730 
W©¥ 3 
friend, however, that when I get the fertili¬ 
zer circulars in the spring I can hardly resist 
the;temptation to send for a car-load, the 
profit seems so certain, even after my ad¬ 
verse experience. 
In a recent article I wrote of northern- 
grown seed on a neighbor’s land showing much 
better' i-esults than his home-sprouted seed. 
He?has dug his crop and says my estimate 
of.To bushels per[acre difference was not too 
high. The potatoes were of the same variety, 
Beauty of Hebron, and planted side by side- 
This was not a little experiment, but a portion 
of a field was planted with each kind of seed. 
One word more on the fertilizer question. 
It is my opinion that on my soil, with a heavy 
clover-sod turned under once in three years 
and a light coat of stable manure as often, 
the potato crop can make use of no more 
plant food. I also think that I could not af¬ 
ford to let my land run down so as to make 
fertilizers profitable as long as it is so easy to 
keep it up with clover. As my clover-farm¬ 
ing has been assailed and ruin predicted long 
ago, it may be of interest to some to know 
that our clover-sod potato field yielded more 
per acre this year than it ever has before. 
We shall hang on to clover yet, although the 
clover neetle has eaten the tap roots all off, 
and cheated us out of a crop of seed. The 
heavy second crop will make manure, however, 
for our next year’s potato crop. 
Summit Co., O. 
BUCEPHALUS BROWN’S NOTIONS AND 
IDEAS. 
Those Mysterious Potatoes —Naturally, 
many things in nature are mysterious, be¬ 
cause our knowledge of nature is yet very 
small. But there is an innate love of the 
vague and the mysterious in human nature 
which resents explanation, aud stands in the 
way of investigation. This queer love of 
mystery induces many people to purposely 
stand out against any explanation that is nat¬ 
ural and simple. Those who believe that all 
natural mysteries are explicable, are looked 
upon as a sort of infidels. But if nature is 
governed by lixed aud uniform laws, then all 
the apparent mysteries of nature are in truth 
but marvels which more knowledge would 
make plain. 
Potatoes are Exotics.— Few potato 
growers realize, even if they know the fact, 
that the potato is a mountain plant—a native 
of the high Andean plateau of South Amer¬ 
ica. Grown in the lowlands of North Amer¬ 
ica, where the seasons, the temperature aud 
the barometrical pressure are different, it is 
not strange that they should prove more or 
less uncertain and defective. It has long been 
well recognized that seed tubers grown upon 
elevated laud, pretty well north, are more 
vigorous, and give much better crops when 
planted, than those grown on lower levels and 
latitudes. 
Much Affected by the Season.— Even- 
where the potato does the best on this conti¬ 
nent, it is greatly affected by the season, as 
was so widely exemplified last year, and is 
again being shown the current season. A 
cool, long season, with but a moderate range 
of temperature, and a dry, mild autumn, are 
the most favorable for a large and sound 
crop. A hot July aud August lessen the 
yield greatly; and if to heat are added frequent 
rains, producing a continuance of “muggy” 
weather, rot is pretty sure to appear and be 
destructive, even in otherwise favorable lo¬ 
calities. 
Their Favorite Soil.— Rich, new land, on 
a hillside sloping easterly, and to the north 
rather than to the south or southwest, will 
give the largest crop of fair, heavy, and well 
keeping potatoes in a good potato year:—and 
in fact, almost every time, g A too level 
field, without good surface drainage, is pretty 
sure to suffer worst in a rot year. The potato 
is very intolerant of too much water. 
Why They May Vary on the Same 
Field.— Irregularity of slope aud surface 
will show great differences in the crop. An 
irregular surface is sure to make au irregular 
crop. Evenly growing crops, such as Mr. 
