Potatoes 1381 



the summer rain penetrates to the roots about each plant. 

 Those who plant early will contend that potatoes planted deep 

 will be longer coming up, and the crop will not be as good as 

 if they were planted more shallow and afterward ridged. This 

 is true, yet the principle obtains. Early in the season the 

 ground is cold and has an overabundance of water. If planted 

 and covered deep, it will take a long time for the sun to pene- 

 trate to the tuber. Hence, they sometimes fail to come up at 

 all, or are too late for the highest price. If, instead of cover- 

 ing deeply all at once, just enough of the warm surface earth is 

 put on to keep them from chilling, the sun will warm and start 

 the eyes. After a few days put on, with a harrow, a little more 

 earth which has also become warm, and repeat the process until 

 the ground is level, when the potatoes will come up quickly 

 and be strong. At the same time one has cheaply stirred the 

 ground, retaining the moisture, and destroying countless weeds 

 just as they were sprouting. 



Except in very foul ground, on which it will seldom pay to 

 plant potatoes, the best yields are obtained from drill, rather 

 than from check row planting. ^Iore hills can be put on an 

 acre and there is less disturbance of the roots by late cultiva- 

 tion when this is done only one way. 



FERTILIZERS 



How much fertilizer and what kind to use. depends largely 

 on the soil. If one has a clover sod, that will help to supply 

 nitrogen, and the decaying vegetable matter will emit acids 

 which help to liberate mineral plant food. In this case it will 

 not be necessary to supply so much commercial fertilizer, particu- 

 larly nitrogen. It is important to remember that nitrogen in 

 organic matter, such as the decaying sod, manure, tankage, 

 fish scrap or the like, will not become available until the ground 

 is warm. Hence, for early potatoes, or where one depends in 

 part on the sod, I would use nitrogen in the form of nitrate of 

 soda. This is available at once, and for every 100 pounds of 

 nitrogen applied, 63 pounds are found in the plant, while from 

 organic sources, not more than 41 pounds in each 100 pounds 

 applied. For this reason I believe it economy, when nitrogen 



