No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 265 



the acre. Some of you may think this is excessive, but experience 

 has proved to the Maine potato grower that it is economy to do so, 

 as the increased amount of fertilizer over Avhat we formerly used 

 (12 to 15 hundred pounds per acre) will increase the yield of pota- 

 toes more Ihan enough to pay for the extra amount of fertilizer, 

 and leave that much larger amount in the soil for the grain and 

 hay crops which are to follow. One ton of high grade fertilizer 

 per acre will not only produce a large crop of potatoes running 

 from three to over four hundred bushels per acre, and still leave 

 in the soil with the liberated plant food which was originally there 

 .and made available by the cultivation of the potatoes, enough to 

 grow a big crop of either corn or small grain and two years of 

 magnificent hay crops. I am frequently asked why not apply all 

 my fertilizer at one time and in the drill when planting. My ex- 

 perience is that ten to twelve hundred pounds in the drill along with 

 the seed is all we can safely use without danger of the fertilizer 

 burning or injuring the seed, and even this amount is not always 

 safe on early potatoes, as usually they will not stand as strong 

 fertilizer as will the later or more vigorous varieties. 



More than this 1 believe I get a better crop by applying a part 

 of it along the row offer the potatoes break ground, and burying the 

 fertilizer, weeds and potatoes all out of sight as you see I am 

 doing in the photograph. From every leaf joint that is buried up 

 there will immediately be sent out a new set of roots, and some- 

 times there will be three or four of these one above the other, ac- 

 cording to the height of the potato stalks when buried; all these 

 will be above this second application of fertilizer and makes the 

 root system just that much greater, and the greater the root system 

 the better will the plant stand drouth and the better will be the 

 crop. I keep my cultivator teeth far enough apart so that I do not 

 do any root i)runing. I do not know how you do It here in Penn- 

 sylvania. I know they do it down in Jersey. The^' will take the 

 potatoes up to one foot or more in height and cultivate them with 

 the cultivator set to run so close that at the end of each row they 

 can take a handful of the feeding roots of the potatoes off of each 

 tooth. This is root pruning and is poor practice. I aim to in- 

 crease the root system every time. 



Now another word in regard to the fertilizer. I plan to have 

 my nitrogen-content In two ditl'erent formulas. The one used in 

 the drill at time of. planting not containing any nitrate of soda. 

 Nitrate of soda will become available over night in a damp soil 

 which we are most always sure to have at the planting season. As 

 you all know, it is usually several weeks after i)lanting before there 

 is any root system to catch and use this available nitrogen from 

 nitrate of soda and in case of a heavy rain right after planting 

 much of it might be lost. It is better that the nitrogen-content of' 

 the fertilizer used in the drill along with the seed be in the form of 

 tankage, dried blood and other forms not quite so quickly avail- 

 able as is nitrate of soda. In this wav it is not likely' to become 

 available and be lost froui the soil by rains before the plants will 

 have formed a root system to utilize it. For the second applica- 

 tion I will have the nitrogen-content made up of just about one- 

 half nitrate of soda. As I do not apply this until the plants get a 

 few inches high, there is a root system already formed to take it 