Jerrard of Aroostook shows in his photograph¬ 
ic pictures, grow on fields of even surface, 
and the natural lay of laud in Aroostook is 
one of the reasons why that county is so 
favorable to the crop. It lies in long, low 
rolls—like the swells of mid-ocean, giving per¬ 
fect surface drainage to the large and other¬ 
wise quite level fields. The soil is a rich disin¬ 
tegrated limestone formation, with perfect 
natural drainage, aud is still full of the origin¬ 
al vegetable matter of the recently removed 
forests. The great tree-roots, now slowly 
decaying iu the subsoil, keep it opeu, aud add 
to the perfection of the natural drainage of 
such land. Then the climate is cool aud even, 
without drought, and also without excess of 
rainfall. Aroostook has everything but ele- ' 
THE BUBAL HEW-YOBKER, 
vation to make it an ideal potato country, 
and elevation is perhaps the least important 
of the conditions demanded. 
On Manured Soils.— Stable manure is 
everywhere regarded as unfavorable to pota¬ 
toes. It not only gives a nidus and harbor 
for soil’ insects and for fungi, but the impos¬ 
sibility of mixing it uniformly with the soil 
occasions an irregular growth, .both of plant 
and crop. Yet in favorable seasons manure 
carefully applied, may give au excellent crop 
of even and fair tubers. Generally, however, 
special fertilizers are greatly to be preferred, 
and these should be “complete.” and freely 
applied. 
Weeds. —No crop is more injured by weeds 
than the potato; yet it is not impossible that a 
pretty good crop may l>e harvested from a 
weedy field. It must, however, be a field 
where the potatoes have a good start of the 
•weeds. Early kinds, in well prepared laud, 
kept clean up to blooming time, may seem to 
be swamped in weeds in September, yet turn 
out well, for the weeds really grow as a suc¬ 
cessive crop, like turnips or rye amongst 
corn. 
Fartial Shade. —The effect of partial 
shade, in favoring a healthy growth aud free¬ 
dom from rot, has often been noted. I have 
grown potatoes, (aud beans also) frequently, 
between the rows in young orchards; and in 
both cases the plants kept green much later, 
and produced better, in the outside rows. 
Part of this was doubtless due to the free 
space of the tree-row on the outside of these 
rows, but certainly this did not serve to pro¬ 
tect them from the rust fungus, which was 
notably absent there. 
Growth Under Straw.— One of my 
earliest farm memories is the growth of a 
straw crop on sward land, by my grand¬ 
father. It was such an odd way, and the 
crop was so beautifully clean when harvested 
(with pitchforks), that it produced a per¬ 
manent impression, so that, though I was but 
six or seven years old, I can see it “in my 
mind’s eye” perfectly at this moment. In 
those grain-growing days straw was super¬ 
abundant, yet the experiment was rarely re¬ 
peated on any farm. The tubers, though 
numerous and fair, were too generally small. 
The “Mystery” of Their Growth.— 
Where did these straw and sod-grown pota¬ 
toes get their nutriment? It was plain that 
they did not get enough, but they got some. 
Their roots did not appear to penetrate the 
soil far, and the straw did not furnish much, 
for it was but little decayed. Well, the 
tubers themselves are mainly starch, and the 
food to produce this is atmospheric. Potatoes 
are called au exhaustive crop, but the ex¬ 
haustion is not mainly for the tuber, which 
contains but little mineral matter, and less 
nitrogen. The free growth of the tops is 
essential to the production of the tubers, but 
it is the tops that contain the bulk of valuable 
material taken from the soil. Realizing this 
fact, I have for many years insisted upon my 
potato diggers carefully burying the tops 
(aud all weeds), as they dug the crop. When 
this is thoroughly done the exhaustion of the 
soil is comparatively slight. In the case of 
the straw crop, the roots got enough out of 
the killed grass to eke out the small supply 
from the decaying straw and the soil, to give 
the small crop that was harvested. 
Too Much Nitrogen.— I have had exactly 
the experience in planting potatoes in an old 
barn-yard that “J. W. I.” records. Over¬ 
nutrition, chiefly of nitrogen, was undoubt¬ 
edly the cause. But when these great tops 
were pulled up aud thrown in heaps, they, in 
a few weeks, produced thousands of little 
tubers in the axils of their leaf-stems. The 
severing of their connection with the soil, 
with its over supply of food, enabled them to 
do this. 
