718 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



PLANTLNG POTATOES. 



No arbitrary rules can be laid' down safely for our government 

 in the growing of any crop. Soil and climate are varying factors 

 to be considered. But we can know the nature of the plant we 

 would grow, and learn what conditions favor it, and then use those 

 methods which, in our particular instance, will most nearly secure 

 those conditions. We have learned that the potato likes a cool, 

 moist soil, and we know that extreme heat is harmful. A corn plant 

 likes heat. We learn to guage roughly the yield of corn in the 

 United States by watching the range of the thermometer. There 

 must be moisture for corn — moisture is the first essential in all plant 

 growth — but moisture with absence of normal heat will not give us 

 a good crop of corn. Great heat with normal moisture will give us 

 a very big yield. Heat fills the cribs rapidly. This cereal being a 

 heat-loving plant, we wait until the ground is warm before planting; 

 we do not plant deeply but let the first roots feed at the surface, and 

 we try to utilize the mid-summer heat for forming the ear. 



But the potato, as we have seen, does not want so great a degree 

 of heat. It thrives best in the most northern States, or on moun- 

 tain ranges having the climatic conditions of more northern regions. 

 It wants the cold that corn dislikes. In the center of the corn belt 

 we plant that grain after the soil warms up, and yet early enough to 

 bring the earing stage in mid-summer when there is abundance of 

 heat. In the latitude of best corn production we have too much mid- 

 summer heat for the potato, and we learn to do one of two things: 

 To plant very early and get all growth possible before August, or to 

 delay planting so late that the vines will be making their best de- 

 velopment of tubers in September when the nights are cool. WTiere 

 the planting is very early, even in case of medium varieties, a fair 

 yield may be gotten by the first of August. If that month should be 

 unusually cool, a maximum crop is gotten, but we count upon the 

 time prior to that date. When the planting is late, we do not want 

 any approach to maturity of vines until the fall brings cool weather 

 favoring growth of tubers. For this belt nothing can be said in 

 favor of planting at a time half-way between early and late. The 

 vines reach a stage of growth that makes them subject to the dis- 

 eases that develop in great heat, and yet have not had time for mak- 

 ing a crop. Farther north these conditions do not prevail; the 

 summers are cooler, and planting in May is as safe as earlier or later. 



Early or Late Planting. — No one can decide whether early plant- 

 ing or late planting will give the best results until each is given a 

 faithful trial. It is a matter of soil, climate and market conditions. 

 Some localities succeed admirably with June-planted crops while 

 other localities of the same latitude fail utterly. It is largely a ques- 



