Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-06-24

/ preparing IOr DrOutn.
'fT. B. Terry, writing from Summit
County, Ohio, to the Practical Farmer,
has this to say: "It is a blessed thing
for farmer to not have so much to do,
personally. that he cannot take time to
study and think over the management
Of his crops. Constant care and thought
and watchfulnesS are needed in order
to do ones best under the present cir
cumstances, which are constantly chang
ing and seldom the same two years in
succession. 1t would have been very
serious blunder if [ had managed my
potatoes this season as l did last. Last
spring we had rain in excess. The past
month we have had little, and the
weather has been unusually drying
| bright sunshine and strong winds. Last
year the less tillage given up to the first
| of June the better, except what was
necessary to keep weeds down. This
year large amount of work has been
necessary, if one wanted to do his best
fBut to come back to the point. I
| rolled a siX-acre piece of potatoes right
| after planting, while my man preceded
the roller and followed it with harrow
| had put a great deal of work on the
land before planting, because the indi-
cations were strong in favor of a spring
drouth. In any ordinary season [ would
not like to roll after planting. 1t firms
the ground too much. One cannot kill
! this promised to be an unusual season.
| The best precautions must be taken
against our seed drying up In the ground
| and against unnecessary evaporation OF
moisture, even at some disadvantage in
| other respects. 1t is best to choose the
lesser of two evils. | did not 90 and
examine closely after my man finished
narrowing that piece. 1t seemed to be
in perfect shape. Work was pressing us
greatly. But after time [ felt it in
my bones that ought to go and look
through that field; inclination said, No,
push on and finish what you are doing
though / could think of nothing to be
gained by it | went all through the field
and spent an hour, perhaps, thinking.
Part Of the field is clay. Here | found
the harrow had stirred the drills well,
that were raised two or three inches by
the coverers on the planter; but between
the rows it had done little to the rolled
and packed ground. WELL I says,
Terry, is this the way you are prepar-
ing for drouth? Is this doing your
best that you write about SO much
Why, you careless man, you have rolled
that ground to make it bring up moist
ure from below, to make your potatoes
grow in spite Of drouth, and then have
left part of the surface without any
mulch on to check evaporation. How
many hundred barrels of water do you
suppose you have allowed to 60 to
waste? To be sure there isn't much of
the surface in this shape; but there
should not be any. And then again
there are three spots i'll this field, say
half of it, that ought to be rolled again.
The surface is not quite as fine as it
might be. If this drouth continues
another month you will be sorry for
every possible preparation for 1t that
you can make. BY the way what was
! the reason those harrow teeth failed to
| take hold on the hardest ground? l
wonder if you have been careless again
and allowed them to get dull Let us
go and seq Why, they are as blunt as
the end of my fingers. In short time
those seventytwo teeth were made
sharper, tie blacksmith said, than he
would have dared make them for any
one else; but he obeyed my orders.
Then my man with one team narrowed
over the spots that [ thought were
not quite fine enough, and followed
him with the other team and roller,
and then he cross-harrowed the whole
piece. That land now is in the best
POoh0A
bly, know how to put it.
/ While think of it, the above expe-
| rience may give a hint of why one-eye
pieces of seed potato are not always
safe for ordinary tillage. Some years
ago when the writer was sick, SO much
SO as to not be able to oversee at all, his
man planted good seed cut to one eye,
on good soil. But it was such a spring
as this and tie man lacked judgment
didn't think, just worked with all his
might with his hands. The crop was
an entire failure, and / had the field
torn up and Hungarian grass seed sown
as soon as | got around to see it. His
tillage would have brought crop last
year.
Last spring the writer urged all
readers of the F. F. who grew potatoes
to keep the surface of the ground con-
stantly stirred between the rows, that
is, never let a crust form after rain,
and stir again in week if it doesn't
rain. This is the way to get crop in
dry year. Other conditions being
right one can grow fair crop any sea-
son that I have ever seen. You will
now see that we try to check all I'M
necessary evaporation before the pota-
toes are up also, unless it is very wet
time. Our ground is not allowed to dry