CHAPTER XIV. 



TUBER CROPS. 

 POTATOES. 



A HEAVY yield of potatoes may be simply 

 a matter of moisture and frequent tillage. 

 The potato likes Scotland* and Nova 

 Scotia because it thrives best in deep, cool, moist 

 soU, finely pulverized and containing much pot- 

 ash. Knowing the conditions under which any 

 crop grows well, is equivalent to growing a big 

 crop, to the careful farmer, so if you want some 

 potatoes, you may as well get the most possible. 

 The average farmer raises 75 bushels to the acre, 

 but it pays to be above the average. You ought 

 to be ashamed to grow less than 200 or 300 bushels 

 even taking 75 as a starting point, for, when you 

 consider that by the exercise of brains and labor, 

 all the way from 600 to 1300 bushels per acre 

 have been produced, you may well decide to 

 prove what you can do. You have a chance to 

 beat the record. 



Potatoes should be planted deep and early. 

 If they are planted too near the surface they 

 will ripen before they are fully grown or maybe 

 get sun-burned and unfit for eating. Choose 



♦Ireland is not really the land of the "praties"; the average 

 yield of Great Britain is higher than of Ireland. 



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