300 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doe. 



almost two decades, giving universal satisfaction. It deposits the 

 seed at a uniform depth and in a perfectly straight line in the row, 

 thus admitting of closer cultivation to the young plants and does 

 away "with the costly labor of dropping and covering by hand. My 

 planter has two sets of coverere, and the plow, through which the 

 seed is to drop to the bottom of the furrow, is so constructed as 

 to open the upper half of the furrow sufficiently wide to admit 

 of the coverers to run inside, thus utilizing the moist, pulverized 

 soil to the lower half of the furrow for the covering. The front 

 coverers are so adjusted as to cover up the seed with about an 

 inch of this soil, on top of which the fertilizer is evenly distributed 

 through a fertilizer attachment. The rear coverers following add 

 another inch, thus covering up the seed, with only about two inches 

 of this moist, pulverized soil all told, still leaving a depression of 

 several inches in the row when finished. This light covering of 

 the seed admits of air and light putting in their effective work, 

 by forcing the eyes of the seed to send forth strong, stubby sprouts, 

 a feature which means much to the potato crop in its later stage of 

 growth. My method of proceeding after this is to wait until those 

 young shoots have nearly all appeared above ground and are plainly 

 visible through the row, but not of sufficient height to bend over 

 under the pressure of another covering, which generally requires 

 about eighteen or twenty days after planting. The soil that was 

 pushed aside in opening the furrow will then be drawn back and 

 the depression filled in again, thus giving the seed another covering 

 of about two and a half inches, forming slight, broad ridges. If 

 you don't like to do this, I would advise you to do it anyhow, simply 

 shutting your eyes while doing it, then leave the field and never 

 return until seven or eight days have elapsed and you will be 

 surprised at the headway the young plants will have made. They 

 will practically all have again appeared above ground, stalky, strong 

 and thrifty, finely tucked up in a fresh, mellow, finely pulverized 

 soil, entirely freed from the millions of young weed plants which 

 had germinated and surrounded them before their second burial, 

 and of which hardly any will ever reappear to rob them of nourish- 

 ment and soil moisture thereafter. Another great advantage de- 

 rived from this second covering is that it lifts the soil in stirring, 

 and after the operation leaves it as clean and mellow as possible in 

 the rows, where the tubers are to form, whereas harrowing, so fre- 

 quently resorted to by many potato growers, to level down ridges 

 and destroy young weed plants, will continually pack the soil, and 

 should positively be avoided on heavy limestone land. The only 

 thing that remains to do to provide for the comfort of the young 

 growing plants and their ability to spread their fibrous roots and 

 assimilate [)lant food, as they become in need of it, is to operate 



