The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-05-07

Every farmer should raise potatoes
enough to supply his family throughout
the year. The supply should be liberal,
for good potatoes constitute not only
cheap, but most excellent food. An
early variety should be planted for use
during the summer and fall, and later
variety for use during the winter and
spring. The first should be planted rs
soon as the soil is in good condition to
work. Every farmer should raise srlf-
ticient quantity of potatoes so that only
choice specimens need be served for the
family. The small, overgrOwn. "scab-
by" cut, and inferior ones should be fed
to stock. BY raising superior quality
of potatoes more of them will be eaten,
and the cost of food for the household
will be reduced. Potatoes are not eaten
in this country to the extent they are in
the British islands and Canada, and the
cost of living increases on this account.
The majority of farmers i'm the west pay
little attention to the matter of raising
potatoes of very superior quality. They
do not appear to be aware of the fact
that very fine potato ranks with the
costly luxuries. They generally plant
old and common varieties on inferior
soil, and give them very poor cultiva-
ton. They harvest them after the late
fall rains occur, and put them in the
cellar or pit covered with mud, and in
condition that invites decay.
Dissimilar modes of culture will be
pursued in different parts of the country
owing to peculiarties of soil and eli
mate. Clean culture, however, should
be practiccd in every part of the coun-
try. 1t insures large crops of fine tubers,
and renders the work of harvesting easy.
If weeds and grass take entire or par
tial possession of the surface of the soil
in which potatoes are raised the work
of harvesting will be rendered very
hard, and many of the best tubers will
be cut by the hoe or spade in the at
tempts to remove them from the ground.
If the soil is entirely free from weeds
and grass, however, the work of har-
vesting will be easy and but few of the
tubers will be injured. The ground
after the potatoes have been dug will
be in excellent condition for crop OF
grass. BY moving the potato vines to
the hog yard or the compost heap, fall
grain can be sown on the ground with
out any extra preparation. A good
crop of flat turnips can be raised on the
| ground from which crop of early po-
tatoes has been harvested. In England,
fields i'm which potatoes have been
raised are prepared for sowing wheat
| because the soil is free from weeds and
grass, but IN this country it is likely to
be very foul and requires to be treated
like greenswarl.
Many farmers practice planting pota.
| toes, when but few are raised, in hills,
| in the same manner that corn is plant.
| ed. They think that larger and finer
tubers are raised by planting the seed
| in this way. There is. however. much
saving of labor in planting them in
drills. 1t is much easier to plant. cult
waite. and dig POTATOES when they arc
raised in drill, than when planted in
hills. The cultivator or light pillow can
be run between drills, and most of the
work of tending the crop done by the
aid of horses. Much has been written
during tho last few years in favor of the
level culture of potatoes, and on some
kinds of soil, and especially in seasons
that arc qnite dry it has been prosuct'
i've of very excellent results. 1t. how
ever, makes the labor of harvesting the
crop difficult, as the tubcrs have to be-
lifted from the soil. The hilling-up sys
tenn renders the slbduing of weeds COM
paratively easy, and the ridges carry
| the water that falls during heavy rain
away from the potatoes and prevent
their rotting. BY raising the soil on
the sides of the drills they may be kept
free from grass and weeds by means OF
q sharp hoe. The soil in which pota-
toes grow should not be disturbed to
any great extent after the tubers are