148 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[Mat, 
How to Drop Potatoes. 
For tlie purpose of facilitating the hard labor 
required in carryiug aud dropping potatoes, 
we have prepared the accompanying illustra- 
tion of a man in the act of dropping them. A 
wide leather strap, or what is better, a strip of 
webbing, with a hook attached to each end, is 
thrown over the neck, and the basket of pota- 
toes hung on the hooks. A basket or pail that 
will hold half a bushel is sufficiently large to 
contain as many as a laborer will desire to carry 
at once. The top of the basket should be about 
even with one's lower ribs. When a basket is 
carried in this manner, both hands are free to 
be used in dropping a row on each side, which 
can be done about as quickly as one row when 
the basket is carried on one arm according to 
the usual custom. By this manner of carrying 
a basket all the severe fatigue of the arm and 
shoulder is avoided, and a laborer can always 
walk erect, which is much easier thau to sup- 
port a weight on one side. When potatoes 
bound from their proper places they may either 
be put in place with the foot of the man who 
drops them, or with the hoe when covering. 
m I — ^ % ^ 1 m 
Deep and Shallow Planting. 
Some good farmers advocate deep planting 
by far too indiscriminatelj', and they refer to 
the result of well-conducted experiments to 
prove that it is much better than shallow plant- 
ing. On the contrary, other men will show by 
experiments conducted with great care aud im- 
partiality, that very shallow planting is best, and 
the success of their crops appears to depend 
upon it. The theory and practice of the latter 
is quite as correct as the former, notwithstand- 
ing they are directly opposed to each other. 
But let those formers change places, and they 
will change views with their farms, aud still be as 
opposed to each other as before, yet both be 
right. When the soil is friable, sandy, or very 
light, it is best to plant seeds deep, especially in 
dry weather, unless they are so small that 
they would not be able to reach the surface. 
This applies particularly to warm, light, sand}', 
gravcll)' loams, which dry oul readily after 
heavy rains. If Indian corn, potatoes, aud 
peas be planted fr(?m four to six inches deep, 
where the soil is pulverized to a good depth, 
the roots being deep in the ground will absorb 
moisture while the surface is quite dry. The 
young plants thid but Utile difflcully in coming 
up through light porous soils. But where there 
is an excess of water in a heavy soil, if seeds 
be planted deep, it is frequently impossible for 
the little plants to force their way to the surface. 
This is especially true of those plants of which 
the cotyledons are carried up to the surface 
of the soil, as beans, cucumbers, flax, and 
many other plants. On many light, mellow 
soils there is little danger of covering potatoes, 
peas, corn and other cereals too deeply ; while 
if covered shallow, unless the season be favora- 
ble, and not too dry, the results will be less satis- 
factory. On the contrary, if such seed be cov- 
ered deeply in heavy soils where a crust oflen 
forms soon after a heavy rain, many of them 
could never force a passage to the surface. For 
this reason, it is important on heavy soils to 
cover the seed shallow, and still have it deep 
enough to germinate. 
«-t »»^ — «— 
Planting Large and Small Potatoes. 
The writer has planted small potatoes, from 
half an inch to an inch in diameter, which yield- 
ed apparently as well as large ones for only one 
season. He also planted small tubers of the size 
mentioned, for five successive years, selecting 
the smallest each year; and the fifth crop was 
not worth digging, as the greater proportion 
consisted of tubers no larger than those planted ; 
many were no larger than marrowfat peas. 
The conclusion was that small potatoes may be 
used for seed a single season, with good results ; 
but, if planted for sev- 
eral years in succes- 
sion, they will degen- 
erate even with good 
cultivation. On the 
contrary, he has prac- 
ticed cutting tubers 
of the most desirable 
form and size into 
small pieces, with one 
eye on each piece, 
with two or three 
pieces in each hill, or 
if in drills, one piece 
in a place, about six 
or eight inches apart; 
and the result has 
been invariably a 
good yield of large 
tubers, with no signs 
of degeneracy. 'Wheii 
seed was scarce, the 
tubers were always 
cut as shown in the «^nneu of cutting. 
accompanying illustration : Beginning at the 
root end, and cutting off a chip with one eye, 
then, turning the tuber, others were cut off 
until about half of it was used. These were 
kept by themselves, and also those of the seed 
end, and each kind planted separately. The sets 
near the seed end will produce new potatoes at 
least six or eight days, some say a fortnight, ear- 
lier thau the sets from the root end. If the eyes 
are very close together, it will be better to leave 
two on a piece as large as the first joint of a 
man's finger, than to cut the pieces too small. 
