M888 
728 
The stem if straightened out would be a foot 
in length. 
Finally, it may be remarked that plants 
growing in trenches ten, eight, six and four 
inches deep were carefully raised out of the 
soil at various stages of growth. Our space 
will not permit a detailed account at this time 
of the observations made. We many state 
however, that the plane, story or tier theory 
of tuber'formation was well supported. The 
best depth to plant, also, will be considered 
later. 
THE HALF-ACRE EXPERIMENT. 
Early in the year 1888 the Rural came in¬ 
to possession of a farm of 43 acres situated 
within a stone’s throw of the old Rural Experi¬ 
ment Grounds. This farm had received no 
care for the past two years and for the past 
ten years it had been systematically abused. 
It is run-down if a farm ever was. This farm 
was not bought until after the arrangements 
for the “contest” had been made. The in¬ 
terest taken in the trench system prompted 
Paris-green was made for the potato beetle. 
The plants gave promise of an enormous 
crop until the latter part of July when the 
stalks began to turn yellow and die. An 
examination showed the leaves to be com¬ 
pletely riddled by the Cucumber Flea-beetle, 
as described in the Rural of August 13. In 
10 days the plants were past all hope of re¬ 
covery. An examination of the tubers show¬ 
ed that they were about half-formed when the 
vines were killed. It being supposed that 
this misfortune precluded all hope for a gooa 
yield, but little interest was taken in the 
plot. It grew up to a mass of weeds. When 
the contest plot was dug the judges visited 
this field and selected,at random, three differ¬ 
ent spaces of £3 feet each. These were dug 
and the yields carefully measured. The aver¬ 
age of these was given at 378 bushels per acre. 
Since then the entire half acre has been dug, 
with the exception of a few rows, and the 
measurement of the crop, as accurately as the 
diggers could estimate it, indicates a yield of 
nearer 400 bushels than the 378 given by the 
judges. This experiment will be repeated 
next year under more favorable conditions. 
Flea-beetle when the tubers, tor the most part, 
were just beginning to form. As the illustra¬ 
tion shows, all but half-a-dozen are of very 
small size. The few larger ones came from 
hills that sustained less injury. This variety 
occupied two-fifths of the plot, though the 
bulk of tubers is scarcely one-half that of the 
No. 2 which, as we have said, were raised 
upon only one-fifth of the plot. 
Well, it seemed to be a pleasant time all 
around. The Rural was defeated, it is true, 
but the Trench Method was by all deemed a 
success and the failure to raise over 700 
bushels to the acre ascribed, without a dissent¬ 
ing voice, to the Flea-beetle. 
EXPERIMENTS WITH THE RURAL 
TRENCH SYSTEM AND FERTILIZERS. 
T. B. TERRY. 
The R. N.-Ys Trench Method; 1,000 against 
400 pounds of fertilizer per acre : the vines 
of the trench six inches above the rest ; a 
The ground with a smaller quantity of fer¬ 
tilizers on gave us 54 bushels of potatoes, and 
an equal number of rows by its side yielded 
just 54 bushels also. The row where 1,000 
pounds of fertilizer to the acre were put on 
with a planter was no better than other rows. 
This is the fourth time we have tried com¬ 
mercial fertilizers on potatoes, and the result 
has always been the same. One year our ex¬ 
periments must have cost $50, as we tried 
Mapes’s manure, bone meal and phosphate, in 
three different fields, on strips 60 rods long. 
I think now that we have got through. 
We experimented this year on a clover sod, 
with 15 loads of manure per acre. The aver¬ 
age yield was about 300 bushels of market 
size per acre. Nearly all my experiments 
seemed to say; “Let well enough alone.” For 
many years we have cut allseed to one eye, 
but every two or three years, I put in a row 
with two-eye pieces, to see whether more seed 
would be better. As conditions are changing, 
of course this might be the case at any time, 
although one-eye seed had been the best in the 
past. I selected the choicest tubers to cut to 
two-eye pieces, so that the row should have 
AFTER THE CONTEST. Fig. 372. 
the Rural to attempt an experiment on a 
somewhat larger scale than the contest plot 
would allow. It was decided to take a meas¬ 
ured half-acre on this poor farm and plant it 
to potatoes on the trench system. This course 
was decided upon the latter part of April. 
We knew nothing about the productive pow¬ 
ers of the soil of this farm. We chose what 
appeared to be a fair sample of the soil, solely 
by its appearance. This plot was plowed and 
worked once with a Thomas harrow on May 
8th, and at once trenched by means of a wing¬ 
ed shovel plow made by the Syracuse Plow 
Co. This implement was run twice in a row. 
The potatoes were planted the next day. We 
had made no provision for securing seed of 
any variety noted for its productiveness; 
consequently we were obliged to use rather 
poor specimens of a local variety known as 
Pride of the Valley. This variety is grown 
on the farms about us where it produces from 
100 to 140 bushels per acre. Potatoes of 
medium size were selected and cut in halves. 
