POTATO 



POTATO 



525 



taking five rows should cover one to one and a 

 quarter acres per hour of work, or about ten acres 

 per day, once over. A two-horse cultivator set to 

 take two rows will cover eight to ten acres per 

 day, going once in a row. A man without machi- 

 nery will dig one-eighth to one-half an acre per day, 

 depending on the crop and the soil, at a cost of 

 two to six and sometimes eight cents per bushel ; 

 with a good mechanical digger and three or four 

 horses and eight to sixteen hands to pick up, three 

 to six acres may be dug per day at a cost not 

 exceeding two cents per bushel. 



A specifie example. 



While the average yield of potatoes in the 

 United States is less than ninety bushels per acre, 

 it is wholly practicable, on good potato soil, to 

 produce three to five times that yield. It is doubt- 

 ful whether it pays to raise less than two hundred 

 bushels to the acre. Whether it pays to raise more 

 than three hundred bushels depends on the price of 

 labor and the ability to secure it advantageously. 

 By superior tillage, the yield may very easily be 

 placed beyond three hundred bushels, if the land is 

 right ; but if this requires the keeping of an extra 

 team throughout the year in order to have it when 



The potatoes are planted on a rolled surface in 

 order to secure uniform depth and a good stand. 

 The rows are thirty-six inches apart, seed placed 

 three inches deep, and about eleven inches in the 



Fig. 754. A potato planter in cross-section. 



the potatoes need tilling, it is a question whether 

 the crop would return a profit. The question of 

 farm organization at once arises, for there should 

 be other productive work for the extra teams and 

 men at other times of the year. 



The farm methods employed in producing more 

 than four hundred bushels of potatoes to the acre 

 on a particular farm (T. E. Martin, West Rush, New 

 York) will illustrate the discussion in this article. 

 The land (good loam) is in a three-year rotation, — 

 wheat, clover, potatoes. Potatoes is the money 

 drop. The land is underdrained. Plowing has been 

 lowered gradually from six to ten or twelve inches. 

 The plowed land is rolled, and then deeply harrowed 

 three or four times. When necessary, parts of the 

 land are rolled again and worked over several 

 times with harrows. Home -mixed fertilizer is 

 drilled in at the rate of 1,600 pounds to the acre, 

 so mixed as to contain 2| per cent nitrogen, 9i per 

 cent phosphoric acid, 15 per cent potash. Counting 

 the mixing, the fertilizer costs about thirty dollars 

 per ton. The soil is considered to be deficient in 

 potash. 



Fig. 755. Potato planter. 



row, requiring sixteen to twenty bushels of seed, cut 

 to one or two eyes. Rows are placed at three feet 

 in order to facilitate spraying. On high-priced 

 truck-garden land, closer planting may be advis- 

 able. The tubers are planted with an automatic 

 cutting, dropping, furrowing and covering machine. 

 The fields are tilled ten to fifteen times. With 

 the good preparation of land and efiicient tools, this 

 extent of tilling is not laborious nor expensive. 

 Level culture is practiced, but considerable ridges 

 are formed by the time the vines cover the 

 ground. A riding double-row cultivator and one- 

 horse weeder are used. Tillage invariably begins 

 within a week after planting, by following the 

 potato-row lines. The first and second times over, 

 very narrow teeth are used, set deep. The third 

 and fourth tillings are made as soon as the rows 

 can be followed, working deep -and very close to 

 the plants. Immediately following the fourth cul- 

 tivation, the weeder is used, as a rule, running 

 twice over the field, crosswise and lengthwise, the 

 lengthwise treatment pulling the plants up straight 

 so that subsequent working is not interfered 

 with. Seven-inch 

 side teeth are 

 now used on the 

 cultivator, throw- 

 ing a small, sharp 

 ridge directly on 

 each row, burying 

 the weeds. The 

 fields are hand- 

 weeded once or 

 twice; and, in this 

 operation, all 

 weak, diseased or 

 prematurely ripen- 

 ing potato plants 



Fig. 756. The platform of one 

 of tlie planters. 



are pulled up, being treated as weeds. 



Spraying is accomplished by means of a two- 

 wheeled geared machine, developing sixty to eighty 

 pounds pressure and carrying the nozzles ahead of 

 the wheels. On eighteen acres in 1906, there were 

 used 331 barrels (of fifty-five gallons) of Bordeaux 

 mixture, entailing a cost per acre for spraying of 

 twelve dollars. Careful tests showed that the 

 spraying saved, above its cost, about forty dollars 



