NEW YORK, DECEMBER 15, 1894. 
$1.00 PEE YEAR 
INTENSIVE POTATO GROWING. 
DO WE GIVE THE CROP TOO JIUCH E A N I) ? 
A Successful Volunteer Crop. 
In April, 189:2, I planted Early Rose potatoes amonfr 
some six-year-old pear trees, in the usual manner. 
The season was so dry, and the trees, perhaps, made 
such demands upon fertility, that they did not foi-m 
tubers large enough to make it pay to dig them ; so 
they remained wholly undisturbed until the following 
spring, when, miich to my surprise, they came up in 
the greatest profusion over the entire ground. Just 
by way of experiment, when they were about two 
inches high, 1 had them covered all over with horse 
manure, fresh and strawy, and from \]4 to a inches 
in depth. Nothing further was done to them until 
they were dug, 
and we c o m- ,- 
m e n c e d on 
them July 4. 
From that time 
until the sup¬ 
ply ended, we 
ate them every 
day. In form, 
size and quali¬ 
ty, they were 
strictly first- 
class, and the 
ground was so 
full of them 
that the dig¬ 
ging fork could 
scarcely be put • 
in it without 
cutting them. 
Consider, for 
a moment, the 
surprising con- 
d i t i o n s that 
led to this 
most .satisfac¬ 
tory r e s 11. 
Not even the 
surface of the 
ground was 
loosened from 
April, 1892, to 
July, 1893, a 
period of 1.5 
months, which 
included the 
compacting in¬ 
fluences of the 
heavy winter 
and spring rain 
storms. Of 
course, no cul¬ 
tivation what¬ 
ever could be “YOUNG TO THE HARNESS.” 
given, and not 
even weeding was done, as no weeds of any conse¬ 
quence came through the manure mulch. 
and this most unpromising seed, without cutting, was 
planted from three to four inches deep, and one foot 
apart in the drill, and covered with the rake. The 
whole surface was then covered as before with horse 
manure, and left without cultivation or care of any 
kind until they were dug in the following October. 
I think I never engaged in a more unpromising per¬ 
formance than this planting of seed that seemed 
utterly worthless, and the man who did the work 
under my direction, declared that there was nothing 
in it, and that our labor and time would be wasted. 
The dry weather continued, and while there were 
several light showers, I can safely say that bed of 
potatoes was never once reasonably wetted from the 
time of planting until they were dug. From that 
ground, we finally took out more potatoes than from 
“YOUNG TO THE HARNESS.” A SIX-MONTHS’ OLD COLT THAT WORKS FOR ITS LIVING. Fig. 208. (See Page 797.) 
Late Planting With Poor Seed. 
Taking a hint from this, I had a piece of ground 
dug and fined with a rake about July 10 in the .same 
year (1893), and from the refuse of the pile from w'hich 
I had taken in April my seed of the Rural New- 
Yorker No. 2 for planting, the best tubers that re¬ 
mained were taken. This pile was in a dark, damp 
cellar, and the potatoes I then found were all much 
under the size of a hen’s egg, and greatly shriveled. 
They were taken from a tangled mass of colorless 
sprouts, among which were numerous new-crop pota¬ 
toes, of about the size of cranberries. Drills were 
then made only one foot apart on this piece of ground, 
five times that size of any other part of my potato 
field, planted in April, with the be.st of seed, and cared 
for in the usual manner. The tubers were remarkable 
for their smoothness and regular shape. There was 
but one drawback—flea-beetles from the horse ma¬ 
nure did much injury to the potato leaves, as, indeed, 
they also did in the first experiment patch. 
Still Later this Year. 
I concluded to repeat this this summer, and to plant 
earlier. But the dry weather was even worse than 
the summer before, and waiting for rain, brought me 
to the last week in July. I had given it up, but then, 
reading something about Southern second crop and 
immature potatoes being superior for planting, I re¬ 
solved to plant even then, hoping that the immature 
product would answer for seed next spring, and be of 
real value in the short crop that the season promi.sed. 
So in the bust days of July, not earlier than the 29th, 
I planted again, just as before, excepting that before 
planting, 1 worked into the soil with a hand cultiva¬ 
tor, a good top-dressing of e([ual quantities of kainit 
and acid phosphate, mi.xed. The drills were opened 
in each case with the plow attachment of the same 
hand maehine, by going through twice in the same 
furrow. The reader may imagine what sort of seed 
were found and used at that late date, from the refuse 
of my cellar pile of Rural New-Yorkers. 
The drought this year was even worse than the 
year before. Probably not moi‘e than one-half of my 
potatoes ever eame up, and those v/hich did, came 
with great irregularity, and all at a very unusual 
length of time 
—- after planting. 
The flea beetles 
were present as 
before. When, 
however, the 
abundant rain.s 
fell at last in 
September, 
growth became 
very satisfac¬ 
tory, and every 
vine yielded 
better than any 
of my o t h e r 
vines xdanted in 
April in the 
ordinary way. 
'I’hey were dug 
between Oeto- 
ber IT) and 20. 
My R.N.-Y. No. 
2 ’.s thus early 
planted, were 
all of irregular 
shapes, and 
seareely any 
were above me¬ 
dium size. To 
judge from 
them 1 would 
say that my 
seed had run 
out. I have 
never changed 
my seed since 
my original 
purcha.se, when 
the variety was 
first introduced 
Uniformly, the 
potatoes from 
this July plant- 
^IVIhiG. I XG. 208. (See Rage 797.) iu^ wei'e re- 
markably 
shapely, and of the true R. N.-Y. No. 2 form, while 
many of them weighed three-quarters of a pound 
each. This applies as well to tliose grown in this 
way in 1893. 
Are We Wasting Potato Land ? 
I conclude that we use too much land for our potato 
crop, and throw away a great deal of labor in its cul¬ 
tivation. For many years, I have planted my potatoes 
at a le.ss distance apart in the drill than most people 
do—first 16 inches apart, then 14, then 13, then 10, and 
finally, 8 inches, cutting each piece to one eye, and 
the drills being 2)4 feet apart. It seems that I can 
grow my largest crops by giving each piece of potato 
seed but a foot .square of surface. I conclude, aLso, 
that while my April-planted potatoes were misshapen, 
■ySpii 