A dressing of the Stockbridge Potato Manure 
at the rate of 850 pounds to the acre, was scat¬ 
tered in the bottoms of the trenches. This 
was well worked in with a Hexamer hoe, and 
then the seed-pieces were dropped one [foot 
apart. A light covering of soil was raked up¬ 
on them and then another dressing of 850 
pounds per acre of the Stockbridge Potato 
Manure was scattered in the trenches which 
were then filled. The plants grew well. 
The piece was hoed once and cultivated twice, 
the work being poorly done by incompetent 
help. The potatoes did not receive’as good 
treatment as was given those.on the neighbor¬ 
ing farms. One application ^of j plaster and 
THE JUDGES AND THE POTATOES. 
SEE FIRST PAGE. 
Yielding to the Rural’s urgent request, 
the judges of the potato contest reluctantly 
consented to have their portraits taken for 
the edification of our readers. Standing be¬ 
hind the three lots of potatoes which had just 
been dug from the trenches, on the extreme 
left, we have P. T. Quinn, well known as an 
author and horticulturist. Next is Dr. Peter 
Collier who is recognized as the “father of 
the sorghum industry.” He is now the very 
efficient Director of the New York Experi¬ 
ment Station at Geneva, N. Y. Third is W. 
A. Stiles the accomplished editor of Garden 
and Forest. Fourth is L. C. Benedict, the 
agricultural editor of the N. Y. World. Next 
we have Judge John G. Webb, and, finally, to 
the extreme right, J. C. Haviland, who repre¬ 
sented the Farm Journal. All are shown at 
Fig. 364, on the first page of this issue. 
The middle lot of potatoes is the R. N.-Y 
seedling No. 2, which yielded at the rate of 
1,076 bushels to the acre. It will be seen that 
they are all tubers of large size. The pile is lar¬ 
ger than the No. 3 (to the left) though raised 
upon one half the area. The lot to the right 
is the No. 4. 
This potato has given us the largest yield 
ever raised at the Rural Grounds, aud we 
doubt not would have exceeded the No. 2 had 
it not been for the injury the vines sustained 
by the Flea-beetle. This variety occupied 
two-fifths of the plot. The yield was 644 
bushels per acre. Many of them were small. 
The No. 3 is seen at the left. This has also ex¬ 
ceeded the yield of No. 2 hitherto. The vines, 
as elsewhere explained, were killed by the 
much larger yield predicted; disappoint¬ 
ment-, the extra fertilizer does not increase 
the yield; one-eye vs. two-eye pieces; fer¬ 
tilizers do not pay on Mr. Terry's land ; in¬ 
teresting statements and deductions. 
Last spiing we put in a row of potatoes 
through a five-acre field according to the 
Rural Trench System; 1,000 pounds to the 
acre of Mapos’s potato manure were used on 
this row. The seed was cut to one eye, tne 
same as for the rest of the piece. The variety 
of potatoes was Beauty of Hebron—sound, 
northern-grown seed. 
Next to the Rural row we planted a row 
without fertilizer, aud then one with 1,000 
pounds to the acre, as nearly as we could, put 
in with our potato planter. Then a row was 
planted without fertilizer again, aud then 
several rows with a moderate quantity of 
potato manure, probably about 400 pounds 
per acre. All planting was done the same 
day and at the same depth. 
We looked in vain for any extra growth of 
vines where the fertilizer was used except on 
the Rural row. This row stood up six inches 
above its neighbors by the time it was half 
grown, and kept the start until the vines fell 
down so one could not tell. Many people saw 
it aud, like myself, expected it would out-yield 
any other row very decidedly, but I am sorry 
to say it was just as good as the average rows 
by its side (leaving out the next one on each 
side for fear they might have drawn some¬ 
thing from the Rural row) and no better. I 
have seldom been more disappointed than I 
was when we got that row picked up. 
rather more than a fair chance. I was a one- 
eye man, but wouldn’t take any possible ad¬ 
vantage. There was no difference in the 
growth of tops that one could see. I dug the 
two eye row first, and we picked them up in 
bushel boxes and left them standing right on 
the row. One of my men was sure they were 
better than auy we had dug before, and his 
exclamations as he followed the digger were 
all one way. Next I dug the one-eye row by 
the side of the former and left a trusty man 
to pick them up while I went on digging in 
another place. I could hardly keep the row 
for watching him, to see whether the boxes 
stood as near together as on the two-eye row. 
After a while I counted the same number of 
boxes on each row, aud as I drove by, Adam 
shouted out: “Just the same.” 
Now far be it from me to say that fertilizers 
do not ever pay for potatoes; but I think I 
have earned the right to say that they do not 
always for some reason, and that a man is fool¬ 
ish who does not experiment and know before 
nsing them largely. A friend of mine wrote 
me that he used 500 pounds to the acre on 20 
acres this year. I asked him if he left some 
rows without auy so as to find out wheth¬ 
er they paid or nob. He replied that he did 
not, as he supposed what he put on was just 
as truly plant food as barn-yard manure. 
Now he may have thrown away $250, or he 
may have made that amount. Who knows? 
I have strips my fields where large quanti¬ 
ties of ferCGi^^rg were u se q years ago, as told 
of. The} are marked, and I have never seen 
any extra growth of wheat or clover on them 
to indicate that they had done other crops 
h an potatoes any good. I will say to^my 
