482 BOAED OF AGRICULTUKE. 



them just as long as the tops are green. Do not plow deep, but have 

 some implements that will just loosen up the top of the ground and keep 

 the top loose and ccmserve the moisture and prevent the gi'ound from 

 caking and see if you do not get potatoes, nine times out of ten. If you 

 do not, charge it up to the ludiana Bureau of Statistics. 



As I said in the beginning, what I have said to you I have said withoyt 

 any special preparation, and you may be very thankful this afternoon 

 that I did not have a paper to read because it would have been longer, 

 and I have told what I had to say just as well as if I had been reading. 



I thank you very much for your attention. 



Mr. Garretson: I would like to ask when he would break the jvound 

 to plant June potatoes? 



Mr. Johnson: That would depend. I consider the best ground for the 

 potato crop is land that has just been brought into cultivation. It is a 

 good site for potatoes, and I should break it just before I planted my 

 potntoes. If it were planted in clover I would turn it under and then 

 plant the potatoes. If I were preparing ground especially for the potato, 

 the summer before I would put on a little barn manure, just a light 

 dressing. There is no crop that responds so quickly and so readily and 

 gives such results if you put on a little manure, as potatoes. 



Are there any questions? 



Mr. Snodgrass: I am growing potatoes. I have cultivated potatoes 

 on the soil wliore I live, wliich I have brought up to a high standard of 

 production from a point where it was almost a failure when I started in 

 seven or eight years ago. I could hardly get as many out of the patch 

 as I planted. It was not quite as good as the Irishman who planted a 

 bushel and dug a bushel and never lost a potato. Sometimes I would lose 

 a few. I think we should take the condition of the soil into consideration 

 and see what fertilizer it lacks and supply it. I do not wish to take the 

 floor away from the gentleman who had it at first at all, but I wish to 

 add a few ideas which are in line with my experience. I do not think 

 there has been anything said about treating the potato for the scab. A few 

 years ago my potatoes were as scabby as could be; now you can not find a 

 scabby potato. This is because I treated them for It. It will work most 

 marvelously. A larjje potato crop is like a fruit crop. If we treat the 

 potatoes for fungi as we do a fruit crop we will not have the scab. I pro- 

 duced 280 bushels per acre this year. I thought that was good. The dry 

 weather struck us just a little bit too soon. I have been working for a 

 potato tliMt would i^roduce a crop on black soil. It is hard to find a variety 

 that will pro<liKe a crop on that kind of soil, but this potato will do it. 

 It will grow a good crop on either kind of soil, one just about as good 

 as the other, taking dry weather into consideration. We want a good rich 



