POTATO. 185 



harrow is used. Such treatment will do more to remove weeds 

 than a good hand hoeing-, and the expense of the operation is 

 almost nothing. If the work is properly done, there is no 

 need of hand work. Subsequent cultivation should consist in 

 keeping the soil loose between the rows, and a little earth should 

 be thrown against the plants. For this purpose a good horse 

 hoe will do excellent work, but a still better implement is a 

 two horse cultivator that works both sides of the row at one- 

 operation. It is not a good plan to hill up potatoes, and it 

 should not be done unless they are pushing out of the ground, 

 when they will turn green if not covered up. Cultivation should 

 be thorough when the plants are young but is not desirable 

 after the tops have made most of their growth. 



Digging Potatoes. Early potatoes are generally dug as soon 

 as they are big enough for cooking if there is a market for 

 them: for winter use, it is very desirable to have the tubers 

 well ripened, as if not ripe the skin will peel off when handled, 

 and they do not look well. When potatoes are high in price, 

 it may pay to dig them by hand, for which purpose four-tined 

 garden forks are desirable: the best potato diggers, however, 

 do as good work as can be done by hand, and are generally 

 used by those who raise this crop on a large scale. When 

 potatoes are cheap, they should be dug with a potato digger 

 or plowed out: though when plowed out some tubers will get 

 covered up, most of these may be brought to the surface 

 by the use of a straight tooth harrow. If the tubers are keep- 

 ing well in the ground, it is a good plan to delay the digging 

 until the cool weather of autumn, when they may be carried 

 directly from the field to the cellar. If they are rotting in the 

 ground or are "•scabby," they should be dug at once, and if 

 the cellar is cool they may be put at once into it, but, other- 

 wise, it is a good plan to pit them in the field. 



Pitting in mild weather is done by putting the tubers into 

 heaps and covering them with straw or hay and a few inches 

 of loam. The straw should be allowed to stick out along the 

 top of the heap as a ventilator, so as to allow the moisture to 

 pass off. In the colder weather of late autumn, the covering, 

 of course, should be heavier, and when the potatoes have 

 ceased to sweat there is no need of a ventilator. In milder 

 sections, potatoes are stored through the winter in such pits, 



