107 TUBER 



CROPS 



your best potatoes for seed, if you plant from 

 your own crop; or buy only the best varieties, 

 if you must buy. But it is well to remember 

 that there is always danger in potato seed raised 

 elsewhere than on your own patch where you 

 can watch conditions. Don't use a potato for 

 seed if it has a black thread running through it; 

 a roughened or irregular circle on the skin, or 

 a hollow center. Burn all such; else you will 

 have diseased crops and give yourself no end of 

 trouble and expense. Plant the seeds at least 

 foiu- inches deep and plow them in. The sur- 

 face should be harrowed two or three times be- 

 fore the plants come up, and the crop should 

 have light, surface tillings five to eight other 

 times during the season. 



Potatoes are planted in " drills" or continuous 

 furrows, 27 to 42 inches apart, at intervals of 

 9 to 18 inches, and it requires from 8 to 18 bushels 

 of potatoes to plant an acre. Most farmers 

 plant too sparingly. There has been much 

 book discussion as to the size of seed cuttings, 

 but the most economical size is one weighing 

 about three ounces or the size of a large hen's 

 egg, with at least one good eye. The potato 

 cutting is food; therefore the larger the cutting 

 the more food, and the more food the better 

 early growth, and the better the early growth 



