52 POTATO CULTUKE. 



long before he ever heard of the EuraVs plan, and used it in 

 a large way for years. The amount of extra tillage given 

 to the soil is great, and in the direction of loosening rather 

 than packing. The coverer is a great pulverizer and mixer, 

 bringing new particles of soil in contact with each other. 

 This I think to be a valuable point. I wish we could know 

 just exactly what it is worth. Alas ! it is almost impossible 

 for a farmer to make experiments in any line, so as to settle 

 absolutely any matter for a certainty. We have to live by 

 our business as we go along ; and careful experiments car- 

 ried through a term of years cost a good deal. A farmer 

 like myself, by long experience and observation, and what 

 experiments he can make, can give a very good guess as to 

 what is best; but how I should enjoy giving the rest of my 

 life to settling a few points in potato culture absolutely, be- 

 yond all question, and without regard to cost ! 



When visiting Prof. Henry fately, he told me of experi- 

 ments he was carrying on to settle one point in feeding pigs. 

 I was shown book after book of figures. He has spent 

 already three or four years, and expects to work some three 

 years longer, and he said the entire cost might be $10,000. 



There is a little tool called the Victor potato-coverer and 

 cultivator, which has been in use in Western New York for 

 some twenty-five years, which is well worthy of notice here. 

 It is so simple and cheap that every farmer who grows even 

 two acres of potatoes can afford to have one, whereas he 

 could not afford a planter, or the tools described in this 

 chapter. It needs no description, as the cut shows just 

 what it is. One man and a team of horses will cover as fast 

 as the team can walk, whether the potatoes are in hills or 

 check rows. As a cultivator it is used just as the tops are 

 breaking through the ground, to throw another light cover- 

 ing of earth over them, thus killing all weeds in the hills or 

 between them. This practice of throwing a little mellow 

 earth over the sprouts just as they appear above ground is 

 quite common in some sections. In the fall of 1886 the 



