414 THE POTATO 



capillary, holding the moisture in the subsoil, and 

 by killing the weeds keeps them from sapping 

 moisture from the soil. The nettle is a bad weed 

 for this, and growers state that wherever this weed 

 is allowed to grow there is a dry spot the coming 

 summer. 



About May 10th the ground is plowed again, 

 this time ten to twelve inches deep. After this the 

 cultivation is continued to keep weeds down and 

 hold moisture. Potatoes are planted May 20th to 

 June 20th. The Iron Age planter with a heavy 

 press wheel behind is now quite generally used, 

 although until the last four or five years the work 

 was done largely by hand. The rows are thirty- 

 six inches apart and the pieces dropped fifteen to 

 seventeen inches apart in the row. Burbank is 

 the only variety grown in the valley, and the best 

 product is a most beautiful potato, absolutely 

 clean and clear-skinned, with a very fine netting 

 that indicates a mature potato of excellent quality. 

 The best growers now want a medium-sized potato, 

 with shallow "eyes" and square shoulders, a 

 "spud" that nicely fills the "fist" of a good-sized 

 man. Some extra large potatoes are grown, and 

 "Peerless" (a big, rough variety here) yields up 

 to 400 sacks per acre. 



The seed is almost entirely imported from 

 Oregon. Seed is generally used two years follow- 

 ing the introduction before another change is made. 

 The theory is that seed from a cold northern cli- 

 mate is necessary, but L. F. Shanklin believes that 

 the greatest cause of the so-called "running out" 

 of seed is poor selection. The practice is to sell all 

 the best potatoes and select seed from the seconds 

 and culls or "cow feed" remaining on the farm in 

 the spring. He is planning to select his seed from 



