CHEMICAL FARMING 231 



footage of the individual tanks and not allowing 

 any pathways between them, were handled as fol- 

 lows: excelsior or chaff supporting medium was 

 made from 8" to 10" thick, giving ample room for 

 the tubers to form. The planting was done, cutting 

 the potatoes up into one eye for each plant and then 

 placing them from 8" to 10" apart each way. They 

 were of course embedded in the excelsior, and the 

 roots grew down through into the water as the plants 

 grew upward through the excelsior. Planting them 

 this close together made a solid mass of potato plants 

 some four feet high. The entire growing period was 

 about five months, just as it would have been in soil. 

 Toward the end of the season the plants died down, 

 and when they were just about gone, it was time to 

 harvest, which was done by merely scraping the ex- 

 celsior to one side and picking the potatoes up. Hav- 

 ing grown in the excelsior they were so clean they 

 hardly needed washing, and it really seemed a mat- 

 ter of how far apart we planted them what the crop 

 in bushels amounted to. 



It was necessary to run a supporting wire about 

 two feet high around the outside edge of each tank; 

 the inside plants supported themselves. The plant- 

 ing season is exactly the same in the tanks as it would 

 be for soil in your climate, and the growing period 



