ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PO¬ 
TATO GROWERS IN THE COUNTRY 
SPEAKS. 
T. B. TERRY. 
Mr. Terry would , under certain conditions , 
clap his hands for joy. so near and yet so 
far ; experiments by the acre; the differ¬ 
ence between plots and acres-. Mr. Minch's 
yield-, why? Advantages of the trench not 
apparent ; what the Rural’s success is due 
to; a hand shake; attention. Rural read¬ 
ers; remarks by the Rural editors; a re¬ 
quest. 
Will the Rural allow me to say that I am 
not quite satisfied with its potato wager as it 
now stands? If the four little words, “at the 
rate of,’’were left out, and it read, The Rural 
wagers that it will raise over 700 bushels per 
acre, on,say,five acres, this season, then would 
I clap my hands for joy. Every potato grow¬ 
er in the country would be deeply interested; 
that is, if he had any progress about him. 
Should the Rural win such a wager, or come 
near to it, the writer would go to New York 
on purpose to see the potatoes and the ground 
with his own eyes. Very many others would 
do the same and be benefited. I have long 
been trying to get just such a sight. Once 
the realization seemed near. I read of a man 
who was digging some 600 bushels per acre, 
on two acres. I wrote him immediately, and 
asked if the report was true, and if so might 
I come and see a few dug! His reply cooled 
off my ardor. He wrote: “I have two acres 
of potatoes that will yield some 600 bushels, 
not 600 per acre.” This has always been my 
' luck when’I have tried to see their big yields. 
I do not doubt the yields reported by the 
Rural; but I do wish the experiments could 
be on a large scale. Thousands of growers 
would thank you most heartily. We farmers 
who live by our crops cannot make out much 
at thorough experimental work. I wish our 
experiment stations would experiment with 
farm crops by the acre instead of in little plots 
ofafewrods. Our Ohio Director thinks well of 
this plan, and we hope for something valuable 
from him in the future. 
Every one knows there is a great difference 
between the yield of small plots and the av¬ 
erage of whole fields. The yields of Mr. 
Minch, as given on page 150, show something 
of this. He had 650 bushels per acre on two 
acres (would that I could have seen them),400 
per acre on two others, and an average of a 
little over 300 per acre on 22 acres, which I 
suppose included the first four. Now what 
we farmers want to know is why did he not 
average 650 bushels per acre on the 22 acres? 
Why did two acres produce double the aver¬ 
age of the field? Has he learned so that next 
time, the season being as favorable, he can 
briug the whole field up to this high point? 
The writer has obtained a yield, on small 
plots, measured before witnesses, at the 
rate of 400 to 500 bushels per acre; but has 
never been able to bring a whole field quite 
up to Mr. Minch’s average. From my experi¬ 
ence I should say the Rural’s success was 
due to heavy manuring, hand culture, and the 
absence of hills, rather than to the trenches. 
If the soil was all mellow and fine I cannot 
see what possible advantage a trench 15 inches 
wide and four deep could have over one four 
inches wide and the same depth, except that 
the fertilizer could be put in a broader space, 
as the first hard rain would, in either case, on 
my soil, settle all ground about alike. As for 
manure, one can hardly lay too much stress 
on the value of it. To those liberal doses, 
year after year, the Rural largely owes its 
success. I only wish I could use 1,200 pounds 
of potato fertilizers per acre and make it pay. 
But the singular thing is that I can not see 
one particle of benefit from its use. I have 
tried the same kind the Rural is using on 
rows clear through a large field put on in 
nearly the same way, and at the rate of 1,000 
pounds per acre, and never could tell from the 
growth of the vines or the yield of the tubers 
where it was put. 
Now, in hand culture, with the hand Planet 
cultivator the Rural speaks of, I can see that 
it has an advantage over field culture, where 
a horse is used. Having the soil mellow and 
loose so as to supply a “yielding medium,” 
which it speaks of, is a matter of great impor¬ 
tance. A man walking between the rows when 
the soil was reasonably dry, would not disturb 
this yielding medium, nor even pack the 
ground where he walked very much. 
When one harrows with a team, and then 
rolls and plants with a planter and horses (and 
it is the same when he marks out and covers 
with horses without a planter) then harrows 
some three times to kill weeds, then cultivates 
six to eight times with horses, he will find his 
yielding medium considerably injured. I have 
caused a horse to step on the ground where 
potato hills were to be, after the seed was 
planted, and then compared the yield with 
that of hills in the next row that were not 
tramped on, and it was largely in favor 
of the latter. We take great pains to keep the 
horses in the center between the rows, when 
harrowing and cultivating. Ridges over the 
rows or drills enable us to do this when har¬ 
rowing. The ground is worked but little be¬ 
fore planting, partly for this reason. We are 
also very careful to work the ground only 
when it is quite dry. A horse will not then 
pack it so very much worse than a man. In 
all these ways we study to keep a yielding 
medium for the potatoes to expand in; but 
practically we cannot do it as well as the Ru¬ 
ral does by hand. 
