40 Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 



dried weeds on an acre wotild mean the loss by evaporation 

 through the leaves into the air of some 300 to 400 tons of water. 

 Often the potatoes seriously need the water. Don't let the weeds 

 use it up. Keep the surface so constantly stirred with smooth- 

 ing harrow, weeder and cultivator that no weeds practically can 

 ever see day light; then they will be killed as they sprout in the 

 soil. 



Do you think the large western grower will give careful atten- 

 tion to all these points? Well, I am afraid not, usually. It is a 

 grand chance for you to get ahead of him. Till thoroughly to 

 help feed your crop, and to water it. This is no idle tale; no 

 theory. The writer has made thousands and thousands of dollars 

 by putting into practice for many years all that is written here. 

 He has grown large crops without fertilizer, over and over again. 

 He has grown large crops (|100 to |160 per acre), almost without 

 rain, right in the midst of failure. In the worst seasons he has 

 cleared a hundred dollars an acr« on potatoes over all cost, and 

 furnished neighbors with what they wanted to eat, although they 

 planted in the spring, and on just such land as his. Man can do 

 almost anything, and he believes in doing it and making success 



come. 



Other Pointers Briefly Outlined. 



Above you have a foundation that is solid and good. One can 

 not enter into the small details of the business in a brief article 

 like this. It would require a book. But I will try to give you a 

 few important pointers. The western man drives about five 

 horses, that draw a wide disk harrow, and leads three more that 

 are following with a smoothing harrow, across his long fields. 

 Change your fields so as to make them as long as you can and get 

 large tools and drive more than two horses. If j'ou are going to 

 grow potatoes to sell to shippers, or to ship yourself, grow 

 enough to amount to something; enough so that you can afford 

 the best labor-saving tools on the market. The Kobins planter is 

 the best one made. The Hoover digger is almost perfect, under 

 any reasonable circumstances. I say this after riding on it many 

 seasons. We use four horses to draw it. Of course being all iron 

 it is not fit to dig soft, green potatoes. We have found it well 



