A JOURNEY IN A POTATO FIELD. 
MACHINERY AS STEP SAVERS. 
What It Means to Plow and Cultivate. 
NY man who raises an acre of po¬ 
tatoes knows that many steps are 
required to take care of the crop 
properly. We are not sure that 
exact figures have yet been given 
to show just what the journey 
means. Last Spring, we planted 
a field shaped like A, 560x 
604 feet, or 338,240 square feet. In one corner, a house 
lot, 85x175 feet, has been cut out, and half a dozen 
large apple trees occupy a jog 33x118 feet. The rest 
of the field, or 294,707 square feet, was planted to 
potatoes in rows three feet apart, with the seed pieces 
averaging 20 inches 
apart. The rows run the 
shorter way of the field 
from east to west. The 
total length of the 186 
rows is 105,219 feet. A 
man starting at one cor¬ 
ner of the field, and walk¬ 
ing along each row to the 
end would travel 19.92 
miles, not counting the 
steps from one row to 
another, which would 
amount to one-tenth of a 
mile more, or a little over 
20 miles in all. 
CARE OF THE CROP. 
-—Around the potato in 
the picture, are the tools 
used in caring for the 
crop. It was first plowed 
with a plow throwing a 
12-inch furrow. The Cut¬ 
away was used once on 
part of the ground, and 
twice on the rest, an 
average of iy 2 time on 
all. The Acme was used 
once. The potatoes were 
planted with the Rob¬ 
bins planter, which did 
all the work at one 
round—opened and cov¬ 
ered—dropping seed and 
fertilizer. The weeder 
was used an average of 
three times on the field, 
and the cultivator five 
times. The potatoes were 
hoed once, and the Paris- 
greening represented a travel of iy 2 time over the 
field. It is not a mere question of walking and driv¬ 
ing along these rows. The steps required in turning 
must, also, be considered. This varies all the way 
from 12 feet for each row with a single cultivator and 
a ?ood horse, to 26 feet with a heavy tool like the 
planter or the Cutaway. In the figures given below, we 
have included the travel represented by the turning. 
A LONG JOURNEY.—Figured out as carefully as 
possible, we find that, in caring for this seven-acre 
field, the horses and humans have covered the follow¬ 
ing distances in miles: % 
Plowing . 
.. 60.96 
Cultivating . 
....103.10 
Cutawaying . 
.. 50.80 
Hoeing . 
... 20.10 
Acme . 
.. 8.70 
Poisoning . 
Planting . 
. 20.81 
Weeder .. 
.. 30.38 
Total miles. 
....325.08 
On a straight line 
from 
Hope Farm, this 
distance 
would take us as far as Toronto, Canada, Wheeling, 
W. Va., Richmond, Va., Montreal, or Augusta, Me., 
and this gives a fair idea of the distance a farmer 
goes in caring for his crops. In working over the 
entire farm, we have covered the distance from New 
York to San Francisco. The potatoes are yet to be 
dug and picked up, which will bring the total distance 
to, at least, 400 miles. On an average, the men-folks. 
at Hope Farm cover 22 inches at a step, the women 
18 inches and the children about 14 inches. Thus, to 
walk the distance which this crop represents, a man 
would take 93,622,495 steps, a woman 114,427,493, 
and a child 147,121,063. This statement of the actual 
heel-and-toe work required to care for a crop will, 
probably, surprise many people. 
SAVING STEPS.—The only actual walking done in 
this potato culture was in plowing, weeding, hoeing and 
a part of the cultivation and poisoning. We used the 
one-horse cultivators once. Take the planter as an 
illustration of step saving. When the ground was left 
smooth by the Acme, we started the planter. At one 
operation, it opened the furrow, dropped seed and fer¬ 
tilizer, closed the furrow and marked out the next row. 
Without the planter, there would have been two trips 
to open the furrows, one each to drop fertilizer and 
seed, and one more with harrow or cultivator to cover 
the potatoes. The planter saved about 80 miles of 
travel in this small field. The weeder saved, at least 
one hoeing and one cultivating, and left the ground 
in excellent shape. The work of the Cutaway did us 
more good than a second plowing. Another thing 
that saved steps was the long row. About the best 
we can do with a good horse and expert workman, is 
to get the single cultivator around from one row to 
the next one with 12 feet of walking. In many cases, 
20 feet would be nearer to it. This is the same for a 
short row as for a long one. We had 186 rows in the 
field. It made an extra mile of travel to get the 
planter or the Cutaway around in this field. Had we 
run the rows the other way of the field, there would 
have been 201 rows, a difference of several miles in 
the “turning around” for the season. We have heard 
farmers object to the two-horse riding cultivator, be¬ 
cause they say it takes too much time to turn around. 
It is true that some time is lost in this way. A man 
who knows how to do it can quickly lift a single cul¬ 
tivator around, and a well-trained horse will shift 
over without injuring a plant. The riding cultivator 
in a fenced field is liable to damage a number of 
plants, but It does so much steadier work, and is 
under such perfect control, that we use it whenever 
possible. 
SOME CROP FIGURES.—We may carry the thing 
a luue farther yet. Our 186 rows gave 105,219 feet. 
The potatoes were dropped 20 inches apart, so that 
63,131 pieces of seed were cut for this one field. They 
came out of 24 barrels— 
all cut by hand. Some 
of the “blind eyes” of 
The R. N.-Y. No. 2 did 
not sprout well, but we 
estimate that there are 
not far from 56,000 hills 
or distinct plants in the 
field. This meant more 
than 4,000,000 potato bugs 
to be killed. The aver¬ 
age set of tubers on these 
plants is eight, which 
would give 448,000 pota¬ 
toes to be dug out and 
picked up. Is there any 
crop that requires more 
travel and work than po¬ 
tatoes? 
We have heard much 
about the machines for 
cutting potatoes, but 
from all we can learn of 
them, we prefer to cut 
by hand. They do rapid 
work, and on the long, 
slim varieties, where the 
eyes are well scattered 
over the tuber, they 
might answer. On the 
Carman varieties, they 
would not do. We should 
expect 40 per cent of 
missing hills of R. N.-Y. 
No. 2 if cut with the 
machine. 
We find that much 
labor is lost by unskillful 
hoemen. A good man 
with a hoe averaged four 
good clips to the plant. With these four well-directed 
strokes, he cut out the weeds, and left the soil prop¬ 
erly around the hill. Other workmen, who did not 
understand the use of the hoe, would average 10 clips, 
which would mean 336,000 useless strokes in the field. 
We notice that some workmen use a hoe as they 
would an ax, chopping at the ground with great 
force. The difference in force between chopping and 
the quick scrape and pull of the expert hoeman 
would accomplish greater results if operated at the 
wood pile. Another great loss in force is found in the 
failure to pull out the little weeds when hoeing. 
These little fellows hide under the plants. They 
could be pulled out with the thumb and finger with 
the force required to lift eight ounces one foot from 
the ground. If left in the ground, they wait until a 
shower, and then outgrow the potatoes. By actual 
experiment, I conclude that one of these baby rag¬ 
weeds, permitted to grow until the potatoes are ripe, 
requires a force equal to that needed to raise 50 
pounds in order to pull it up. I should be sorry to 
say how many useless tons must be lifted in this 
seven-acre field because the baby weeds were left. 
