ABOUT FRUITS, FLOWERS AND FARMING. 387 



and it naturally keeps the potatoes from being too moist, 

 and they are often injured thereby. I have found that 

 three feet i-.-u-h way is the most proper distance to insure a 

 good crop; I plant three common sized potatoes in the 

 hill ; it is no use to cut them : if cut small, the vines come 

 up small and weak, grow fast and fall down." 



The following method we take from an able writer in the 

 Louisville Journal, signing himself " Grazier :" 



" The ground selected for potatoes should be dry, where 

 no surface-water will rest. It .should be rich ; if not natur- 

 ally so, it must be made so by a sufficient quantity of good 

 manure. It should be plowed twice, and at least twelve 

 inches deep. After the first plowing, it should be har- 

 rowed and cross harrowed; and after the second plowing, 

 harrowed again, and if not very friable and free from clods 

 it should then be rolled. The mold cannot be too fine, as 

 on the depth of the plowing, and fineness of the earth, 

 depend the retention of that moisture so indispensable to 

 the health and maturing of all bulbous roots in particular. 

 The ground thus prepared, should then be opened off in 

 drill*) three feet from the centre of one to the centre of the 

 other, and, if practicable, running north and south. When 

 opened, if manure is to be applied, it must then be hauled 

 in carts ; the horse going down between the drills, the bed 

 of the cart will cover two drills, where the manure can be 

 pulled out at intervals, in quantity sufficient, not only for 

 the two drills described, but for one on each side in addi- 

 tion ; all of which one hand, following with a fork, can 

 easily distribute and spread in the four drills. 



" This done, the ground is ready for the seed. I shall 

 first describe the whole of the cultivation and harvesting 

 necessary, and then speak of the seed and its preparation 

 separately. The seed should be dropped in the manure, 

 twelve inches apart, and as quickly as a drill is planted, the 

 plow should follow and cover it in. The double mold- 

 board plow, which is the proper implement for the business, 



