POTATO CULTURE. 11 



Fall Plowing. 



I do not think there is any thing gained by fall-plowing 

 sod land designed for this crop, unless one is troubled by 

 grubs or wireworms ; and there is a better way to manage 

 these not to have them that I will speak of in the chapter 

 on " Rotation. " If the soil is very heavy and lumpy, the frost 

 may pulverize it a little more than it otherwise would, if it 

 is turned up in the fall ; but such soils are not profitable 

 ones to plant potatoes on any way, you know. I have found 

 it just about as much work to loosen up and pulverize the 

 soil five or six inches deep, in the spring, where it had been 

 fall-plowed, as it would have been to plow it and pulverize it 

 both in the spring. This, for rather heavy soil. On light 

 soil, one might gain some time in the spring by fall plowing ; 

 but there is another serious question to consider, particu- 

 larly for farmers with light land. In this latitude, with our 

 open winters, and heavy rains of fall and spring, we shall 

 lose more or less fertility by having our land plowed. It 

 leaches downward with the water. In the far North, where 

 the land is locked up by frost most of the time, it will not 

 make so much difference. Farther south it will make more. 

 As a general rule, unless you have some good local reason 

 for doing otherwise, keep something growing on your land 

 just as nearly all the time as possible. This practically pre- 

 vents loss of fertility. Let the sod stand, with its live roots 

 in the soil, until the ground is dry enough to crumble off the 

 mold-board in the spring ; then if you are ready to plant, 

 turn it over and plant at once, and get something else grow- 

 ing. Keep land busy, as well as yourself. Doesn't it need 

 rest ? Yes ; but a change of work (rotation) is a rest to it, 

 and all it needs. Give it any more, and you lose. If you 

 have a corn-stubble to plant next year with potatoes, sow 

 rye or something to occupy the land till you plow for po- 

 tatoes. I had a half-acre of stubble land last fall that I 

 wanted to plant this year; and, not having rye, I sowed 

 thickly. I shall have a fine growth to turn under by 



