St. Landry democrat., 1885-05-02
POTATO CULTURE.
The Experience of New York Farmer In
Heavy RTanuring.

Mr.. Terry's doctrine OF heaVy mant1E-
ing land for potatoes | can heartily IN
dorse from my own experience on a.
small scale, with the qualification that
the crop must be planted close, or it
will be apt to run to ''Vines. " In my
experiments I aimed to make the
ground as rich as it would bear-a
point which requires some preceding
experience with the soil and manure to
reach, and this point I think had
pretty nearly obtained. The soil was
clay loan, and had been worked deeply
and was highly manured. I found that
what the crop did not remove was ap-
rarently all held by the land for the
next crop; and let me remark here, in
cidently, that my experience justifies
me in saying that such remaining
manure has, for the quantity in the soil,
a better effect than when first applied,
even when well rotted at the time. It
seems to have ripened and become
more thoroughly diffused through the
soil.
That such high manuring is advisa-
BILE for all kinds of crops is a thought
that should not be entertained. 1t
would lodge grain irrecoyerably, unless
there was an almost total absence OF wet
weather, in which case have known it
to be of special advantage, the great
wealth of the soil serving i'll a meas
ure as a guard against drouth. In
such case have known the best yields
of oats and barley to be grown. 1t is,
however, too risky to make it a general
practice. For hoed crops it is perfectly
adapted; for potatoes, by close plant
ing; for corn. the opposite, the greater
the growth the more space between the
rows being required, equivalent to the
difference in small and large sorts, as
sufficient exposure to the sun must be
allowed: otherwise the tendency will be
toward fodder corn instead of corn in
the ear Where planted well apart
say four feet for a medium size-the
ground can not well be made too rich
for corn; and all experienced farmers
know that for root crops, including
cabbage, rich soil is wanted to secure
the largest returns.
For all crops the soil is to be put in
proper condition, without which the
greatest Yields can not be obtained.
The soil is the medium through which
the manure is to act, and pulveriZatiOn
the condition. Hence it is that cultiva-
ton is said to be manure. 1t should
rather be said that it favors manure,
where there is sufficiency OF clay in the
soil; otherwise, where there is a large
proportion of sand, vegetable matter
must be added to retain the manure.
| Even then the quantity of manure must
| be reduced. or there will be loss from
teaching, which accounts for the rapid
deterioration of light soil when manure
is withheld, and its continued product
iveness when kept manured, not SO
heavily as with clay soil, but with lighter
and more frequent applications. There
is seldom, if ever, any loss of manure in
this drv climate in well conditioned
clay loan. so that it is safe to manure
heavily. Market gardening has ex-
amples of this; we find it also among
well-conducted, rich-made farms. par
ticularly when enriched with stable
manure and green manuring.
There is, perhaps, no crop that will
dispose of manure to a greater ad'
vantage than the potato. But the
proper method musbBe employed. As
[ have said, the richer the soil the closer
the planting should be. This | have
found through series of experiments
occupying several years. In all cases
the ground was enriched heavily with
horse-dung, urine, and the contents o1
the earth closet, and worked deeply and
finely, with sufficient leaf-mold and sod
to Tighten it up, the soil being largely
composed of clay. Where l put the
rows twenty inches apart, the seed
1 eight inches in the row. single eyes,
obtained good marketable tubers of 8
pretty uniform size, with few small
ones In putting the rows closer the
tubers became smaller, and in pla
where the rows were fifteen inches
apart, the seed six inches (single eyes,
in the row, the tubers, although of gooc
quality, were too small for successful
marketing, except the outside rows
which outwardly had more sol
to feed in not shared by tht
other roots. Here the tubers
were quite large, as was also
the case where single row was plant
ed on strip of ground three feet wide
In all these cases the lessening Of thu
size Of the tubers, corresponded will
the contraction of the space between
the rows, while the yield varied but lit
tie, the increased number of the small
tubers making up for the loss of size
The average yield was about at the rat'
of six hundred bushels per acre. TIT
ground after this heavy drain on it re
manned still rich enough without fur
ther manuring to grow full crops Q
corn, tomatoes and strawberries, tn,
1atta1. hnri1ncr ncn11,,ied the ground nov