhaps a little timothy.
In this case I would still use some manure, what might be

needed, on the young clover after taking off the wheat, as
advised in chapter 2. This would be a perfectly safe rota-

158 POTATO CULTUBE.

tion, and a good one. I would cut all clover for hay in this
case. Clover hay cut early, and good corn ensilage, make a
ration for cows that is almost perfect, needing only the
addition of a little wheat bran and oilmeal or cotton-seed
meal. The rye would prevent waste of fertility from the
corn stubble. The potatoes would have old fertility, which
is so much better than fresh manure. Corn loves fresh
manure. The wheat would give straw for bedding the cows.
I would not advise, as a rule, the growing of any more crops
than those named. If oats are wanted, better buy them,
where wheat does well. (Of course, this rotation will not do
for (^localities.) Give all your attention to the cows and
potatoes, rather than undertake more. I know a dairyman
who had seen that I was making money out of potatoes, as
was he out of his wrork. But I think he was then under-
taking too much, and would have done better to try to do
less rather than more. But he did not seem to see any
reason why he could not grow potatoes too, on top of all he
was doing, and succeed as well as I. He tried it. He has
had some heavy and almost total losses of crop to endure.
To be sure, if the season had been just right, so he need lose
hardly a day, he might have done fairly well ; but it isn't
often so, and we must take these matters as we find them,
and fit our work accordingly by not undertaking too much.

Of course, you see where the weak place in this rotation is.
The digging of potatoes, getttng in wheat, and cutting ensi-
lage, come too much in a heap, or would in a wet fall ; but it
could be managed fairly well, as a rule, with a little extra
help. Putting in the two crops would not clash, as early
potatoes should be planted first ; and the help that was
needed on a dairy farm could care for both. The corn can
be grown for grain, on a farm where a dairy is not kept, and
the rotation will be an excellent one just the same — in fact,
as good as I know of. In both the rotations given, there is
the minimum of danger from such pests as the Hessian fly,
wireworm, white grub, scab, and the numerous troubles that

POTATO CULTURE. 159

the crops named suffer. Oh, yes ! that reminds me that I
promised to tell you about getting rid of the ravages of the
white grub, or how not to have them. This short rotation,
one year in a crop, is a part of the plan. The rest is, to have
such heavy crops of clover, so thick, and shading the ground
so thoroughly, that the May-beetle that lays the eggs will not
be fool enough to deposit them in such a cold dark place,
where they would never hatch, but will fly away to some
thinner sod somewhere else. She will lay some eggs in thin
wheat, I find, or perhaps in good wheat, but not to any great
extent. When we find a few grub-eaten potatoes, it is, as a
rule, if not always, where there was a thinnish spot in the
clover. A little more manure on such spots, where clover is
young, is the best remedy. You know I told you that nature
is down on the underling. It is no use to spend time growl-
ing about this. You can't change the law. Don't have any
thin clover, and then practically no grubs and more dollars ;
for, just as sure is the other law, that "unto him that hath,
shall be given."

Of course, in both rotations, the ground is not plowed for
the wheat, but made mellow and fine on the surface, with
cutaway, Thomas, and roller. This is all right except in a
very dry fall, when potato-stubble is almost too dry for wheat
to do well. Old readers will notice that the rotations given
in this edition are quite different from those of the original
book. They are decidedly better, rest assured. I was about
to change at that time, and was quite certain that it was for
the better ; but I thought best to try it before telling of it.
Potatoes two years in succession, or clover, is not a wise
plan. The great gain in my present rotation is in giving
clover a better chance to help me, and turning its gathered
store of fertility into more money. Again, I use timothy
less. Indeed, for some years I haven't sown any until this
spring. Clover must have a good chance. I want that
$65.00 an acre, or near it, not $27.00. I sowed a little timo-
thy this spring when I did rny clover, about March 1. The

160 POTATO CULTURE.

field is partly clay, and timothy will do well in some spots
when clover does not do its best ; and with spring sowing,
timothy will not get started so as to injure the growth of
clover materially. I sow about six quarts of clover seed per
acre, and always very early. I have not had a failure to
"catch" in 24 years. I might tell you that a crop of 200
bushels of potatoes per acre takes from the soil $12.12 worth
of fertility, at market rates ; 83£ bushels of wheat per acre
takes $7.09 worth of fertility from each acre. Say I sell off
in the three-year rotation, then, $19.21 worth per acre. Com-
pare this with what clover furnishes. It takes some to grow
the vines, of course, and all the food furnished can not ever
be used in one season ; but isn't there quite a margin V
What I am trying again this season to find out is whether
any more fertility can be added in the shape of fertilizers so
as to pay.

I may add now, that, since the above was written, we have
planted the crop and used the fertilizer. In round numbers
we put at the rate of 500, 1000, and 1500 pounds per acre, on
plots containing four long rows each. We tried this on our
best land, where there was at least two tons of clover hay
besides a great growth of roots plowed under. This was
selected, extra choice soil. It is good for 150 to 300 bushels
of potatoes per acre, without fertilizer, owing to the season.
Again, we selected the poorest land on the farm, where the
growth of clover was, of course, lighter, and used on the
same number of plots the same quantities of fertilizer. Some
of these experiments were duplicated still again. Every care
possible was taken to get every thing just right. For exam-
ple, it would be no accurate test to put in one row, or two,
with fertilizer. Rows each side might steal from it or them.
With four rows in a plot we will dig and count only the two
in the center, which will be exactly fair. I was putting on
fertilizer broadcast, with my Empire grain-drill, when it
occurred to me that the extra tillage from going over the
land with- drill might have some effect. I thought just in

POTATO CULTURE. 161

time, and we have four rows where the drill was used and
no fertilizer, and the two center rows will give us the average
of unfertilized plot, treated in exactly the same way. These
experiments will cost us at least $-50.00 in fertilizer and labor;
but I want to know the truth. If I have said too much
against fertilizers in chapter 2, I am ready to speak more
favorably when the facts warrant it. If I get no gain this
year again, why, this clover question wTill seem still more
important.

162 POTATO CULTURE.

CHAPTER XX.
Cost of Production, and Profits.

In. figuring the profits on any crop, farmers sometimes fail
to figure their own time as worth any thing, and perhaps
they throw in the use of the land also, and thus they make a
fair showing for the crop, as they charge it only with actual
cash paid out. But, how is the proper way? Your crop-
should be charged at least six per cent interest on the value
of the land, a fair price for all labor put on it, your own, or
that of hired help, or of your children, cost of seed and of
manure, and a fair price for the use of team and tools — a
price that will pay you at least ten per cent on their cost,
over and above keeping. After all of these are deducted,
then one can begin to talk about net profits. "Figured in
that way, no farming would pay," some one says. I can't
help it ; that is the only business-like way ; ^nd if your farm-
ing won't stand it, it needs overhauling and improving. Now
let us figure a little on an average acre of potatoes in Ohio—
the cost of production, and profits, and figure fairly, no mat-
ter where it hits. The Agricultural Report for 1883, in a
foot-note on page 405, says : "It was an excellent year, and
potatoes yielded about $35.00 per acre " ($34.60 to be exact).
We will take this as an average, although it was an excellent
year— the best I have had since I began raising potatoes, for
large yield. The average yield per acre for the State was
about 99 bushels. This would make the average price about
35 cents. Now, what is the average cost of production?
That is not so easy to get at. I have a letter before me
from a farmer who says he raises about 100 bushels per acre
in a good season, and cultivates about the way his father
did before him— hasn't invested in any new-fangled tools or
ideas— and he tells me about how he manages. Perhaps we

POTATO CULTURE. 163

can get a little light from his letter. He says : " I plow the
ground, and harrow it once with a common harrow, mark
out with a plow, and cover with a hoe. Then I cultivate
generally twice, going twice in a row each time " (he has got
advanced enough so he drills his crop in, but not properly,
or he would not need to go twice in a row), " and hoe by
hand ; then shovel-plow them, and hoe again, and that is all
the tillage done. I put on about ten big loads of rotten
manure on an acre."

On my farm it costs about $3.00 a day for man and team
and tools for plowing and harrowing, and $2.50, say, for cul-
tivating, and we will allow that our friend cultivates about
as much in a day as we do, which isn't at all certain. He
uses Paris green, and says it would cost him about $5.00 an
acre if he hired a man to put it on, which he doesn't— can't
afford it. A good man and board will cost, say, $1.50 a day
to do the hoeing, and when we used to hoe by hand it took a
man about a day to hoe an acre nicely. Now we are ready
for figures.

Plowing one acre $1 50

Harrowing with common harrow 30

Cultivating twice, twice in a row, and shovel-plowing-.. 2 10

Hoeing twice by hand 3 00

Marking out with plow. 42

Covering with hoe . . . 1 50

Seed— small potato— 16 bush, at 20 cts., one in a place,

uncut 3 20

Dropping seed 1 50

10 loads of manure, say $1.00 per load, and charge half

to this crop. . . 5 00

Bugging 5 00

Digging and picking up 6 00

Marketing, say three miles 3 00

Value of land, say $100 an acre, use at 6 per cent 6 00

$38 02

This makes the net profit $3.00 less than nothing.
I do not think the growers who work about in this way
and with these results make any real profit as a rule. They

164 POTATO CtTLTUBE.

get some income, of course, and perhaps do as well as they
would at any thing else. There are towns where potatoes
are grown largely, where I know the average crop is not
larger than the one given above, although in some cases the
methods may be more advanced. The above is from the
original edition of this book, and I see no reason for chang-
ing it, only that the figures for labor are almost too low.
Digging, plowing, cultivating, etc., would probably cost
decidedly more on the farm named.

Now let us figure a little on the cost of growing an acre on
the farm of a potato-specialist, or of one who grows the crop
in a large way, and does his level best all through. He
selects proper soil, drains where needed, puts the manure on
in the best way, follows a good rotation, getting all the bene-
fit he can from clover-growing, prepares the land in the best
way, plants the best of seed, properly cut, and, before they
have sprouted, owns a planter, or, better, machinery for
putting them in, and a smoothing-harrow and weeder, and
has bushel boxes and spring wagons ; in fact, he does every
thing from beginning to end in the best known way. Here
are the figures for planting on mellow clover sod :

Plowing $2 00

Harrowing with Thomas and three horses 33

Boiling 25

8 bushels seed at 50 cents, average '. . . 4 00

Cutting to one eye 1 50

Plan ting with planter 1 00

Harrowing three times with Thomas 45

Harrowing four times with weeder 80

Cultivating, say eight times, once in a row 3 36

Bugs 2 00

Hand pulling or cutting weeds 75

Digging with Hoover and four horses 2 50

Picking up and storing 3 00

Marketing, say three miles . . 6 00

Manure, say same as before 5 00

Interest on value of land 6 00

$38 <U

POTATO CULTURE. IBS

Of course, these figures are not exact, and will vary some
from year to year ; but they are as nearly right as 1 can tell
you ; and you notice it does not cost the specialist, who has
arranged to reduce the cost of production, and who does all
he can to make a crop, any more to speak of than it costs
the average grower. In regard to the above figures I will say
that I have many times plowed two acres a day, of clover
sod, deep at that, so it would cost but $1.50 an acre. I figure
the harrowing, rolling, and cultivating at just what it costs
us ; that is, just the time we are in the habit of spending on
the job. 1 have put the seed pretty high to pay for the labor
of burying it. If we used our plows for marking out, instead
of the planter, it would cost us about $1.50 an acre more to
drop the seed by hand ; but we should save enough seed,
and get enough better yield to pay us several times over. I
have charged full price for use of horses with digger, and
enough to cover interest and wear on that as well as on the
planter. This is more than fair ; for, if we dug by hand,
the horses would be standing in the barn. Interest on land
may be too high for some localities ; but any good clear
potato-land here ought to be worth $100 an acre. I do not
say the farm is worth that, as a whole ; but the nice clean
field that is good potato soil. If you think this is too high,
then notice I have not charged for storage room or for use
of bushel boxes. I have figured, for some years, that, leav-
ing out manure, we could grow potatoes and put them on
the track, 2i miles away, directly from the field, for about
$30 an acre, and come out whole.

Let us now go back to that year, 1883, when the average
crop brought about $35 an acre and gave no profit, to amount
to any thing at least. In such a year as that, an acre treated
as we have figured ought to yield 250 bushels of fine potatoes
that would sell for at least 5 cents above market price.
That would be 40 cents a bushel for that year, or $100 an
acre. Well, we got 40 cents that season for nearly all of ours,
and had decidedly more than 250 bushels per acre, on 24 '

166 POTATO GUI/TURK.

acres. But $100 per acre would certainly show a net profit
of $60 per acre, not charging for the headwork of the man-
ager. I think we actually did make about 200 per cent profit
that year on the cost of production. But suppose one gets
but 200 bushels, he still has more than 100 per cent profit,
which is good enough — don't you think so ? In such a year
as 1881, when we were m-king so much, I actually felt as
though it was wrong to take the market price for our crop,
and I did sell to neighbors for less than regular market rates.
With a net profit of $100 per acre I could not take full price
from individuals, even if they did have the same chance to
grow a paying crop that I did, and failed to make full use of it.
Now, friends, please compare these two sets of figures, and
learn the lesson they try to teach. Do not do it with a spirit
of criticism, or trying to find fault with them. They will
not be exactly right, of course, under all conditions ; but the
general verdict they give is as true and trustworthy as the
g )spel of Christ. You may say 1883 was a wonderfully good
season. So it was— the best one we have ever experienced ;
but others had the same season, and averaged but $35 per
acre. The year 1881, when we made a still larger profit, en
part of our land at least, was the poorest one for potatoes,
perhaps, that Ohio has seen in a lifetime. Would that you
could be made to see that average crops, managed in average
ways, no longer pay any profit ; nor will they ever again.
Two things the successful farmer of the future must do : He
must get larger returns per acre than the average, and re-
duce the cost of production. If you will think the matter
over you will see that every thing that is said in this book
comes under these two heads. Let us look at this a moment.
If you drain the wet places, you will get more per acre. The
clover rotation gives you cheaper and safer food, and hence
reduces the cost of production. Cutting to one eye saves us
money (seed), and is managed so as to give as good results.
Drill culture and long straight rows enable us to cultivate at
about half the cost. Level culture saves plant-food and

POTATO CULTURE. 167

moisture, and shallow culture prevents injury to roots, all of
which tends to increase the yield, and decidedly too. Good
sound unsprouted seed, you will remember, once gave me
$83 an a*cre more than sprouted seed. With our bushel boxes
and wagons we can handle the crop for about half what we
used to. Thus we have reduced the cost of production, you
see. So I might go on for many pages ; but, enough. You
see the point, and it is the most sincere hope of the writer
that you may get hints and be set to thinking by what you
have read in these pages, and that the ultimate result may
be large fine crops, produced at a minimum cost. Then will
you be prosperous. I feel that, perhaps, I have made it
appear that prosperity will come very easily. This is not
often the case. It took many years of hard work to get our
little farm fixed to suit us ; in fact, it isn't quite right yet.
It is a long hard struggle to double the productiveness of a
run-down farm, and arrange to do every thing cheaply and
as well as you can study out how. Success will come ; but
it is faithful, persistent, long continued, never-tiring, well-
directed work that brings it.

