130 
THE RURA.L, NEW-YORKER 
February 1 , 
PREPARING FOR SWEET POTATOES. 
U'. F., Collinon, Pa .—I have about four 
acres of upland; soil is fine sand, subsoil 
stiff sandy clay, that i wish to plant to 
sweet potatoes, cabbage and tomatoes in the 
Spring. Before 1 took possession of this 
it had been badly neglected. I sowed to 
clover and Timothy, got a fine stand of 
both. I used it for pasture in Summer and 
for feed lot in Winter when the ground was 
frozen, for four years. Then 1 plowed it in 
April, 1911, and planted to musk melons, 
sweet potatoes and tomatoes. The musk- 
melons and tomatoes were good: sweet 
potatoes about one-half crop. Bast season, 
1912. I planted same to tomatoes, sweet 
potatoes, Lima beans and a small patch 
of melons; sweet potatoes and Lima beans 
were line, .melons and tomatoes did not pay 
expenses. The blight ruined the melons 
and the tomatoes made scarcely any vine 
and they did not set well. I sowed this 
to rye last Fall. 1 put in my spare time 
hauling manure and I am spreading it 
on the rye. I want to get it covered by 
Spring. I have 10 or 12 tons of clover 
hullings that 1 wish to use on the same 
plot of ground with the manure. Will it 
pay me to scatter it on the rye now or 
wait until Spring? I have two horses and 
three cows and put all the manure on this 
plot of ground. Will Trucker. Jr., or some 
one that lias had experience answer this? 
Ans. —Your story of that four-acre 
field and its crops is interesting and 
corresponds very closely with our own 
experience, especially in regard to sweet 
potatoes. Sweet potatoes seldom pro¬ 
duce a full crop when planted after a 
heavy sod. Usually there is a full 
growth of vines, but a very light set of 
stringy, rooty tubers. However, if a 
crop of melons or corn is grown after 
the sod, then followed the second sea¬ 
son by sweets, the results are much bet¬ 
ter and your experience follows right 
along this line. For melons a sod, and 
especially a clover sod, gives excellent 
results. The vines hold on longer and 
arc more resistant to attacks of melon 
blight. Tomatoes also do fairly well 
following a sod, hut with this crop we 
prefer a good cover crop of rye or 
Crimson clover to a long-standing sod. 
The cover crop leaves the soil in a more 
workable condition, and the yield is usu¬ 
ally better than after a heavy sod. I 
cannot account altogether for the lack 
of vines and small set of tomatoes in 
1912, but a number of conditions might 
have been responsible for the failure. 
In regard to this year’s crops, I hesi¬ 
tate to advise, for conditions are so 
unlike in various parts of our great 
country, but I will tell just how we 
would expect different methods of treat¬ 
ment to work out here with us under 
average conditions. That field is now 
covered with a growing crop of rye, and 
from what you say I assume no manure 
was used in 1912. You wish to plant 
cabbage, tomatoes and sweet potatoes on 
this in 1913 and at the present time you 
are giving it a good dressing of manure, 
and have 10 or 12 tons of clover hull¬ 
ings that you wish to apply for this 
year’s crops. For cabbage and tomatoes 
you are doing just as we would do. It 
is hard to get too much organic matter 
in the soil for cabbage, and when ma¬ 
nuring that crop the pocketbook usually 
governs the quantity of manure applied. 
But for tomatoes it is possible to get 
too much vegetable matter in the soil, 
thus favoring a heavy vine growth at 
the expense of fruit. I know truckers 
in the vicinity of Philadelphia who ap¬ 
ply 30 to 60 tons of manure to the acre 
annually, and they cannot grow to¬ 
matoes, potatoes, melons or other simi¬ 
lar crops. We seldom apply more than 
12 tons of manure to the acre for to¬ 
matoes, and when manured annually six 
to eight tons is a sufficient amount, pro¬ 
vided some additional humus is supplied 
in the shape of cover crops, crop rem- 
nanfs, etc. A brief history of one held 
that we intend for tomatoes the coming 
season may he of some benefit. This is 
a seven-acre sandy field. In 1908 and 
until June, 1909, it w r as in sod, mostly 
clover. After the first cutting of hay 
was removed in 1909 it was plowed and 
planted July 1 to 90-day corn. This 
corn gave us an immense quantity of 
fodder and a good yield of nearly ma¬ 
ture corn. In 1910 melons were planted 
with only a lktle manure in the hill, and 
gave a good crop. That Fall rye was 
seeded for a cover crop, and eight or 10 
tons of manure applied, all of which was 
turned under together in the Spring of 
1911 for early tomatoes. The tomatoes 
gave us a little over 5.000 fjj-bushel 
baskets from the seven acres. In early 
September the tomato vines, together 
with an immense growth of crab grass, 
were turned under, and the field again 
seeded to rye and another application 
of six to eight tons of manure made. 