THE RURAL’S TRENCH SYSTEM. 
T. H. HOSKINS, M. D. 
I see that some of the Rural’s agricultural 
contemporaries, in noticing its “ defeat,’ 
speak of its lost “bet,” without speaking of 
where the money was to go; aud some also do 
not mention the varieties planted, “as being 
of little interest.” Docs this kind of thing 
pay? A manly, generous rivalry, as to which 
paper shall give its readers the best value, 
does pay, every time; but this? 
The Rural’s “Jerseyman” visitor does not 
think the trench system, iu its entirety, likely 
to pay on the farm; yet hesitates at last on 
that point. I have for years practiced an ap¬ 
proach to that system, plowing deep, aud 
planting in a V-shaped trench, made with a 
closed and toothless Share’s horse-hoe. I 
do not see any impossibili ty iu constructing a 
plow.tlmt will open a flat-bottomed trench of 
any desired width, with au attachment lie 
hind the plow that will fine the bottom as well 
as a Hexamer]hoe, My largest crop was 400 
bushels per acre, and it has never, I think, 
been much, if any, less than 300 bushels. This 
is greatly more than the average in any State, 
and shows the value of the trench system, 
even when imperfectly carried out. I have 
never used half as much fertilizer as the 
Rural used. The essence' of the system is 
deep and thorough pulverization and profuse 
fertilization, combined with drill planting 
and level culture. Possibly one or two of 
these points are not essential in all circum¬ 
stances. 
POTATO EXPERIMENTS. 
R. L. TAYLOR. 
Effects of manure on muck that had never 
been manured before ; cut pieces, etc. 
I have about one-half of an acre of ground, 
cleared and drained a few years since, of 
very deep muck that was once a willow 
swamp. It has never had any manure till 
last spring, when I put a moderate amount of 
fine, fresh horse manure upon a strip through 
the middle from east to west and planted it 
to potatoes as follows: Blush on the east side 
with seed cut to about two eyes from good- 
sized potatoes. Next White Elephants with 
seed cut in the same way. Next on the west 
White Elephants with uncut seed about the 
size of hens’ eggs. 
There has been such a difference iu the 
vines throughout the season that yesterday I 
carefully measured a square rod from each of 
the nine divisions of the plot aud after digging 
I sorted and weighed them with the following 
result: 
Nos. 2, 5 and 8 were manured; the others were not. 
O 
u 
V 
a 
u 
S' CO 00 CO 
~ CO </• 55 
v v-<* *2 Oi 
u £ Zi 
u 
o 
be astounded and exclaim “there must be 
some mistake.” But the calculation can be 
easily verified. One may well exclaim—“How 
can it be possible that any one can manage to 
grow so few*” It is a capital illustration of 
how not to do it. 
Now if we can find out why it is that only 
15 ounces of potatoes are grown on one square 
yard we may perhaps arrive at the conclusion 
that one pound of tubers may be grown on 
one square foot of ground, which is 726 bush¬ 
els to the acre. I will make a few suggestions 
as to the causes of this curiously low average. 
Fertility of soil and use of natural or artificial 
fertilizers need not be more than mentioned. 
One cause I am persuaded is a waste of 
ground. It is a common practice to grow in 
hills .to be [plowed each way. These are 
counted as being three feet distant each way, 
but as a fact, they are often feet apart, so 
that there is one hill on each 12 fi square feet. 
Now good crops are grown, as every reader 
of the R. N-. Y knows, one foot apart in rows 
three feet apart, or one hill to each three 
square feet. It is to be expected that more 
will be grown from one hill on 12X square 
feet than on three square feet, but the four 
hills on 12 square feet will certainly double 
one hill. Here certa inly is a waste of ground. 