Of course, there are localities distant from market where
one can not make the profits I have figured. In some places
potatoes seldom bring, in a good season, more than 25 cents
a bushel. With 250 bushels per acre, and cheap clover fer-
tilizing, one might even then make nearly 100 per cent net
profit, if near a railroad station. If the price is too low, he
had better raise something more concentrated to sell, like
butter, so the freight will eat up less of the gross receipts.
Butter is the best article to sell, because a ton of it con-
tains but 48 cents' worth of fertility. Potatoes stand high
also, removing only $2.02 worth in a ton, at market prices,
while wheat takes $7.09, and timothy hay $5.48. It is a
great point in favor of potato-growing, that it takes so little
out of the soil, comparatively, except water. For example,
you sell 100 bushels of potatoes at present price here, 75 cts.,
and you get $75.00, and remove from your farm but $6.06

168 POTATO CULTUKE.

worth of fertility. Sell 100 bushels of wheat at present price,
and you get $75.00, so but $21.27 leaves the farm. Sell 7i
tons of timothy hay for $75, and f 41.10 leaves the farm in
fertility. At 25 cents a bushel, you see you sell far less fer-
tility than in selling hay at $10 a ton.

I have now gone over the whole subject, and this chapter
closes our little book, unless friend Root delays the publish-
ing so that I can get in a final chapter, giving the substance
of this year's experience.

The writer has tried to encourage you to do your very best,
and to think and study ; and, more than all, has he tried not
to mislead you on any point. Please read very carefully,
and be suj-e you carry out fully every little particular, if you
undertake to change to some new practice.

POTATO CULTUKE. 169

CHAPTER XXI.

Experience in 1893.

PLOWING.

You have read what I said in the spring about plowing so
as to keep land level, and avoid all dead furrows ; about
plowing a field 16 rods wide all in one land, even if I did
waste (?) some time going " empty ?' across the ends.* To
show you that I know what I am talking about, I give the
result. The potatoes in that field bring us just about $7.00
per row. Had we plowed in three lands, and had two dead-
furrows, we should have been short two rows of potatoes,
or $14, which would more than pay for plowing the entire
field. The little time that, hastily speaking, you might say
was wasted when drawing the plow across the ends, was
really so invested as to bring a tremendous profit, and then
the field looked so nice— one even, unbroken crop! By the
way, we took up the old original rail fence between this field
and that of our next neighbor, last fall, and built, in place
of it, a neat, strong, oak board fence, thus getting ground
for one more row of pototoes. This looked very much nicer ;
and then that row of potatoes ($7.00) would more than pay 10
per cent interest on the entire cost of the fence for one year.

SOIL.

We have had an excessively dry season. On our land that
is naturally well fitted for potato- growing we had more than
twice as many potatoes per acre as on clay soil, which is not
suitable for the crop. With just rain enough, coming gently
and never too hard, and coming often, our clay spots would
do pretty well. Again, our season started with a great
storm, lasting nearly three days, soon after we had planted
our potatoes. This caused much of the seed to rot on the

* See publisher's appendix in the latter part of this book.

170 POTATO CULTURE.

clay. We did not loss one single hill on naturally drained
land ; but seed rotted right over tiles during the extreme
wet on clay soil. This rarely occurs ; but if making a busi-
ness of growing potatoes, I would buy suitable soil rather
than take a clay farm as a gift. I am more than ever certain
that it is wisest to use land to grow only the crops it is best
adapted to.

DRAINING.

Although the seed rotted on some of our heavy drained
land, causing us a loss of about $100, one drained low place
came to the front wonderfully. It is a depression, or hollow,
of about one-fourth of an acre, in a field of natural potato
soil, which hollow has no natural outlet. For many years
we endured the loss in this hole, as the cost of draining in
the ordinary way would be excessive. At last we drained it
by laying a main of four-inch tiles right into a gravel hill
about 100 feet, and having no outlet. Then we put in nu-
merous side drains to collect the water rapidly. It took $10
worth of tiles. We did the work ourselves. Friend Root
was here just before the potatoes came up, and feared the
seed had rotted ; but it did not ; and for the first time since
we came here, a quarter of a century ago, we had a full crop
of large potatoes through that hollow, probably 50 bushels.
This alone more than pays for the draining. Then it was so
enjoyable to think that we had forced a crop to grow through
that old eyesore.

PLANTING.

We put in our entire crop with our old marker, plowing
out the furrows and dropping the seed by hand. There is
no question but that it paid us. If you could have gone
through our field where the stand was not injured by the
seed rotting, and seen how perfect it was, and than examin-
ed the near-by fields where the planter caused not a few
misses, you would agree with me. The saving in seed, and
more perfect stand, will much more than pay for the hand-
dropping, if you have a faithful and expert man to do it.

POTATO CULTUKE. 171

Then a neighbor who planted when the soil was rather damp
and heavy, using the planter on soil as fertile as ours, failed
to get as good returns by half— largely, as he thinks, on ac-
count of the packing of the ground by the wedge-shaped
marker, or plow, of the planter. We could find this fall,
when he dug, the packed furrow-mark made by the planter.
Another neighbor, on lighter soil, and crop put in when quite
dry, had no such trouble with his planter ; but there were
the missing hills. I hired an extra man by the day, to help
drop, at $1.25, and his dinner and supper. lie wanted the
job, and dropped about one and a half acres per day of ten
hours, and did it nicely.

SMALL SEED.

I think I have told you that we were unable to get large
Freeman potatoes enough to plant last spring, and so, from
necessity, planted a good many small ones. We cut off the
seed end and threw it away, and then split the tubers into
two or three pieces, owing to the size. As there are few
eyes on the small Freemans, these were about one-eye pieces.
Although I would not follow up this practice, we got good
results this time. We all thought the potatoes averaged
larger than those from large seed that came from friend J.
M. Smith, of Wisconsin. This set me to thinking. I knew
that small seed would not grow larger potatoes than large,
unless there was some other reason. This it was, undoubt-
edly : The small seed we had kept in our pits during the win-
ter, and it was in absolutetly perfect .condition — not an eye
having started when it was t >ken out— while Mr. S.'s seed
was slightly sprouted when it got here. Had we kept his
seed in our pits over winter, we should have been the gainers.

CHANGE OF SEED.

Our choice seed from Mr. Smith gave no better results
than large seed of our own growing, side by side. But now
this may be all owing to the fact mentioned above, that our
seed was in more perfectly sound condition. Do not think

172 POTATO CULTCJKE.

Mr. S.'s seed was sprouted much. It had started only just a
little, probably owing to warm weather while on the way.
But for best results I want seed that has not started one
single eye. I want the first eye to start in the soil. I have
never yet got an uneven stand from planting such seed.
They will be slower coming up, of course, and may not be
best if you are after very early potatoes.

MANURE VS. CLOVER.

My next neighbor, A, D. Croy, one of our very best farm-
ers, had a field of potatoes right next to one of mine this
season. They were early potatoes, the same as mine, and
planted the same day. Both fields were originally cleared at
the same time, and belonged to one farm. They are very
similar in character of soil. Mr. Croy has kept a dairy all
these years that the writer has been farming with clover,
and has never had heavy crops of clover until recently. Last
fall and winter he drew manure on to his field, which was a
timothy sod with a little clover in it, giving it a heavy cover-
ing. My field had the clover roots and second-crop clover
plowed under. Now, the fact that he used a planter would
make some difference with the result ; but his soil was so
diy that about the only injury came from a less perfect
stand. Again, I have been growing potatoes for many years
in regular rotation on my land, while friend C. has grown
only two crops before on his. Now, the result was 549 bush-
els on a little over four acres of his land that was heavily
manured, and 912 bushels on 5^ acres on my clover land.
Mr. C. kept his seed in the pit, the same as mine, cut to one
eye, and in tillage it would be hard to do any better than he
did. There is no use in being modest about it. We just
simply "get there "by the use of clover. Yes, 912 bushels
th's dry year, and with present prices, is good enough.

ARE WE HOLDING OUR OWN ?

Let us compare the yields of this dry season with those of
1881, which was almost exactly a similar season with us

POTATO CULTURE. 173

Each year we had one soaking rain, and all other showers
were too light to do much good, and potatoes grad ually yield-
ed to drouth, in spite of all we could do. In 1881 we had
869 bushels of potatoes on oi acres, in our best lot, and this
year 912 on 5-^j acres. In 1881 we had 531 bushels on the clay
lot, from a perfect stand. This year we had 520 bushels on
about five sixths of the same lot, one-sixth of the stand being
lost from the seed rotting.

TILLAGE.

The tillage on the field next to neighbor Croy's was perfect,
FO far as we know. I can not look back and see where we
could at any time have done any better than we did. No
weeds stole either plant-food or moisture from the crop. No
water evaporated directly from the soil that we could pre-
vent. We made the spring moisture serve us just as long as
possible. Of course, in time it gave out mostly, and potatoes
suffered and died in spite of all man could do. We actually
stirred the surface of the field between the rows an inch
deep after the vines were half dead, and it paid. Every
drop of water we could keep from evaporating went to help
make tubers.

CULTIVATORS.

I think I mentioned that we should try the Planet Jr. cul-
tivator and harrow with 12 teeth, of which you have a pic-
ture in another chapter. We did. It is a grand good little
tool for fine surface tillage. With the pulverizer on in the
rear I found I could set it so a man could not run the teeth
too deep. The wheel in front and pulverizer in the rear held
the teeth up so one could easily do perfect work. This is a
tool that has come to stay.

FERTILIZER EXPERIMENTS.

You will remember what I have said about how these
turned out in previous years. But I felt anxious to try them
once more this season. So I bought 1400 Ibs. of one of the
best brands of potato-fertilizers on the market. I bought

174 POTATO CULTURE.

from the manufacturers direct, so I know it was fresh, and
the best they make, as they know me and what it was to be
used for. One set of experiments was on our very best land ;
another on our poorest land, mostly clay. In each case we
put in four rows with about 500 Ibs. of fertilizer per acre ;
four rows with 1000, and four with 1500. The rows ran
through the field. We put in four rows so we could measure
the two rows in the middle of each strip, which could not be
affected by plants stealing from adjoining plots. All tillage
was exactly the same, and seed and planting. When culti-
vating we were always careful to allow of no variation in
time that could affect the result. Well, of course the rows
were marked with stakes, and we watched them pretty care-
fully, as did our neighbors and others. At no time during
the season could any one pick out the rows where fertilizers
were used, by their larger growth, either on good or poor
land— not even where more than $30.00 worth per acre was
used. Nor was there any variation at digging-time more
than what there will always be, as no two rows are likely to
yield exactly the same. In fact, some of the fertilized rows
yielded slightly less than the others. We have thrown away
our money again. As one neighbor put it, u You have paid
about $40.00 to learn what you knew before." Well, not
exactly. I did not really know but that my soil might now
respond to fertilizers ; but it will not, on poor land or rich,
where we are growing clover. One man says this was owing
to the dry season. Very well ; it is claimed that fertilizers
show effects for several years. We will see if any one can
tell in growth of wheat or clover where 1500 pounds per acre
of complete fertilizer was put.

SCAB.

To be sure that we did not plant any germs of this disease,
all seed was treated with corrosive sublimate, both the good
and the doubtful. Friend Smith's seed was perfect ; but I
knew he had some scab on his place last season, and so we

POTATO CULTUKE. 175

treated all his seed. As a result, our crop is nice and
smooth, almost perfectly so, except a few that grew on an
old strawberry patch that had been heavily manured. These
are fine and large, but scabby. We will save them to plant,
as they can be made safe by soaking in the sublimate solu-
tion. We made very much less work of doing this job this
year. Our potatoes were quite clean, and we did not wash
them. We used the same solution over and over until it
was worn out, and believe it was just as well. We shall
most certainly treat all seed next year, sound or not. We
have the new boxes, that we used last spring, carefully put
away where no germs can get on them. In these and new
bags we will handle the seed next year after treating.

SPRAYING.

We bought two knapsack sprayers— one Galloway and one
Garfield. We could not afford to fuss with one— must get
along faster. We bought knapsacks instead of a cart-sprayer
to be drawn by a horse, because, first, better work can be
done with less material by a man walking, and spraying one
row at once. He can go slower when vines are large, and
step faster when sprinkling a small plant ; in fact, he can
spray every hill perfectly. To do this with a cart would
require a great waste when vines are small. Again, the
damage from turning at the ends with horse and cart, in our
small fields, would be too much. We had as good potatoes
as the average, clear out to the very ends, this year. Culti-
vating with one horse, we need do almost no damage at the
ends in turning, even with rows coming within four feet of
the fence. Of course, in large fields one may leave head-
lands to turn on, and cultivate with two horses, and spray
with a cart and horse. But there is another point in this
spraying business : You may use a cart the first two times;
but on our farm, in a good season, by the time you want to
spray the third time, the vines will so cover the ground that
a cart would do much damage by rolling down vines. My

176 POTATO CULTUEE.

vines touched together between the rows this dry year when
we sprayed the third time. If you grow a variety of potatoes
that stands up straight, and on poor enough land so they
never cover the ground, you may use a cart and get along
faster. I would not have let you go through one piece of
ours, this year, once, with a cart, for $50. However, the
Freeman potatoes spread over the ground more than some.
Well, we bought knapsacks to spray with; and, for the
reasons given above, and after trial, we are satisfied. It is
work to carry them all day ; but when we get through we
have done our best, and no damage. As to whether spraying
with the Bordeaux mixture did us enough good to pay this
year, I can hardly say. It was a bad year to test the matter.
There was almost no blight weather. The potatoes had an

THE KNAPSACK SPRAYER.

unusually bright, healthy look where sprayed ; but there was
not blight enough present anywhere to do any damage, prac-
tically. We shall try it again most thoroughly. Perhaps I
had better tell you briefly how we managed.

