102 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



loam, well drained, where there is no possibility of water standing 

 in a wet season. Far more owners of gardens should grow their 

 own potatoes; they cost the average household more money than 

 any other vegetable, and there is nothing difficult in their culture 

 which should deter anyone from planting them. Fresh manure 

 should never be used when planting potatoes; it can, however, be 

 worked into the soil the previous fall; the best plan is to plant 

 them to follow some crop for which the ground was heavily manured 

 the previous spring. Early planting pays the best, particularly so 

 when we get such severe droughts as in the summer of 1911. Rows 

 three feet apart and sets fifteen inches are correct distances. For 

 a very early crop it pays to sprout a few tubers in boxes containing 

 a single thickness of each, stood erect and as close as they can be 

 packed. The general practice is to spread fertilizer in the drills 

 before planting the sets; a far better plan is to broadcast it after 

 the potatoes have been planted. Where fertilizer alone is used 

 600 lbs. acid phosphate, 500 lbs. kainit, and 200 lbs. nitrate of 

 soda per acre can be applied, using the nitrate of soda after the 

 growth has started. Small growers had better use some special 

 potato fertilizer. 



Differences of opinion arise about cutting sets; we like them to 

 have two eyes each, and such sets from large potatoes are more 

 productive than if cut from small ones. Single potatoes of small 

 size do not average so well as sets cut from large potatoes. The 

 ground should be kept constantly stirred, both before and after 

 the potatoes start to grow, and this must be done very persistently, 

 and particularly after each rainfall. The potato beetle and blight 

 can be controlled by spraying; for the former, arsenate of lead, at 

 the rate of four pounds to fifty gallons of water, with bordeaux 

 mixture added as a fungicide, applied as soon as the young bugs 

 hatch out, will care for the pests if well sprayed and dried on before 

 rain. One application of poison should suffice, but a second and 

 even a third spraying with the bordeaux mixture will ensure a 

 healthy foliage. As to varieties, Early Norwood and New Queen 

 as earlies and Green Mountain as a main crop variety are sufficient. 

 If restricted to one variety it would be the reliable Green Moun- 

 tain. 



Miscellaneous root crops want similar soil and conditions to 



