144 THE POTATO 



tender, the tubers adhere to the stem, and often require 

 removal. It is a slow, tedious process, but nearly 

 every potato is obtained. A man will dig one-eighth 

 to three-eighths of an acre a day. With the main crop 

 a man will dig from one-tenth to one-half acre a day at 

 a cost generally varying between two and six cents 

 per bushel, sometimes running to eight and occasion- 

 ally lower than two cents, depending a great deal on 

 the skill of the man, the ^deld, the soil, and state of the 

 land. As weather conditions may retard digging, and 

 labor is hard to obtain, this method is being discon- 

 tinued except on small patches. 



2. Plow. — Plowing out with a common plow, or a 

 potato plow, or so-called "digger," many of which 

 are : 



Modified Shovel Plows. — All that I have tested have 

 been failures. They dig some of the potatoes out and 

 cover some up. On harrowing after them many more 

 potatoes appear, and on digging the rows some may 

 still be found. My experience has been that the pota- 

 toes left in would more than pay for digging by hand. 

 They may be useful for small growers on a light soil, 

 and for those who, being short of labor, wish to save 

 part of their crop. Six to ten hands and two horses 

 will dig one and a half to two acres per day. In the 

 Southern States early potatoes are plowed out, and 

 ten cents per barrel is paid for picking them up. 



3. Mechanical Diggers. — The high-priced horse- 

 power diggers, as the " Reuther " (Fig. 43), the 

 "Hoover" (Fig. 44), and the " Dowden," are all re- 

 ported as satisfadlory machines. They work on the 

 same principle. The shovel-point is forced under the 