I shake hands with it on the level culture, 
or nearly so, that it practices. But does it 
know that the majority make high hills yet? 
If they would only stop to think a moment, 
they would give away their shovel plows, as 
the writer did years ago. On a field culti¬ 
vated level, and the surface all mellow, the. 
rain goes right down where it falls, wetting 
all the soil, and carrying what fertility it has 
in it right to the growing roots that extend 
all through between the rows. Where a 
shovel plow is used during a heavy shower, 
much of the water runs off in the furrows, 
carrying its fertility with it. The ground in 
the hills, instead of being a “yielding med¬ 
ium,” often gets so dry and hard that the 
yield is injured. Level soil will withstand 
drought best. In a wet season potatoes will 
stand hilling better, but on drained land even 
then hills are an injury. When one takes 
soil from between the rows to pile up around 
the hills, he is laying bare, or nearly so, the 
roots that are along in the center. This is 
abusing the plants, and on drained land I 
know of no possible benefit to be derived. 
Better plant about four inches deep and keep 
the ground nearly level. In practice I have 
to throw a little dirt in under the plants, once, 
with the Planet horse-hoe, to keep the weeds 
down without the use of hand-hoe; but we 
keep the surface as nearly level as possible. 
After raising many thousands of bushels in 
this way we find no more greened or sun¬ 
burned than when we hilled up high; iu truth 
I think not so many. 
If the Rural readers will pay close atten¬ 
tion to these points this season they will have 
cause to rejoice, viz.: plenty of suitable food, 
as little packing of the soil when working as 
possible, and level (sensible) culture. Then I 
would add such tillage as will give the crop 
the most benefit from the moisture in the soil, 
or save the most moisture for the crop. After 
all, the main point is the one brought out 
by the Rural: “Every farmer does not act 
upon this knowledge.” It is not how much do 
we know, but how much use do we make of 
our knowledge. 
Summit Co., Ohio. 
REMARKS BY THE R. N.-Y. 
We are pleased to receive the above re¬ 
marks from a farmer who is renowned as a 
potato grower. The Rural also regrets that 
it is obliged to say “at the rate of,” instead of 
per acre. The reason is this: Offering a wager 
was thought of only a few months ago and, 
therefore, too late to give the Fall preparation 
to the land which is deemed essential to great 
potato yields. Again, it has often been 
doubted whether the Rural ever did or could 
raise the large crops, even upon small areas, 
which it has so often reported. Furthermore, 
it was our desire to use for seed the Rural 
seedlings Nos. 2, 3 and 4 for this particular 
trial, and of these we have very limited quan¬ 
tities, no more than enough to plant 100 hills 
of any or more than 200 hills in all, which will 
take about all of the plot which we are now 
prepared to spare. We have never held that 
proportionately as many potatoes could be 
raised on an acre of land as upon a selected 
portion of that acre, for the reason that it is 
hard to find an acre or more of land of uni¬ 
form lay, composition and fertility. It is 
simply held that by employing certain meth¬ 
ods the yield of potatoes can be greatly in¬ 
creased as well in field as in plot culture, 
and profitably increased. We have never 
known just how much importance to attach 
to the trenches. Mr. Terry, until of late, has 
not read the Rural, and, of course, knows 
nothing whatever of our trials to determine 
how much the trenches, of themselves, in¬ 
crease the yield. In every trial we have made 
the land laid out in trenches, whether with or 
without fertilizer or manure, has largely out- 
yielded that planted according to the old 
method of planting in furrows. Every one 
knows, it is true, the great difference between 
the yields of small plots and the average of 
whole fields. This difference is necessary, 
and it must ever be, unless the poorest parts 
of a field are by manure, drainage, or in some 
other way rendered as suitable to potato cul¬ 
ture as the best parts of the field. We may in¬ 
crease the y ield of the poorest parts by special 
methods, such, for example, as by the trench 
system; but if one portion of a field is liable 
to suffer more from drought than another, or 
if other parts are imperfectly drained, we can 
rarely hope to obtain the best yields from 
those parts. We fully believe that just as 
much may be learned from the culture of po¬ 
tatoes on small plots as on acres. The small 
plot tells us just what the acre needs, and we 
have only to supply all the wanting conditions 
to make the latter as productive as the other. 
