Vox.. XLIV. No. 1830. 
NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 21, 1885. 
PRICE FIVE CENTS. 
*2.00 PER YEAR. 
(Entered according to Act of Congress, la the year 1215, by the Rural New-Yorker in the Alice of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.) 
IMPORTANCE OP WATER TO THE PO¬ 
TATO CROP. 
SIR J. B LAWES, LL D., F. R. S. ETC. 
If you want to grow large crops of potatoes 
you must be liberal in your supply of water as 
well as of food. The following table will give 
you some idea of the importance of rainfall 
even when the potatoes have abundance of 
food. We grow potatoes continually upon 
the same laud, using the same manures, viz , 
300 pounds of sulphate of potash, soda, mag¬ 
nesia, superphosphate, with, in one experi¬ 
ment, 400 pounds of salts of ammonia, and, 
in another, 550 pounds of nitrate of soda. 
The potash and phosphate are in excess of 
the requirements of the largest crop grown, 
so they are accumulating in the soil. The 
nitrogen is also largely in excess of what 
the crop takes up, but this does not accumu¬ 
late. 
Rainfall in Inches. 
May to October. 
r> Months. 
1881. 1314 
1882. I2L, 
1383. 13 
1884. 9 
Bushels per acre. 
482 
387 
401 
222 
In 1881 the rainfall was better distributed 
over the season than it was in 1883. Of course, I 
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ACKLAM SHARON 3d. Fig. 69 
