44 POTATO CULTURE. 



mark out drills one way that are very nearly straight, and 

 four or five inches deep ; but it would be much more work, 

 particularly in a long, narrow field, to mark them out both 

 ways. Then in showery weather, when planting in drills 

 one can plant right up as fast as he marks ; but if he has to 

 mark both ways he may get caught and have to do the job 

 all oyer again. Then if the planting is to be done by ma- 

 chinery it must be in drills, as no planter will probably ever 

 be made that can drop potatoes and row them both ways. 

 Potatoes will be planted by machinery in the future, as a 

 rule, by large growers, undoubtedly. As the planter is now 

 made I have my doubts about its being best to use it in all 

 cases ; but it will be improved to do the work rightly. But 

 of this more will be said in the proper place. Manufacturers 

 of the planter told me that, when first introducing it, the 

 worst trouble they had was that growers objected to drill 

 culture. I did not, for I had learned it was best for me, a 

 number of years before the planter came around. 



In connection with the subject treated in the last chapter, 

 there is a point that may as well be brought up right here. 

 I can grow potatoes of a finer quality in drills than in hills, 

 unless the hills are hilled up in the old-fashioned way. in 

 other words, drill culture and nearly level culture should go 

 together. One may not always be advisable without the 

 other. Let me illustrate : I drop, we will say, a one-eye 

 piece every foot in the drill, in my drill culture. Perhaps 

 four or five good-sized tubers, not over large, but of quite 

 uniform size, are the result in each hill, or every foot in the 

 drill. Now, when they expand as they are growing, they 

 crack the ground, of course ; but, as there are not many in 

 a place, not very much. The little earth that our slightly 

 ridged culture puts under the plants prevents light from 

 getting down to the tubers, and they are not only not green, 

 but not even yellow. Potatoes are often ruined, when not 

 green on the outside. Now, suppose the potatoes were 

 planted in hills three feet apart each way, and three times 



