40 POTATO CULTURE. 



greened as when I hilled them up. We generally use a 

 horse-hoe once during the season, to throw a little earth 

 under the plants when they are about halt* grown, so as to 

 check the weeds which are just starting in the hills ; after 

 that the shade from the tops will keep them down. The use 

 of the cultivator, as many times as it ought to be used dur- 

 ing the season, will work a little earth toward the plants, so 

 that, altogether, perhaps, the hills are two or three inches 

 higher than between the rows when we are through culti- 

 vating. 



I have hastily spoken of the level field catching the rain 

 best. Let us consider more particularly how important this 

 is. Suppose your field is somewhat rolling, and potatoes 

 well hilled up. A heavy shower comes along. Most sum- 

 mer showers are heavy. The water runs rapidly off the 

 higher portions of the field in the little ditches you have 

 made, and either leaves the lot entirely or accumulates in 

 the lower parts. This is all wrong. Where you want the 

 water most, it does not stay. See? Where you want it 

 least, in the low places, you get too much, perhaps, or you 

 lead it off the field entirely, and, later, your crop suffers for 

 want of it. And there is more or less fertility in the water 

 of every summer shower. It gathers ammonia, that has 

 escaped from the manure-heaps of careless farmers, as well 

 as that from other sources, out of the air as it comes down ; 

 and it is a positive loss of fertility to let water run off over 

 the surface of your field, and carry fertility with it. A part 

 of these losses, often nearly all, can be avoided by good 

 drainage first, natural or with tiles, and then nearly level 

 culture, and at the same time we may get every possible 

 advantage that ever came from hilling up, except on heavy 

 land in a very wet season, perhaps. 



On my land I have settled on four inches deep as about 

 the right depth to plant. I would put seed a little deeper 

 rather than shallower. By managing rightly, with smooth- 

 ing-harrow and otherwise, there is no trouble, as a rule, in 



