/ '"Y DEC 21 V 
Vol. LXX. No. 4130. NEW YORK. DECEMBER 23, 1911. weekly, si.oo per year 
POTATOES AND HIGH CULTURE. 
To Kill Out Witch Grass. 
Potato growers, and particularly those who have 
been forced to fight witch grass, will be interested 
in the following interview with W. T. Guptill of 
Sagadahoc Co. Maine. We must, of course, remem¬ 
ber that in advocating such late planting Mr. Guptill 
refers to his locality or latitude. We would not 
advise farmers south of New York to depend on such 
late planting. 
“In an address you made before the Wales Grange 
you said if you could have a good witch grass sod 
you were sure of a good crop of potatoes. Did you 
mean that?” 
“Yes; I meant exactly that.” 
“Is a witch grass sod ideal for raising 
potatoes ?” 
“Yes; if you are a potato raiser; if 
you are not, it is probably the very- 
worst kind of sod -you could have pre¬ 
sented to you.” 
“What do you mean by a potato 
raiser?” 
“The man who follows the potato 
gamble year in and year out, who de¬ 
pends upon this crop to feed his family, 
to pay his bills and furnish the com¬ 
forts of home, is entitled to be called a 
potato raiser.” 
“Are there no terrors in witch sod 
for such an one?” 
“No; not any; with the proper equip¬ 
ment of tools witch grass just adds 
zest to the battle. Whoever continues 
to gain a livelihood from potatoes must 
handle them entirely with tools, and 
whoever learns the right time to use the 
proper tool has no fear of witch grass 
nor of weeds.” 
“Tell us how you begin the battle and 
how end it?” 
“I begin the battle by breaking the 
sod deep just before the ground closes, 
taking a great deal of pains to turn 
every foot of every furrow. I end it 
two years from then with an absolutely 
clean field, having taken off two crops 
of potatoes. The intermediate steps are 
easy if you have the equipment—if you 
haven’t and are bound to raise potatoes, 
you would better get it.” 
“What is the first thing to do after 
the sod is broken?” 
“Wait patiently until the frost comes 
out and the ground shows dry or light 
colored in patches around over the 
piece. Then hitch onto your disk harrow; if it is an 
old one, two or three years old. take apart before 
this and go to a machine shop or some other place 
where there is an emery wheel turned by power and 
spend 10 hours grinding it. Grind it, in fact, until the 
edge around each disk is unpleasant to rub your finger 
on. Hitch onto this harrow and set your lever out 
half way and cover your field lengthwise of the fur¬ 
rows, unless there are places unusually wet; if there 
are turn out for these. (Always allow your harrow 
to lap half its width.) When you have covered the 
field lengthwise, cross it with the lever as before. 
After crossing it throw the lever of the harrow clear 
open and always work with it that way afterward on 
that piece. Cover this field now lengthwise again. 
Here are three harrowings, and the surface ought to 
be fairly well loosened; if it isn’t, harrow it some 
more; don’t leave it if there is a spot in it that you 
dread; if you do, better plan to put in another crop.” 
“Is the field then ready for the seed?” 
“No; oh no! You wait and we will get to that by 
and by. If you were blindfolded and I were to give 
you a handful of soil, could you tell whether it was 
ready for the seed or not?” 
“Well, hardly.” 
“I can’t tell you so you would know, but to the 
man who does know there is as much difference in its 
feeling to the hand as there is between sawdust and 
ashes. This field has had three harrowings, now go 
away and leave it; do something else. There is some¬ 
thing that takes place in the soil, just what I won’t 
venture to say; it seems to be an effort to return to 
its former condition. This effort continues for about 
five days, when the soil has sufficiently adjusted itself 
so that the witch grass will stir itself to life again. 
The ground was probably too loose, too free from its 
roots for it to start before. Don’t be mean with it, 
let it grow two days, and on the seventh day from the 
time you began harrowing the first time begin again 
at the same place and harrow in the same way with 
your lever clear open; cross it, and go to doing some¬ 
thing else for seven days more. If rain interferes 
with your plan, come as near to it as you can. Un¬ 
der the most favorable circumstances this must be 
done five separate times.” 
“But you are getting us ’way along into June.” 
“The calendar has nothing to do with it. Never 
plant a piece of potatoes until your ground is ready. 
The best piece of potatoes I have seen this year was 
planted June 16. Last year a piece planted July 2 
made 300 bushels per acre September 22. It is not 
always advisable to plant at these times, but it is cer¬ 
tainly necessary to have your ground in condition 
whatever the time. We are talking now about a 
witch-grass sod; other fields I would handle differ¬ 
ently.” 
“Can you tell us so we shall know for a certainty 
when the ground is in condition?” 
“Yes; if you have harrowed and cross-harrowed 
once a week for five weeks, and you cannot find a 
lump of dirt as large as a hen’s egg that is hard, you 
are ready to plant; otherwise harrow some more.” 
“Do you mean there are to be no sods left?” 
“That is what I do. You turned those sods all 
down last Fall; a disk harrow will not 
tear them up. If you are now ready to 
plant, get out your Acme harrow and 
harrow the way the rows are going to 
run right ahead of your planter; if you 
haven’t an Acme use your disk. Don’t 
harrow any more than you plant that 
day, for this will give you seven days’ 
start of the grass. Use a potato planter, 
of course, for then you can tell within 
a few inches where your seed is, and 
you must certainly cultivate before the 
plants are up unless you have planted 
very late. After June 20 they will us¬ 
ually be up in seven days, but whether 
they are up or not, seven days is the 
limit. This is witch grass, remember, 
so get out your disk cultivator. This 
tool will not do satisfactory work where 
the rows are nearer together than 40 
inches. It straddles the row and hills 
them at the same time it cultivates. This 
is before they are up. It cuts deeper 
than a harrow and does a splendid job. 
Set the disks to cut shoaler near the 
row than in the center. If it takes more 
than three days to cultivate your field 
start the weeder where you began three 
days after you began; bear onto the 
handles hard, or better, put on it a 
rock that \vill weigh 50 pounds. Go 
lengthwise, taking two rows at a time. 
This is simply for the purpose of level¬ 
ing. The tillage furnished by a weeder 
does not amount to much. This field is 
now decently level, still you can tell 
where the seed is. Leave it for five 
days, then bring out your spring-tooth 
sulky cultivator, and cultivate; follow 
with weeder without weight. Your 
field is now level, your rows are en¬ 
tirely obliterated, and you must wait, whatever hap¬ 
pens, until your potatoes break ground enough to 
show you where the rows are before you can do any¬ 
thing more. When they do break ground so that you 
can follow the row from occasional hills, get out your 
horse hoe. This tool straddles the row, pulling the 
dirt from either side into a ridge on top of the row. 
It does better work than any other device I have ever 
seen. Don’t wait until all of the hills are up, but use 
it as soon as the row can be followed. Bury this 
piece of potatoes, tops and all, bury them three or 
four inches deep. You must have fresh dirt around 
them now, for you won’t get more than one more 
whack; do your best, the soil close up to the potatoes 
before the tops are too large to work around. Two 
days after you bury rhe tops go over the field length- 
THE YOUNG GARDENER AND HIS CROP. Fig. 493. 
