A FEW POINTS ON SOIL, PREPARATION OF SAME, HOW TO PLANT AND CULTIVATE; ADVANTAGES 
OF THE R. N. V. TRENCH METHOD. 
The enemies to large yields of potatoes are: First, a sufficient supply of suitable soluble food; second, drought; third, a compact medium in 
which to develop. Solubility of food can be secured only by moisture. The potato plant before the tubers begin to form needs no more moisture than 
most plants with succulent stems and leaves. The tubers are 80 per cent, water, and they develop and mature in a comijarativclv short period. 
When they are developing a full supply of moisture must be supplied or the potatoes are checked. Succeeding favorable weather can then induce oidy 
a second growth which, though it may add to the bulk of the crop, cannot increase its value. 
Trenches, if of ample size, supply a mellow congenial medium for the potatoes' growth. The roots freely extend v^hithersoever they will. In 
this unresisting soil the tubers form, grow and mature. The roots readily find their food, while the mellow, deep soil, conserves moisture. It is well 
known that surface cultivation in times of drought tends to hold the moisture underneath. The soil of the trenches if propcrlv made, acts throughout, 
upon the same principle as the surface cultivation. The tubers and roots have nothing to overcome except the comparativelv gentle resistance of a 
yielding soil. The moisture is conserved by porosity. The gentlest rains, or even dews readily jjenetrate and ijermeate the loose soil ; while evapora- 
tion is retarded by the foliage which soon covers the entire trench. Only shallow, level cultivation is given. By the old method the plow or cultivator 
is run both ways, throwing furrows towards the plants. The fibrous roots are severed, while the plants are, in a measure, deprived of the means of 
gathering moisture, the severed roots being exposed to the direct action of air and sun, and the heaped up soil acting as a shed which carries the rain 
from where it is most needed to where it is least needed. 
The best land for growing potatoes is undoubtedly new breaking, but this is now-a-days scarce, and getting more so each year. The next best 
thing is, if you are going to make a business of growing potatoes, to begin a couple of years ahead and put your ground for potatoes in jjroijcr con- 
dition, which is easily accomplished by rotation. First wheat, next clover, and then potatoes. .\n early cutting of the clover can be made, which 
makes most excellent feed, and the second growth should be plowed under, doing this in the fall if convenient ; if not, spring will do. The clover roots 
and growth turned under not only make the very best fertilizer, l)ut the growth of clover on a piece of ground prepares it especially for a jjotato crop. 
Clover absorbs through a peculiar growth on its roots, free nitrogen from the air. At market rates, as figured in the cost of commercial fertilizer, 
there is in the air resting on each square rod of your farm, between $90 and $100 worth of nitrogen. Clover also is the best agent to gather the 
mineral properties needed for the production of a croj) and bring them to the surface or within reach of the growing crop, it being a verv deep feeder. 
It gathers up escaping nitrates as well as mineral matter, bringing it to the surface again where other crops obtain the benefit when the sod is plowed 
under. Rather light land, a clay subsoil, or little sandy produces the smoothest and prettiest potatoes, although enormous crops of good quality are 
grown on heavy land. Pages could be written as to the value of clover as a fertilizer, and a rotation of crops, but sjiace here will not permit. 
