jTHE POTATO 349 



** middle breaker" plow or lister, or by a double 

 disk with two small sixteen-inch disks in front, 

 followed by two twenty-four-inch disks that throw 

 the furrows together. 



The ridges are forty-two inches apart and about 

 ten inches high; the fertilizer is then put in the 

 furrow and the potatoes planted in this ridge. 

 They are planted two to six inches deep. When 

 planted, the fields have the appearance of a field 

 ridged after the final cultivation in other dis- 

 tricts. Very little cultivation is done in this dis- 

 trict. Only disk cultivators are used. These 

 cover up the potatoes deeper than they are planted 

 and destroy such weeds as are between the rows. 



One grower objected to the use of barnyard 

 manure because it was the cause of many weeds. 



The land in the Hastings district is very flat. 

 The heavy rainfall at some seasons of the year 

 makes it imperative that all lands for potato grow- 

 ing be drained. During the dry season irrigation 

 is necessary to insure profitable crops. 



This part of Florida is fifteen to twenty miles 

 from the ocean. The St. John's River bounds it 

 on the west. Between the ocean and the river is 

 an artesian water belt. The depth of the wells 

 that furnish this artesian flow is about 200 feet. 



At the T. E. Bugbee farm, near Hastings, where 

 land is seventeen feet above sea level, the artesian 

 flow is twenty feet above the surface. At the 

 other end of the farm, two and three fourth miles 

 away, the land is six feet higher and the artesian 

 flow is fourteen feet above the level of the land. 



A four-inch well gives a sufficient flow for ir- 

 rigating forty acres of potatoes. At a cost of 

 $200 for the installation, this system affords per- 

 petual irrigation. It is probably the cheapest ir- 



