462 
TShe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Marctt 24;i 1917 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
The Story of Potato Planting 
Paut III. 
In the second ai’ticle on page 380 we 
had our potato seed safely in the ground 
and partly covered. Now what? Several 
people write that they are confused 
by reading articles about using fertilizer. 
What do the authors mean by telling 
about putting fertilizer “under” or “over” 
or i)lowing it “down”? When you open 
the furrow and scatter the fertilizer at 
the bottom, put a little soil over it and 
plant the seed, the fertilizer is under. 
When you reverse this and put the seed at 
the bottom with earth on top the fertilizer 
is over the seed. To plow the fertilizer 
down means to broadcast it and then 
plow it to the bottom of the furrow. I 
would rather put it in the furrow over the 
seed. I know one man who plants 10 
acres or more who opens deep furrows 
with a plow and then uses a machine 
planter to drop the seed in these furrows 
and cover it lightly. Then he uses a drill 
which puts the fertilizer in a strip about 
two feet wide over the furrow, which is 
fdled in later with the horse cultivator. 
This man claims that all this hand work 
pays. 
The Scab. —Tell us more about this 
scab disease! Several people have writ¬ 
ten in that way. I hardly know what 
more to say. There is a vast amount of 
printed matter on scab, but most of it is 
a thick padding or fat of words aimund 
half a dozen essential i)oints. It has 
two polite or scientific names—Oospora 
scabies and Actinomyces chromogenus! 
You may take your choice. I call it 
scab! It is true that some people think 
this potato disease will produce a “rash” 
or “breaking out” on human beings. 
There is nothing to it! Prof. Lutman, 
of the Vermont Experiment Station, says 
that the scabbed potatoes have a pecu¬ 
liar earthy taste and odoi% which some 
people prefer, and the scabbed potatoes 
are usually more “mealy” than others. 
I'he chief objection to them is that the 
disease stunts the growth of the tuber 
and hurts its sale. A man might have 
great ability and fine character but if, 
through no fault of his, his face was 
badly pitted, it would be an exceptionally 
wise young woman who would marry him. 
In the same way a badly scabbed potato, 
though of superior flavor and mealiness 
would be quickly rejected by the house¬ 
keeper. 
What It Is. —Should anyone be inter¬ 
ested in the chemical side of this scab dis¬ 
ease, he will find a good study of it in 
Bulletin 184 of the Vermont Station at 
Burlington. The disease starts as a 
brown spot or stain on the siu’face of the 
potato and woi’ks down into the skin. 
The scientific men put it this way: 
“The scab is the result of the attempt 
of the cork cambium to protect the inner 
starch-bearing parenchyma tissue against 
the irritating action of the invading or¬ 
ganism by the production of the new cork 
celts beneath the diseased part.” 
As I understand that, when the gei’ms 
of the ccab disease start their attack Na¬ 
ture rushes in to defend the potato by 
building fortifications in the colls of the 
outer skin. It is not unlike the opera¬ 
tion in the European war. One anny 
will attack the other at a certain point 
and make a dent in the line. _ Then the 
army under attack will rush its men to 
dig in behind with trenches and forts to 
prevent further attack, the result being 
that the entire face of the country is 
pitted and scarred. All this shows us 
that we must destroy the scab germs on 
the potato seed and prevent them from 
gi-owing if we can. I told on page 334 
how to handle the seed—by soaking in 
the formalin solution and dusting sulphur 
on the seed pieces. You will find the 
scab germs in most soils that have been 
long in cultivation, and we must remem¬ 
ber that they thrive when the soil is alka¬ 
line or sweet, and are sickly and feeble 
when the soil is acid. Thus the plan 
should be to avoid soil which is alkaline 
and not to use lime when planting the po¬ 
tatoes. We know farmers who say they 
had a very scabby crop when they planted 
on the best Red clover soil, yet when they 
plowed clover under the crop was clean. 
This seems easy to understand when we 
consider the nature of this scab. Of 
course, a soil just right for seeding Red 
clover must be alkaline. It has probably 
been limed quite recently. Of course, 
such a soil would be favorable to the 
scab. When, however, a crop of green 
clover_ is plowed into the soil, we have 
a souring effect, as this crop ferments, and 
this means a more acid condition which 
as we see is unfavorable to the scab. By 
the use of sulphur and by plowing under 
green manures we fit the soil to resist the 
scab disease. A picture of a scabby 
tuber, from Prof. Butman’s Circular No. 
2, is reproduced on page 452, Pig. 187. 
