POTATO CULTURE. 35 



and will well cover the surface then. Varieties that have 

 small tops, and set few tubers, such as the Early Ohio, will 

 bear putting closer together, or using more seed than one 

 eye in a place, as we do. Still, Mr. J. M. Smith told us at 

 the great " round up" institute in Wisconsin this spring, 

 that he planted the Early Ohio, cut to one eye, as I do, about 

 13 by 32 inches, and he raises very large crops. But the land 

 is very rich, and he says the tubers grow very large. You 

 see, it is impossible for me to tell you just what to do ; but 

 perhaps I may set you to thinking on the right track. If 

 your land is poor, and you plant far enough apart to get 

 good-sized tubers, you see you will then lose part of the 

 benefit of the shading of the soil. Does it bother you to see 

 how to manage this V Only one way make your land richer, 

 and then you can plant closer, and shade it more, and make 

 it grow richer still. Unto him that hath shall be given, 

 every time. It seems hard, but it is Nature's law. Oh there 

 are so many things that we must attend to, to do our best, 

 even about as simple a matter as growing potatoes! I have 

 been amused, many times, when they have put me down at 

 an institute, to talk on potato culture, when I asked them 

 what particular point, and they would say, " Oh! all about 

 it." Friends sometimes write me and ask me to write them 

 in a letter all about it. 



I have a photograph of one of my potato-fields, taken when 

 the growth was at its best. I wish it could be reproduced 

 for this book, but the vines would not show plainly. The 

 other day it was shown to a number of farmers, and all but 

 one said it was a field of clover. Strangers, in riding past in 

 the summer, if they did not notice particularly, would think 

 it clover. It was an almost perfectly even mass of foliage. 

 This is my idea of what a potato-field should be. We have 

 attained to it several times, but not always by any means. 

 We came the farthest from it last year we ever did, perhaps, 

 on account of the excessive rainfall, which made poor spots 

 in the field. I would not care to show you a picture of last 



