4S4 rOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



done by a machine. The seed Is dipped In a solution of five ounces 

 of corrosive sublimate to thirty gallons of water. It Is put into the so- 

 lution Immediately after cutting and permitted to remain two hours. 

 Planting should follow the removal of the seed from the solution. 



Cultivation begins at once after planting, and Is continued almost in- 

 cessantly. The first cultivation is done with an ordinary shovel culti- 

 vator and between the rows only, care being taken not to disturb the 

 ridges left by the planter. Two weeks after planting the field is cross 

 harrowed to level the ridges. This destroys any weeds that may have 

 started on the planter ridges. As soon as the potatoes are up so the rows 

 can be followed, cultivation is done once a week. The shovel cultivator 

 and d'sk are used alternately. This is kept up until the spreading of the 

 vines prevents further use of those implements, which will probably be 

 in about four weeks. Then an adjustable fourteen-tooth harrow culti- 

 vator Is substituted and its use continued about all the time until the 

 crop is assured. Its principal use Is to provide a dust mulch which re- 

 tards evaporation and makes it possible to utilize the moisture stored in 

 the earth loosened by the deep plowing. 



When the vines have made a growth of about a foot the fight against 

 bugs and blight is begun. This is done by spraying once a week If it 

 seems to be needed as a protection against bugs. On the 

 Stewart farm the spray is applied with a sprayer. Bordeaux 

 mixture is used, in which Paris green has been added In the proportion 

 of one pound of Paris green to one hundred gallons of Bordeaux mixture. 

 The Paris Green is the bug klFer. Blight is not of frequent occurrence, 

 but the application of the Bordeaux mixture as a preventive Is deemed 

 advisable. Flea beetles do some damage, but they are easily kept In check 

 by the Bordeaux mixture. Twenty acres may be sprayed In a day. On 

 this farm the cost of spraying for a year Is estimated at fifty dollars. As 

 a bug poison, arsenate of lead Is better than Paris green, as It does not 

 v/ash off so readily, but it cannot be handled so conveniently. 



Digging Is dene by machine digger, marketing is begun about Septem- 

 ber 1st and pushed until the crop is disposed of. The potatoes are put 

 through a sorter, and the smaller ones held over to be used as seed. The 

 introduction of new seed is advised every second or third year. Northern- 

 grown seed seems to be advantageous From 100 to 160 bushels per acre 

 are obtained. There is a decided advantage in yield from land plowed 

 by the deep tiller. Mr. Steward estimates the cost of an acre of pota- 

 toes at $44.49, the items being as follows: seed, sixteen and one-half bush- 

 els, $14.93; treatment for scab, forty-six cents; cutting seed, fifty cents; 

 plowing. $3 75; discing once, seventy-five cents; harrowing twice, twenty 

 cents; planting, $2; cultivating eleven times, $2.88; spraying four and 

 one-half times, $2.41; digging, $2.50; hauling to market, $4; extra labor in 

 picking, $3.11; land rental, $6. 



The farm on which these operations take place is not especially adapted 

 to potato culture. For this reason only the high parts of the fields are 

 devcted to potatoes, the remainder being In corn or other crops. The light, 

 loose, well-drained soils of these higher parts have done well in potatoes. 

 A crop rotation is employed in which there are five twenty-five-acre field! 



