THE POTATO 451 



harvesting a crop. These city merchants harvest 

 the crop from day to day as their customers in the 

 various cities require them, and there is no loss in 

 shipping to commission brokers by overstocking 

 and breaking the market. 



I had a very delightful time with Mr. Hannah, 

 going over his work and discussing methods. He 

 uses larger sized seed than Mr. Wallace. Mr. 

 Hannah plants 3,000 pounds of whole seed per 

 acre, and, of course, insists that it must be only 

 partly matured when dug. It was very interest- 

 ing to go over the field, seeing in nearly every hill 

 examined the originally planted seed potato still 

 clinging to the roots as firm and sound as when 

 planted last March. I did not see a single col- 

 ored leaf or a dying or withered leaf in a field of 

 100 acres (June 25, 1910). 



Mr. Hannah uses seaweed that washes up on 

 the beach for fertilizing. It is gathered and spread 

 on the field in the fall at the rate of forty tons per 

 acre. On the balance of the land he uses twenty 

 tons of well-rotted barnyard manure annually. 

 In fifteen years he has increased the application 

 of commercial fertilizer from some 600 or 700 

 pounds to about 1,200 pounds per acre, annually. 

 There is a steady increase in the use of commercial 

 fertilizer to keep up the maximum yields. 



He had commenced harvesting the day I was 

 there, the 25th of June. The next morning the 

 grass seeder was out ready to start planting. 

 He used three bushels of French grown Italian 

 rye grass seed per acre and then I think a little 

 more was added for good measure, as he said it 

 cost $5 per acre. His 260 acres of potatoes will be 

 harvested in two weeks' time. Instead of plow- 

 ing the rye grass cover crop under as at Dumfries, 



