124 POTATO CULTURE. 



ordinary wagons because they cost but little. They were not 

 very satisfactory. I would now get a good platform-spring 

 wagon for marketing. In just drawing to the depot, now, 

 for shipping, we do not use springs. 



Wife says I must explain about how we came to have so 

 many potatoes in 1883. She is afraid some reader will think 

 that too big a yield, knowing that our custom has been to 

 grow potatoes on only a third of our 35 acres of plow land. 

 Well, in the spring of 1883 we decided to build a new house, 

 and that, of course, meant other expenses increased. We 

 were anxious to furnish it as soon as possible, and we had 

 barely enough to pay for the house alone. We have made it 

 a rule to live within our income and pay as we go, as far as 

 possible. So we decided to push a little extra and plant 

 some 18 acres of potatoes. Then a severe freeze cut all 

 wheat in this section down to the ground, and we feared it 

 was killed. For fear of this we plowed up half our wheat in 

 the spring and planted potatoes ; so we had twice as much 

 land occupied as usual, or about 24 acres. The season was 

 wonderfully favorable, and the average yield was nearly 300 

 bushels per acre. On our best iand it reached 400, by actual 

 measure, before witnesses. I am tempted to tell you that 

 some people thought us a little queer when we hired all work 

 done connected with the building, even the drawing of the 

 lumber down from the depot. Well, we tended to our busi- 

 ness and reaped a large reward. We might have fussed 

 around and saved $200, perhaps, on the cost of the house, 

 and lost $1000 in the potato-field. After paying all running 

 and living expenses that year, we found ourselves ahead 

 about $1700 in clear cash. The house was well furnished in 

 the fall, and every thing was paid for, cash down. 



