VoL. LX. No. 2673. 
NEW YORK, APRIL 20, 1901. 
•1 FEB TBAB. 
POTATO GROWING IN CENTRAL ILLINOIS. 
SEED FBOM THE BEST HILLS. 
Culture, Cure and Handling. 
SEED SELECTION.—We very much prefer selecting 
our seed potatoes just a little before they are mature; 
going over the field just as the vines begin to ripen, 
choosing the best hills as to vine, size and number of 
tubers to the hill, time of maturity, and always to an 
ideal type. One will soon learn to know the best hills 
from the appearance of the vines, etc. Having our 
seed dug, we store the tubers in bushel crates in very 
strong light, but not in the direct rays of the sun, and 
let them remain till danger of frost, when we move 
the tubers in the crates and store in the cellar. Ex¬ 
posing the tubers to light will help to destroy scab 
spores, will ripen the crop better, and prevent sprout¬ 
ing so early in Spring. When stored in the cellar they 
are kept at a temperature of from 35 to 40 degrees. 
On cold, dry days the cellar is opened and allowed 
to ventilate as long as possible without becoming too 
cold, when it is closed and held near an even tem¬ 
perature of 38 degrees. Of course it would ruin pota¬ 
toes for table use to expose them to 
strong light, but for seed this expo¬ 
sure is a great help. 
HIGH GROUND PREFERRED.— 
Though an occasional variety of po¬ 
tato may be found that will do well 
if planted on low ground, a high piece 
of ground (as high ground goes in 
Champaign and Douglas counties) is 
much preferable, if very fertile, or if 
made so. The low-lying grounds of 
the corn belt of central Illinois have 
not enough sand in them, I think, to 
produce the best results with pota¬ 
toes, but this can be partially made 
up for by cultivation. No green ma¬ 
nure should ever be used on potato 
ground, but too much can hardly be 
applied if it be thoroughly rotted; 
and potatoes will respond very thank¬ 
fully in large returns, for heavy ap¬ 
plications of thoroughly rotted ma¬ 
nure, as they are great feeders. [Why 
not use green manure?—Eds.] 
SOIL PREPARATION.—The ground 
should be plowed quite deeply either 
in Pall or Spring, preferably in Fall. 
If plowed in Pall, no stock should be 
allowed to run over the ground, 
whether hard frozen or not; for if it 
be frozen and stock allowed, they will 
sift the fine dry dirt into the crevices and thus pre¬ 
vent the action of the fi’ost. Eight inches is none too 
deep to plow. As soon as the soil will work well in 
the Spring, begin to prepare the seed bed. 
PLANTING.—A good many people suppose that a 
potato grows upon the root of the plant, but this is 
not the case. A potato is the swollen end of an un¬ 
derground branch, and the eyes of a potato are sim¬ 
ply the buds of this branch. As the sprout or branch 
from a potato eye comes up through the ground, it 
makes nodes, joints or buds, and from these under¬ 
ground buds new branches start, of which the swollen 
end is the potato. In some varieties these under¬ 
ground buds are much farther apart than in others; 
hence we must needs study our variety to know how 
deep to plant to get a good yield. As a rule, those va¬ 
rieties that grow compactly in the hill are the ones 
that grow these buds closest together, and may be 
planted shallowest; while those that grow the tubers 
scattering in the hill are opposite. However, the best 
average depth to plant is four to five inches. Varie¬ 
ties that grow small vines may be drilled much closer 
together in the rows than those with rank vines. If 
to be planted by hand, drop pieces of one to two eyes 
from 10 to 18 inches apart. The seed or blossom end 
of each potato should be cut off and thrown away. 
However the planting may be done, either by ma¬ 
chine or hand, a good ridge should be thrown up 
over each row, as it will be of much use when we 
come to the cultivation. Before the potatoes are up 
and weeds start, harrow twice by lapping the harrow 
half way, and as you have a ridge to guide you keep 
the horses off the rows. As soon as you can see the 
potatoes in the rows harrow as before and keep 
the horses off the rows. I desire especially to em¬ 
phasize keeping the horses off the rows. Continue 
cultivation with any tool that will cultivate very shal¬ 
low until vines prevent or the crop is ripe. Cultivate 
often, level, shallow and especially as soon as the 
ground is in fit condition after each rain. Frequent 
culture will he an advantage with respect to 
INSECTS AND DISEASE.—Any injury to the vines 
is a check to the growth, and I would advise for kill¬ 
ing the bugs; 11 ounces acetate of lead and four 
ounces arsenate of soda dissolved, each in two or 
three gallons of water, to which is added enough wa¬ 
ter to make 150 gallons in all; then add one gallon of 
cheap molasses and spray the vines. The only thing 
we know to do for blight, is to spray with Bordeaux 
Mixture; and the only thing we need to do for scab, is 
to immerse the potatoes before they are cut for IVz 
hour in the following: In two gallons of boiling hot 
water dissolve two ounces of corrosive sublimate, to 
which add 13 gallons of cold water, and it is ready for 
use. I very much prefer to have the tubers dry be¬ 
fore cutting. 
