220 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



cultivations which the potato crop should receive if it is to amount to 

 much. On many farms there is a surplus of straw or old hay from the 

 tops and bottoms of stacks which could be used for this purpose, so that 

 the cost of the material need not be considered. Less labor is required 

 to spread the mulch before the potatoes come up, but a better stand is 

 secured by waiting until after the plants are well up and placing the 

 straw carefully about them. It is usually necessary to rake off the 

 greater part of the straw before digging the potatoes, which of course 

 adds materially to the expense of this method of growing them. One ad- 

 vantage from the standpoint of the labor which mulching has over culti- 

 vation is that it can be done at one time and no further attention need be 

 given the patch so far as tillage is concerned during the season. If a 

 large area were to be mulched, it would be impossible to do this except 

 when the ground is fairly dry, since loads of straw could not be hauled 

 onto the field when wet. In case of the ordinary farmer, who will wish 

 to mulch only a small area, he can mulch say two or three rows along 

 the side of his field. The mulch for these rows can be spread from the 

 driveway at the side of the field without driving the wagon onto the 

 potatoes at all. Under these condtions a day can be taken for spreading 

 the mulch when the ground is too wet for cultivation either in the potato 

 field or elsewhere, so that in reality very little time will be lost from the 

 other work. 



Even though it were somewhat more expensive to grow the seed 

 tubers by mulching than by cultivation, which is not the case ordinarily, 

 it would pay to use this method of seed production. If the yield of the 

 Whole field next year can be increased as much as ten of fifteen per cent — 

 and this is less than half the average increase which we have secured at 

 the Eperiment Station— it would pay certainly for any added expense in 

 producing the seed under a mulch. For the average farmer, therefore, 

 it would seem better to grow seed tubers at home under a litter mulch 

 of some sort than to use homegrown seed produced in the ordinary 

 way, and also better than to depend upon buying Northern seed. For the 

 large potato grower, who can go north and select his own seed from 

 suitable soils of who can deal directly with some reliable potato grower 

 in whom he has confidence, the northern seed will doubtless remain the 

 best; but the general farmer who grows a small area of potatoes cannot 

 always know, when he buys northern seed, what locality the seed came 

 from, what type of soil it was grown on, or in some cases whether it was 

 grown in the North at all. Potatoes grown in the North on sandy soil are 

 not supposed to be as good for seed as potatoes grown on heavier soils, 

 potatoes grown in the North by a careless grower, not well cared for, 

 •so that the plants did not mature properly, cannot make as good seed as 

 potatoes grown by a careful grower. In conclusion, then, I would recom- 

 mend to the man who is to grow a small area of potatoes to try produc- 

 ing his seed tubers at home under a little mulch. At the Experiment 

 Station this has given very satisfactory results, even better results, in 

 fact, than we have secured from seed brought in directly from reliable 

 growers in the North. 



