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injury. It is, of course, important to run the share 

 well below the tubers, to avoid cutting them. If 

 adjoining rows are ploughed out the potatoes in the 

 one first ploughed must be picked up before the next 

 one is ploughed, or a considerable quantity will be 

 smothered and lost. To avoid this, it is best to work 

 each alternate row, and after the potatoes are picked 

 up, to return and plough out the rows left untouched. 

 One objection to the use of the plough is that the 

 tubers lie in a furrow, which renders it more difficult 



HOWARD'S POTATO PLOUGH. 



and expensive to pick them tip. According to the 

 yield, from six to eight pickers are required to collect 

 potatoes behind the plough. Where manual labour is 

 difficult to command, the plough possesses decided 

 advantages over the fork, for in some districts the 

 crop would not be dug sufficiently early to ensure its 

 being harvested before there was danger of its being 

 injured by frost. There is no great saving in total 

 cost if a value is put upon the horse labour, as picking 

 up behind the plough is more expensive than behind 

 the fork, and, except under favourable circumstances, 

 more are left in the ground, but this is frequently more 



