WAY OF GROWING POTATOES 87 



THE AFTER CULTIVATION OF POTATOES 



As previously mentioned, the nitrogenous fertilisers 

 are all given to the early crop. 



About a fortnight after planting and covering the 

 early crop, the tops of the drills should be levelled. 

 This can be done with a chain harrow turned on its back 

 or a few thorns threaded into a framework roughly 

 made like a gate. A plant will always take the 

 shortest cut to the daylight, and the object of this 

 levelling is to ensure the haulms coming through in the 

 middle of the drills instead of through the sides. 



A few days later, when the tops are peeping over the 

 land, the drills may be partly remoulded so as to cover 

 in the tops and keep them from the frost. This, of 

 course, is done by first running the drill-grubber up 

 the drills and then following with the moulding plough. 

 The operation may be repeated in about a fortnight's 

 time. 



Later still, as soon as ever the tops have got fairly 

 well advanced and show any indication of straggling 

 over the drills, the operations of grubbing and moulding 

 should be repeated, a final moulding being carried out 

 just before the planting of the second crop. 



Constant grubbing and stirring of the soil is the very 

 best thing in the world both for a potato and a root 

 crop. Even if there are no weeds to be seen, one may 

 say that thorough after-cultivation of these crops is as 

 good as an extra dose of manure. The stirring of the 

 soil draws up the moisture from below, helps to work 

 in the moisture which falls on the land, keeps the 

 land loose and friable, and so allows the tubers to 

 develop. 



It is specially necessary to keep the soil well tilled 

 under the inter-cropping system in the early part of the 

 season, because later, when the second crop of potatoes 



