Growing Potatoes Successfully in New York. 



By T. B, Terry. 



Farmers who have nearby markets can grow potatoes almost 

 any way and get along. Those who raise this crop to ship to mar- 

 ket, or to sell to shippers, have to manage carefully to make any- 

 thing in the future. The former sell to the consumers, or to the 

 retail grocers. They get almost all there is in the business. The 

 latter have to pay commissions and profits to dealers and freight 

 to railroads. Potatoes are now grown by the hundred acres on a 

 single farm in Aroostook county, Maine, in Michigan, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, Kansas, etc., etc. Many of these growers have rich 

 land and great, clean fields, without obstruction. Large shippers 

 get rebates from the railroads, at any rate they can get their 

 potatoes, hundreds of car-loads, moved long distances for very 

 little money comparatively. Machinery is used on these great 

 fields to produce the crop as cheaply as possible. Growers of 

 potatoes for shipping, in New York, have to meet this competition. 

 A few years ago they did not. High freight rates prevented the 

 moving of potatoes long distances. But all this is changed. It 

 will require the best methods in the future to make money grow- 

 ing potatoes, on the average. 



Cheap Fertility. 



The large growers above named, except in Maine, are not pur- 

 chasing plant food to any extent. They have enough in their 

 soils, or at least they get along with what they have. Aroostook 

 county, Maine, has used large quantities of fertilizers for potatoes; 

 but the writer was there some years ago, talking to large audi- 

 ences and telling them they ought to grow clover in regular rota- 

 tion and reduce the fertilizer bill. Reports from there show they 



