CULTIVATION. 39 



spaces left unplowed after throwing one furrow to each 

 row.") 



When the vines begin to meet and occupy the middles, 

 they are about ready for the last working. For this 

 purpose, they are to be pulled out of the way to one side, 

 throwing the vines of two rows together. The rows are 

 then plowed out, or from, and scraped, to destroy the 

 weeds, with the weeding-hoe. Then plowed to, and the 

 middle parts plowed out. All this should be done in 

 proper time ; if delayed, it will soon require much irksome 

 labor to put the crop in good condition for growth. 



Georgia Culture. — The ground being well prepared, 

 run off your rows three and a half or four feet apart, 

 with a shovel-plow, and, in the bottom of this furrow, 

 deposit whatever manure you intend to use, unless the 

 soil IS sufficiently rich. Then, on the shovel-furrow, 

 throw a list with a common one-horse turn-plow, running 

 on both sides of the furrow. Leave the land in this con- 

 dition until you are ready to plant ; then complete the 

 bed or ridge, by throwing up two more turning-plow fur- 

 rows ; open this with a light, narrow ripper, and set slips 

 eighteen to twenty inches apart. 



Four or five days after transplanting, work the plants 

 with a weeding-hoe, giving them a little loose soil, jit the 

 same time open the middles with one furrow of a shovel- 

 plow. This is the first working. The second, side the beds 

 with a shovel, and open the middles with a turn-plow, 

 brushing around the vines with a weeding-hoe, to keep the 

 earth off of them. The third and last working is per- 

 formed by plowing out the middles with a sweep, and 

 hoeing the bed or ridge, pulling the earth to the vines, but 

 not covering them, as this will cause them to take root 

 and make a late crop of fibrous roots tliat are worthless, 

 besides the loss of nutriment they draw from the larger 

 tubers. Of course, no potato gathered before it is ripe 



