188 Practical Farming 



winter, and the more rapidly it is gotten out and spread 

 after being made, the better, since any way of keeping 

 manure in barn or barnyard will result in far more loss 

 than spreading it on the field. 



On that part to be devoted to the Irish potato crop it 

 will be better to use commercial fertihzers hberally, since 

 the use of barnyard manure directly on the potato crop 

 tends to encourage the growth of the scab fungus. If this 

 course is adopted, when the field comes around again in 

 corn and potatoes, the part planted in corn should be used 

 then for potatoes and that in potatoes for corn. In this 

 way each of these crops will come on the land but once in 

 six years, and the land will be alternately manured from 

 the barnyard and with fertihzers. 



The sod for potatoes and corn is turned deeply in the 

 spring, and the cultivation of both should then be as we 

 have indicated for the corn crop, shallow and level and 

 rapid. The deep breaking is an important matter both 

 for the corn and for the crop of wheat that is to follow 

 the hoed crops. The corn is, of course, to be cut and 

 shocked for curing, and may be shredded and husked or 

 used in the silo as the farmer thinks best in his particular 

 conditions. 



Neither the corn land nor the potato land should be 

 replowed after the crops are off, but the soil should be left 

 settled from the deep spring plowing, and only the surface 

 made fine by repeated harrowing with the cutaway or 

 disk harrow. The more complete this fining and tramp- 

 ing of the surface is made the better the chance for the 

 wheat. This is especially true if the autumn weather is 

 dry, as it is apt to be, for the establishment of a fine dust- 



