724 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



one danger is that of rain before there is time for healing. In my 

 own experience this is a thing to be feared. When a shower falls 

 upon seed planted within two or three hours, the chances are that 

 the fresh-cut surface of the seed pieces will not heal nicely, but 

 will begin to slough in spots, and while there may not be missing 

 liills, the plants are not as vigorous as those from undamaged seed. 

 Seed cut and healed ahead of planting time can withstand the water. 

 But everylliing considered, as a matter of fact in experience, it seems 

 wisest not to cut more seed ahead of the planter than can. be used 

 before bad weather interrupts the work. 



In Dry Furrows. — A number of instances of a poor stand of plants 

 are directly traceable to exposure of fresh cut seed in dry furrows for 

 a short period before covering. When the sun is very hot and the fur- 

 rowis dry, a piece of cut seed should not lie uncovered. In the old way 

 of hand-dropping and covering with a plow I have left a strip of 

 land uncovered during the noon hour when the furrows were dry and 

 the sun was very hot, and have had a poor stand of plants on that 

 strip, while the remainder of the field, with similar soil and seed, 

 had good plants. Whole potatoes would have been uninjured, but 

 the cut pieces were badly damaged. 



Potato Planters. — In the case of cereals, the automatic planter 

 does good work because the seed varies little in size and is not in- 

 jured by handling. The work of automatic potato-planters is less 

 perfect for obvious reasons. The seed pieces are uneven in size, 

 tender and more inclined to feed irregularly. Much has been done 

 to obviate the difficulties, but I incline to think that we ask too 

 much of the planter. So far, at least, no machine has been de- 

 vised that will make no misses when all the work is left to it, and it is 

 profitable to depend in part upon liuman labor. A machine can be 

 so constructed that it will place the great majority of the pieces 

 where they should be, but if five per cent, of the hills are missed in 

 planting, the loss wdll be considerable. The missing hills on an 

 acre of ten thousand hills would be five hundred, and if a hill repre- 

 sent only one pound of potatoes, the total decrease in yield due to 

 faulty machine work would be over eight bushels. Ten per cent, is 

 not an unusual rate of missing among the automatic planters on the 

 market. 



It is better to make a planter that will do all that reasonably 

 may be expected of it, and have provision for aid from an extra man 

 or boy carried on the planter. In this way it is possible to have 

 the work done without any misses at all, except where tihe seed 

 piece is throw^n in the furrow by the motion of the planter. 



A planter does better work in some ways than can be secured from 

 hand-planting. The seed is brought into a straighter line, and there 

 is greater evenness in depth. Straight rows, or rows in w^hich the 

 plants do not stand zig-zag, can be cultivated more perfectly than 



