CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT. 67 



May. If set out after that time tlie crop is not generally 

 remunerative. The proper soil is a light, sandy one, or any 

 land that is well impregnated with sand. Stable manure 

 is the best fertilizer ; after that cow-pen manure. In 

 this section, mold from the woods and pine tags are used 

 in large quantities, the same land being often put in po- 

 tatoes. I never have been able to make good sweet pota- 

 toes with guano or artificial fertilizers alone ; but it is 

 necessary to supply coarse manure of some kind to mix 

 with it. My plan is, to drill in all the stable and cow-pen 

 manure I can spare for my potatoes, and by that means 

 it goes much farther. Three feet is the best distance for 

 the rows to be apart, and I am accustomed to list on the 

 manure that I have drilled in the rows, throwing up the 

 list as high as I can with a single plow, putting two fur- 

 rows together. I make it a rule never to list in a day 

 more than I can set that day, as the plants live better in 

 fresh soil. The distance for the plants in the row is 

 twenty inches, and it is best to set them deep in the 

 ground, for if they should be cut off by cut-worms or 

 anything else, they will be more apt to come out again, 

 and the roots get more of the moisture. The evening is 

 the best time for setting out, after a moderate rain in 

 May ; if the moisture is sufficient you can usually set for 

 four or five evenings. In June the sun is so hot it is 

 very difficult to get plants to live without a good season. 

 In the cultivation of potatoes the secret of success is never 

 to let them get grassy, but work them as soon as a crust 

 forms on the ground. If they get grassy it is impossible 

 to remove the grass without injuring the potato roots ; 

 and it is easier to work them three times when there is 

 no grass than once when they are grassy. You must 

 always see that the hoes do not cut into the hill, but 

 merely scrape the ground around the plant, and then 

 pull up a little earth to it. Now, by my plan of horse 

 cultivation I save a great deal of hoe work. First, throw 