This is the most economical mode of cutting 
seed tubers; aud the writer has never been able 
to discover any difference in the size of the new 
crop, when the seed was cut in this way, or 
when cut into quarters, or when planted whole. 
More good potatoes can be raised from a bushel 
of tubers by cutting them as shown by the illus- 
tration and planting in drills about 30 inches 
apart, and eight inches apart iu the drills, thau 
in any other manner. When planted in this 
way, a little more labor will be required to hoe 
them, unless the ground is free from weeds. 
This manner of cutting seed potatoes is not re- 
commended as the best way of preparing tubers 
for planting. The design is simply to show how 
they may be cut economicall}', with good results. 
Any one can try the experiment of planting a 
few whole potatoes, a few others cut into four 
equal parts directly through the tubers from 
one end to the other, and an equal number chip- 
ped off as shown by the illustration, without 
any apprehensions that the new potatoes will 
not be as good as if the sets were larger. The 
only good objection to cutting seed so small is, the 
plants do not grow as luxuriantly when small, 
especially when the weather is cold and wet, as 
if the sets were larger. The substance in a 
small piece is soon exhausted, after which the 
young plant must draw its nourishment from 
the soil and atmosphere ; whereas, if the sets be 
larger, the substance in them furnishes the best 
kind of nourishment for promoting the growth 
of the young plants. Probably the best and 
safest way is, to plant uncut those tubers as 
large as hen's eggs of an ordinary size ; and to 
cut larger ones into pieces about the size of eggs. 
Renovating Sterile Soils. 
In many parts of the country soils are found 
naturally so sterile, that it is difficult to grow 
even a small crop of any kind of grain or grass. 
When there are no beds of muck or peat with- 
in conwinient hauling distance, and no foreign 
manure is used, it is a tedious Uisk to render 
such a soil even moderately productive. Still, 
it can often be done with no other fertilizing 
material than the farm affords. Take for exam- 
ple, a shallow, calcareous, or silicious loam, in 
which there is little or no humus or vegeta- 
ble mold, and which has never produced much 
except weeds. Soils of this description can sel- 
dom be benefited by underdraining, because the 
subsoil is usually so porous that the large 
amount of water falling in the spring and autumn 
leaches through the soil in a short time. If 
there is surface water in certain places, of course 
the first step will be to render it dry by thorough 
draining. The next operation will be to obtain 
a little mold, or humus, of which such soils are 
destitute. If barn-yard manure, mellow earth 
from the highways, or pond beds can be obtain- 
ed, a thin layer over the surface will enable a 
farmer to bring a sterile soil into a good state of 
productiveness in a few years. Where nothing 
of the kind is at hand, proceed as follows : 
Plow in autumn if possible, not more than six 
inches deep, and plow again in the spring no 
deeper than before, as soon as the frost is out 
and it is sufficiently dry. The surface soil is 
superior to that which is seven or eight inches 
below, even where it is very sterile; and it is 
important to keep the best on the surface. As 
soon as the ground is sufficiently warm to plant 
Indian corn, plow again in narrow furrow 
slices, and sow broadcast, or drill in, three and a 
half or four bushels of good grain per acre. It 
is better to drill in two bushels per acre each 
way, than to sow it broadcast, as it ■^■111 be cov- 
ered of a more uniform depth, and will grow 
more uniformly. Now, sow three or four bush- 
els of gypsum per acre, and the more wood 
ashes the better, even to one hundred bushels 
per acre. If the work be well done, and the 
soil unusually sterile, all that can be expected 
will be a growth of green corn, from one to two 
feet high. As soon as the tassels have appeared, . 
which will be iu about seventy days, plow it UH- 
