96 THE TREE DOCTOR 



seed, same cultivation. The field, a stiff clay, lacked fertilizer. 

 August, hot and dry ; the plants worked, pumped, struggled, 

 drew all the water from the soil. One by one the leaves 

 drooped, faded, turned black; a veritable case of "blight!" Mil- 

 lions of billions of microbes at work ! Of course they were ! 

 Fools if they didn't when they found such a glorious opportunity. 

 The dead stalk, to the left, with four little potatoes, was above 

 the average yield of the field. But at one end of the field was 

 quite a lesson. A few vegetable pits had been dug two feet 

 deep the fall before. The following spring the straw, leaves 

 and all such rubbish were thrown in and plowed under. While 

 the main field perished of thirst in August, all plants standing 

 over those old vegetable pits went on growing, growing, grow- 

 ing till October 8th, when a frost killed them. A plant was dug 

 the next morning and the tubers under it are shown, together 



Photo 82 

 Potatoes on Clay Soil. 



