THE POTATO. 267 



find, however, a greater return by planting in drills, dropping 

 a third or a quarter of a medium sized potato about a foot 

 apart in the drills. The covering can be done by a plow. If 

 a composition of ashes, plaster and fine salt be sprinkled 

 on the potatoes before being covered, in the proportion of five 

 bushels of ashes, one of plaster, and half a bushel of salt, it 

 will be found a very cheap and very effectual fertilizer, all the 

 more efTectual if a bushel of superphosphate of lime be ad- 

 ded to the compound. The latter article is, however, so often 

 adulterated that farmers are not always sure of obtaining 

 what they bargain for. Between the drills we run the culti- 

 vator often to keep the ground well aerated. It is well to do 

 this after each rain, for this packs down the soil and on clay 

 land a thin crust forms on the surface which greatly impedes 

 the entrance of air and moisture unless broken. One hoeing 

 is generally sufficient, but just as the vines have obtained 

 their maximum size and while they are still erect, we run 

 Shaw's cultivator, minus the teeth, between the drills, the 

 mould boards of which push the dirt to the sides of the po- 

 tatoes, making a bed for the young tubers to rest in as soft 

 as the feather beds on which our mothers used to sleep. 



To cut or not to cut the seed is the question with 

 many farmers. Planting, as we do, in drills, we always cut 

 the seed, for we wish to plant medium sized potatoes, and one 

 potato in a place would be overstocking. To those who plant 

 in hills whole potatoes are not so objectionable. The eyes in 

 this case have more starch in the parent tuber from which to 

 draw nourishment till new rootlets are sent out. Cutting is 

 certainly a rather rough surgical operation, and in a cold, 

 wet spring cut seed is more apt to decay, as the skin of the 

 whole potato, being of a corky nature, keeps out the wet. To 

 guard against this tendency to decay in cut seed, we place it 

 in a barrel as soon as cut, put on a quart or two of plaster, 

 and give the barrel a good shaking. The plaster adheres to 

 the wet surface, and besides forming a barrier against the 

 access of moisture, furnishes some food for the young plants. 

 It is often objected to planting whole potatoes that too many 

 stalks grow in a hill. There is some weight in this objection, 