Another source of loss is an imperfect stand, 
partly resulting at least from the plantiug of 
imperfect dormant eyes. This cau be ob¬ 
viated by bringing the tubers into a warm 
place two or three weeks previous to plantiug 
where the eyes can start and be seen before 
cutting. [The reader is in this connection re¬ 
ferred to Notes from the Rural.Grounds.— 
Eds.] 
Perhaps the most essential factor in a good 
crop is sufficient moisture, for dryness, whether 
of long or short duration, injures the crop. 
The Rural’s Trench Method will obviate this 
to a large extent, or if it is not carried out 
in detail its principles may be by deep plow¬ 
ing, deep planting and level culture. [That 
is true.— Eds.] 
I think these three things account for most 
of the shortage in the potato crop. This is 
the negative side. Now let us sum up on 
the positive side. Let the requisites for- a 
farm crop of 300 or 400 bushels to the acre be 
$ 
t 
SO •*' cc 
SO W 
O cj O 
SW £ 
3 
O 35 
* O 
CO 
^ io so 
% I 1 s 
£ X X 
* s ss s 
* 
CO 
(ft 
% % 
3? S S3 
* X « 
-*r ir, i — 
named. 
First, well-drained laud either In sandy soil 
and subsoil or by tiles. Next, fertile soil, 
that new with its untouched elements, that 
rich through clover or grass sod turned under, 
or that manured with food of the barnyard 
or a good commercial fertilizer. Then deep 
plowing and sub-soiling, perfect eyes for 
planting, deep planting, one hill to each 
three square feet, deep cultivation for the 
first time, shallow afterwards and always 
level. If in this way the maximum cannot be 
attained, it will be because of some extraordi¬ 
nary drought or some unlooked for disaster. 
Crawfordsville, Ind. 
8 
* 
£7 
o 
“< 
Cut W. Elephants Uncut do. 
Ladies’ Potato Contest. 
It Tales a Hold at Once. 
Thus while the average yield of the ma¬ 
nured plots is at the rate of 280.53 bushels per 
acre of marketable potatoes, that of the un¬ 
manured is only 84.8S bushels. And the aver¬ 
age yield of marketable potatoes from the cut 
seed of the White Elephants is at the rate of 
167.77 bushels per acre, while that from the 
uncut small seed is 120.66 bushels. 
The potatoes were planted one foot apart 
in drills something after the manner of the 
trench system. 
I think the larger yield of No. 1 aud that of 
No. 4 to a less extent is to be accounted for 
by the fact that a large pile of stumps, etc., 
was once burned there. 
Lapeer, Mich. 
THE SMALL AVERAGE YIELD OF 
POTATOES. 
The First Souvenirs to the Potato Fund. 
A Lively Interest Assured. 
The R. N.-Y. Hopes to Swell up the 
Presents to the Value of Not 
Less Than $1,000. 
It is a Good, Original Project and 
Should Receive the Liberal Sup- 
J. A. FOOTE. 
A memorandum made some time ago in re¬ 
gard to the yield of potatoes is pertinent to 
the present discussion. It was of the average 
yield of the potato crop of Iudiana for 1886, 
which was 74 bushels to the acre, and this too, 
in a good year, more, I presume, than the 
average for ten years. A calculation made 
then I here reproduce to show how exceeding¬ 
ly small a product 74 bushels to the acre is. 
If planted in rows three feet apart and one 
plant each twelve inches iu the row, to make 
up this yield there would be required just one 
potato of the weight of five ounces to each 
plant! 1 think any one on reading this will 
port of All Who Have the In¬ 
terests of Agriculture 
at Heart. 
The editorial page of this issue will fully 
explain the Rural’s project of inducing our 
female readers to enter into competitive trials 
for raising large crops of potatoes on one- 
fortieth of an acre plots (38 feet square). The 
design is to offer so many rewards that all 
who succeed in producing creditable yields , 
will be entitled to one or the oilier of the 
presents so offered. ^The list of contributions 
