Rural School Leaflet 1027 



cultural directions 

 E. R. Minns 



Choosing the soil. — Be sure to choose a well-drained, deep, porous, 

 rich soil for this contest. Potatoes thrive best in cool, moist, fertile 

 soils. Choose soil that has previously been well cultivated, is free from 

 weeds, and is well stocked with humus. 



Preparation. — For potatoes good plowing is essential. If possible, 

 plow the land ten inches deep. If not well manured the year before, be 

 sure to plow under fifteen or twenty loads of well-rotted manure on your 

 half -acre. Fall plowing, followed by a winter cover-crop and this piowed 

 under fairly early in spring, makes the seed bed mellow and in good shape 

 for potato-growing. 



Fertilizers. — Potatoes respond to the use of commercial fertilizers more 

 profitably than do many other crops. On sandy soils five hundred to 

 one thousand pounds per acre of complete fertilizer, rich in potash, is 

 used with good results. Do not use lime or wood ashes on your potato 

 plot, because the disease known as scab is made worse thereby. 



Seed. — Choose the best variety of potato that you can find in your 

 locality. It should be tested and tried. and found worthy. The tubers 

 used for seed should have been carefully selected, if possible from the 

 field where they grew the year before. They should have been well 

 stored and should not have been allowed to sprout. Freedom from 

 scab is desirable in seed potatoes, but scab germs on seed potatoes can 

 be killed by treating with formalin solution before cutting the seed. 



Planting. — For a half-acre, machine-planting may well be adopted, 

 provided the machine is one that will open a good furrow with loose soil 

 on each side in which to drop the seed pieces, and will drop the seed 

 accurately. Hand-planting had better be used if hills are wanted or 

 if the planters available are not satisfactory. In deep soil plant potatoes 

 deeply, but do not cover to the full depth until the sprouts are coming 

 through the first covering. The seed bed should have plenty of loose, 

 mellow soil in which to place the seed pieces. 



Cultivating. — Give potatoes thorough cultivation while they are sprout- 

 ing and coming up. Use both weeder and cultivator for keeping the soil 

 loose and free from weeds. As the plants increase in size cultivate less 

 deeply or else hill earth up to them, and do not injure the roots. Continue 

 cultivation until the potato vines will not allow of it. 



Spraying. — Experiments have demonstrated that systematic spraying 

 of potatoes for blight is profitable. The standard remedy for potato 

 blight is bordeaux mixture. It should be applied thoroughly with a 

 spraying machine from the time the plants are six inches high until they 



