458 THE POTATO 



age cellars if he has time; otherwise they are 

 stacked up outside. They wilt and green in the 

 sun and air and get quite soft. He says this is 

 not advantageous for seed vitality. He uses 

 smaller seed than most growers in Great Britain 

 advise. 



He sows rye grass (two bushels per acre) and 

 rape seed (twelve pounds per acre) as soon as the 

 potatoes are lifted. He grazes this oflF with sheep 

 from August 15th to December 15th. He feeds 

 cake to the stock he is pasturing. Cake is his 

 great reliance for keeping up soil fertility. He 

 applies twenty tons of well-rotted manure in 

 December and plows under as deep as possible. 

 He has grown potatoes successively this way for 

 fifteen years. Potatoes are sometimes followed 

 with wheat or Swedes. The roots get the same 

 treatment as the potatoes. He grows thirty-five to 

 sixty-five bushels of wheat per acre and from thir- 

 ty-five to forty-six tons of Swedes. There is noth- 

 ing sold off the farm but finished cattle and sheep, 

 potatoes and wheat. All roots, straw, rye grass, 

 hay, oats, and small potatoes are fed in covered 

 sheds for making muck. No fertilizer is used the 

 year he grows wheat, but 1,200 pounds of ground 

 lime is plowed in. Lime costs $3.50 a ton. 



He uses 2,300 pounds of seed potatoes per acre, 

 planted whole. They are boxed and sprouted. 

 All potatoes are harvested before they ripen and 

 are sent to market from July 15th to August 15th. 

 If any of the crop is matured it makes 600 bushels 

 per acre. The average when marketed unripe 

 in July and August is 375 bushels. 



Mr. Bums uses 1,200 pounds of commercial 

 fertilizer. This is 10 per cent, ammonia, 12 per 

 cent, potash, 25 per cent, phosphates. The secret 



