88 Maine; agricui^tural e;xperiment station. 1909. 



High Ridge vs. Modified Ridge Culture eor Potato 



Growing. 



The method of ridge culture is almost universally used by 

 potato growers in Aroostook County. Probably over 90 per 

 cent of the farmers practice what might be called extreme ridge 

 culture, that is, the ridging begins at the time of planting. The 

 planter most used has a plow so constructed that it makes lit- 

 tle more than a mark on the soil unless it is very light, instead 

 of a furrow, then the disks at the rear of the machine cover 

 the seed by throwing up a ridge perhaps four inches high so 

 that the seed at the very start is practically on a level with 

 the surface between the rows. A few farmers make a prac- 

 tice of going over the field with a weeder and somewhat flat- 

 tening the ridge but the number that do this is comparatively 

 few. The method most usually followed is to go between 

 the rows with the cultivator perhaps 8 to 10 days after the 

 potatoes are planted and then as soon as they begin to break 

 the ground g-o over with the horse-hoe and bury them up 

 also burying the weeds at the same time and thereby raising 

 the height of the ridge. This kind of cultivation is con- 

 tinued until the tops are too large to pass through without 

 injury. By this time an A shaped ridge has been formed 

 about 12 to 15 inches high and, of course, the surface between 

 the rows has been dropped by the continual scraping up of the 

 dirt so that the tubers growing in the ridge are considerably 

 above the surface between the rows. 



It can be readily seen that in a dry season a field so handled 

 must suffer considerably from lack of moisture. Of course, in 

 a wet season as is frequently experienced in Aroostook County 

 no lack of moisture is felt and the drains between the rows are 

 an advantage rather than an injury but in an extremely dry 

 season it would seem that the drainage is too great. The ridges 

 being high and narrow dry out very quickly and it would appear 

 therefore the crop must suffer more from lack of moisture than 

 it would if the roots of the plants were below the level as they 

 are when modified level culture is practiced. 



The two dry seasons of 1905 and 1906 were somewhat dis- 

 astrous to potato fields cultivated with the high ridge and the 

 crop was considerably below a normal crop in the dry sections 

 of the countv. For this reason the experiments here reported 



