No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 129 



iiieaus a deep furrow and very light covering. 1 have learned to 

 discard the covering disks of planters, and the seed is left in the bot- 

 tom of the furrow, having as a covering the small amount of fine 

 soil that rolls upon it from the sides of the furrow as the planter 

 shoe passes. This method gives a strong, heavy sprout. As soon 

 as it appears, a harrow or weeder is used on the ground, thus par- 

 tially filling the furrows. When the potato plants appear through 

 this, a second harrowing fills the furrows, giving loose, clean soil for 

 the potatoes. 



The potato scab is a fungous disease that may be in the soil. If 

 it is on the seed to be planted, the germs are killed by use of a solu- 

 tion of corrosive sublimate, but when it is in the soil, the problem 

 is more diflicult. After four or five years experimentation, I am 

 firmly convinced that a slight souring of the soil, by plowing down 

 a green crop in the spring, furnishes conditions under which the 

 scab germ can not thrive. During these years I have used rye for 

 this purpose, plowing the growth under when about twelve inches 

 high, and have cleaned some very foul land of this disease. 



The prevention of early blight in a way practicable to an exten- 

 sive potato grower puzzles me. I apply the Bordeaux mixture with 

 an arsenite until vines fill the middle in our early planted fields, 

 using a barrel and pump on a one-horse wagon, with a spraying at- 

 tachment to the wagon that covers four rows at a time. This spray- 

 ing kills or drives away the flea beetle, w'hose work probably induces 

 attacks of early blight, and it may prevent attacks of other insect 

 and fungous foes of the potato, thus aiding the best possible growth 

 before the customary time for appearance of the blight. That time 

 is in midsummer, when some very hot and showery weather usually 

 prevails for at least a few days. In such weather I have, as yet, 

 very little faith in preventives of early blight. If money were no 

 object and the vines were kept thoroughly coated with the Bor- 

 deaux mixture throughout the growing season, using knapsack 

 sprayers for this purpose and making applications after every rain, 

 the blight might be controlled. I do not know. 



The late blight is not a prevalent disease of the potato in Penn- 

 sylvania, appearing only in quite cool and moist summers. 



Methods of cultivation of the potato depend upon the character 

 and condition of the soil. When it is loose and properly drained, 

 level and surface cultivation is decidedly best. For ease and cheap- 

 ness in handling the crop, light and substantial bushel boxes are 

 almost a necessity. 



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