POTATO CULTURE. 23 



sckl the product of the last lot readily, at a good price ; but 

 in order to work in the scabby ones I had to take five cents 

 a bushel less for the whole lot, and hunt long for a cus- 

 tomer, and sort out some 200 bushels of the worst ones. You 

 don't know how this hurt me, to work off four or five cars of 

 potatoes in this way. You may safely draw manure out 

 fresh for corn ; but I would not take the risk for potatoes. 

 When a dry season follows the application of fresh manure 

 to potato-land, I have had the yield actually reduced by the 

 manure, and then so much was left that the wheat following 

 was overfed, and got down so badly that we wished we had 

 never put any on. 



I would never bother to put stable manure or compost in 

 the hill or drill in field culture. It takes a good deal of time 

 in the busy season of the year, and I think it is no better 

 than to apply it broadcast and finely pulverized in the fall. 

 If it is finely pulverized, and mixed with the soil, the roots 

 will find some of it as soon as they start, and they will surely 

 find it all in time, as, before the tops are nearly full grown, 

 it' you plant as near together as you should, little rootlets 

 can be found in every square inch of soil, searching for food ; 

 and it is better that they should find their food widely and 

 deeply scattered, as then, in case of drought, they are in 

 better shape to get all the moisture there is in the soil. 

 Manure in the hill may give a quicker start ; but it is the 

 steady, healthy, vigorous growth from beginning to end that 

 fills the basket the most times on an acre. 



It is now no use for the great majority of growers to try to 

 get the earliest potatoes into market to secure the high price, 

 as some farmer living further south will have them before 

 you do, and ship them up and supply your market before you 

 possibly can Here in Northern Ohio, potatoes are now 

 sometimes lower in July than in November. We must strive 

 to raise the largest possible crop at the least possible cost. 

 Broadcasting the manure will help us, I think, to do this. 