VARIETIES.—I give herewith a list of varieties we 
have been using for our crop alone, and list none that 
have not been given a thorough trial: Extra early. 
Acme and Burr’s No. 1; second early. Early Norther 
and Express; first late, Livingston’s Banner and Liv¬ 
ingston; late. Rural New-Yorker No. 2 and Pink Gem. 
Tolono, Ill. 
Getting Ready to Plant Potatoes. 
Last Spring many farmers waited until time to plant 
before making any preparations for treating the seed 
for scab. Then when the ground was fitted and mark¬ 
ed out, it was found that no formalin nor corrosive 
sublimate was on hand, and it was then decided to 
forego the seed treatment for “this time.” This de¬ 
cision saved a little time and extra trouble, but did it 
pay, in a majority of cases? Most certainly it did not. 
In several instances farmers have stated to us, during 
the past Winter, that it was the last time they would 
fail to treat their seed potatoes before planting. Some 
of them declared they lost enough in the yield and 
sale of marketable tubers to pay for treating the seed 
many times over. We have repeatedly tried all plans, 
and found the best one to have the formalin procured 
early and treat the seed just before planting. We 
prefer formalin to corrosive sublimate, every time. It 
bothered us to procure the formalin last year in Bat¬ 
tle Creek, as the druggists kept it only in limited 
quantities. For the last two years we have had to 
order from Chicago or Detroit firms. We have noti¬ 
fied our druggist early this season, and he will have 
a supply on hand when wanted. Several other farm¬ 
ers in this section have asked us to order for them, 
so that we believe formalin will be thoroughly tried 
by potato growers hereabouts. 
Last Spring we used two oil casks to soak the pota¬ 
toes in. Each cask was filled a little 
less than two-thirds full of water. We 
used about one-half pint of commer¬ 
cial formalin to each 15 gallons of 
water. As the casks were large, we 
used binder twine sacks to hold the 
potatoes in the solution, putting 
three bushels in each sack. The seed 
was soaked for two hours, exactly, 
and one man attended to this job, oc¬ 
casionally churning the sacks up and 
down in the casks, so as thoroughly 
to soak the whole surface of each 
tuber. When ready to commence 
soaking, we had a big load of potatoes 
in bushel crates on the low-down 
truck. These we unloaded near the 
barrels, and the soaked seed was 
spread over the truck platform to 
dry. As soon as a load of treated seed 
was ready it was taken to the center 
of the potato field. Commencing on 
the rear end of the truck, two men 
cut the seed as fast as needed for use 
in the two-horse planter. Consider¬ 
able seed had been cut the day pre¬ 
vious, so that the planter was kept 
constantly busy all day. So far we 
have cut all our seed oy hand, and 
have never had any experience with 
the machine cutters. We enueavor to 
cut pieces to two eyes, but is is difficult to pay close 
attention to this rule when in a hurry. 
Some of our seed two years ago was quite scabby. 
Fig. 117 shows how bad some potatoes were. They 
were all Carman No. 3, and Fig. 118 shows some fine 
specimens. Some of the scabbiest potatoes were 
treated with formaiin and planted in a row by them¬ 
selves. When dug, the potatoes in this row were just 
as large and smooth as the others. We prefer to use 
formalin because it is not so dangerous to handle as 
corrosive sublimate, and can oe put into almost any 
kind of a receptacle. We do not find germination ma¬ 
terially retarded by soaking seed in the formalin solu¬ 
tion. Last year we cut some seed potatoes directly 
they were taken from the solution, without any in¬ 
jury to the hands or clothes. Formalin cost us about 
50 cents a pound two years ago, and 40 cents last 
year. We used nearly two pounds to treat about 45 
bushels of seed. This is a little stronger than may 
have been necessary, but it did no harm, and accom¬ 
plished an immense amount of good to the resultant 
crop, and to our own feelings as well. For planting 
a large acreage, we should arrange to handle the seed 