Y'oemg Bprouts. —Perhaps you thought 
I spent too much time over the seed and 
its preparation. Not in this season of 
high prices, for the little seed piece is the 
parent of the crop. Some one asks if it 
is possible to transplant potato plants 
like cabbage or tomatoes. Surely—we 
have often done it. In a season like this, 
you can cut off the “seed end” (which is 
where the sprouts grow) as the potatoes 
are prepared for cooking. This seed end 
may be planted in pots or boxes or in the 
greenhouse. They make strong plants as 
a rule, and when the w’cather suits these 
can be planted outdoors. We have done 
this several times with fair success. The 
plan is to put them in deep furrows. In 
case of a frost the soil may be hoed or 
plowed up over them for protection and 
raked off when danger is past. You gain 
10 days or so with tlie crop by doing 
this. Some market gardeners practice 
this on a large scale, but it will not pay 
unless labor is cheap. 
Eaui.y Work.—O n page 380 we left 
our potato seed at the bottom of the fur¬ 
row safely covered with soil and fertil¬ 
izer—the furrows about half filled. Now 
we might compare the potato seed waiting 
there for the next move with a boy in bed 
as the sun comes up to say “good morn¬ 
ing.” One boy will rouse up, get his eye 
on the sun and jump out of bed to have a 
hand at things. The world looks good to 
him ; he has a.warm place to dress, break¬ 
fast begins to smell good; he wants to 
look at his traps or see his stock, and he 
feels within himrelf the punch and spur 
of desire and ambition. The other boy 
gets a sleepy eye on the sun—and turns 
over for more sleep. Mother calls, but 
the boy docs not start until he hoars 
father's step on the stairs. The differ¬ 
ence between the two boys is due partly 
to inheritance and partly to the sur¬ 
roundings and spirit of the farm. I might 
personify the potato seed pieces in that 
furx’ow and compare them with the boys. 
As the soil begins to warm a little one 
sprout wakes up and changes his night¬ 
mare to a tale of woe. 
“What’s the use? Life has no joy in 
it! Look at my father—a ))oor stunted 
plant, bitten by blight, scaled by .scab, 
crowded into a hard soil, half fed and 
forced to fight all his life again.st such 
robbers as quack grass, ragweed or dock. 
That’s my inheritance, and it’s not worth 
working for. What’s the use?” 
The next sprout in the furrow will 
take a different view of life : 
“I mu.st be up and see what the world 
is like, and get into the sunshine. My 
father had a good life. They sprayed and 
fed him and gave him a chance, and he 
took ‘joy in his job,’ and I feel some¬ 
thing of the joy. Let me get up where 
things are bi’ight and do my share. Here 
I am fastened to a fine, large package of 
lunch in this piece of potato. It tastes 
good and will send me up rejoicing.” 
So one piece makes a slow, sullen, 
sickly growth through the soil, while the 
other jumps up strong and sound. It is 
in the inheritance and this is why I spent 
so much time trying to show the imjior- 
tance of good pedigree and good seed. For 
the way the two boys and the two sprouts 
get out of bed and start the day will 
pretty much determine their life work. 
Getting Going. —With a reasonable 
chance our potato plants peep above 
ground in about 14 days. T have known 
them to be 28 days or a month in c< ming 
out. That was on wet soil and a very 
wet season. We had them well covered 
with sulphur, and they finally got 
through. It is an advantage to get them 
up as soon as pos.sible. If a heavy frost 
comes you can plow the soil over ^heni, 
and I think the sooner they start busi- 
, ness the better. The sprout seems to live 
on the seed piece until it gets above 
ground. Then it throws out true roots 
and gets at the fertilizer in the furrow. 
On general principles.. I would rather 
leave the furrows half filled until the 
sin-outs get above gi’ound, and then fill 
the furrows gradually. I think this makes 
a better root system and more under- 
gi’ound stems for the plant, but in most 
cases there is another rea.son for filling 
the furrows early. Before the potatoes 
apiiear above ground millions of weeds 
start growing. Weeds, evil habits, flies 
and mosquitoes all belong to one general 
family of pests, and the only way to 
clean them out is to go at the babie.s in 
the cradle. A child can kill 500 baby 
weeds with one cut of a shaip hoe. Let 
one of these weeds grow to full size end a 
strong man can hardly pull it out. Thus, 
on diy sunny days, before the potatoes 
get through, it is good practice to scratch 
over the potato patch or lield and throw 
the little weeds up to the sun. If I had 
my choice I would do this with a Dutch 
or scuffle hoe, cutting or slicing the soil 
about an inch deep all over. On any¬ 
thing like a large scale this is impossi¬ 
ble, and in full culture we can use an 
Acme harrow, a spike-tooth or a weeder. 
If it can be run lightly I think the Acme 
is best for this, though it should not be 
used just as the plants ai-e coming 
through, and it should run across the Bir- 
Tows. Of course, such tools as the disk 
or spring-tooth 81*0 not suited to this 
work . _A plank drag or crinsher is good 
—anything which will crush or cut off 
the weeds. Stir the soil for an inch or 
so and level it. I would like to scrape 
or work the soil over twice before the po¬ 
tatoes come up if the weather permitteil 
Up to the time they get above ground the 
potato sprouts run on their pedigree 
largely. Now they are up against per¬ 
formance—a very different thing, ii. w, c. 
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