22 POTATO CULTUKE. 



with a smoothing-harrow, or bush it ; and I would do this 

 most thoroughly even, if possible, until hardly a trace of the 

 manure could be found. Perhaps you may think I put this 

 too strongly, but I mean it all. In many cases the farmer 

 could realize double what he does from his manure by mak- 

 ing it so fine that every bit of soil would have some, instead 

 of its being turned under in lumps. I have traveled thou- 

 sands of miles this spring, and seen field after field thus 

 carelessly manured. Why, it seems sometimes as though I 

 must get off the train and go and show the farmer what he 

 is losing. I have spread manure as carefully and evenly as 

 possible in the fall ; and then, when it was rather coarse to 

 use a smoothing-harrow or bush on, I went over it three or 

 four times in the spring with the cutaway harrow. This 

 was on clover sod. You ought to have seen how nicely it 

 fined the manure, and worked it into the surface soil. 

 Manures so spread in the fall will be worked into the soil in 

 the best possible shape for potatoes, if you do your part. I 

 would not, as a rule, spread manure on plowed ground or 

 stubble land in the fall. It is a wasteful way, as well as the 

 fall plowing. In the spring, when you plow a sod manured 

 as above, in the way described in the first chapter, you will 

 have a good foundation for a potato crop. 



I can not advise the application of fresh manure during the 

 winter and spring, for potatoes. No, it will be wiser to keep 

 it over and put on in the fall for another year. Fresh 

 manure is more liable to produce rot, in a wet year, and scab 

 is likely to be made worse by it, and the quality of potatoes 

 will not be as good. This is simply a general rule. There 

 are exceptions. I know men who follow this practice. It 

 seems to be all right for them. But I have learned not to 

 risk it, by bitter experience, and so have many others. I 

 once manured a iield with fresh manure through the winter 

 and spring. The yield was large, but they were badly scabby. 

 The" other iield, the same year, without any manure but 

 clover, gave an entirely smooth crop, as usual. I could have 



