FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
321 
August, 1,200 crates. The 2 1-2 acres No. 14—One-half acre; sand prairie; 
plowed twice yielded nearly half of the fourth crop; 260 crates; $1.60 crate; net 
whole crop on nine acres. returns, $416. 
Potato Culture in the Flatwoods. 
BY C. G. WHITE, OF HASTINGS. 
The yield of marketable spring pota¬ 
toes this year was about 14,500 barrels 
on 535 acres. Last year it was over 13,- 
500 barrels on 300 acres. Up to this 
time the increase in acreage has been a 
normal growth. 
Hastings soil is the typical flatwoods 
sort, underlaid with clay about two feet 
down. The land as a whole has so little 
fall and percolation that the matter of 
drainage is a most serious one. Ridges 
twelve to twenty inches high are a ne¬ 
cessity. 
The fields can be easily irrigated by 
turning water from flowing artesian 
wells into the drainage ditches and 
carrying it where wanted by means of 
dams. 
Land is often broken in November for 
the first time and planted the following 
January. Two crops of potatoes are often 
taken from the same piece of land in a 
year. There were fifty acres in second- 
crop potatoes last fall. 
Small uncut potatoes from the spring 
crop are used for fall planting; but ex¬ 
perience condemns the use of culls. 
This seed is best preserved during the 
summer by spreading thinly in a cool 
place. Considerable light is often a 
benefit, but not much summer sun. 
This crop is planted in late September or 
early October; grows until killed by 
frost; and is dug as the demand is for it, 
or if the land is wanted, it is dug and 
banked. This fall crop cannot be beat 
as an eating potato. Thirty barrels per 
acre is a good yield. Few of these pota¬ 
toes leave the State. They are jobbed 
off at $3 to $4 per barrel, often as late as 
April. 
SPRING CROP. 
The best preparation for potatoes is a 
preceding crop of cow peas. Tool prep¬ 
aration varies, but the result aimed at is 
a thorough plowing, harrowing and 
ridging. Ridges about four feet apart, 
with the fertilizer well distributed in the 
lower halves. 
Some people ridge five feet apart and 
plant sugar cane between the rows. It 
is quite common to plant corn on one 
side of the ridge, but not so high up but 
that careful digging will leave the corn 
plant intact. 
Fertilizer is usually scattered by hand 
on a slight ridge, or on the level, thor¬ 
oughly incorporated with the soil by 
harrowing, and then the ridge is thrown 
over it. A week or ten days before the 
