Preparing for Potatoes. 161 



dry weather very well now. I honestly believe that I can grow 

 100 bushels of potatoes per acre on my land (except the clay) 

 without a drop of rain, from planting to digging time, if not 

 excessively hot. With plenty of vegetable matter in the soil and 

 fertility and tillage we are quite independent. When extreme 

 heat comes the eastern and northern slopes will stand it best. 

 Some southern growers have told me that 95 to 98 in the shade was 

 death to their potatoes very soon, wet or dry. On my farm I do 

 not fear heat with plenty of rain. I would not select very rolling 

 land for a potato farm, but rather nearly level, or just a gentle 

 slope. Side hills wash too much, and such tools as planter and 

 digger and manure spreader do not work as well. It would be 

 easy to get a farm better than mine in this respect. Our main 

 trouble, however, is with washing. We have lost probably $30 

 worth of potatoes during the past week by the washing of a sandy 

 loam side hill, and not a very large one, either. Short rotation 

 helps, but we cannot entirely stop it, and such washing will keep 

 land poor. 



Does the kind of soil they are grown on have anything to 

 do with the quality ? Certainly. On such soil as I have advised, 

 you can grow the very best quality, provided the manuring and 

 tillage are of the'right kind. On a muck soil they are generally 

 of poor quality, and I think on most black soils. The clay pota- 

 toes are not as good to my taste. You can notice in market that 

 in a year of scarcity and high prices, which is apt to be a dry year, 

 muck potatoes go pretty well. Anything sells then. And they 

 are better in a dry year. But when potatoes are cheap and plenty 

 buyers are particular about quality. And I think the method of 

 manuring has much to do with quality. I do not believe you can 

 grow as fine quality on fresh manure as on rotten or on clover sod. 

 Apply the manure to young clover and let the clover feed the po- 

 tatoes, I believe to be one of the best ways, if it is fresh. If rotten 

 you may safely apply to a clover sod the fall before planting. But 

 I believe it wiser to use the fresh manure to grow the renovating 

 crop, as I have explained about elsewhere. Fresh manure put on 

 a clover sod for corn and then sowed to rye in the fall and plowed 

 under in the spring would be in excellent shape for potatoes. 

 There are many good ways that one might manage. But bear in 

 mind some general facts. Fresh manure does not make best 

 quality and is apt to make scab worse and perhaps the rot. 

 Manure fed to clover loses these objectionable qualities, and 

 comes back with good interest. I simply dare not spread fresh 

 manure on sod during fall and winter and spring, to be plowed in 

 spring for potatoes, on my farm. I once suffered badly from 

 doing just this. We had some 300 bushels per acre, but my ! how 

 scabby. Let me tell you the plain truth. We had 1000 bushels 

 in another lot, fed on clover only, that were entirely smooth and 

 nice, and we had some 1500 bushels of these scabby ones. I dug 



