CHAPTER XXXVI. 

 IRISH POTATOES. 



There is no crop grown by the farmer and gardener alike that is of more 

 importance in all parts of the country than the potato crop. The farmer 

 in the North makes it at times his main money crop, and the Southern mar- 

 ket gardener finds it one of his great staples for shipment to the North in 

 spring. Its manurial requirements therefore are of the greatest importance 

 in all parts of the country. No crop has had its needs more studied at the 

 Experiment Stations than the potato crop. Its peculiar liability to the at- 

 tacks of fungus diseases and insects, has led to a great deal of study for pro- 

 viding the farmer with the means for combatting these troubles, and the 

 result of these investigations has been to develop methods for caring for the 

 health of the crop which are practical and profitable. 



SOILS FOR THE POTATO CROP. 



A mellow loam between a sandy and a clayey loam is doubtless the soil 

 for the best success of the potato. It is important, too, that the soil be well 

 stocked with decaying organic matter, and that it be rather in an acid than 

 an alkaline condition; since it has been found that the fungus that causes 

 the scabby appearance of the outside of the potato and thus decreases its 

 marketable value, will not thrive in acid conditions, and that while the ap- 

 plication of lime to such a soil may cause an increase in the bulk of the crop, 

 the sweetening of the soil will encourage the scab fungus and injure its mar- 

 ket value. Hard-wood ashes, having a large percentage of lime, will have a 

 similar effect, and growers are rapidly learning that stable manure has the 

 same effect, hence all large growers now confine the manuring of the potato 

 crop to the artificial fertilizers. There is no crop grown for which the humus 

 content in the soil is of more importance ; hence it is found that newly cleared 

 land will give fine crops, and that on our old lands the best preparation of the 



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