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Vnl TVVV Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co.. 
nn3 W. 30th St.. New York. Price One Dollar a Y'ear. 
NEW YORK, JULY 23, 1921 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, June 20. 1879. at the Post 
Office at New Y'ork, N. under the Act of March 3. 1879. 
No. 4G4f> 
Saving the Potato Crop From Rot 
T RYING weather CONDITIONS—The sud¬ 
den turn from drought conditions to those of 
plethoric moisture is by no means so favorable for 
our most important vegetable crop as many lightly 
suppose. Coining after dry super-heat had put a 
hard strain upon the vitality of the cool-weather- 
loving potato plant, the nine days of constantly 
excessive humidity have already bred perfect "blight 
condit'ons” in most parts of the Eastern States. 
Even late-planted potato crops are beginning to re¬ 
veal that ominous "curl" around the ed.e of Up¬ 
growth which always 
precedes the devastat¬ 
ing stages. Very sel¬ 
dom have I observed 
these signs so early in 
the calendar year, and 
so universal—at the 
least three week - 
ahead of average ex¬ 
pectation. Only where 
spraying has been 
early and persistent 
are they missing. And 
if ‘‘General Humidity" 
should continue in 
command mid-.Tuly —- 
not August—will mail; 
tin* sweep of potato 
destruction in many 
fields. 
I* It E Y E NT ING 
l.oSS.—And yet. as 
the ways of the var¬ 
ious potato 'blights and 
other diseases becom • 
better known, it ha < 
been found possible to 
largely prevent the 
worst losses — flips * 
from tuber rot follow¬ 
ing the untimely cut¬ 
ting down of the tops. 
Especially in the ca.-e 
of the so-called early 
•blight which, oecur- 
iug in connect'on wPh 
midsummer heat,. . is 
about sure to destroy 
both root and top, very 
quick work is required 
and certain very de¬ 
finite step's! The meth¬ 
od cannot be better 
impressed than by re¬ 
lating the actual ex¬ 
perience of one of my 
friends, C. J. Cannon 
of Connecticut, then 
president of the Hart¬ 
ford Market Garden¬ 
ers* Association. This 
was several years ago. 
before the ways of 
blight and rots were 
as commonly under¬ 
stood as they now are, 
and the man is there¬ 
fore entitled to the greater credit for the addition 
ot close observation and shrewd wit to uncertain 
knowledge. Not many of us grow 10 acres of earlv 
potatoes, yet the quarter-acre patch, if a man’s total 
crop, is of the utmost importance—to him. And in 
either case the method of saving it is precisely the 
same. 
A CASE IN POINT.—Cannon had 10 acres of 
early potatoes that year—three acres of Carman, 
two of Tiqvee. one of Cobblers and the rest Early 
Harvest. With the combined uncertainties of 
A. Scene in South Jersey in a Peach Year. Fig. 38‘J 
weather and markets against him. the wideawake 
market gardener never puts all his eggs into one 
basket. The dark gray silt of the Connecticut River 
Valley is ideal for early potatoes, but also highly 
favorable to the development of diseases, and con¬ 
ditions being especially had that Summer, everybody's 
crop was struck by blight some three or four weeks 
before digging. Mr. Cannon early saw the signs, and 
anticipating, began digging his immature crop, ac¬ 
tually turning some seven acres of it into very good 
money. Rut his tomatoes and melons coming on. ready 
for market, he simply 
had to quit the slow, 
heavy job of potato 
digging, and then came 
the debacle. Within a 
few days the “wet rot*’ 
had swept down every 
field in town, and this 
being soon followed 
by rain, many of his 
fellows lost their total 
crop by the tuber rot 
which ensued. 
RAPID ROTTING. 
—One neighbor, usual¬ 
ly very canny about 
such things, after dig¬ 
ging and delivering a 
40-busliel load into 
Manchester, had to go 
and get them again 
and dump them back 
into his own field, re¬ 
paying the $80. They 
were rotting and were 
a total loss! However, 
before the rains came. 
Cannon hired women 
to pull every potato 
top out of his three 
remaining acres that 
were blighted down, 
in the shrewd belief 
that if rain came the 
rot that would other¬ 
wise be thus carried 
down from decaying 
vines to the tubers 
might in this way be 
avoided, having con¬ 
vinced himself by 
thorough in vestigation 
that the underground 
parts of the plants 
were still sound. 
AN IMPORTANT 
SEQUEL.—At the 
t me Mr. Cannon’s 
plan was to continue 
to dig as soon as he 
could, but rains came 
on. and then observing 
his market garden 
friends putting in good 
time digging half-de¬ 
cayed potatoes, he de¬ 
termined to wait, coo- 
