POTATOES 205 



labor required by following this system of culture. 

 In an ordinary season, the horse-tools will do all the 

 work necessary to keep the surface loose and free 

 from weeds. I make it a rule, however, to go 

 thi'ough the field once with the haiid-hoes, cutting 

 out any weeds that may be growing in the ^mes of 

 the rows where the horse-tools cannot reach. Under 

 good management, Potatoes should be kept free from 

 weeds and grass, until they are in full blossom. 

 After this date, cultivation may be suspended, for 

 any weeds that may then come up, do little or no 

 injury to the crop. The stalks shade the ground so 

 that the growth of weeds is sparse ; although it is 

 often advisable to have some scattering tall weeds 

 pulled by hand, before the Potatoes are dug. 



In cultivating early varieties of Potatoes on strong 

 ground, they can be harvested in time to get a crop 

 of Turnips off the same ground, which may prove as 

 profitable as the crop of Potatoes. 



We grow on our farm fi-om one thousand to one 

 thousand five hundred bushels of Potatoes a year 

 for market. During the past ten years we have sold 

 none less than seventy-five cents per bushel, by the 

 quantity, and a large proportion of them would 

 average one dollar a bushel. 



On ground well manured and tilled, two hundred 

 bushels of marketable Potatoes to the acre is about 

 an average crop in our section ; these are worth one 

 hundred and seventy-five dollars. Deducting the 

 expense, there is left from one hundred to one 

 hundred and twenty-five dollars. With early Po- 

 tatoes, harvested in time to sow a Fall crop of Yel- 

 10 



