A STUDY OF FACTORS INFLUENCING THE YIELD OF POTATOES 1235 



to plant the hills in checkrows. Moreover, while a marker is carried by 

 the machine planter, extra labor is necessary to mark the field in checks 

 for checkrow planting. As is shown in later tables, less seed per acre is 

 usually planted by the checkrow system than by the drill method, since 

 the seed pieces are spaced farther apart. Therefore, from the standpoint 

 of land economy, checkrowing is the less desirable method where land is 

 high in value, as on Long Island. An ample spacing between hills is shown 

 by the typical checkrowed field in Steuben County illustrated in figure 144. 



FlG. 144. A CHECKROWED POTATO FIELD, COMMON IN STEUBEN COUNTY 



The smaller amount of seed planted per unit of space in the checkrow 

 system may be desirable wherever soil moisture and fertility are likely to 

 be taxed to their limit. However,- the foregoing studies on the relation 

 between rate of planting and yield do not indicate that this point was 

 reached in Steuben County in 1912. 



Harwood (1893) reported comparative yields from twenty-four experi- 

 ments conducted at the Michigan station, in which the varieties Early 

 Ohio and Rural New Yorker No. 2 were planted in hills and in drills. 

 These tests are especially valuable because equal amounts of seed per acre 

 were used in both systems of planting. Altho drill planting did not 

 always give the higher yield, the general average showed a difference of 

 12 bushels per acre for the Early Ohio and 29 bushels for Rural New 