We doubt if ever any one can discover a 
method of raising maximum crops of po¬ 
tatoes, or of anything else, unless every 
need of the crop grown is fully sup¬ 
plied. The Rural has long thought, how¬ 
ever, that the full needs of the potato are 
not well understood or, if understood, it 
has been supposed that it will not pay 
to supply them. Twelve years ago no one 
could have made us believe that one day we 
would raise at the rate of 1,000 bushels per acre 
on a plot of one-fortieth of an acre. With 60 
different kinds of potatoes planted in every 
way we could think of and well cared for, the 
largest yield was less than at the rate of 350 
bushels per acre. These trials were made at 
the Rural Farm. Not until we hit upon the 
trench method did we succeed in obtaining 
these great yields. We do not pretend to un¬ 
derstand the effect or action of this system any 
further than that it seems to conserve moisture 
and to assist in carrying the plants through 
droughts which would otherwise check their 
growth; the depth at which the seed pieces are 
placed, the yielding medium by which they 
are surrounded may all play a part, while the 
food seems to be placed just where it feeds the 
plants most effectually. 
Mr. Terry asks why Mr.'Minch under the 
trench system did not average 650 bushels per 
acre on 22 acres instead of on two acres? Our 
reply would be that he did not or could not 
supply all the conditions to the 22 acres that 
existed on the two acres. But he did raise an 
average of : 00 bushels per acre on 22 acres, 
and is not this of itself a splendid triumph for 
his method? The thing for Mr. M. to do now 
is to endeavor to supply to all of the 22 acres 
the favorable conditions which exist in the two 
acres or to come as near to it as possible. 
To “hand culture” the Rural’s yields are 
certainly not due, for in the pressure of our 
experiment work in which we are almost 
always unavoidably behind owing to the scar¬ 
city of help at needed times, the cultivation 
of our potatoes is much neglected; besides, 
some of those trials have been made with horse 
culture only and not enough of that to keep 
down the weeds. 
If the soil of an entire field were “all mel¬ 
low and fine” alike, we cannot see any clearer 
than Mr. Terry can what advantages a trench 
would give. But this is not in practice the 
case. The plowing or digging of the trench 
gives additional tilth and pulverization to the 
extent that in harvesting the crop we can of¬ 
ten see the boundary between it and the ad¬ 
jacent soil. We are inclined to think that on 
most soils the first hard rain would not settle 
all the soil alike, but that the trench soil would 
still remain somewhat less compact until the 
vines grew large enough to cover the trench, 
when they would protect the soil more or less 
from further compaction. 
“To those liberal doses of manure you large¬ 
ly owe your success.” If this is the explana¬ 
tion it is of the highest importance to farmers, 
since the increased crop pays for the manure 
ten times over, and acres as well as plots may 
be treated in the same way. 
Yes, indeed, we know that the majority of 
farmers about us in New Jersey and Long 
Island “make high hills yet.” The reason as¬ 
signed is that the crop is.far more easily dug. 
“On a field cultivated level and the surface 
all mellow, the rain goes right down where it 
falls, wetting all the soil and carrying what 
fertility it has in it right to the growing 
roots.” That is what the R. N.-Y. has been 
harping upon for 10 years, not only in potato, 
but in corn culture. It was a part of our sys¬ 
tem when, on five acres, over 120 bushels of 
shelled corn were raised per acre, the yield 
measured by half a dozen disinterested and 
well-known persons. 
Now it seems to us that the trenches tend to 
direct the rainfall so that the moisture first 
reaches the roots where they are the most nu¬ 
merous, and here, too, the fertilizer exists in 
abundance, while the porosity of the trench 
soil helps to retain the moisture,and the shelter¬ 
ing leaves retard the surface evaporation. 
Finally, respected Mr. Terry, in the face of 
your statement that potato fertilizers do not 
increase your yield, and that you have not 
much faith in the efficacy of the trench, we 
beg to make the request that you will plow at 
least one trench across your potato field (after 
it is otherwise fitted) of the depth and width 
stated; that you will cover the seed pieces 
lightly with soil—just barely to conceal them 
—and then spread evenly in this trench, 
throughout its length and breadth at the rate 
23 i 
of 1,000 or 1,200 pounds per acre, of a high 
grade potato fertilizer, and that you will pub¬ 
lish the results. 
CATALOGUES ETC., RECEIVED. 
ROSE CATALOGUES. 
The Storrs Harrison Co., Painesville, O. 
Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, N. Y. 
Robert Scott & Sox, Philadelphia, Pa. 
B. A. Elliott* Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. 
JohnN. May, Summit, N. J. 
