EXPERIMENTS IN POTATO CULTURE. 127 



came just in time to seriousl}' affect the early potatoes, and before 

 the later ones had advanced enough to be seriously affected, rain 

 came, and the weather was cooler, so the late potatoes produced a 

 much larger crop than the early ones. The reason wh}' there is 

 sometimes such great difference in the yield of two fields with all of 

 the conditions apparently alike, except a few days' difference in the 

 time of planting, is because of an unfavorable state of the weather 

 when one field has advanced to a condition to be the most seriously 

 affected, while the other has passed beyond it, or has not arrived at 

 it until the weather has changed. If at the time the tubers are 

 making the most rapid growth there comes a state of weather that 

 stops or checks the growth, the crop will be seriously affected, and 

 will never recover, however favorable may be the state of the weather. 

 If a new growth is forced it will be in the direction of new tubers 

 and not, as a rule, the enlargement of the old, except in the shape 

 of warts or prongs, both of which are undesirable. The most that 

 the farmer can do to prevent loss b}' the variations in the weather is 

 thorough cultivation and nearly level culture on dry land. You prob- 

 ably suffer by the drouth as much as we do and possibly, though not 

 probably, you ma}', on some of your land, suffer by too much wet, 

 "wiiich will check the growth quite as quickl}' as too dry weather. Of 

 course you understand that the remedy for this is underdrainiug and 

 hilling. 



Every farmer who desires to grow potatoes to the best advantage 

 must be intelligent enough to understand the conditions of the soil 

 on his own farm, for his method of preparing the soil, of planting 

 and cultivating his crop, as well as the particular fertilizer that is 

 best to be used, depends mainly on the character and condition of 

 the soil. If I should give you my practice, and you should adopt it, 

 it might be fatal to the production of a crop on your soil. In fact^ 

 I am compelled to adopt different methods on different parts of my 

 own farm. If I plant on a light soil, I plant deep, so as to make the 

 hill entirelv below the surface, keeping the land entirely level. If I 

 should plant shallow and hill I should not get half a crop. If I 

 plant on a wet soil, the seed is planted very near the surface, and 

 the hilling commences at planting time. Methods of planting and 

 cultivation must be governed by the character and condition of the 

 particular soil that is to be planted. So no farmer should have a 

 particular method unless his land is all alike. Nor must he copy 

 the methods of his neighbors or of public speakers unless the sur- 



