POTATO CULTURE. 57 



and when planting. Firmly packed soil is not best. Work 

 when dry, plant when dry, as far as you can. Weeks of 

 heavy rain, as we had last season, do injury that mortal man 

 can not correct, by packing the soil so solidly. The only 

 remedy in such a time is prevention in the shape of light soil 

 very full of vegetable matter. Then you can smile at the 

 rain. 



Wife says, " Explain more fully why you intend to plant 

 by hand this year. You know it is not all on account of 

 your marker doing better, as a hasty reader might think 

 from what you say." 



Very true. My seed will cost me more than two dollars a 

 bushel on account of buying Northern grown. I can get 

 along with perhaps a bushel less per acre, by hand-planting, 

 and I intend to drop my Freeman seed 16 inches apart in the 

 drills. When the planter makes a miss, set to drop every 16 

 inches, it would be more serious than when dropping every 

 18 inches ; 32 inches would make quite a break more than I 

 want to see. It will take no more time to mark and cover 

 with my tools than to plant with planter. The only differ- 

 ence in expense will be about $1.00 an acre that the drop- 

 ping will cost. To offset this, if 1 get good droppers there 

 is the saving of seed ; gain from extra tillage, which doesn't 

 cost me a cent ; more perfect stand, and the enjoyment of 

 doing one's best. Now you have the whole matter before 

 you, and just as fairly as I can put it. 



When I read of Mr. Hummel's yield with fertilizers of 350 

 bushels per acre, as told of in another chapter, and that he 

 planted with a planter like mine, I felt that any reader of 

 this chapter would say, " Well, that is good enough. I guess 

 the planter is as good as any thing." Then I noticed more 

 particularly, and found his soil was light and sandy. 



There is consolation in this chapter for the small careful 

 grower who can not afford a planter. Very large fields will 

 always be put in with the machine, doubtless ; but we may 

 get the machine improved. 