Nanz & Neuner, Louisville, Ky. 
J. Cook, Baltimore, Md. 
J. W. Adams & Co., Springfield, Mass. 
Brackenridge & Co., Govanstown, Md. 
Peroxide Silicate Co., Rose and plant 
insecticide. 
N. B.—The above catalogues will be sent to 
all lovers of roses on application. 
D. M. Ferry & Co., Detroit, Michigan. 
—An illustrated catalogue of 128 pages of this 
well-known seed house. Quite a number of 
novelties are offered, besides the regular full 
lists of vegetable, field and flower seeds. 
Among forage plants wo notice seeds of Al¬ 
falfa or Lucern, Johnson Grass and Alsike, as 
well as the chief grass seeds. Two new peas 
are offered, viz ; McBeth’s Pride and Earli¬ 
est of All. This is the head-quarters for the 
excellent Optimus Tomato. 
E. W. Reid, Bridgeport, Ohio.—This is a 
catalogue of small fruits. Carmichael, Mon¬ 
mouth, Jessie and Gandy’s Prize are among 
the new strawberries. Johnson’s Sweet and 
Carman are among the black-cap raspberries; 
Minnewaski among the new blackberries. 
Sidney Tuttle & Co., Bloomington, III. 
—A catalogue of trees, plants, shrubs, mosses, 
600 acres and 13 greenhouses. 
JohnS. Collins, Moorestown, N. J.—A 
catalogue of small fruits, grapes, fruit trees. 
Among pears the Comet and Kieffer are 
specialties. 
Ellwanger & Barry, Rochester, N.Y.— 
A revised edition of their fruit (large or small) 
catalogue of all kinds. All the particulars re¬ 
garding the new and promising Mills Grape 
will be found in this. 
W. A. Cornish & Co., Newburg ,N. Y— 
An annual seed catalogue of flower, vegetable 
and farm seeds of all kinds. 
F. E. Me Allister, 22 Dey St., N. Y.—A 
large illustrated catalogue of seeds of all 
kinds with cultural directions. Lily bulbs of 
many different kinds are a specialty, and are 
offered at very low prices. 
P. M. Augur & Sons, Middlefield, Conn. 
—Pamphlet of strawberries. A list of spec¬ 
ialties in this way. It is a good firm and our 
readers may order freely without fear of il¬ 
liberal treatment. 
Joseph Breck & Sons, 51, 52 & 53 N. Mar¬ 
ket St. Boston, Mass.—A “Gardener’s Guide of 
Everything for the Farm,Garden and Lawn,” 
of 186 pages, one of the largest catalogues of 
the season. The Delphinium Breckii is shown 
in a beautiful colored plate as a double larks 
pur of a rare blue. It seems the original 
was lost many years ago, but a plant or so 
turned up and from this a limited stock is 
offered at a high price. Another excellent 
colored plate is that of Parkman’s Oriental 
Poppy. We can not undertake to notice the 
many specialties among vegetables, flowers, 
etc., to which many pages are devoted. Trees 
shrubs and small fruits are also offered. Our 
readers should examine the catalogue. 
R. Douglas & Sons, Waukegan Nurseries, 
Waukegan, Ill.—Forest and ornamental trees 
of all kinds. Lists of trees which will be sent 
by mail in dollar collections. A thoroughly 
trustworthy concern. 
Pike Co. Nurseries, Louisiana,Mo.—Cata¬ 
logue of fruit and ornamental trees of all kinds. 
Jas. M. Thorburn & Co„ 15 John St. N. Y. 
—A catalogue of Gladioli, Amaryllis, Lilies, 
Tuberoses, Gannas, Chrysanthemums, Irises, 
Madeira Vines, Tigridias, hardy herbaceous 
plants, small fruits and interesting lists of 
specialties, etc. The list of gladioli is partic¬ 
ularly fine. 
F. E. Fasseet & Bro., Ashtabula, Ohio.— 
An interesting illustrated circular of special¬ 
ties in plants. Thirty choice plants are 
offered for $1. 
J. C. Wood & Bro., Fishkill, Dutchess Co., 
N. Y. — Catalogue of fruit and ornamental 
trees, roses and miscellanea. 
Eclipse Corn Planter.— Circular from 
the Eclipse Corn Planter Co., Enfield, N. H. 
This machine plants corn, beans, peas or beets 
in hills, drills or checks, and also distributes 
commercial fertilizers, ashes, etc., etc. It is a 
first-rate implement, well tested, and backed 
by strong testimonials. All who want such a 
machine are invited to send for this circular 
and see whatjis^claimed. 
