354 THE AMERICAN FARMER 



Manure should be well pulverized and liberally applied in the hill or furrows, which should 

 be covered in the drill with a plow by turning the furrow on each side so that it will fall 

 upon and cover the manure. Where hills are used, the manure can be covered by hand with 

 a hoe. The drill culture is preferable, as it does not necessitate hand labor in covering the 

 manure. Both hills and drills should be made high and their tops smooth and compact by 

 spatting down with a hand-hoe, in order to be in a good condition to receive the plants. The 

 ridges should be a foot or more high, and not less than a foot wide at the base; the top may 

 be five or six inches wide. Some planters think a close, hard bottom to the ridge induces 

 the tubers to grow more plump, or less long and slim, and for this purpose sometimes put 

 strips of sod in the bottom of the ridges, where only a few are grown, as in the garden, for 

 instance. 



Plants for setting out may be obtained of those who have them for sale, or they may be 

 grown for that purpose. The usual method of securing sprouts or slips for planting is to 

 grow them in a hot-bed or cold-frame, and, when four or five inches high, separate them from 

 the tuber and set them out in the field. Stable manure, to the depth of two or three inches, 

 should be placed at the bottom of the bed, covered with two or three inches of sandy loam 

 or sand. The seed potatoes should be cut lengthwise, and placed in the soil with the cut side 

 down. They may be placed quite near each other, without touching, and covered to the 

 depth of two or three inches. They should be kept rather warm and moist, but great care 

 will be required in order to secure the proper degree of both heat and moisture, as an excess 

 of either will rot the tubers, while if there is not a sufficiency of either they will be liable to 

 be affected with the black-rot. 



Excessive heat or dryness will also prevent a healthy growth of sprouts. In cool lati 

 tudes they should be protected at night by a covering of boards or straw, where not otherwise 

 covered by glass, but they should have an abundance of air and sunshine during the day. 



When the sprouts are four or five inches high, they may be separated carefully from the 

 tubers, one at a time, with the thumb and finger, so as not to disturb the potato, which, if 

 uninjured, will send up other shoots in a short time. These sprouts or shoots may then be 

 set out in the field, the preparation of which we have already given. The sprouts are placed 

 from twenty inches to two feet apart, and should be set out on a cloudy day, or towards 

 evening. The hot-bed should be started from the first to the last of April, depending much 

 upon the locality, the last week of May or first week of June being a good time for setting 

 out the slips in the latitude of Massachusetts, while an earlier period may be suited to a more 

 southerly section ; the latitude, climate, and season always being taken into consideration with 

 respect to the time of starting the growth of the crop. In the latitude of Florida, they are 

 set out from April to August, and mature from July to November. A bushel of good sound 

 potatoes, when properly managed, will yield from twelve to fifteen hundred sprouts at the 

 first drawing, and about three-fourths of that number at the second. 



^. The tubers selected for planting should be of medium size and rather smooth, all diseased 

 or injured ones to be carefully excluded in making the -selection, as they will be liable to 

 propagate a diseased crop. If thrifty slips are secured they will grow very rapidly, and the 

 high hills or ridges should not be leveled in after-cultivation. It is better to pull the weeds 

 quite near the plants by hand, as the use of the hoe may injure the tubers that lie near the 

 surface. The cultivator or horse-hoe should be run between the rows to exterminate the 

 weeds, which should be kept out of the field, as they will greatly injure the crop. After the 

 vines have attained a length of two or three feet, they will take root at many of the joints, 

 and wherever they do so, a new set of tubers will start, which will not attain any size, and 

 will greatly injure the crop, especially at the North, as they will not have time to mature, and 

 will exhaust the productive power of the plants to such an extent that those in the hills will 

 not be perfected in growth. These vines should therefore be loosened from the soil and pra 