POTATO CULTURE.

177

Before beginning I went to our experiment station, and
Prof. Green kindly told me just what to do. First, 1 took
one head out of a fifty-gallon* coal-oil barrel. Then I got two
four-gallon crocks. Into one I put 4 Ibs. of blue vitriol, and
brought from the house two gallons of hot water, and poured
on it. Then I put 4 Ibs. of unslacked lime (lumps) into the
other crock, and poured on water enough to slack it. Then

LOADING UP WITH THE MIXTURE.

I stirred first one and then the other. The vitriol will dis-
solve quickly in hot water. Beforehand I took a common
tin p in to the tinshop and had them cut out the bottom and
put in a bottom of fine brass strainer cloth, the same as they
use for milk-strainers. As soon as the vitriol and lime were
dissolved I poured the vitriol into the oil-barrel ; then I dip-
ped the whitewash out of the crock (make it thin by using
water enough) with a pint tin cup, and poured it through the
strainer-pan. It would usually go through quite readily,
but sometimes we had to use more water along with it to
work it through. It is necessary that this lime water be
strained through this very fine wire cloth, or the lime would

178 POTATO CULTUBE.

clog the nozzle of the sprayer. Next we put in water enough
to fill the barrel, and churned it up thoroughly. I say
"churned," notice. You can not stir it and mix as quickly.
I nailed a block across the end of a pole, making a sort of
churn-dasher.

Now for the spraying. I got two old boxes and nailed
them together so that, when a man sat down on the smaller
one, the knapsack would just rest level on the other, and
placed these boxes so the knapsack would be against the
barrel. Then I filled it (always after churning a few strokes)
with a gallon tin measure. Get a large tin funnel to use with
the measure : you can fill much faster. While men were
spraying I fixed up more vitriol and lime in the crocks, and
drew another barrel of water, so when the first barrel of the
mixture was used up I could mix another and not delay the
men, always being ready to fill their sprayers when they
came around. Our sprayers hold five gallons, and we found
this enough to go down and back on 60-rod rows, so we had
to fill only at one end of the field. It took us three about a
day (10 hours) to spray 6 acres. We could do it faster, but
we tried to do thorough work without regard to time. We
never used more than 40 gallons of the mixture per acre, and
less when vines were small — not very much less, however,
as, when vines are small, you waste some between the plants,
which, when they grow larger, falls on plants instead of on
the ground. The cost of the mixture, in money, was 20 cts.
a barrel of 50 gallons, 4 Ibs. of vitriol costing 16 cts., and the
lirne at retail costing one cent a pound. We had to buy this
a little at a time to get it fresh and unslacked. We bought
a barrel of vitriol, some 350 Ibs., so as to get it at wholesale
rates, as that will keep. We sprayed about once in two
weeks, and Prof. Green advised four or five sprayings. In
rainy weather, spraying of tener might be better, and in dry
weather you might wait longer. We began when plants
were six inches high. It will do little good to begin spraying
after blight appears. It is a preventive measure, and you

POTATO CULTUKE. 179

keep spraying often, so as to coat new leaves as they come
out, so as to prevent the blight-seeds, which float around in
the air, from taking root on them. You can use Paris green
in this Bordeaux mixture to kill the larvae of the Colorado
beetle. We did not, but picked by hand as usual.

OLD-FASHIONED BUGS.

There were many of the old blister-beetles, as we used to
call them, this year. We did not have them, but many did.
I do not believe they can be poisoned. They may be driven
off by whipping and abusing them ; but from one experience
of my own, and some I have from others, I think that poison
used as for the Colorado beetle will drive them off. They
will not eat it, and will not die, of course, as you want them
to ; but if all the vines are thoroughly wet with Paris green
and water I think they will not destroy them. They will go
to some other patch, perhaps, but I do not know what better
we can do, practically, in a large field. They may be caught
in one of our bugging-pans, with water in and coal oil on
top, or in hot water, by knocking them off the vines into it,
the same as we do the larvae of Colorado beetles, with pad-
dles. This for a small patch. I shouldn't like to try it on a
large field.

DIGGING.

I feel as though I had not said enough in favor of the
Hoover digger, it was so very valuable to us this year. The
ground was almost as dry and hard as stone. It would have
cost us a good deal of money to get the crop dug by hand,
and made us very late about getting our wheat in. With
four horses on, however, the digger went right straight
through, and no trouble, and we didn't pay out one cent for
digging (except a few cents for a bolt broken), and we took
out the potatoes in a hurry too. The last day of August we
put 305 bushels into the barn, and the next day 340. Very
few potatoes were cut, and practically none of merchantable
size left in the ground. With fast work, of course, now and

180 POTATO CULTURE.

then one will get missed. Oh, but we took those potatoes
out of that hard ground so nicely and easily and cheaply!
It was business, I tell you. But still, some would have trou-
ble. The digger must be kept in order, and every nut tight.
I ride on it myself, and know every click. I know at once if
any 'thing is wrong, and see to it before damage is done. I
have never had any occasion to send for any repairs. The
digger is in as perfect order to-day as when we bought it.
The bolt broken this year came from my being a little too
strong when I tightened a nut. I feel that this simple truth
is due the manufacturers for sending out a tool so well made
that it will stand, year after year, being drawn by four horses.

PREPARING FOR WHEAT.

We think we have done this a little better this year than
ever before, and this is really a part of potato culture, as all
large growers will have a rotation, and wheat will usually
follow the potatoes— that is, if they are early ones, and rye,
perhaps, if they are late ones. There are two particular
things we want to do after the potatoes are dug. The digger
pulverizes the rows or drills nicely. First, we want to tear
up the soil between the rows, as well as the digger does that
in the rows. Well, take your Planet Jr. cultivator with five
teeth 2i or 3 inches wide, and go right over the field between
the rows after the digger. Weight it \\ ith a large stone.
How simple ! But we never thought of it before. After-
ward we used the cutaway crosswise, lapping half, and then
we came to a point where we wanted to level the field. This
year we tried the common (about here) clod crushers and
levelers, and were pleased with the work done. It will pay
a grower to make one. Take six 4x4 scantling, say 8 ft.
long, and place them side by side, but with corners up and
down, not the flat sides, and bore t-inch holes through them
about 18 inches from each end, running an iron rod through
each of these rows of holes. A nut at the back side will hold
the scantling together, and a ring at the front end will give

POTATO CULTURE. 181

you a place to hitch a draft-chain to. Draw by a forked
chain, one end being hitched to each draft-rod. This is a

CLOD CRUSHER AND LEVELER, MADE OF 4x4 SCANTLING.

very simple and cheap leveler. After leveling we harrowed
with a Thomas smoothing-harrow, and rolled ready for
drilling. As it was very dry still, and while we were wait-
ing for rain, we then worked the land some more, although
friend Root was here when we were going over the field with
the leveler, and thought it was wonderfully fine and nice
then. You notice I am a little careful about working land
very much in the spring when it is moist, but I tell you we
grind it down fine when it is dry and we are preparing for a
crop. We can not overdo the matter then, unless a heavy
rain comes right after we put in wheat, and we try not to get
caught that way. Our soil would not go through that
Bordeaux-mixture sieve, quite, but it would not lack much
of it. Now, this is not talk, friends. I do it— have done it
for many years. It pays grandly. Be sure to use wide teeth
on the cultivator. This will stir the soil more— bring new
particles in contact more. Now, don't half prepare your
potato-stubble for wheat any more. Don't do it because you
are in a hurry to get the wheat in. A good point was made
in the Practical Farmer lately. A friend said that one day's
more work in making soil finer would put a crop ahead ten
days before winter. Several chapters might be spent on this
subject, but it is a little outside of potato culture, so I have
given only a few brief pointers.

With very early potatoes the vines will decay so as not to
be in the way of preparing for wheat. Of course, you won't
have any weeds. For potatoes that ripen later, like the
Freeman, we find it best to rake up the vines after digging,
and draw them off. Later they are spread on the poorest
places in clover field, where potatoes are to be planted the
next year. Don't burn them. Some do. I saw some burn-

182 POTATO CULTURE.

ing this year— a dead loss— nitrogen all gone back to the air,
and potash and phosphoric acid in a heap. Spread the vines
thinly, and plow under and save all.

ROTATION AND WEEDS.

When friend Root was here right after we had planted our
potatoes, he saw here and there a dock in the field. He ask-
ed me about these, and if I had said any thing about them
in the book. Now, of course I get as clean clover seed as I
can ; but we care very little for all such pests, with our short
rotation. They do us little damage. If there are docks in
the clover, and there will be some years, we cut early enough
always to prevent their going to seed. If the second crop
was used for hay, we should do the same again. If for seed,
or to plow under, we must cut out the docks. The roots
plowed under for potatoes will sprout up once or twice, and
I take a hoe as soon as the potatoes come up and run over
the piece and cut them off as low down in as I can readily,
and that ends them. The heavy growth of clover will
smother almost any thing except docks— that is, the first
year of its growth alone— and the next year, when weeds
might work in, we have it turned under and in potatoes.
Clean culture of potatoes, and use of mower on wheat-stub-
ble, along with this short rotation, gives one the up} er hand
of weeds.

FARMING TOO MUCH MIXED.

!Now, friends, don't think that you can grow potatoes as I
do, in addition to all that yoii may already be doing. We
work so systematically, and have so many tools, and have
had so much experience, and have so little else to do, that
some things I have said may leave the impression that it is
an easy matter to make potatoes pay grandly. I can point
you to men this year, as always, pretty good farmers too,
who made miserable failures in the potato-field, on account
of having too much to do. The potatoes were not cared for
all through in the best way and on time. One man can not
do every thing; and once more I would urge you to do

POTATO CULTUEE. 183

thorough work in a few lines rather than half do more things.
Friend Boot was telling me the other day about a man
who would not buy our strawberry book because Terry wrote
part of it, and he didn't believe Terry ever raised so many
strawberries on half an acre as he told of, or he would keep
on doing it. Well, strawberries pay ; potatoes pay ; but we
found it not best for us to try to make them both pay to-
gether. While we were picking and selling $200 or $300
worth of berries, we could easily lose that much in the clover
and potato fields by not being right on time with haying and
tillage. That is the trouble with much of our mixed farm-
ing. I know you will not all own it, friends, Iput it is the
truth all the same. Half-way work does not pay any longer.
You undertake more than you can study over, and really do
the best you know how. We did so at first. We got a little
off the track growing berries to sell. As seasons run, there
is the most profit, and freedom from worry, on our farm, in
sticking right by the potatoes, wheat, and clover. Some-
times wrhen friend Root is here he says, u Why don't you do
this.? and why don't you go into raising tjiat V " I am afraid
he forgets that it is different with him. He can get any
amount of extra help at any time, and, of course, can over-
see many things. We farmers usually have to get along
with a fixed amount of help the season through ; and if we
get into a pinch we can not get extra help at any minute,
and hence we may lose on one thing what we make on an-
other.

CARE OF POTATOES FOR EATING.

All are interested in this. I have to. buy my potatoes to
eat this year, as we raised all Freeman, and can not afford
to eat them yet. I bought 50 bushels of a neighbor. He
brought us one bushel right from the field, when they were
digging. They were very white and nice. The next bushel
(he hadn't time to bring the whole lot) was quite poor.
Many were yellow, and almost green. I spoke to him about
'It, and he said, frankly, that they left that bushel standing

184 POTATO CULTUEE.

in a sack in the barn where it was light for some days.
Many eat such potatoes all the time. There is no need of it.
They are not nearly as good. Keep them in the dark, from
the time they are dug until you eat them, after first growing
them down in the ground, and see how much nicer they are.
We are sorting ours over now for seed. They are exposed to
the light, of course, for some time, and would not be suitable
for eating.

STORING.

We dug as usual about the first of September, when
weather was exceedingly warm , and stored right in the base-
ment of our barn, in a pile some 60 feet long, 11 wide, and 4
deep. We find them in perfect condition. But, of course,
we handled them with care, and there were almost no
bruised ones. A cut potato may rot in warm weather when
stored in a large heap like this.

SECOND GROWTH.

I think nothing has been said about this. You can not
always prevent potatoes from making a second growth, and
being prongy, when they almost die down during a dry spell,
and then rains come and start them to growing again. The
tubers have so nearly matured that they refuse to expand
farther in a regular way, and, instead, throw out prongs, or
little tubers, from the large on.es. Careful surface tillage
helps some in the way of preventing second growth, by keep-
ing the crop thriving longer than it would if neglected. As
long as the potatoes are kept growing right along they are
quite safe. A check to their growth causes premature ripen-
ing, after which rains may make trouble, if they are not en-
tirely dead. Notice, I say may make trouble. The tendency
to grow prongs is greater in some varieties — that is, a slight
checking of growth brings it on, while other kinds can rare-
ly be induced to play this trick. The long potatoes generally
make the most trouble. Oval-shaped tubers rarely throw
out prongs. We had Freemans die down almost entirely

POTATO CULTURE. 185

last season, and afterward green up and grow for some time.
There were no prongs. The smaller tubers made use of the
new supply of food, and the large ones ripened. There is, as
you must have noticed, a greater tendency to grow prongs
where the ground is hard, as at the ends of the field where
the horses have tramped the soil much in turning. Two or
three wrote me this year, asking what they had better do
when their potatoes began a second growth and were getting
prongy. I advised them to dig and sell at once, if there was
a good demand. They were not ripe enough to store safely.
If they could not sell them green, why, they must let them
grow, although the crop would be very unsatisfactory when
badly covered with prongs.

