Potato Growing in New York. 



183 



rye. Once a good stand of crimson clover was secured. Sometimes 

 the cover-crop had time to make only a small growth before winter 

 set in. In the spring, without waiting for the cover-crop to grow, 

 the land was plowed as soon as the soil was dry enough. In this 

 climate the soil and subsoil are almost sure to be thoroughly sat- 

 urated with water at sometime during early spring. Owing to the 

 porous subsoil the surplus in this case would soon drain away and the 

 early" plowing would check loss of capillary water by evaporation 

 from the surface. Professor King has shown (see "The Soil/' p. 

 188) that an un plowed Wisconsin soil lost by evaporation in seven 



Fig. 156. — Covering potatoes by Cornell method. 



days in April nearly 200 tons of water per acre, more than was lost 

 from the same soil that had been plowed. Usually the potato crop 

 is limited at some season of its growth by the amount of moisture 

 that is available. By early spring plowing and by maintaining *an 

 earth mulch thereafter, we probably conserve a maximum amount 

 of the winter's rainfall for the use of the crop in its time of need. 

 The twice plowing and frequent harrowings that the land has re- 

 ceived have thoroughly pulverized and aerated the soil and put it in 

 favorable condition for chemical and bacterial activity. The method 

 employed in planting also results in a much greater movement of the 



