42 



POTATOES IN COOS COUNTY 



" In this section the potato is generally planted on sod land that was 

 broken during the fall or summer of the previous season and given a liberal 

 dressing of stable manure. By some the manure is turned under, and by 

 others it is applied on the furrows and harrowed in. Both methods have 

 stanch advocates. 



" Hill culture is used altogether. The rows are placed from two and one- 

 half to three feet apart, with the hills from twelve to twenty inches apart in 

 the row. From ten to twenty bushels of seed are used per acre, — fifteen or 

 eighteen bushels being the quantity used by most growers. Most of the 

 farmers use commercial fertilizers, at the rate of from three to four hundred 

 pounds per acre in the hill. This is thought to be profitable, as it gives the 

 plants a good start. Both the seed and the phosphate are dropped by hand, 

 and then covered with a two-horse hoe, with the wings adjusted for that 

 purpose. 



"Soon after the plants appear above ground they are hoed, the earth 

 being thrown up around them with the horse hoe, which is followed by the 



hand hoe, to uncover any 

 that chance to be covered 

 and to cut or pull out stray 

 weeds. About two weeks 

 later the second and last 

 hoeing is given. This time 

 the drills are made as large 

 as possible with the horse 

 hoe. At this hoeing but 

 little hand-work is done 

 unless the piece is very 

 tough or weedy. 



"After this nothing is 

 usually done, except to ap- 

 ply Paris green once or 

 twice in case the beetles threaten to injure the vines. A very few farmers 

 use Bordeaux mixture for the blight. Some of the more painstaking pull or 

 cut out any weeds that may appear among the vines in August, before their 

 seeds ripen. 



"The crop is dug by hand, the tined digger being the favorite implement. 

 The average yield is about two hundred and fifty bushels per acre in good 

 seasons. In extra good seasons entire fields sometimes yield as high as four 

 hundred bushels per acre, and five hundred bushels are occasionally grown. 



"The past season was a rather poor one for the potato-grower, as the 

 yield was small and many varieties rotted badly. The Adirondack, which 

 gave excellent results in 1S97 and was consequently largely planted in 1898, 

 rotted very badly and the yield was not large. The average yield of all 

 varieties in this section was probably not more than one hundred and fifty, 

 or, at most, two hundred bushels per acre. The varieties giving best satis- 

 faction the past season were: Dakota Red, American Wonder (red), and 

 Delaware or Green Mountain." 



Fig. 12. Carman No. i (ro). 



