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Potato  Soils  and  their  Preparation 
The  Story  Thoroughly  Told 
Part  I. 
LA  NT  REQU  1 UEMENTS. — The  potato  is  hard¬ 
er  to  suit  in  its  special  soil  requirements  than 
any  other  common  farm  crop.  It.  is  not  suited  to 
the  degree  of  Summer  heat,  reached  in  the  air  and 
soil  in  most  of  tin*  United  Stales.  Its  root  system 
is  weak  and  poor  compared  with  that  of  corn,  for 
example.  The  roots  are  unable  to  penetrate  heavy 
and  hard  soils  well,  and  it  is  largely  on  this  ac¬ 
count  that  potatoes  usually  do  poorly  on  genuine 
clay  soil.  Beca use  they  are  such  poor  foragers  po¬ 
tatoes  need  their  plant  food  in  more  available  con¬ 
dition  and  in  larger  quantities  than  do  most  crops. 
the  tubers  are  of  themselves  nearly  all  the  plant 
has  strength  to  perform  some  years.  With  the  late 
main  crop  in  tlie  Northern  States  this  comes  at  a 
time  in  July  or  August  when  the  weather  is  hot  and 
the  soil  often  very  dry.  Insects  are  liable  to  be 
doing  damage  and  several  potato  diseases  may  be 
further  sapping  the  strength  of  the  plants.  Too 
many  farmers  cut  the  roots  with  hilling  tools  at 
this  time.  It  pays  to  consider  every  point  in  the 
soil  preparation,  fertilizing,  seed,  planting  and  til¬ 
lage  of  the  potato  with  the  idea  of  carrying  the  crop 
ill  rough  this  danger  period  in  the  best  possible  con¬ 
dition.  The  whole  yield  is  made  after  this  time. 
INFLUENCE  OF  HEAT.— The  potato  is  one  of 
our  farm  crops  like  oats,  buckwheat  and  field  peas 
that  like  cool  weather  better  than  hot.  It  is  well 
the  smaller  yields.  The  best  potato  soil  for  the  late 
main  crop  is  a  compromise  between  the  open  soils 
which  favor  free  root  development  and  the  heavier 
soils  with  their  greater  coolness,  higher  fertility  and 
better  moisture  supply.  In  very  wet  years  like  1915 
sands  and  gravels  may  yield  well.  In  droughts  like 
1911  and  1915  quite  heavy  soils  did  best.  We  must 
expect  and  prepare  for  the  average  season.  Where 
heavy  soils  are  wet  enough  to  need  tile  drainage 
it  usually  pays  better  to  grow  other  crops  better 
adapted  such  as  grain  and  hay. 
NEED  OF  ORGANIC  MATTER.— We  are  only 
just  beginning  to  appreciate  the  value  of  organic 
matter.  American  farmers  have  developed  the  use 
of  labor-saving  machinery  until  they  are  the  most 
efficient  in  the  world  in  the  amount  of  food  produced 
Loaded  With  Blossoms.  Fig.  2  IS 
At  several  times  in  the  life  of  the  potato  plant 
plenty  of  water  is  necessary  to  make  the  soil  plant 
food  available  and  to  enable  the  plant  to  manu¬ 
facture  in  its  leaves  the  materials  for  its  further 
growth.  Too  much  water  in  a  poorly  drained  soil 
may  he  as  bad  as  too  little,  as  many  growers  found 
in  1915.  Plants  must  have  air  for  health  as  well  as 
water. 
TIIE  CRITICAL  TIME. — The  great  danger  period 
in  tlie  life  of  the  potato  comes  at  the  time  of  tlie 
processes  of  blossoming  and  setting  the  tubers.  Both 
are  very  exhausting  to  the  plant's  vitality.  Tlie 
original  wild  potato  found  ill  Bern  made  but  few 
and  small  tubers  and  these  not  till  after  the  seed 
was  formed.  Under  cultivation  man  -has  enormously 
increased  tlie  yield  of  tubers  compared  with  that 
of  the  wild  plant.  The  efforts  to  blossom  and  start 
known  that  if  is  impossible  to  grow  potatoes  in  our 
Southern  States,  except  by  avoiding  the  extreme 
heat  of  Summer,  either  by  growing  them  in  the  cool 
Spring  months  for  sale  as  a  truck  crop  in  Summer 
or  else  in  Fall  as  the  so-called  second  crop.  Pota¬ 
toes  on  sandy  soils  suffer  the  worst  from  heat  and 
drought,  though  such  are  the  best  for  easy  root  de¬ 
velopment.  Heavier  soils  are  better  to  keep  the 
plants  always  supplied  with  water.  Their  soil  tem¬ 
peratures  are  lower  and  fertility  usually  better. 
This  has  led  to  a  division  of  labor  among  potato 
growers,  by  which  the  early  crop  from  the  South 
in  Spring  and  from  the  North  in  Summer  are  grown 
mainly  on  sandy  soils,  while  the  bulk  of  the  late 
main  crop  for  Winter  use  is  grown  on  heavier  soils. 
The  sands  can  be  planted  earlier,  mature  a  crop  in 
less  time,  and  so  obtain  higher  prices  which  offset 
by  each  man  engaged  in  farming.  Nature  increases 
the  fertility  of  our  forests  and  wild  land  by  returning 
each  year  to  the  soil  a  little  more  organic  matter.  It 
is  a  hard  situation  that  American  farmers  have  now 
to  face:  the  methods  used  by  most  up  to  the  present 
time  have  left  the  soil  a  little  poorer  each  year  than 
before.  While  part  of  the  loss  has  been  in  mineral 
plant  food  the  greatest  trouble  has  been  tlie  grad¬ 
ual  depletion  of  the  soil  organic  matter.  We  have 
not  realized  that  every  operation  of  tillage,  plowing, 
harrowing,  cultivating  and  even  the  exposure  of 
bare  soils  to  the  air  destroys  part  of  the  organic 
matter  in  the  soil.  Very  few  farmers  return  as 
much  to  the  soil  each  year  in  the  roots  and  stubble 
of  crops  and  the  form  of  manure  as  is  destroyed  in 
the  same  year.  Potato  growing  uses  up  more  or¬ 
ganic  matter  than  that  of  most  crops  because  of  the 