CONCLUSION.

This book was mostly written and put in type early in the
summer ; but later the publishers decided to wait and get in
this chapter with this year's experiences; so you can see
why they are given by themselves, instead of in their proper
place in the book.

Now, friends, please do not write me, asking questions
about this and that. Every thing has been plainly told you
somewhere in the book. I would willingly write to you ; but
there are thousands of you, and only one of me, and I get so
tired of writing. It looks mean not to answer a friend's
letter (to him), even if you are so tired you can not sleep.

186 POTATO CULTUKE.

PUBLISHER'S APPENDIX.

Some of the Reasons for Plowing as directed

in this Book ; Going into the Details

a little more.

After reading what is said about plowing, on page 13, I
wrote to friend Terry in regard to it, and his reply will be
found after the following :
Friend Terry: —

It seems to me that some cuts illustrating your manner
of plowing would be an excellent thing. I confess I had to
read your description over a good many times before I got
your idea exactly, and at the same time it is a problem I
have been studying on for a good many years, and yet 1 am
not sure I have got it right now. You say, take one of our
strips 16x60 rods— do you mean 16 rods wide by 60 long V If
so, it seems to me there is a deal of running the plow and
team across the end empty— that is, doing no plowing.
Perhaps this can not be avoided. But if the above is what
you mean, why not make narrower lands V Again, why not
commence in the middle, far enough from the end so as to
plow across the ends also, and turn every furrow inward V
In this way you do not tramp the plowed ground at all ;
but there is considerable tramp ng the corners, and a bad
awkward dead-furrow when you come to reverse the process,
to bring your ground back level. May be you are all right
in having your lands 16 rods wide ; but I want to be sure
about it. A. I. It.

April, 1893.

I enjoy this criticism ever so much ; and although the
statement is as clear as I can make it, friend Root shall
have it all pictured out, and he shall be made " sure " that
I am right. I just like the chance to show that I know
what I am about, or to try to. But first let me say two or
three things. One is, that, if I should follow out every little
point to the very end, in a way that I now propose to go
over this one, this book, instead of being a little pamphlet

POTATO CULTURE. 187

that any one can afford to buy and find time to read, would
have several hundred large pages in it. Again, in my writ-
ing and institute work, the aim has been, not to tell a man
every thing, but, rather, to rouse him up, set him to think-
ing on the right track, so far as I know, but leave a little
something for him to work out, even though I might tell him
myself. Men take more stock in something they help work
out. True education consists in drawing out and leading out
the student, not in stuffing him with what you know. Well do
I remember, when, about 16 years old, going to my teacher
(Milo Clapp, now of Warren, O.), with a hard problem that
I was working over. He had given us some general hints
in the class how to go to work at it, and left us to fight it
out for ourselves. Friend Clapp looked at me very kindly
and said something like this :

" Now, Theodore, I can easily show you ; but that won't
do you any good. I would conquer that matter myself, un-
aide;l, if I were you/'

Well, I did, sitting up most of the night when our folks
thought me in bed. That doing for myself that night was
worth hundreds of dollars to me. Now, I think we are
all students as long as we live, or should be. I am studying
now on farm problems as never before. I get help and sug-
gestions from others ; but many things 1 do and must dig
out for myself. Friend Bonham lately wrote me exactly
the same thing in regard to his management of our Ohio
institutes, that it was his aim to help the farmers just
enough to lead and encourage them to help themselves.
Friend Root is a busy man, and has no time to study out^
matters ; but still he did, you see, and now he will remem-
ber and think about it ten times as much as if it had been
all made plain. Probably by this time he has thought out
Avhat I shall say now- Why, I have many times studied to
make statements that would provoke men into studying
and figuring to try to show I was wrong. What we want is
more thinking and studying over our business. Now see,

iss POTATO CULTURE.

friend Root, wiiat you have "drawn me out " to tell, and for
the first time too, L think.

Now for the figures : The first represents a field we plowed
this spring. Yes, friend Root, it is 16 rods by 60 rods. It is
16 rods wide. We plowed it as usual, in one land. This

FIG. 1 —FIELD 16x60 RODS, AND HOW TO PLOW IT.

year it was back-furrowed. The dotted line b shows the
center of the field. The short dotted lines a and c are about
10 feet from the ends of the field. These spaces between
the dotted lines a and c. and the ends of the field, were left
as head lands to draw the plow across on. First we put up
a line of stakes through, two feet to the left of 6. We use a
right-hand plow. The stakes are set to one side a little, to
drive by the first time through, so the. first furrow will be
laid over to b. Beginning at the dotted line a, I plow
straight through the field to c, then turn around to the right
and start in on line c, and go back to dotted line a, putting
the furrow just against the first, not up on top of it. Thus
I go on around the field until I have plowed to the dotted
lines d and e. Then there is a space of ten feet all around
'the field, on all four sides, to be plowed, and I plow inward
all around them and finish the piece. Practically the plow-
ed land is not trodden on at all. A perfect job has been
done. When going across the ends u empty " I take the lett
plow-handle in my right hand, catch up the reins from the
plow-handle, where they usually hang, in my left hand, and
slide across the end in a hurry, holding the plow so it will

POTATO CULTURE. iso

just run on the side of the share, and make but little mark.
The horses soon learn, when I plow, to spin across the ends.
It takes a little skill and gumption to lose hardly a second
at the corners, in turning the plow out and setting it in.

Now, in three years we will plow this field again. If we
plowed the same way we should be piling up a ridge in the
center, and making great deep furrows around the outside,
which is about as objectionable as throwing all the earth
out, year after year, making banks around the fences and a
depression in the center, and at lines from the corners to the
dead-furrow. Many fields are so treated . It is wrong. The
land should be kept level. To do this and not tramp the

ground, which is equally important, or more so, not tramp

r

n

FIG. 2.— PLOWING SAME FIELD THREE YEARS LATER, SO
AS TO KEEP GROUND LEVEL.

it any more than we did this year, we begin plowing (Fig. 2)
at w, setting the plow in on dotted line o, ten feet from the
end of the field, driving the off horse in the furrow left from
three years before, until the plow reaches the dotted line p,
ten feet from the other end. Then we slide across on the
ten-foot head -land, " empty ;" set in ten feet from the end
at r ; fill the furrow that side to the dotted line o ; run empty
across the head-land, and so on until the field is done except
the head-lands. We are careful to finish so the dead-furrow
is exactly where the ridge was made three years before.
How hard it is to get a man with gumption enough to do
this exactly ! Then after harrowing we take our scraper
potato-coverer, pictured in chapter 6 ; attach a board in a
few minutes so as to make it like a road-grader (now friend

190 POTATO CULTURE.

Koot will get stuck again!), and by running around the
dead-furrow two or three times with this, we throw in earth
enough to practically fill the furrow, and have the whole
field for a crop as three years before. But now the head-
lands :

We plow these all one way (drawing the plow back u emp-
ty," in the furrow), and, of course, throwing earth out toward
the ends of the fields, tilling the furrow as at the sides.
There is a very little tramping at the corners, of course, but
not enough to be mentioned, if head-lands are plowed when
rather dry. Practically we have this field in as good, un-
tramped condition as it was three years before when back-
furrowed. I have been able to study out no better way to
get level fields, with no waste or unproductive places, and
no injurious tramping.

Friend Root's plan of back-furrowing, so as to plow all the
time and not run across the ends empty, is pretty good; but
when plowing sod deeply you will have some piled-up ridges
from the four corners in, where you turn, much more trou-
blesome than the one straight ridge I have across each end
at the tlotted lines a and c, and far worse-looking. And then
in no way can you get that land back level the next time
without great pains at the corners, and very serious tramp-
ing. If stubble, you can plow up these corners that you
have tramped down, after the field is plowed, and help mat-
ters some ; but with sod you can not do this.

Let us now figure on these points a little. Of course, I
did this years ago, and changes have been made as a matter
of business, as well as looks. Friend Root says there is a
deal of running across the ends with plow and team without
doing any work, and why not make narrower lands? In
plowing the lot represented by Fig. 1, as it was plowed this
year, the average distance that we went light on each end
was 8 rods, or 16 rods at each round. We aim to plow but a
foot wide. We could turn wider furrows, but do not wish
to, as, at a foot wide, it pulverizes the soil more perfectly.

POTATO CULTURE. 191

There would be 264 furrows in the field, or 132 rounds ; 16
rods of going light per round on the average, for 132 rounds,
makes 2112 rods in all. This, divided l>y 320, the number in
a mile, gives something over 6| miles. If plowing myself,
and pushing things as I have most of my life, I would do
this 6i miles sliding at the ends in two hours' time. But say
my man is more easy, and takes three hours. That is slow
enough. I count the time of the man and team at $3.00 per
day, or 30 cents per hour. The going light at ends, then, as
we managed this year, cost 90 cents.

Bight here let me stop to consider another point. Plowing
is about the first hard work in the spring. The horses are
not used to it, and ought not to be worked too steadily at
first. If plowing all the time, and not going light on the
ends, I certainly would stop and let the horses rest a minute
or two quite often. We are very careful of our horses. As
it is, they get a rest, comparatively, when sliding across the
ends, even quite fast, so they are ready for another 60-rod
pull. I take it this will cut down on that 90 cents consider-
ably ; but, say nothing about it. See if we can not balance
the 90 cents with cash.

Now, friend Root, we will suppose the same field plowed in
two lands, to save some of the time that we go empty. The
average distance that we would go light in this case would
be just half what it was when the field was plowed in one
land; so in the end we should have wasted (V) in this case
but 45 cents' worth of time instead of 90; but 45 cents is
worth saving, friend Root, as sure as can be. But suppose
it costs you in another way several times 45 cents — what
then ?

With the two lands in the field, of course there would be a
dead furrow in the center of the field from end to end, prac-
tically; and with our plowing, from eight to nine inches
deep, such as we did this year in that lot, it would be a huge
dead-furrow too. This would be very apt to wash out and
cut down, on our rolling land, in some places, so a horse

192 POTATO CULTURE.

would not cross it. But never mind that. And then how it
would look, that great bare ditch through the middle, when
friend Boot went by o"n his wheel and tried his Kodak on
the field ! But let that go ; we are after actual dollars.
There will be at least one full row less of potatoes. They
won't grow in a dead-furrow as well as water will run in it ;
16 rows make an acre, and $6.00 a row would not be a large
return. Between you and me. if we have a good season I
rather hope for $10.00. We had some last year, poor as it
was, that did better than this, sold for market price, 75 cents
a bushel. But just call it $6.00 a row. It costs about $2.00
a row to plant, furnish seed, care for and harvest the crop.
This gives us $4.00 net for that row in the place of the ugly
dead-furrow, to say nothing of the wheat that will grow
there. Now how is it V With your fields drained, so narrow
lands and furrows are not necessary to carry off water, is it
or is it not business to spend 45 cents' worth of time to get
back $1.00 in net returns ? Can you make any such profit on
your manufacturing business, friend Root ? Why, it is
almost the German's 10 per cent— buy for $1.00 and sell for
$10.00. I did intend to put the figures on to the tramping of
corners with the old way of plowing, where potatoes are
to be grown ; but I think perhaps friend Root will take that
on trust now, rather than to have me write some ten pages
more.

POTATO CULTURE. 193

PUBLISHER'S APPENDIX.

BY A. I. ROOT.

Potato Culture in General.

Perhaps I should say to our readers that I am not a pro-
fessional potato-grower. In fact, the most I have done in
potato culture for many years has been to raise extra early
potatoes for the early market ; and to do this I have used
only the earliest varieties, and have started the potatoes in
a greenhouse. As we have found that, for extra early po-
tatoes, there is quite an advantage in using large whole
potatoes, we have practiced this almost entirely of late years.
We plant them in the greenhouse about -as close as we can
place the potatoes together, an d then cover them with very rich
sifted soil for about two inches. When the shoots get to be
from four to six inches high, we take them up as you take
up cabbage-plants ; but in this case the great mass of fibrous
roots hold a great quantity of soil with them. In fact, we
manage to take along pretty much all of the soil above the
potatoes, besides considerable below them. I should have
said, we generally start our potatoes under the greenhouse
benches, or in some place where there is not sun enough for
other crops. Of course, we have to calculate so that it would
be safe to move them outside before they get too long and
spindling. After all danger of frost is past they are put out
in very rich ground about the ordinary distance of planting.
Of course, the frost sometimes catches them ; but where the
ground is very soft and mellow it is not very expensive to
throw a light furrow of soft earth over them, and pull it
away again as soon as the danger is over. A better way,
however, is to put them in plant-beds 12 or 15 inches apart
each way, and have these beds covered with cotton sheeting
that may be rolled up on a pole, as we described in the

194 POTATO CULTURE.

tomato book. In this way it is but little work to protect
them from frost and cold winds ; and the ground on such
small areas can be made exactly right for potatoes; and as
they require great quantities of water where grown so close-
ly, it is an easy matter to arrange for irrigating. I confess I
have not succeeded as well as I should like to in getting ex-
tra early potatoes by this method, but I am still at work at
it. I know it can be made to succeed, because I have had
tremendous yields of beautiful potatoes that came up of
themselves in my plant beds among the other plants. I fre-
quently let such volunteer sprouts grow just for the fun of
it ; and as the potato-plant is quite sensitive, it serves some-
what as a guide for protecting other plants. If we manage
so that the potato-shoots are uninjured, the rest of the stuif
is not likely to take any harm. One drawback to this mat-
ter of raising early potatoes is, however, the exceedingly
nice potatoes that come from the South about the time
these are ready that are started under glass and cloth. We
usually get 40 or 50 cents a peck for the fore 3d early pota-
toes ; and sometimes, when the market happens to be short,
we have got as high as 60 cents. Of course, we are prepared
to dig them at any stage whenever we can get an offer that
we think will pay us for the trouble.

