FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
147 
average results for all the growers do 
not show a profit. 
And yet it is an easy crop to put in, 
is cultivated in a wholesale way by 
horse power and farm machinery, is 
harvested in one operation and after 
that the suspense as to profit or loss is 
soon over. I do not expect to give an 
essay on this subject, but rather to in¬ 
dicate some of the “don’ts” as well as 
“hows” connected with this business, 
which are usually acquired only by long 
and costly experience. 
Personally, I try to average the prob¬ 
able extremes of future climatic condi¬ 
tions. For instance: when to plant. 
The man who plants about Christmas 
or New Year is seldom hurt enough 
by blight to pay for spraying, but is in 
more danger from frost. The man who 
plants around the first of February is 
not in much danger of having his crop 
curtailed by frost and usually gets a 
larger yield at lower prices, but he 
must spray for blight and if his drain¬ 
age and other conditions are not good, 
spraying may not be of much benefit. 
Without good drainage in wet sea¬ 
sons success is problematical, the loss 
of fertilizer alone by leaching and con¬ 
sequent reduced yield being enough 
to eliminate profit. Rotten seed and the 
expense of replanting usually results 
from poor drainage at planting time 
and standing water between the rows 
often damages the roots and the plants 
are ,an easy prey to diseases. Muck 
lands for these reasons are avoided, and 
in addition the trade recognizes the po¬ 
tatoes do not have as good eating and 
keeping qualities. Some growers at 
Hastings have put in gasoline pumping 
outfits to free their fields of rain water 
as fast as it falls. Surface irrigation in 
dry spells from artesian wells is avail¬ 
able with the clay subsoils over most of 
this section, but artesian water, if it 
stands between the potato rows under 
a hot sun, is as damaging as floods of 
rain water. The potatoes are planted 
in ridges about three feet four inches 
apart, the fertilizer being applied two 
weeks before planting, by various dis¬ 
tributors, at the rate of one ton per 
acre and covered preferably in sharp 
ridges to prevent leaching. The fertil¬ 
izers used are mostly special mixtures, 
often mixed at home. The original 
Hastings formula of Clarence G. White 
—if I remember rightly—being 1,100 
lbs. bright cotton seed meal, 600 lbs. 
acid phosphate and 300 lbs. high grade 
sulphate of potash to the ton. 
500 to 600 lbs. blood and bone is now 
very generally used in place of a simi¬ 
lar amount of cotton seed meal and 
some use 100 lbs. of nitrate of soda in 
place of a similar amount of cotton seed 
meal or blood and bone, or say 500 lbs. 
cotton seed meal, 500 lbs. blood and 
bone, 100 lbs. nitrate soda, 600 lbs. acid 
phosphate, 300 lbs. high grade sulphate 
of potash. Good yields have been 
made from 1,700 lbs. of fertilizer, but 
over 2,500 lbs. with the average vicis¬ 
situdes of seasons is not considered 
profitable. 2,000 lbs. per acre is the 
usual amount of fertilizer. 
Which is best, Maine or New York 
seed, Spalding’s Rose 4, being about 
the only variety planted. New York 
seed, while firm and vigorous, has lat- 
