POTATO CULTURE. ,101 



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pense? Are you going to treat them better than you do 

 your own family? Alas! some farmers do. Shame on 

 them ! Let us do all we can, friends, to show them more 

 businesslike and manly methods. With drained soil and 

 proper food, and persistent, systematic effort, we can keep 

 weeds practically down, never let them see daylight (nothing 

 short of this is perfect), and still we shall only be giving the 

 crop the tillage that it needs and that it will pay for. The 

 weed-fighting has really cost nothing to speak of. What did 

 Providence give us weeds for? Partly to oblige us to till 

 well, perhaps. 



After a shower the surface of our fields dries off ; and if the 

 soil is in the least heavy a crust forms. This is hard, and 

 quite impervious to air, and the evaporation from this un- 

 broken surface is great. There is not usually rain enough 

 during the season to supply a crop of potatoes with all the 

 moisture they need. There is, however, much moisture ac- 

 cumulated in the subsoil below. This works up toward the 

 surface by what we call capillary attraction, the same way 

 that oil rises in your lampwick. In this way a crop may get 

 considerable moisture over and above what comes directly 

 from the clouds during the growing season. There is a limit, 

 of course, to this supply, and we may save it from waste, not 

 only by keeping weeds down, but by having the surface 

 lightly stirred. This loose broken surface acts as a mulch, 

 just as effectually as though you had put some straw on the 

 top of the ground. The water works up through the firmer 

 soil below and supplies your crop, but it is prevented from 

 reaching the surface, to any extent, where sun and Wind 

 would drink it up, by your mulch of loose earth. On good 

 soil a man who is as saving as possible in this line may get a 

 fair return, even without any rain at all. It is simply won- 

 derful what man may do. But he must do it : Nature will 

 never do it for him. God furnishes the rain and the brains. 

 You are a free agent to use one or both or neither, as much 

 or little as you please. Do you see now why we are so anx- 



