264 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Oil. Doc. 



lowing-. All tild lield of this kind will, in my section at least, have 

 a iairly .yood turf; this means that there is a fair amount of vej^etabie 

 material here to help grow a crop of potatoes if put in the right phue 

 and condition. 1 like to get on such a lield in the late summer or 

 fall iireceding (he })lanting of potatoes, with a cut-a-way harrow and 

 cut up this turf to the depth of live or six inches; this work sliouhl 

 cover a j)erio(l of several weeks, >\'orking it enough to entirely kill 

 (»ut and cut up the sod. This will also bring to the surface where 

 they will sprout, millions of weed seeds, making our labor the next 

 year when the potatoes are growing much less. 



With a good sod to start with it is not necessary with us to sow 

 rye and vetch to plow down in the spring, and where this is not done 

 tiie land is not plowed at all until the following spring. When 

 spring arrives the ground is again harrowed as deeply as possible. 

 \Ve now have all the old sod ^\■orked up tincly and ready to plow 

 under and the deeper this can be done the better crop of potatoes 

 we will get. On my soil I plow not less than eight inches, and 

 nine will be nearer an average. We now have turned down this 

 worked-u]) sod or vegetable matter into the bottom of our furrows 

 and have it in the best possible place and condition, not only to 

 feed the potato crop but to hold moisture, and at the same time it 

 is not in such a condition as to prevent the subsoil moisture from 

 coming to the surface by capillary attraction, as would have been 

 the case had the sod been plowed down without first being worked 

 up into this finely pulverized condition. After plowing, the har- 

 row is again put on, and we now have the whole depth plowed a 

 Imely pulverized seed bed with the worked up sod thoroughly 

 mixed through the bottom half of the depth plowed. 



This is the way this field shown here in this photograph was 

 worked. L'p in t^outhern Maine last year we had a dry season, 

 the dryest we have ever known. From the 17th of June until the 

 17th of August we did not get enough rain to lay the dust, and two 

 months with us during our longest days is pretty hard usage. 1 

 got the lield planted on the 19th of June and you see it did not get 

 much water until after the middle of August. When I planted 

 1 used a half ton of fertilizer per acre in the drill. Of course we 

 use the planters almost entirely in my State, and I presume it is 

 the same with you. This fertilizer was a 4-1-7 and 10 used on this 

 tield 1 am showing you in the photograph. The fertilizer I am 

 using this year is a little better in some respects or a 4-8-10, this is 

 about as strong as we can make with using the highest grade chemi- 

 cals without any filler. As soon as the tield was planted I went 

 over it with the weeder and brushed the rows down level. This 

 could have been equally as well done with a brush or smoothing har- 

 row or even a prox)erly constructed plank drag, but as often as 

 weeds show the field should be gone over with either a weeder or 

 light smoothing harrow. Usually, previous to leveling down the 

 rows after planting, I go over with a two-horse double cultivator 

 and cultivate as deeply as possible and as close up to the rows as 

 it can be done without disturbing the seed. When the potatoes 

 get to breaking ground enough to show the rows nicely, they are 

 jiven the second cultivating and then we are ready to apply the 

 second application of fertilizer. 



Perhaps I did not state that we }>lan in the State of Maine, and 

 almost universally now^ to use one ton of high grade fertilizer to 



