For a heavy or medium soil I would use a rather coarse manure from the horse stable, in 
quantity from one to two good forks full to nine square feet. For a very sandy soil horse 
manure in which an equal part of clay has been worked makes a fine dressing, using a 
little more than the quantity suggested above. Sandy soils are hard to keep enriched 
unless underlaid with clay, as the rains leach the strength badly. Light, loamy soils are 
best treated with wood ashes or a light dressing of coarse bone meal (not bone dust). 
If bone be used, one good handful is sufficient to nine square feet; ashes, about one quart 
to nine square feet. 
All the foregoing fertilizers should be spread over the surface of the soil and 
worked in at the time of digging or plowing. Never use fresh manure. 
Soils that are low and inclined to be wet can be helped greatly by a liberal dressing 
of air slaked lime. On such soils the hills or rows where the tubers are to be planted 
should be raised several inches above the ground level. 
An excellent plan applicable to all soils is to spread a mulching of barn yard manure 
over the surface or around the plants after the last hoeing or cultivating. This will pre- 
vent the soil baking and permit the small fiber root to come near the surface. 
The above general rules may be varied as experience may suggest. 
PLANTING. 
Having prepared the soil, await the proper time for planting. This should never 
be done when the soil is wet. In planting tubers lay the tuber in a horizontal position, 
as indicated in figure 1 . Cover to a depth of 4 or 5 inches, pressing the soil firmly over 
the tubers. This permits the new growth to at once begin the formation of new roots. 
FIG. 1. TUBER PLANTED IN PBOPEH POSITION. FIG. 2. TUBER PLANTED IN IMPROPER POSITION. 
which are to become the tubers for the next year. Thus a new stalk and new tubers will 
be formed. These new roots will take firm hold of the soil and keep the plant in proper 
position, a condition not possible when planted as indicated in figure 2, where it will be 
seen the germ or sprouting end of the tuber is at or near the surface of the ground, which 
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