Potato Cui^ture. ■ i6i 



meat well adapted to potato culture during the early part of the 

 season. The practice of cultivating potatoes once or twice and 

 then finishing with the shovel plow, ridging the soil or hilling 

 the potatoes, is most admirably adapted to hasten evaporation of 

 the moisture and to produce a meagre crop, a large percentage of 

 which is small and unmarketable. 



With an abundance of plant-food and moisture for complete 

 growth, another requisite is a healthy foliage, and to secure this 

 requires careful attention. The earliest pest in the season of 

 1896 was the little flea beetles which made their appearance 

 June 6. They work on the leaf and so puncture it that 

 its vitality is injured and it is unable longer to properly per- 

 form its functions. A thorough spraying with Bordeaux mixture 

 put an end to their depredations. The potato beetles made their 

 appearance in large numbers about June 23. The second spray- 

 ing was with Bordeaux mixture and Paris green, four to six 

 ounces of Paris green to 40 gallons of the Bordeaux mixture. 

 This was put on most thoroughly by means of a force pump. 

 The Bordeaux mixture served to prevent early blight and 

 the Paris green destroyed the beetles. A third spraying was 

 given July 16, the materials used being the same as in the pre 

 vious case. The late blight was almost entirely prevented and 

 the Paris green served its purpose in keeping the beetles in check. 

 On one plat, sprayed with the Bordeaux mixture but once, the 

 vines died from two to three weeks earlier than on plats that had 

 been thoroughly treated . The fourth and final spraying was given 

 August loth. Had this treatment not been given, increased 

 tillage would probably have failed to produce such satisfactory 

 results. The period of growth would have been lessened, the 

 foliage would have been unhealthy, due to the attacks of blight 

 and the flea beetle, and the potato beetles would have so 

 destroj'ed the foliage that the manufacture of starch which goes 

 on in the leaves in the presence of sunlight would virtually have 

 stopped. The potatoes would have been but partially developed 

 and inferior in quality, and instead of having only ten bushels of 

 small ones to three hundred bushels of large ones, the percentage of 

 small ones would probably have been greatly increased. It is the 

 custom with some to plant their potatoes late in order to avoid the 



