202 Bulletin 228. 



the dropping did more accurate work. In fact, with a quick, faithful 

 attendant the placing of the seed can be made nearly or quite 100 

 per cent correct. 



None of the machines handled earth enough in the planting 

 operation to satisfy those conducting the test. The seed is not 

 placed as deep in the soil as it should be and the soil is not loosened 

 about the seed as it should be. The opening apparatus on some 

 machines simply presses the soil aside and compacts it instead of 

 raising and loosening it after the manner of a plow. Again, the 

 covering apparatus does not work deep enough nor ridge the earth 

 up over the row sufficiently for best results in light mellow soils. 

 Perhaps in soils with considerable clay they cover sufficiently. Not- 

 withstanding these shortcomings, the planters are indispensable if 

 considerable areas of potatoes are to be grown, and do better work 

 than is usually secured by hand planting. 



Wheel cultivators of various patterns are now so well known and 

 widely used as scarcely to need mention here. For use in the potato 

 field while the plants are small, they greatly excel the small culti- 

 vators both as to qualtity and rapidity of work. When the vines 

 get large, however, the small cultivators must be used to maintain 

 the mulch between the rows. They should have a wheel in front 

 and a runner or guard at the rear to keep the blades from cutting 

 deep enough to injure the roots growing between the rows. 



Potato diggers are not as satisfactorily developed as are the plant- 

 ers. If the attempt is to raise the potatoes, separate them from 

 the soil and lay them on the surface in convenient shape for picking 

 up, digging is a much more difficult undertaking than planting. 

 Several machines accomplish this feat in a satisfactory manner in 

 mellow soils free from stones and unencumbered with weeds. The 

 machines that do not undertake to do so complete work can be used 

 to fair advantage where the former class utterly fails. One digger 

 that is little more than a heavy, strong double mould-board plow 

 with tines or prongs at the rear to help to separate the potatoes 

 from the soil has proved with us very helpful in harvesting the crop 

 under conditions where the more complicated tools were useless. 

 As in the case of planters, however, the grower of any considerable 

 area of potatoes can no longer afford not to use a digger if he can 

 find one that will do satisfactory work in his soil. A farmer whose 

 operations we have closely followed, has within a few years intro- 

 duced into his potato growing a planter, wheel cultivator and digger 

 and states that he can now produce f6ur acres of potatoes with the 

 labor and expense formerly expended upon one acre and secure 

 even better results than formerly. 



J. L. Stone. 