POTATO CULTURE FOR MARKET-GARDENERS.

Aside from raising potatoes for the early market, market-
gardeners can often put in a crop of potatoes where some-
thing else has been removed. In fact, we have had excellent
potatoes where strawberries have been turned under just
after the last picking ; but, of course, it is a little risky in
planting so late. Besides, the ground used by market-
gardeners is very apt to become in time permeated with the
pores of the scab, in consequence of the large quantities of
stable manure used. By turning under some crop like
strawberries, or even clover, and then treating the seed with
corrosive sublimate, 1 think we could manage to avoid the

POTATO CULTURE. 195

scab. Of late we have had less scabby potatoes with the
late varieties ; and we have just harvested a crop of Rural
New-Yorkers where one-third of an acre gave us 116 bushels.
These were planted some time in June, where we turned
under a piece of rye. The rye was so heavy that we found
difficulty in getting it all under the soil. It was on creek-
bottom land, somewhat sandy and gravelly, but had been
quite heavily manured before the rye was turned under.
There were almost no scabby potatoes in this lot, and yet
the seed was not treated at all ; neither were there any bugs
to bother us, of any account, except the old-fashioned ones
that friend Terry has already mentioned.

OLD-FASHIONED POTATO-BUGS.

These have been so bad in our locality that, in several
places, the farmers have turned sheep into the field and
driven them back and forth to scare off the bugs. While
this plan might be better than to let the bugs destroy them
entirely, I don't believe I should want sheep running through
my potatoes. We kept the bugs off from our Rural New-
Yorkers by scaring them off on to the ground between the
rows, and then stamping them and killing them with our
hoes. This might seem slow work ; but if you undertake it
you will find in a very little time not a bug will be found in
the patch. Keep careful watch ; and if you find . them on
the vines again next morning, route them out in the same
way. Simply driving them off with whips or bushes does not
seem to answer as well. When they begin to discover that
you mean death to the bitter end, they conclude it is time to
be going elsewhere. Sometimes where these bugs are quite
plentiful, if you drive them off from your potatoes they will
collect on the fence or on bushes, like a swarm of bees. If
you can get them to do this you are lucky. With a bundle
of shavings, burning straw, or something of the sort, on the
end of a pole, just burn up the whole swarm before they can
have time to disband.

196 POTATO CULTUKE.

STORING POTATOES WHERE IT IS LIGHT ; GETTING RID OF
DAMPNESS, ETC.

In the fall of 1886, 1, too, had a small patch of potatoes
raised on the Terry plan. They were on a piece of low
creek-bottom land ; in fact, it was a piece of ground that
had been considered so low and wet as to be good for noth-
ing. By underdraining, however, I had got rid of the
dampness entirely, and the potatoes were the second crop
that had been raised on the piece. Every thing worked
beautifully, and even friend Terry himself pronounced the
crop a fine one when he looked at it while it was growing.
Now, I have raised potatoes more or less all my life, but I
confess I had never seen any thing like what Terry describes
in this^book. I had never seen any such yields per acre,
nor any thing like digging potatoes at the rate he mentions.
When they were dug, however, I sent a good man with a
wagon-load of bushel boxes, and a bojr to pick up the pota-
toes. I came up behind them during the forenoon, and was
astonished at^the way they were throwing them out and fill-
ing the boxes. I thought they were making pretty good
progress, so I glanced at my watch, and, to my astonish-
ment, a good plump bushel was thrown out and picked up in
just six minutes. The man's wages is 15 cents per hour, and
the boy's 5 cents. So you can see it cost me just 2 cents per
bushel to dig the potatoes and put them in the boxes. I do
not know what the cultivation cost, but the ground is so
mellow it didn't cost very much. Now, there are other
places on our land where the man and boy could hardly get a
whole bushel in half an hour. Do you not see the point V
Poor ground can be made, by proper care, to do as well as
the best, and you have to go through almost the same mo-
tions that you do with the good ground.

There is something more, however, to tell about these
potatoes. We had had, the year before, trouble with our
potatoes rotting, and I found those at the top of the barrels,
at the sides, and even at the bottom, were sound, and free

POTATO CULTURE. 197

from rot, while those in the middle spoiled badly. It occur-
red to me that it was for lack of being thoroughly dried out
before they were put away, and for want of ventilation in
the cellar. Just at that time a writer in one of the agricul-
tural papers said if potatoes were stored for a while in a
loose loft in a barn, they would never rot. Accordingly my
fine crop of potatoes was placed overhead in the toolhouse,
and left there longer than they should have been. I had
forgotten , or never realized thoroughly, what friend Terry
says about keeping potatoes in the dark. I believe, however,
I shall remember that chapter the rest of my life. My large
nice potatoes,, under the influence of even the small amount
of light there was in the tool-house, had turned green— some-
times half way to the center. Now, my wife is very particu-
lar about her potatoes, and almost every day she tells me
how much trouble it is to prepare these for food, and how
much has to be thrown away, until I have decided that
hereafter our potatoes shall be stored in the blackest of mid-
night darkness, from the minute they are dug until they are
ready to use. When questioned at the institute, Mr. Terry
said that potatoes should be stored in a cellar absolutely
dark, and that they should be put on a floor of loose boards,
with plenty of openings between the boards, several inches
from the cellar bottom. Furthermore, if the quantity was
large, square wooden ventilators were to be set up every few
feet through the pile. These ventilators communicate with
the air between the locse floor and the cellar bottom. This,
you see, permits the air to move freely among the potatoes
while they are kept in absolute darkness. At the same time,
the cellar is to be kept as cold as possible, by opening the
doors and windows nights and mornings, and closing them
during the middle of the day. If managed properly, the
disagreeable operation of rubbing off sprouts may be almost
entirely avoided. Keep down the temperature, and keep
away the light.
Another thing I wish to notice right here about potatoes

198 POTATO CULTURE.

for table use. My wife says, by all means get a variety with-
out deep eyes that have to be dug out and thus consume the
valuable time of the good woman of the house.

During the session of the institute, friend Terry devoted
one whole evening to his most excellent essay, entitled
" Wife Culture." He- spoke particularly to the men in re-
gard to making our homes convenient and pleasant, and
especially in lessening the labors of the " queen of our
homes.7- This latter expression was originated, I believe,
by our good friend Prof. Cook, of the Michigan Agricultural
College.

A word more in regard to the care of potatoes in the cellar.
Friend Terry mentioned that he once drew a load of pota-
toes to a college professor ; and this professor was one of the
kind who think that, because a man is a professor in some
special branch, he knows all about everything else. This man
had his own ideas in regard to storing potatoes, and so he direct-
ed friend Terry to put them on the bottom of the cellar, right
on the ground, and spread them out " one deep," while the light
of day shown in freely from several windows. Friend Terry
remonstrated, but the professor would not listen. Of course,
he never bought another potato of friend Terry. I presume
he is ready to testify that Terry's system doesn't produce
good potatoes. Friend T. said he supposed he had been all
his life trying to find somebody who could raise potatoes
that would stay good. No doubt he grows sadder as he grows
older and meditates on the degeneration of farmers, and
especially potato-growers.

If we want to raise nice potatoes, we must plant nice ones.
The same rules that we all know work so surely in regard to
saving the seed of tomatoes seem to work writh potatoes. If
you want nice potatoes for the queen of your home, you
must select nice round smooth ones for seed. Whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he also— dig.

I think it will not be out of place to mention here, that, if
you are interested in this book, and would like to know any

i3oTATo CULTURE: m

thing more about friend Terry's system of farming, you will
find his other books noted and described on the cover a pleas-
ant sequel to this one.

UNDERTAKING TO CABBY ON A GREAT MANY ENTER-
PRISES ALL AT ONCE.

In several places in this book, friend Terry has earnestly
cautioned against this sort of thing. In fact, it is well known
that Terry advocates specialty farming, selecting one branch,
or perhaps, rather, one line of work, and doing that well. I
believe he also refers to myself as a man who is able to carry
on a good many kinds of business, having always plenty of
help that can be called on in an emergency. '1 his is true ;
but notwithstanding I am satisfied that Terry is right. I
have had, perhaps, as much experience as almost any other
one man in keeping a great number of industries going all at
one and the same time. I have all my life, however, found
that this is true : The kind of business that I give most of
my personal attention and supervision to always pays best;
and where I trust entirely, or almost entirely, to hired help,
the result is often loss instead of gain. Some people do car-
ry on two or even three farms at once. I have never tried it,
and I am sure I could not do it. I find by experience that it
is very hard for me to make any enterprise pay unless I can
look over the work, say every forenoon and every afternoon ;
and where several men are working together, I very much
prefer to look in upon them every hour. Where a man has
a good-sized family, say of grown-up sons who want some-
thing to do, the whole family can frequently manage so as
look after different enterprises with profit. If the father
grows potatoes, the sons can grow strawberries, take care of
bees, or any similar line ; and even the grown-up daughters
often manage bees and strawberries, and such other indus-
tries, very nicely. In fact, friend Terry has told us how his
daughters grew strawberries, and made money at it. When
selling the berries, however, the father's help seems to have
been a very necessary part in making the business pay.

200 POTATO CULTURE.

OTHER USP:S FOR POTATO-BOXES.

Not only do we use these for storing all kinds of roots,
potatoes, apples, etc., but while I am writing, Nov. 22, our
hands have been packing our celery as fast as it is dug,
right into the potato-boxes. We lay the boxes on one end,
then take up the celery with a little earth adhering, and
pack it tight and close in a box, till the box is full. After
being filled, the boxes are turned over right side up. The
celery can now be loaded into a wagon or other vehicle with-
out extra handling, and without breaking and mashing the
tops ; and it is bat a short job to lift it out and set the boxes
tight up together in a dark cool cellar or other repository.
If the cellar seems to be too dry, and inclined to wilt, the
whole floor of it may be flooded with water, letting it go
through the bottom so as to dampen the roots, but without
wetting the tops in the least. So far as I know, this is the
rirst time celery was ever handled in this way. But please
notice : While we were loading it up near the roadside, a
man stopped his team and wanted to know why he could not
take one of those boxes right along, put it into his cellar,
and use the celery as they wanted it. I assured him it was
exactly in the shape he wanted it for that purpose. Select-
ing one of the best boxes, when he found he could get box
and all for a dollar he handed over the money, and the box-
ful of celery was in his wagon in a minute. You will notice
this fixes it in nice shape to retail, so that people in the
country or anywhere else can use it all along through the
winter, just as they want it.

PLANTING POTATOES VERY LATE, ETC.

During the past season I have been greatly interested in
watching the operations of a young farmer in Terry's neigh-
borhood, who works on somewhat of a modification of Ter-
ry's system ; that is, he has a rotation of his own that does
not include wheat after potatoes. I can best tell you about
it by making some extracts from some notes I published in
our journal at different times during the summer.

POTATO CULTURE. 201

VISIT TO WILBUR FENN'S, NO. 1.

At Tallmadge I called on my relative, Mr. Wilbur Fenn.
He was out plowing a piece of ground just 100 rods long ;
and the minute Hooked down the furrow he had just turned,
I uttered an exclamation of surprise and delight. Do you
know why V This hundred-rod furrow was about as straight
as you could draw a string. It was of even, regular depth
its whole length, and the fine soft loam rolled over exactly
the same way from one end of the furrow to the other. In
fact, the field was almost ready to plant just as the plow
left it. My cousin, young Femrs father, explained to me
that one reason why his son did so nice a job just then, was
that he was teaching his hired man to plow straight. Some
of you may say that a crooked furrow would give just as
good a crop as a straight one. Well, 1 suppose it might
under some circumstances ; but look here, my friend. The
man who plows a straight furrow like that does every thing
else accordingly, in making his preparations for a crop. The
ground will be so well fitted, and the -planting so accurate,
that a good hill of corn will grow on every foot of the soil,
where there is room for a hill. There will not be too many
stalks in a hill nor too few ; and there will not be any good
spots in the field, and poor spots.

Young Fenn is in Terry's neighborhood, and he has
caught on to the ideas of good farming that have been so
vehemently taught. Let me tell you something about how
hard be has worked to get his ground so he could plow such
a furrow. First, all the trees and stumps were disposed of;
then the rocks and stones. Why, this same ground has been
farmed for perhaps fifty years ; and when young Fenn got
hold of it he commenced getting out every stump and stone
that would make the plow dodge. In one place, after dig-
ging out a stone that broke his plow-point, he found six old
broken plow-points in the same spot. His predecessors had
broken their plow-points one after another, and contented
themselves with putting in a new one and going ahead and
leaving the cause to do the same thing again, year after year.
Of course, the ground is underdrained ; but even then I
could not comprehend how that soil should turn over so
beautifully soft and even and fine ; but he explained it by
saying that the field was fitted for oats when that sixty-
hour rain came ; but the water settled it down so solid and
compact that he decided he would not undertake to get

202 POTATO CULTUKE.

the crop under in such conditions. Therefore he plowed it
all over, and was going to put it in corn.*

Just as 1 was stepping into the buggy to leave, our young
friend said we must hold on just long enough to see his
potatoes in the cellar. Although it was the last week in
May, he had not yet planted them, and did not propose to
plant them for some little time. His forte is late potatoes,
and he does not undertake to put in wheat after them, as
friend Terry does. In fact, he has a rotation of his own fash-
ion, suiting his own needs. The cellar was closed up as tight
as a bandbox.- Not a bit of air nor light could get in. A
hundred bushels of potatoes which he had selected and saved
for planting were piled up in the celrar ; and so cool was it
kept that scarcely a sprout had begun to show, even though
it was in May. He raises principally the Monroe Seedling ;
and every time I go p-ist his place late in the fall I enjoy
looking at the bright clean green foliage that is sure to be
been in his potato held just before frost. Somebody told me
that he had last season about 1400 bushels, for which he
received over $1400. You may say he was lucky in having a
big crop when there was a general scarcity ; but I tell you it
was more hard thinking and prompt acting at just the right
time than it was luck.

