50 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



deficient. It is also true that too much water will check the 

 growth as quickly and effectually as too little. In most 

 seasons here in Massachusetts, as in the southern and western 

 parts of my State, year in and year out you probably suffer 

 much more from droughts than from too much wet. In 

 Aroostook County, in northern Maine, with a gravelly loam 

 soil underlain by broken ledge so as to form natural drain- 

 age, with a copious rainfall during the growing season, the 

 method of culture is very different from what your conditions 

 demand. Although better methods are frequently used and 

 with profit, plowing in the fall, and once harrowing in the 

 spring, will, in Aroostook County, Me., suffice for prepara- 

 tion of the soil, and cultivating two or three times, and 

 finishing with a shovel plow or other hilling device, will in 

 most seasons give a fair crop. 



Here in Massachusetts the conditions of climate are so 

 different that the treatment must be very different. Too 

 much attention to the fitting of the soil for the crop can 

 hardly be given, for no amount of after tillage can overcome 

 neglect in preparation. Deep and thorough plowing and 

 harrowing, so as to make a perfect seed bed, not only estab- 

 lishes an earth mulch so as to prevent the loss of moisture of 

 the spring rains, but it so fines the soil that the plant food 

 contained in it becomes accessible to the growing plant. 

 The conservation of moisture by frequent tillage is not un- 

 derstood or practised as it should be. The old notion that 

 potatoes should be hilled, and that tillage should cease as 

 soon as the potato is in bloom, is wrong for most situations. 

 Hilling is frequently practised so as to keep the tubers from 

 becoming exposed to the sun ; this is not necessary if the 

 soil was properly prepared. On hard, compact soil the 

 potato will, because of less resistance of the soil, push out of 

 the ground. This will not happen in deeply worked land. 



Insect Enemies of the Potato. 



Indispensable as an abundance of plant food and moisture 

 are to the successful potato culture, healthy foliage is another 

 requisite of equal or even greater importance. There are 

 two insects which annually do great damage to the potato 



