The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1878-02-08
Agricultural Department.
CONDUCTED BY ALBEIT CHAPMAN
Raising Potatoes Chospiy: an Experi-
ment.
by J. }. II. GREGORY.


very small and his spare time very
large, II will usually be barely worth
his while to attempt any short routes
In the raising of his potato crop. The
uniformity in the number of the eyes
on each seed piece which results from
cutting tie tubcrs by hand, the regular
ity in dropping them, and the thorough
work all through mp to the ripening Of
the crop, when q ilrst-ralc hand is at
the helm, cannot be equaed by the re-
suits of any machine work. When,
however, as is the case of most farmers,
spring is q season of great hurry and
dIfkc, and short cuts to results are dc.
sired, where rapidity in every thing Is
of much more value than minute thor
oughness, then what aids can be secur-
ed by the use of the best implements, Is
worthy of careful study and of some In
vestment Of tine and money in expert
Inents. Where a farmer cannot afford
to make experiments himself, the next
wisest step is to profit BY those Of his
neighbors.
A couple of years ago, purchased
Trues' Potato Planter, machine that
II was affirmed would cut the potato,
open the furrow, drop the seed piece,
and also fertilizer if required, and then
cover ut the rate of I'm acre an hour.
This, as every farmer will see, is an
immense saving in the time required by
hand work in the cutting, dropping and
covering process, as well as in the ap-
plicatiou of fertilizers in the drill. The
question with me was, how thoroughly
could this work be done? 1t was nee
essary that the potatoes should be
roughly sorted into lots of about equal
Size. aud further, il was evident Tint
the machine would not be likely to
handle well potatoes quite obloDg in
shape. / set The planter in operation,
and watched for the crop to show itself
above gronnd before Judging of the re-
suits. Here will state that the fertiI-
izer used was an admixturc of the Ger
man potash salts, castor bean pomacc,
and ground bone. | found that this
was dropped just beyond the potato,
and hence not i'll contact with ii.
When the sprouts appeared above
ground, | found that very dark green
color in their leaves which tells every
observing farmer that the manure is
rather strong for the young crop; how
ever, they soon got better of it, and
grew finely. | noted, also, that the
rows were more crooked than ordina-
rily, and that there were occasionally
blank intervals of from three to six feet.
Compared with hand planting, Il
should say that these showed about
three times us many feet of "missed"
places. l made up my mind that they
would not amount TO much as an objec-
ton against the practical value of the
machine, because the vacant places
might be filled out by hand, from bit
Of = plantation Of pieces that had had
earth scratched over them at the time
of the general planting; or they might
be left until the crop had received its
second hOcing, and then be occupied by
ruta baga plants; couple of rows in
each place.
When killing time came, we first ran
the cultivator through, and followed
with Chandler's potato hitler, which,
in regularity of work, will leave the
best hand-hoeng in the shade; It's de-
feet is that of most machine work in
hoeing, 1t does not always throw the
earth so closely TO the plants as is de-
sirable, to smother the young weeds,
making it necessary on weedy land TO
hand-weed more or less at the second
hocing. This defect is Obyiated by the
"fan" machine, which throws the earth
with some little force against the plants,
and hence i not always practicable on
rocky soil. Other ways of smothering
these Young weeds along the crest Of
the row, without the cost of hand-hoe-
ing, | will mention presently.
When digging time came, used Al
lens potato digger, which is an i'm
provement on the double mould board
pillow in making broader and more
dish-like furrow, besides in very light
land helping TO sift the earth from the
potatoes. Like all potato diggcrs that
have seen, it will not thoroughly sift
Tho earth from the potatoes on any soil,
and on wet soils the sitting action
nmounts to nothing. The fact is, the
rapidity OF motion i'll potato digging is
TOO great to give much value to the sift-
Ing process In any of the machines OK
cept Oh the lightest soil almost free
from stone. | found that two horses
or q yoke of oxen are needed for the
digger. 1t was necessary to dig alter
nato rows and then pick up, otherwise
the earth thrown out of one row would
cover the potatoes thrown out of the
next. To get the potatoes that were
not left on the surface, l followed the
digger with potato hooks or prongcd
hoes, which the men could use as fast
~ they could walk.
tried the experiment, also, of sub
shutting u closc-toothed harrow. The
hoes did cleaner work, and by running
the harrow after the hoes, found the
result about as thorough as the average
VI hand-hoeng, with this valuable diff
terence, that with the digger there was
not half n dozen potatoes to the acre
cut; while, as every farmer knows.
when the potatoes are of large size. or
much scattered in the hill, or the
ground is hard, quite per cent: are
marked by the hoe, even when a care
ful hand yields il. One lot was dug
by double mould board pillow, as nv
foreman wanted comparison of the
work done. The pillow required less
ro,,o, .han H. r. IA, 80