VISIT NO. 2, AUGUST 5.

About June 1 I saw the potatoes that he intended to plant
spread out in his cool cellar with scarcely a sprout on them ;
and in this present visit, Aug. 5, we bad just been having a
nice rain, and I supposed he would be out among them. On
inquiry I learned that such was the case. A bright little
girl and a couple of boys volunteered to take me down to
the held" where their papa was at work. As we passed
through the garden I began to make exclamations of sur-
prise to see it looking so well during our severe, drouth. The
children. I found, knew all about it. They could tell me
just where the Snyder blackberries wore, the Agawam, and
all the other varieties. My youngest brother, wno was just

* You see, the point is,: that an expert farmer will not undertake to
produce a crop unless he has the conditions something- near what he
thin ks3 they ought to be. I have frequently had ground fitted ready
to plant, just as he did; but I went ahead and put in the seed, thinking
I could not very well help the matter. Of course, this field 100 rods long
was:_doing things on a little larger scale, and it would be rather expen-
sive business to go ahead when there is a strong probability of failure
over so large a piece.

POTATO CULTURE. 203

then paying me a visit from his far-away home in Tempe,
Arizona, declared something as follows :

" Why, brother Ame, I believe I am more interested in
looking at the blackberries than I shall be with the potatoes.
Perhaps you had better go on, and leave me here for a little
while."

I accordingly did so. Of course, I enjoyed the black-
berries (in two ways); but when I got to where I could see
around the rank growth of canes, I did indeed enjoy a
glimpse of that potato -field. The hundred bushels of seed
had been spread over about nine acres, and it was a great
deal like friend Terry's clover. There were no bad spots,
and very few extra good spots. The foliage was rank and
green, and the cultivators were just stirring the soft tine
soil in a way that ought to make any one who loves farming
feel happy. There were a few weeds scattered here and
there ; but my friend said the cultivators would destroy the
greater part of them. Said I :

"Why, look here, Wilbur, where, are the bugs? What
have you done to get rid of them V"

" I haven't done any thing."

" But haven't you had any bugs at all V has your potato-
patch looked just like this all through this season, when
everybody else has been having such a terrible time with the
old-fashioned kind and the new-fashioned kind too V"

" No, we did not have any ; and, what is more, I did not
expect to have any."

May be you think this pretty cool, dear reader; but I tell
you, a farmer who has studied into the matter, and has be-
come acquainted with nature and nature's laws, can often
predict a successful crop in just this way. I did not have
time to get at the full particulars ; but I think his success
in evading bugs is, first, by planting late ; then by having
soil and every thing else in such shape that he can get such a
rank growth that the bugs do not relish them or make much
headway in their work of destruction. He has visited friend
Terry, and they have compared notes, and talked matters
over. Now, a great truth comes in right here, and one
which, I am sure, friend Terry will fully indorse. It is this :
Mr. Fenn, as he is situated, and as he has been working, does
not deem it best to follow Terry exactly. In the first place,
he does not put in wheat after his potatoes ; therefore he
plants them late— just as late as he can and avoid frost ; and
so with other things. But a visit to friend Terry 's stimu-
lates him to more energy and harder study in the line he is

204 POTATO CULTURE.

working on, even if it be a little different from that of Ter-
ry's. That we may learn to think and act for ourselves, is,
if I am right, what Terry is trying to teach. His potatoes
are planted on clover sod ; but there is a heavy growth of
timothy mixed in with the clover. He plants with a ma-
chine. He said he agreed with friend Terry about hand-
planting, and would prefer it; but as he is situated, it is
hardly possible for him to take time to plant by hand. As
we went over the field, we found, as Terry has said, here
and there a hill entirely missing. Sometimes two hills pretty
close together were missing. These misses amount to more
thin F had supposed until friend Terry called attention to it.
Mr. Fenn cuts to one eye, or pretty nearly, as Terry does. I
asked him if there were no remedy lor these missing hills
when planting by machinery. He said he knew of none. Of
course, there will be less of them if you set the machine so
as to put two pieces in occasionally instead of one ; but
when you reach the proper limit, the remedy is as bad as the
disease, or even worse. Now, I am inclined to think the
men who make the planters will in some way get around
this objection. I suggested putting something else in to till
up these empty places ; but in that case you have two crops
on the same piece of ground, and the fuss and bother would
be more than the crop would be worth. Another thing, the
value of the land has a bearing upon the question of missing
hills.

Before we left, I wanted to see the crop on that ground
where that straight plowing was done. It seemed almost in-
credible that there should be a good stand of corn where he
was plowing so recently as Junel. But there it was. I tell you.
friends, there is not a more encouraging sight in this world
than an enthusiastic and successful young farmer ; and one
secret of the success I have mentioned was the bright intelli-
gent young wife who shows by her looks that she is in full
sympathy, and knows all about the work that is going on
outdoors as well as in the house. Yes, and this is all true,
even if she did have a fine healthy-looking baby in her arms,
that was no part of the household during that other visit,
June 1.

VISIT NO. 3, NOV. 6.

I found cousin Wilbur just where I wanted to see him.
He was out in that nine-acre field of Monroe Seedling pota-
toes. Four horses were moving the Hoover digger, one man
driving, with a boy following to wait on the driver, throw

POTATO CULTUEE. 205

potatoes out of the way that might be covered when they
came back, and, if 1 recollect, six men were picking the
potatoes up. I expected something of those potatoes that
had not seen a bug or a bit of blight ; and as they are on
upland, and rather sandy soil, they had kept right on grow-
ing almost into November. The yield was about 200 bushels
per acre, of the finest-looking' potatoes I ever saw spread out
in the field. I was astonished to find almost all of them of a
nice table size— very few small ones, and almost no prongy
potatoes, or those with a little potato growing out at one
side. I suppose the variety and his method of management
had much to do with it. The ground was just loamy enough
so the potatoes tumbled out bright and clean and handsome.
I fell in love with them at once. Now, here is a point that I
want you to observe : When I came into the field every
thing was going on like clockwork, and those potatoes were
being deposited in his nice cellar in almost a steady stream ;
but, of course, I had to stop and ask questions. Pretty soon
the team stopped, and could not go on unless the " boss of
the ranch " gave directions. Perhaps I might as well tell
you that I got to bantering him for a carload of potatoes,
and, of course, he could not very well neglect a chance to
sell a carload, even before they were taken into the cellar.
But there were several details to be arranged about ship-

Eing, furnishing boxes to put them in, etc.; and in a very
3W minutes the whole gang of workmen came to a stand-
still. The moral is, be careful how you bother a man when
he is bossing a job that requires half a dozen or more expert
helpers. I told him it was too bad, and so I made my visit
quite a hurried one.

One thing that threw him out occasionally, was, they did
not have quite enough potato-boxes. I told you six men
were picking up potatoes. As fast as they get a load the
team comes around and the potatoes are set on the wagon,
and taken directly to the cellar. You can do this with a
crop of potatoes that are just ready to dig by the first ot
November. The air is cool then, the potatoes are cool, and
friend Fenn assures me that he piles them right into the
cellar, even four feet deep. Under such circumstances he
carries them through till the following May, or even up into
June, with scarcely a sprout and not a particle of wilting.

Before I started for home we looked into the cellar, and
saw how he unloaded. An inclined plane made of strips ot
wood runs from the wagon clear down to the bottom ot tne
cellar. The bushel boxes are set on this inclined plane, on a

206 POTATO CULTURE.

sort of carrier. The man with the wagon lets this down
with a rope. Another one in the cellar bottom pours them
on to the pile. The boxes are pulled up with the same ar-
rangement, and, without any lifting or lugging, the load is
disposed of very quickly.

Farming doesn't pay ! Doesn't it, though V Friend Fenn
is getting more for the potatoes that grew on this land than
the land itself would sell for. What do you think of that-
paying for a farm with the proceeds from a single season V
and a regular farm crop at that ! You may ask about the
expense of growing this crop. Well, it was not very expen-
sive. The only manure was clover and timothy — that is, if I
am correct ; and the cultivation was all done by horse power,
the driver riding on the cultivator. The potatoes were also
planted and dug by horse power. I do not know what he
values his farm at ; but I do know that, within less than a
mile of his home, there is land that can be bought for $40.00
an acre— may be less than that ; and what he is doing is on
a farm that was called, only a few years ago, a poor run-
down farm, and not of very much account.

P. S.— Since writing the above I learn he has taken, from
the nine acres, 1910 bushels.

POTATO-BOXES FOR PURCHASERS OF POTATOES.

I have mentioned in the previous pages of purchasing a
carload of Monroe Seedlings, just as they lay on the ground.
The farm where they were grown is about 25 to 30 miles from
our place. Four hundred and fifty empty potato-boxes were
stored in the car, which was then sent to the nearest station
to the grower. Although in the latter part of November,
the grower loaded the boxes on to his wagon, took them to
his cellar, filled them, and set them back on the wagon, then
made a trip to the car, bringing another load of boxes. On
Wednesday, the 22d of November, the Weather Bureau
notified us by telegram that a cold wave and a blizzard
would reach us by Thursday night. The notice was given
us about 36 hours ahead. The railroad companies were noti-
fied that several hundred dollars were at stake; and the
managers of our own railroad, the Pittsburg, Akron & West-
ern, were considerate enough to hold the train half an hour

POTATO CULTURE. 207

so they could get the potatoes through and enable us to save
them from the frost. The car was planted on our side-track
at just 5 o'clock. We had notice of its coming, and eight of
our men and boys were invited to go into the lunch-room
and have a good supper, so that they might be ready to han-
dle the potatoes before Jack Frost could nip them. The
thermometer showed only 15 degrees above zero, and there
was a brisk west wind. The boys, however, handled the
potatoes so quickly' that, within two hours, the whole carload
was safely deposited in the cellar, and the doors and win-
dows closed. Yon may be sure I drew a long breath of
relief when the last box went away. I guess the boys drew
some long breaths too. Jt was worth something to see the
way those boxes full of potatoes moved into the place assign-
ed them. Now, here is a little to the credit of our Weather
Bureau. They have been criticised during our recent drouth
because rains did not always come when they told us condi-
tions were favorable ; but as to the matter of temperature
they made hardly a mistake ; and J am glad to be able to say,
also, that at least one railroad company in the United States
was willing to hold a train half an hour for the sake of sav-
ing a carload of potatoes.

Suppose these potatoes had been picked up or shoveled up,
poured into the car, picked up or shoveled up again, and
poured into our cellar. Think of the bruising and injury,
aside from the convenience and neatness in doing the work.
Another thing, as a great part of these potatoes are to be
sold at retail, many customers will pay 15 cents extra for the
privilege of taking the nice new clean bushel boxes home
with their potatoes, for almost every family will find these
boxes, that hold an exact bushel when level full, exceedingly
handy to have in the cellar, barn, or other out-buildings.

208 POTATO CULTUKE.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter. Pag-e.

1. Soils and their Preparation 8

2. Manures and their Application 20

3. When and how far apart shall we Plant V 81

4. Shall we Plant deep or shallow V 38

5. Shall we Plant in Hills or Drills ? 42

6. How to make the Drills and fill them 46

7. The Potato-planter 54

8. What Varieties shall we raise V 58

9. Selection and care of Seed 62

10. Prevention of Scab 73

11. Cutting Seed 80

12. Cultivation ,. 92

13. Bugs and Blight 108, 195

14. The use of Bushel Boxes 115

15. Suitable Wagons for handling 119

16. Digging 125, 196

17. Storing, Sorting, and Sprouting 135

18. Potato-growing as a Specialty 143

19. Rotation and Clover 149

20. Cost of Production, and Profits 162

CONTENTS OF APPENDIX.

Potatoes, Starting under Glass and Cloth for Extra Early.. 193

Potato Culture for Market-gardeners 194

Rural New-Yorker ]Sro. 2 195

Rye, Turning it under for Potatoes 195

Bugs, Potato, Old-fashioned 108, 195

Potatoes, Keeping them in the Dark 196, 198

Dampness, Getting Rid of 197

Digging, How much does it Cost ? 196

Carrying on many Enterprises at Once 199

Potato-boxes 200, 207

Potatoes, Planting them very Late 201, 206

Weather Bureau, value of 206

POTATO CULTURE. 209

Descriptive Price List of Bushel Boxes.

For the benefit of those who are interested in bushel
boxes, and wish to know what they cost, and where to get
them, we reprint the following from our bushel-box circular :

When the first edition of the A B C of Potato Culture was
published a few years ago, we had calls for these boxes, and
accordingly arranged to furnish them ; and, later, there was
a demand for cheaper ones ; and as they came into more
general use it was discovered that they were equally good
for handling onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, melons, etc., and
we have sold many of them for handling all these crops.
We make one style so low in price that, for many things, it
could be used as a gift crate for sending produce to a distant
market In the following pages we describe the three styles
we keep in stock and are prepared to furnish promptly. If
there are other sizes or styles that you find you can use to
better advantage we shall be pleased to receive specifica-
tions, naming the quantity you can use, and we will make
estimates. As these boxes go at fourth-class rate of freight,
the charges are reasonable, even to distant points, ranging
from 1 to 3 cents per box, depending on the distance.

You notice the dimensions given by Terry in chapter 14
are 13x13x16 inches, inside measure. We make them I inch
wider and i inch shallower — i. P.,
121 deep, 13£ wide, and 16 inches
long, practically the same dimen-
sions, but changed just enough so
that, when you handle them emp-
ty, one box can be placed inside
of two others. Thus they occupy
only two- thirds the space, and can
be handled in bundles of three at
a time instead of singly. Some do
not consider a box of this size so easy to lift and carry as one
made four to six inches longer, and proportionately narrower
and shallower; but we consider that the advantages in favor
of this size more than overbalance this slight disadvantage,
if it may be called one. Two of these, end to end, just fit
crosswise of an ordinary wagon-box that is not less than 34
inches wide.

210 POTATO CULTURE.

The material used in the boxes is basswood, which is the
lightest for the same strength of any thing. It is also tough,
and holds nails well, and will not split in nailing. If, in nail-
ing, you soak the ends of the slats or boards, the nails will
drive much easier, and will absolutely prevent splitting.

