No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 735 



sured that (his tillage is as good as any that can be given. We like 

 to boast of our progress, but no costly implement upon the market 

 can stir the soil next to a potato plant as satisfactorily as a hoe in the 

 hand© of a skillful man. Our progress has been in speed and in re- 

 duction of expense, but not in any excellence of the cultivation over 

 the hand-hoe for work in the row between the drilled plants. I do not 

 recommend its use in the field on account of the cost of labor, though 

 I have been led in recent years to give one hand-hoeing to all po- 

 tatoes in clayey soil. The expense of |2.0() an acre thus incurred 

 has appeared to be much less than the increased receipts per acre 

 due to the extra tillage. But the matter is brought up for reeom 

 mendation only to those who may lack a complete outfit of imple- 

 ments, and feel at a disadvantage in trying to grow only a few acres, 

 or less, a year. 



Excepting the use of the hoe to break the crust and kill weeds in 

 the hill — work done in the field with the wceder and other cultiva- 

 tors — the object of a thorough working with long, narrow-bladed 

 hoes is to loosen the ground between the plants soon after the one 

 close, deep cultivation has been given. The blade should be made 

 from three sixteenths steel, eight inches long and three and one-half 

 inches wide. With a heavy eye and handle, it is not a light imple- 

 ment. The blade is long, so that it will easily reach across the nar- 

 row ridge left by the cultivator and down as deep as the ground 

 should be made loose. It is narrow in order that too much soil may 

 not be moved. Set at an angle of sixty degrees to the handle, a 

 single stroke by side of the plant does the needed work, and two 

 strokes complete the hoeing for the hill. A good workman will go 

 over three-quarters of an acre a day, and in a heavy soil such a work- 

 ing may double the net profit from the crop. 



Danger in Wet Seasons. — It is a common saying that a dry June 

 is good for a corn crop. One reason is that dry weather at that time 

 causes the corn plants to root deeply. \Mien the weather is wet 

 early in the season, potato plants form their roots too near the sur- 

 face, and do not develop a system of roots suflficiently deep to serve 

 them well when a drouth follows the wet weather. A reference to 

 personal experience may be useful here. In 1901 we had excessive 

 rainfall until the middle of June, and then a drouth set in so serious- 

 ly that the local price of potatoes remained at ninety cents a bushel 

 throughout the fall. Some fields of potatoes were not worth harvest- 

 ing. Early in June I noticed that in one small field of six acres the 

 roots of the potatoes were forming thickly in the surface soil in the 

 row. In the middles one deep cultivation had let them work farther 

 down. In the rows these roots were within a half inch of the top of 

 the ground, seeking air during the incessant wet weather. The vines 

 were then over one foot high, and the outlook was discouraging be- 