Early tomatoes were planted again in 
1912. This second crop was even better 
than before, and we gathered from the 
field, with two more acres added, about 
6,500 ^-bushel baskets of marketable 
tomatoes. Last September we again 
turned under another big crop of vines 
and crab-grass and seeded it to rye'- 
Just now we have another light coat of 
manure on it, and intend to plant to¬ 
matoes again in 1913. How that crop 
will he I cannot foretell, but I am in¬ 
clined to think we are getting just a 
little beyond the safety line, and may 
have some trouble because of so much 
nitrogenous material in the ground. 
Aside from manuring as stated above 
we always use a handful of tomato fer¬ 
tilizer, analyzing about 4-8-8, around the 
plants to get them started. But this 
year we intend to try fertilizing on at 
least a part of the field, with a fertilizer 
containing a larger per cent, of phos¬ 
phoric acid and potash so as to maintain 
a balance if possible between the min¬ 
eral elements and the large amount of 
nitrogen we know we already have in 
the soil. 
Lest the above account be misleading 
will say we do not make a practice of 
growing tomatoes, or any other crop for 
that matter, year after year on the same 
ground; we are doing it now in order 
to change our present crop rotation. As 
a general practice such close planting 
would lead to all sorts of trouble from 
blight, bugs, etc. With a field treated 
as yours has been we would he entirely 
safe in putting on at least 12 tons of 
manure or other refuse to the acre for 
the tomato crop, and almost any amount 
for cabbage. 
We have had no experience with 
clover hullings, hut if we had them they 
would go on the ground intended for 
cabbage and tomatoes at any convenient 
time, and the entire field plowed early 
in the Spring before a large growth of 
rye was made. If possible, I would disk 
the field thoroughly before plowing so 
as to get the manure mixed with the 
soil and cut up the rye so as to avoid 
checking the rise of soil moisture which 
might result should a heavy mat of rye 
be turned under without previous disk¬ 
ing. The plot intended for sweet pota¬ 
toes would receive little if any manure. 
The rye cover crop, if it is a good one, 
will furnish a sufficient amount of vege¬ 
table matter. Here the best sweets are 
usually produced on ground that has 
been previously well supplied with 
vegetable matter, either from heavy ap¬ 
plications of manure or else from clover 
sod, but which is thoroughly decayed 
and well incorporated with the soil at 
the time the siveets are set. This year 
we had a plot of sweets that yielded 
615^-bushel baskets to the acre. This 
yield was made on a field that had been 
in asparagus for about 15 years, and 
during that time its only fertilization 
was a yearly application of six to 10 
tons of manure. It had no cover crop 
at any time. No manure was applied 
in 1911. In June of that year the as¬ 
paragus was taken out and 90-day corn 
planted. In 1912 no manure was applied 
and only 600 to 800 pounds of sweet 
potato fertilizer analyzing about 2-8-10 
was distributed in the row. These two 
years without manure gave the manure 
previously applied a chance to become 
thoroughly decayed, thus getting the soil 
in just the right shape for producing a 
good crop of sweets. On your field I 
would rather use a little fertilizer with¬ 
out any application of manure, but if 
fertilizer is not available a light coat of 
very fine manure might be beneficial, 
provided it is well worked in the soil. 
With your field it will he impossible to 
furnish-what we think is nearly the ideal 
condition for sweets this year, but that 
would not deter me from growing them. 
I would approach my ideal as near as 
possible and then go ahead. Often a 
crop planted under adverse field condi¬ 
tions will with favorable growing con¬ 
ditions do better than when planted with 
conditions the reverse. Thorough prep¬ 
aration and cultivation of the ground 
will go a long way toward bringing out 
a good crop and over those things the 
grower has full control. 
South Jersey. . trucker, jr. 
A man who goes up to Maine each 
year for the hunting was quite surprised 
this season upon arriving at the village 
hotel to find one of the old and best 
known guides loafing about idle. “Well, 
Lafe,” asked the visitor, “don’t you 
guide hunting parties any more?’’ “No, 
I gave it up,” slowly answered Lafe. 
“Got tired of being mistook for a deer.” 
“I don’t blame you. How do you earn 
your living now?” “Guide fishing par¬ 
ties now. So for nobody ain’t mistook 
me fer a fish.”—Harper’s Magazine. 
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