The boxes used by Mr. Terry are made close, with no ven-
tilation ; they are also bound with iron, for strength and
durability. As we now make them, the ends are of three
pieces, i inch thick, with a cleat ix2 inches across each end ;
the two lower pieces, 5 inches wide, are set close together ;
leave a i-inch space for a hand-hole, and a 2-inch piece on
top. The cleats across the ends up and down are placed in-
side the box when nailing on the sides and bottom. This
gives one inch surface to nail the sides to ;
reduces the weight of the box, and makes it
stronger. The sides and bottoms are each
in two pieces, 6i wide, and strong, f thick.
The upper edge of the sides on the bound
boxes are iron bound with roofing-tin folded

nthus, and slipped on with the edges in
appropriate grooves. When the box-
es are nailed up, a piece of galvanized
iron i inch wide is passed around each end,
leaving six or eight inches above the hand-hole uncovered,
so there may be no danger of cutting the hands in lifting or
carrying the boxes. This binding on the top edge and
around the ends adds just 5 cents to the cost of each box,
but is well, worth it, because of the increased durability.
These boxes are packed for shipment in crates of 1 doz , 10
in the flat packed inside of two nailed up, and nails are in-
cluded for the ten. Each package weighs about 85 Ibs., and
the price is $2.10— much less, you notice, than Mr. Terry
paid for the first lot he had made. Shipped in this way they
go as 4th-class freight, while if shipped all nailed up they go
at Ist-class— more than double the 4th-class rate. Price of
above boxes, all nailed, in lots of 10 or more, will be 22 cents
each.

POTATO CULTURE.

211

Slatted Bushel Boxes.

In these we use the same ends
that we do in the above solid
boxes, but the sides and bottoms
consist of slats fx2, five on each
side and six on the bottom.
Since adopting the following
all-slatted boxes we do not sell
many of this pattern. Slatted
boxes are not usually iron-
bound, because they would be
quite liable to catch where the
iron crosses the crack between
the slats. These boxes are also packed 12 in a crate, 10 in
the flat being packed inside of two nailed up, and nails in-
cluded for the 10 ; a crate weighs about 80 Ibs. Price $1.50.
These boxes furnished, all nailed up, in lots of 10 or more, at
18 cents each.

All-Slatted Boxes.

This is the cheapest box we make, and the one we now sell
the most of. The ends are made in the same way as above,
except that we use six slats instead of boards crosswise, thus
making them open on the ends as well as the sides. I hese
are used for tomatoes, apples, cucumbers, etc. In fact,
there is nothing of about the size of these, and larger, that
could not be handled in these crates. They are as cheap to

212 POTATO CULTURE.

ship garden stuff to market in as the ordinary barrels and
crates, besides being much lighter and neater. The above
cut shows the manner in which all the boxes are uacked for
shipment. These all-slatted boxes are put up 15 in a pack-
age, 13 in flat being packed inside of two nailed up, and nails
for the 13 included. A package weighs 90 Ibs., and the price
is $1.50, or at the rate of 10 cents per box. These boxes,
furnished all nailed up, in lots of 10 or more, at 15 cents each.

Condensed Price List.

Solid bushel box, galvanized bound, per Weiyht.

crate of 12 $2 10 85 Ibs.

Slatted bushel box, per crate of 12 - 1 50
All-slatted bushel box, per crate of 15 - 1 50

80 Ibs.
90 Ibs.

Galvanized binding alone, per crate

of 12, 60

In lots of 10 crates, any one or assorted kinds, 5 per cent
discount.

If there are any other styles of crates or boxes that you use
and prefer we are prepared to quote prices on application.
Please give accurate specifications and quantity wanted. As
a rule, the larger the quantity the better the price. We can
make special prices on above in large lots ot 50 crates or
more, also to dealers who wish to handle them.

Covers.

Mr. Terry mentions covers as being often convenient. We
have never furnished many of these, but are prepared to do
so, if any want them, at $5.00 per hundred for plain
boards 15x18 inches, without cleats, or cleated at $6.00 per
100. Send orders and inquiries to

A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio.

OUR DAISY

Wheelbarrow

There are very few farms or gardens where the work can not be
greatly lightened by the use of a wheelbarrow. This is especially true
if you can get one sufficiently strong and yet light enough so as not to
be a burden in itself. You will look a long time before you find one
that will meet your needs better than the Daisy shown above. This
weighs only 35 to 40 Ibs., and yet it is warranted to carry 500 Ibs. safely.
It has oil-tempered springs, so as to avoid the jar on the arms. The
wheels and legs are of steel; the wheels now furnished have round
spokes set zigzag. The whole is handsomely painted, striped, and
varnished, so that it is truly a ** daisy." It pleases so well that we have,
during the past few years, sold over 1000 of them, and have had three
carloads in all made especially for us, and so ]ow that we are able to
offer them for a less price than you usually have to pay ror a clumsy
article not nearly so handsome, light, and strong. The sideboards are
removable. The dashboard is attached with two bolts and two braces.
It is shipped with legs and braces wired to the wheel, and sides and
dash crated to the handles and bottom. We furnish two sizes— the
larger one, No. 2, being about two inches wider and a little deeper than
No. 3, the smaller. Price of No. 3 is $4.00; of No. 2, $4.25. In club orders
of three or more, we will furnish three of the No. 3 for $10.00, or three
of No. 2 for $10.50.

A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio.

A B C OF

STRAWBERRY CULTURE.

FOR FARMERS, VILLAGE PEOPLE, AND
SMALL GROWERS.

A BOOK FOR BEGINNERS.

BY T. B. TERRY.

The above book, by Terry, with some additional remarks by A. I.
Root, is, at the present time, creating1 an enthusiasm and interest in
strawberry culture never known before. It is a book of 144 pages and
52 engravings, and is fully up to the times.

PRICE 35 CTS.; BY MAIL, 4O CTS.
PUBLISHED BY A. I. ROOT, - - MEDINA, OHIO.

GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE,

A 36-Page Semi-Monthly.

$1.00 Per Year.

Each issue is printed on the finest of book paper with the best
book ink. handsomely illustrated with a large variety of original
engravings. Sample copy free.

THE MANUFACTURE OF

BEE-KEEPERS' SUPPLIES^

IS OUR SPECIALTY.

A 52 -page catalogue of every thing pertaining to bee culture
will be sent for your name on a postal.

A.. I. ROOT, - - - MEDINA., OHIO.

THE WINTER CARE OF

HORSES 0! CATTLE ;

The Most .Humane and

Profitable Treatment.

By T. B. Terry.

Although the book is mainly in regard to the winter care of

horses and cattle, it touches on almost every thing

connected with successful farming.

Shelter, Comfort, jFeec/ing-, Exercise, Kindness, dif-

ferent Sorts of Seed, and a full Treatise on

tlie Most Economical Way of Sav-

ing- Manure.

A full description of Terry's model barn is also given.

MAPLE SUGAR AND THE SUGAR BUSH.

BY PROF. A. J. COOK,

AUTHOR OF THE

Bee-keepers' Guide, Injurious Insects of Michigan, &c.

The name of the author is enough of itself to recommend any

book to almost any people; but this one on Maple Sugar

is written in Prof. Cook's happiest style. It is

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED,

And all the difficult points in regard to making the very best

quality of maple syrup and maple sugar are very fully

explained. All recent inventions in apparatus,

and methods of making this delicious prod-

uct of the farm, are fully explained.

PRICE 35 CTS.; BY J&£AJX, 4O CTS.

PUBLISHED BY A. I. ROOT, MEDINA, OHIO.

Tile Drainage,

OR

Why, Where, When, and How to Drain Land with Tiles.

A PRACTICAL BOOK FOR PRACTICAL FARMERS.

BY W. I. CHAMBERLAIN, A. M., LL. D.

Formerly Secretary of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, and late
President of the Iowa State Agricultural College. At pres-
ent Associate Editor of the Ohio Farmer.

" Tiles are political economists. They are so many young

Americans, announcing a better era and. a day of

fat things. "—Ralph Waldo Emerson.

This is a valuable companion to our other rural books. It embraces
the experience of forty years of one of our foremost practical agricul-
turists, who has laid with his own hands over 15 miles of tile. The
book is fully illustrated.

PRICE 35 GTS.; BY MAIL, 4O GTS.
A. I. ROOT, MEDINA, OHIO.

IN THREE RARTS.

Part First.— By J. W. Day, of Crystal Springs, Miss., treats of Tomato
Culture in the South, with Some Remarks by A. I. Root,
Adapting it to the North.

Part Second.— By D. Cummins, of Conneaut, O., treats of Tomato Cul-
ture Especially for Cunning=Factories.

Part Third.— By A. I. Root, treats of Plant=Growing for Market, and
High=Pressure Gardening in General.

This little book is interesting because it is one of the first rural books
to come from our friends in the South. It tells of a great industry
that has been steadily growing for some years past; namely, tomato*
growing in the South, to supply the Northern markets. The little
book, which is fully illustrated, gives us some pleasant glimpses of the
possibilities and probabilities of the future of Southern agriculture.
Even though you do not grow tomatoes *-.o any considerable extent, you
will find the book brimful of suggestions of short cuts in agriculture
and horticulture, and especially in the line of market-gardening.

J*RICE 35 CTS.; BY MAIL, ZO CTS.

A. I. ROOT, - - - MEDINA, OHIO.

THE A B G OF BEE CULTURE.

By A. I Root.

A Cyclopedia of Every Thing Pertaining to the Care
of the Honey=Bee.

This is a cyclopedia of 400 pages, and is beautifully illustrated by
over 300 engraving's, many of them full page. Some of the latter em-
brace a view of the apiaries of some of our largest and most successful
bee-men. The whole work is elegantly bound in cloth, 7 inches wide by
10>£ inches long, and embossed on side and buck in gold. It would be
an ornament on the center-table of any bee-keeper's home.

Since the first issue in Ib77 its average sale has been over 200 copies
per month, and the sale has been steadily increasing from the first.
Prices: Neatly and s rongly bound in cloth, by mail, $1.25; by express
or freight with other goods, $1.10.

Merrybanks and His Neighbor.

By A. I. Root. This is the title of a little book of 210 pages and 68
illustrations. It narrates the alternate failure and success of a begin-
ner who ultimately, through much tribulation, becomes a successful
bee-man and a power for good in Onionville. Appropriate original cuts,
many of them humorous, are interspersed here and there, representing
some of the droll experiences which a beginner with bees sometimes
passes through. Besides bees, it talks of other rural pursuits, such as
gardening, maple-sugar making, etc. It has a good deal to say about
our homes, and more particularly one home which was started upon a
sandy foundation, but eventually became builded upon the Rock Jesus
Christ. The book is full of instruction; price 25 cents ; Scents extra
when sent by mail.

What to Do, & How to be Happy While Doing It,

The above book, by A. I. Root, is a compilation of papers published
in GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE in 1886, '7, and '8. It is intended to solve
the problem of finding occupation for those scattered over our land,
out of employment. The suggestions are principally about finding
employment around your own homes. The book is mainly upon mar-
ket-gardening, fruit culture, poultry-raising, etc. I think the book will
be well worth the price, not only to those out of employment, but to
any one who loves home and rural industries. Price in paper covers,
50 cts. ; cloth, 75 cts. If wanted by mail, add 8 and 10 cts. respectively.

A. I. ROOT, MEDINA, OHIO.

books by T. B. Terry and Others.

The long- winter evenings bring- extra time for
reading A part of this time could not be more prof-
itably spent than in reading- the following- rural
1 land-books which we send by mail at the uniform
price of 40c each.

The A B C of Potato Culture.

Paper, 320 pages, 4x5, illustrated. This
is T. B. Terry's first and most masterly
work. The book has had a large sale,
and has been reprinted in foreign lan-
guages.- The second edition, reset and
almost entirely rewritten, is just issued.
When we are thoroughly conversant
with friend Terry's system of raising
potatoes, we shall be ready to handle almost any
farm crop successfully. Price 40c, postpaid.

The A B C of Strawberry
Culture. Paper, 150 pages, fully il-
lustrated. This is Terry's latest small
book, and has received some very high
words of praise. Who among rural
people does not have a little garden-
patch ? If you would learn to raise in
it that most luscious of all fruit, the
strawberry, with the best results, you
can not be without this little book. Even if you don't
grow strawberries you will be the better for reading it.

By W. I. Cham-
able

Tile Drainage.

berlain. This is a valuable companion
to our other rural books. It embraces
the experience of forty years of one of
our foremost practical agriculturists,
who has laid with his own hands over
15 miles of tile. Paper, 150 pages, il-
lustrated. Price 40c, postpaid.

Winter Care of Horses and
Cattle. This is friend Terry's second
book in reg-ard to farm matters; but it
is so intimately connected with his
potato book that it reads almost like a
sequel to it. If you have only a horse
or a co\\r, I think it will pay you to in-
vest in the book. It has 44 pages, 7x10,
illustrated. Price 40c, postpaid.

Maple Sugar and the Sugar-
Bush. By A. J. Cook. Paper, 44
pages, 7x10, illustrated. This is most
valuable to all who are interested in the
product of our sugar maples.. No one
who makes maple sugar or syrup should
be without it. If you don't make maple
syrup you may want to know how it is
made, and how to judge of a good ar-
ticle when you buy it. Price 40c, postpaid.

Tomato Culture. In three parts.
By J. W. Day, D. Cummins, and A. I.
Root. Paper, 150 pages, illustrated. A
most valuable treatise embracing field
culture, forcing under glass, and rais-
ing plants for market. Valuable to
any one raising garden stuff of any
kind, aside from tomatoes. Price 40c,
postpaid.

A B C of Carp Culture, in pa-
per covers, illustrated. This is a work
of 70 pages, 7x10, written by Geo. Finley
and A. I. Root, and the best authority
on the subject of carp culture yet in
print. The rearing of carp is a pleasant
and profitable amusement. This book
will tell you all about it. Price 40c.

Terry's First Large=Sized Book.

