!66 Our Farming. 



perfect. You can plant up and down hill all right, but not as 

 well along a side hill. It would w T ork on stony, rough land, but 

 don't try it. Better clear up than risk breaking it. It will drop 

 whole small potatoes, or large ones cut even to one eye. It has 

 practically no faults, in good hands, except that it is possible to 

 put potatoes in by hand so they will for some reason yield better. 

 I really do not know why. Now understand me, not one man 

 in fifty does put them in better than the machine will, but my 

 experience is that it can be done. 



I first made my drills with a one-horse plow and covered by 

 hand. Next I made a marker that dug out three slight trenches, 

 something like a corn marker, using cultivator teeth to make the 

 little furrows. Then I covered with a cultivator and two horses, 

 putting side shovels on and turning them in at the rear, covering 

 one row at a time. This covering was all right, but the marking 

 was not deep enough. Could not get it deep enough. Potatoes 

 grew out of the ground too much. Disliked to go back to the 

 plow ; it was too slow and it was hard to hold in sod, and I could 

 not get rows as straight. I got to the point where I had got to 

 have something that was not on the market in the way of a 

 marker. The. planter was not out then. I went to work and 

 made just what I wanted. A right and left hand plow, with 

 mould boards toward each other, were attached under a sulky and 

 spring seat put on, and I had the best marker I have yet seen for 

 potatoes. The plows were held where set, so they did not catch 

 in sod. I could make the rows as straight as with the planter. 

 Next I made a scraper out of a plank about 6 feet long and 20 

 inches wide, setting it on edge with a pole attached at right angles 

 and braced and then a pair of plow handles fastened on rear side. 

 A very simple thing, but, drawn by two horses, spread about 6 

 feet apart by long neck yoke and double tree, so they could walk 

 outside of the two rows they were covering, it did wonderful 

 good work. The pair of plows leave earth piled up between two 

 rows, as one is a left hand and one a right hand plow. This 

 scraper levels and pulverizes this ridge as fast as team can walk. 

 I felt bigger than a king when I first used it. I had studied over 

 it until I knew it must work. Sent my men to dropping in the 

 morning and along towards noon went out with this scraper and 

 just slid right along, doing perfect work. Well, here was a great 

 advance. Two rows plowed out at once perfectly, any depth, and 

 two covered at once as well. But we had to drop the seed by 

 hand. After using this marker and coverer for several years with 

 great satisfaction, the planter was brought to my notice. The 

 manufacturer came here. I showed him my tools. He admitted 

 they did perfect \vork, " but," says he, " my planter will do just 

 as well and fast, as \vhile you mark two at once and cover the 

 same I can mark one and cover it, and then I can save you the 

 money paid out for dropping. " Well I agreed to try it, although 



