242 Practical Farming 



The corn crop following a tumed-under clover sod will 

 occupy not only the best position in the rotation for the 

 corn, but the same turned-under clover sod is the best 

 possible preparation for the potato crop. In this case 

 the farm manure should be applied to the part of the sod 

 devoted to corn, and commercial fertilizers should be used 

 on the potato crop to avoid the danger of encouraging the 

 growth of the scab fungus with the manure. Then, in 

 the next round of the rotation the half of the field that was 

 in corn the last time should be put in potatoes, so that 

 each part may have the humus-making effect of the stable 

 manure. 



Com and potatoes both will come off in time to prepare 

 the land for the wheat crop, so that there is no gap or 

 lengthening of the rotation to introduce the potato crop. 

 With the late crop of potatoes planted on the tumed-under 

 sod, which will furnish nearly enough of nitrogen, as the 

 nitrification of the organic matter will be going on all 

 during the summer, there will be less need for heavy 

 appHcations of commercial fertihzer than on the Early 

 potato crop of the southern trucker. Especially will there 

 be less need for the nitrogen these growers use so freely 

 to force an early crop. 



The preparation of the soil should be of course of the 

 most thorough character, and where grown on a large 

 scale the use of an effective potato planter will be 

 essential. With one of these modem implements the 

 fertilizer can be applied in the row with the machine 

 ahead of the dropping of the potatoes, and the whole 

 operation of planting can be done in the most rapid 

 manner. 