We have just received 100 copies of " Our Farming,"
from Wm. Henry Maule. Price, by mail, postpaid,
$2 00. If ordered by express or freight with other
goods, you may deduct the postage, 15c.; or we will
send the book by mail, postpaid, with GLEANINGS,
for $2.50.

A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio.

Books for Bee- Keepers and others.

Anyoft?«ese books on which postage is not given will be
forwarded by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price.

In buying books, as every thing else, we are liable to disap-
pointment if we make a purchase without seeing the article.
Admitting that the bookseller could read all the books he
offers, as ne has them for sale, it were hardly to be expected
he would be the one to mention all the faults, as well as good
things about a book. I very much desire that those who favor
me with their patronage shall not be disappointed, and there-
fore I am going to try to prevent it by mentioning all the
faults, so far as I can. that the purchaser may know what he
is getting. In the following list, books that I approve 1 have
marked with a * ; those I especially approve, ** ; those that
are not up to times, t ; books that contain but little matter for
the price, large type, and much space between the lines,t,
foreign, §. The bee-books are all good.

BIBLES, HYMN-BOOKS, AND OTHER GOOD BOOKS.

As many of the bee-books are sent with other goods by
freight or express, incurring no postage, we give prices sepa-
rately. You will notice, that you can judge of the size of
the books very well by the amount required for postage
on each.

8 Bible, good print, neatly bound 20

10 Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress** — 30

20 | Illustrated Pilgrim's Progress** 75

This is a large book of 425 pages and 175 illustrations, and
would usually be called a 32.00 book. A splendid book to pre-
sent to children. Sold in gilt edge for 25c more.

6 | First Steps for Little Feet. By the author of

the Story of the Bible. A better book for young children can
not be found in the whole round of literature, and at the same
time there can hardly be found a more attractive book. Beau-
tifully bound, and fully illustrated. Price 50 c. Two copies
will be sold for 75 cents. Postage six cents each.

5 Harmony of the Gospels 35

3 John Ploughman's Talks and Pictures, by

Rev. C. H. Spurgeon* 10

1 | Gospel Hymns, consolidated Nos. 1,2, 3, and

4, words only, cloth, 10 c ; paper 05

2 | Same, board covers 20

5 | Same, words and music, small type, board

covers 45

10 | Same, words and music, board covers ... 75

3 | New Testament in pretty flexible covers. . . 05
5 I New Testament, new version, paper covers. 10
5 | Robinson Crusoe, paper cover 10

4 Stepping Heavenward** 18

15 Story of the Bible** 100

A large book of 700 pages, and 274 illustrations. Will be read
by almost every child.

5 | The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life**.. . . 25

8 j Same in cloth binding- 50

I " The Life of Trust, "-by Geo. Muller** 1 25

1 I Ten Nights in a Bar-Room, T. S. Arthur*. . 05

5 | Tobacco Manual** 45

This is a nice book that wilJ be sure to be read, if left around
where the boys get hold of it, and any boy that reads it will
be pretty safe from the tobacco habit.

BOOKS ESPECIALLY FOR BEE-KEEPERS.

"^tJ r. * -D ri>rice witn°ut postage.

A BCof Bee Culture. Cloth i 10

A Year Among the Bees, by C. C. Miller. . . 45
Advanced Bee Culture, by W. Z. Hutchinson 50

Amateur Bee-keeper, by J. W. Rouse 22

14 | Bees and Bee-keeping, by Frank Cheshire,

England, Vol. 1.8 ... 2 36

21 | Same, Vol. II.8 " r 279

or, $5.25 for the two, postpaid.

I Bees and Honey, by T. G. Newman 1 00

10 | Cook's New Manual. Cloth 90

5 I Doo little on Queen-Rearing 95

2 I Dzierzon Theory 10

I | Foul Brood; Its Management and Cure;

D. A. Jones 09

I 1 Honey as Food and Medicine 05

10 I Langstroth on the Hive and Honey-Bee*.. 1 25

15 I Langstroth Revised by Ch. Dadant & Son. . 1 25
10 | Quinby's New Bee-Keeping i 40

| Thirty Years Among the Bees, by H. Alley 50

4 I Success in Bee Culture, by James Heddon 46
| Handling Bees, by Langstroth. Revised

by Dadant 08

| Bee-keeping for Profit, by Dr. G. L. Tinker 25

5

The Honey Bee, by Thos. William Cowan. .

British Bee-Keeper's Guide Book, by Thos.

William Cowan, England § 40

3 | Merrybanks and His Neighbor, by A.I. Root 15

4 I Winter Problem in Bee-keeping, by Pierce 46

MISCELLANEOUS HAND-BOOKS.

I ABC
5

5 | A B C of Carp Culture, by Geo. Finley 35

ABC of Strawberry Culture, by T. B. Terry

and A. I. Root, 144 pages ; 32 illustrations 35

5 | An Egg- Farm, Stoddard** 45

| Amateur Photographer's Hand-book** 70

Barn Plans and Out-Buildings*. . . 1 50

Canary Birds. Paper, 50

Draining for Profit and Health, Warring. . 1 50

10 Fuller's Grape Culturist ** 1 40

Farming For Boys* 76

_his is one of Joseph Harris' happiest productions, and 'it
seems to me that it ought to make farm-life fascinating to any
boy who has any sort of taste for gardening.

7 I Farm, Gardening, and Seed-Growing** 90

This is by Francis Brill, the veteran seed-grower, and is the
only book on gardening that I am aware of that tells how
market-gardeners and seed-growers raise and harvest their
own seeds. It has 166 pages.

12 I Gardening for Pleasure, Henderson* 1 85

While " Gardening for Profit "is written with a view of mak-
ing gardening PAY, it touches a good deal on the pleasure part;
and "Gardening for Pleasure " takes up this matter of beauti-
fying your homes and improving your grounds without the
special point in view of making money out of it. I think most
of you will need this if you get " Gardening for Profit." This
work has ±04 pages and 203 illustrations.

MISCELLANEOUS HAND BOOKS.-

12 | Gardening- for Profit, new edition** 1 85

This is a late revision of Peter Henderson's celebrated work.
Nothing that has ever before been put in print has done so
much toward making market gardening a science and a fasci-
nating industry. Peter Henderson stands at the head, without
question, although we have many other books on these rural
employments. If you can get but one book, let it be the
above. It has 376 pages and 138 cuts.

I Gardening for Young- and Old, Harris** .... 1 25

This is Joseph Harris' best and happiest effort. Although it

goes over the same ground occupied by Peter Henderson, it

particularly emphasizes thorough cultivation of the soil in

preparing your ground; and this matter of adapting it to
young people. as well as old is brought out in a most happy
vein. If your children have any sort of fancy for gardeningit

will pay you to make them a present of this book. It has 187
pages and 46 engravings.

10 | Garden and Farm Topics, Henderson** 75

| Gray's School and Field Book of Botany. . . 1 80

5 I Gregory on Cabbages ; paper* 25

5 Gregory on Squashes; paper* 25

5 I Gregory on Onions; paper* 25

The above three books, by our friend Gregory, are all val-
uable. The book on squashes especially is good reading for
almost anybody, whether they raise squashes or not. It strikes
at the very foundation of success in almost any kind of

15 i How to Make the Garden Pay.** 1 35

By T. Greiner. This is a new book, just out, and it gives the
most explicit and full directions for gardening under glass of
any book in the world Those who are interested in hot-beds,
cold-frames, cold-greenhouses, hot-houses or glass structures
of any kind for the growth of plants, can not afford to be" with-
out the book.

| Handbook for Lumbermen ... 10

10 | Household Conveniences 140

2 | How to Propagate and Grow Fruit, Green* 15

2 I Injurious Insects, Cook 25

10 j Irrigation for the Farm, Garden, and Or-
chard, Stewart* 1 40

This book, so far as I am informed, is almost the only work
on this matter that is attracting so much interest, especially
recently. Using water from springs, brooks, or windmills, to
take the place of rain, during our great droughts, is the great
problem before us at the present day. The book has 274 pages
and 142 cuts.

3 | Maple Sugar and the Sugar-bush** 35

By Prof. A. J. Cook. This was written in the spring of 1887 at

my request. As the author has, perhaps, one of the finest
sugar-camps in the United States, as well as being an enthusi-
astic lover of all farm industries, he is better fitted, perhaps, to
handle the subject than any other man. The book is written
in Prof. Cook's happy style, combining wholesome moral les-
sons with the latest and best method of managing to get the
finest syrup and maple sugar, with the least possible expendi-
ture of cash and labor. Everybody who makes sugar or mo-
lasses wants the sugar-book. It has 42 pages and 35 cuts.

Poultry for Pleasure and Profit** 10

Practical Floriculture, Henderson* 1 35

. Profits in Poultry* 90

2 | Practical Turkey-raising 10

By Fanny Field. This is a 25-cent book which we offer for 10
cts. ; postage, 2 cts.

4 | Peabody's Webster's Dictionary 10

Over 30,000 words and 250 illustrations.

II

This

MISCELLANEOUS MAND BOOKS.

2 | Rats: How to Rid Farms and Buildings of
them, as well as other Pests of like Char-
acter... 15

This little book ought to be worth dollars instead of the few
cents it costs to any one who has ever been troubled with these
pests, and who has not? It is written in such a happy vein
that every member of the family will read it clear through ,
just about as soon as they get hold of it. It contains a com-
plete summing up of the best information the world can
furnish;

1 I Silk and the Silkworm 10

10 | Small-Fruit Culturist, Fuller 1 40

10 | Success in Market-Gardening* 90

Tnis is a new book by a real, live, enterprising, successful
market-gardener who lives in Arlington, a suburb of Boston.
Mass. Friend Rawson has been one of the foremost to make
irrigation a practical success, and he now irrigates his grounds
by means of a windmill and steam-engine whenever a drought
threatens to injure the crops. The book has 208 pages, and if
nicely illustrated with 110 engravings.

! Ten Acres Enough — .. 100

| The Silo and Ensilage, by Prof. Cook, new

edition, fully illustrated 2fc

I Talks on Manures* 1 76

Jhis book, by Joseph Harris is, perhaps, the most compre-
hensive one we have on the subject, and the whole matter ie
considered by an able writer. It contains 3G6 pages.

2 | The Carpenter's Steel Square and its Uses. 15
10 | The New Agriculture; or, the Waters Led

Captive 75

2 | Treatise on the Horse and his Diseases 10

5 I Tile Drainage, by W. I. Chamberlain 35

Just out. Fully illustrated, containing every thing of im-
portance clear up to the present date.

The single chapter on digging ditches, with the illustrations
given by Prof. Chamberlain, should alone make the book
worth what it costs, to every one who has occasion to lay ten
rods or more of tile. There is as much science in digging as
in doing almost any thing else; and by following the plan
directed in this book, one man will often do as much as two
men without this knowledge. The book embraces every thing
connected with the subject, and was written by the author
while he was enga-.ed in the work of digging the ditches and
laying the tiles HIMSELF, for he has laid literally miles of
tile on his own farm in Hudson, O.

5 | Tomato Culture 35

In three parts. Part first— by J. W. Day, of Crystal Springs,
Miss., treats of tomato culture in the South, with some re-
marks by A. I Root, adapting it to the North. Part second —
By D Cummins, of Conneaut, O,, treats of tomato culture
especially for canning-factories. Part third — By A. I. Root,
treats of plant-growing for market, and high-pressure garden-
ing in general. This little book is interesting because it is one
of the first rural books to come from our friends in the South.
It tells of a great industry that has been steadily growing for
some years past; namely, tomato-growing in the South to
supply the Northern markets. The little book, which is fully
illustrated, gives us some pleasant glimpses of the possibili-
ties and probabilities of the future of Southern agriculture.
Even though you do not grow tomatoes to any considerable
extent, you will find the book brimful of suggestions of short
cuts in agriculture and horticulture, and especially in the line
of market-gardening.

8 | What to Do and How to be Happy While

Doing It, by A. I. Root 50

MISCELLANEOUS HAND BOOKS.

2 | The New Celery Culture ... 15

This summing-up of this new industry amounts to this;

You fix your ground just as rich as you can possibly get it,
with stable manure, chemical fertilizers, or any thing else that
will do the business. Then put out your plants 7 inches apart
each way, and give them water enough to make them boom
right along from the word go. The idea is somewhat new;
hut enough succeeded in 1892 to demonstrate that, like the new
onion culture, it promises great possibilities.

3 I Winter Care of Horses and Cattle 35

This is friend Terry's second book in regard to farm matters;

but it is so intimately connected with hir potato-book that it
reads almost like a sequel to it. If you have only a horse or a
cow, I think it will pay you to invest in the book. It has 44
pages and 4 cuts.

3 | Wood's Common Objects of the Micro-
scope** 47

NEW BOOKS ON GARDENING.

2 I Celery for Profit, by T. Greiner 25

The first really full and complete book on celery culture, at
a moderate price, that we have had. It is full of pictures,
and the whole thing is made so plain that a schoolboy ought
to be able to grow paying crops at once, without any assis-
tance except from the book.

3 | Onions for Profit 45

Fully up to the times, and includes both the old onion cul-
ture and the new method. The book is fully illustrated, and
written with all the enthusiasm and interest that character-
ize its author, T. Greiner. Even if one is not particularly in-
terested in the business, almost any person who picks up
Greiner's books will like to read them through.

5 | Manures; How to Make and How to Use

them ; i n paper covers 45

6 | The sarue in cloth covers 65

Covering the whole matter, and discussing every thing to be
found on the firm, refuse from factories, mineral fertilizers
from mines, etc. It is a complete summing-up of the whole
matter. It is wi-itten by F. W. Sempers.

7 | Market-gardening- and Farm Notes, by

Burnett Landreth 90

The Landreths are the pioneer seedsmen of America; and
the book is worth fully as much as we might expect it to be. I
think I received hints from it worth the price, before it had
been in my hands fifteen minutes. It is exceedingly practical,
and tells what has been dune and what is BKINO done, more
than it discourses on theory.

A.. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio.

YB 46496

02827,3

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY