304 FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 



In the spring of '81 I tried the plan of planting what^ ground there was 

 manure to cover, taking a piece of ground that had been cropped twice without 

 any manure, and sown to winter rye the preceding autumn to make what 

 growth it would to plow under. I spread four wagon boxfuls of fine manure 

 on about one-quarter acre. Three- eighths of an acre I fertilized with home- 

 stead phosphate, and one-eighth had no manure whatever, making in all 

 three-quarters of an acre. This I planted by plowing the potatoes under in 

 every third furrow, and cultivated one way, but did not hoe. The result was 

 sixty bushels of very nice potatoes, those manured and phosphated being 

 about equal, while those without manure were about one-half as productive 

 as the others, actual measure, row for row. 



In the spring of '83, having five acres of timothy sod to plant corn 

 on, I tried one-half acre with potatoes, plowing them under, but the experi- 

 ment proved almost a failure, as the sod seemed to smother the seed, so that 

 they rotted in the ground, and what did grow were not half as good as some 

 planted on corn stubble, but I felt so well satisfied with the result that the 

 next spring we planted two acres of the aforesaid timothy sod after corn, the 

 net result being four barrels of very small potatoes. The trouble was that most 

 of the seed failed to grow, and what few did grow looked very disconsolate. 



In the spring of '84 we planted one acre on second plowing, three by five 

 fe^ apart, the same as corn. The crop promised well until the last of 

 August, when the frost killed the tops and hurt the crop fully one-third, but 

 we got fifty odd bushels of good, sizeable ones, besides the small ones. 



In '85 we planted two-thirds of an acre that had been cropped for seven 

 years, and one-fourth acre that was timothy sod the summer before, plowed 

 under after the hay was mowed, and then sown to rye and this rye plowed 

 under. The whole eleven-twelfths acre was manured before plowing for the 

 potatoes. The potatoes were planted the first week in June, three by three 

 each way, and cultivated both ways, but not hoed. From this we dug one 

 hundred and eighteen bushels. 



In '86 I manured one-half acre of buckwheat stubble, the buckwheat hav- 

 ing followed timothy hay and been mixed with rye, which was still green 

 when plowed under for the potatoes. We planted the first week in June, 

 three by three feet and cultivated same as previous year. The cut-worms 

 only left me about four hills out of five, and by that I got sixty-five bushels. 

 I can raise the best potatoes the second plowing of sod ground, planting 

 about as deep as plowed, cultivating after rain as often as possible until the 

 vines get large enough to fall over, keeping the ground level and well stirred, 

 and then it will stand about as much dry weather as any land that I know 

 of. 



(Perhaps it might be well to add that you should never cultivate with a 

 gun or fish pole, as these are death to the potatoes and help the bugs.) 



My standard crops of roots are carrots and rutabagas. Carrots I prefer 

 sowing on ground manured the previous year, as the roots grow smoother 

 and of a finer quality. I prepare my ground by plowing, and then smooth- 

 ing it down level and hard, then sow in rows eighteen inches apart, using a 

 Planet, Jr., seeder and cultivator, which I find a great labor-saving machine, 

 and one which does the work much better than by hand. 



My first crop was sown in the spring of 1880, on second plowing and 

 manured the same spring. The seed was good and I think every seed grew, 

 for, to use a common expression, they came up "thick as hair on a dog's 



