442 THE POTATO 



or red clover, alone, or rye grass with wheat, oats, 

 or barley as a nurse crop. I saw red clover seeded 

 with wheat. The grain was a very heavy crop, 

 (forty-eight to fifty-six bushels) and the red clover 

 was thick and fully eighteen inches high. 



The rye grass meadows are fed oflE with sheep. 

 Cottonseed and hnseed cake and some grain are 

 fed in addition. Then twenty tons of well rot- 

 ted manure are spread and plowed in during the 

 winter when potatoes are to be grown the follow- 

 ing year. Potatoes always follow grass. This 

 system combined with the northern latitude, has 

 always kept the potatoes free from blight and dis- 

 ease. Mr. George Sinclair, the farm manager 

 says: *' There is no potato disease in Scotland if the 

 crop is grown only every fourth year, and on turf 

 or sod ground. This keeps the soil open, loose 

 and porous, and full of decayed vegetable matter." 

 The condition of the soil was ideal for potatoes. A 

 special artificial fertilizer mixture that has been 

 adapted to conditions after many years of experi- 

 menting by their soil experts and specialists is 

 sown at the time of planting at the rate of six to 

 seven hundred pounds per acre. 



Whole seed is always used and increasing the 

 size has given satisfactory results in increased 

 yields. They are now using about 3,300 pounds 

 of seed to the acre. Formerly 2,000 pounds was 

 the rate. I saw as much as 5,000 pounds per acre 

 planted — seed up to three inches in diameter. 



In some series of experiments for three years suc- 

 cessively with three varieties, 3,500 to 4,500 pounds 

 of seed to the acre gave an average of seven tons 

 per acre greater production than a 2,000-pound 

 seeding. 



Late varieties are planted in rows twenty-seven 



