Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-07-12
FARM AND GARDEN.

vermonter's Method of Raising Potatoes.
Select the right kind of soil. Most
every New England farm has that.
Neither heavy clay, gravel nor muck
land is suitable for potatoes. Light
loan is best. Land that borders on sand
is better than clay. Plow 10 the fall.
If stable manure is used spread 1t on the
soil before blowing. In spring when the
land is in suitable working condition
harrow, not scratch. Harrow at In
tervals of three or four days IL con-
yenient, and harrow thoroughly the last
time before planting.
Planting may he done in this locality
any time in May, about the 10th being
best. If done too early the frost may
kill the tops. If too late rust and fungi
are more fatal. 1t is well to treat the
seed with corrosive sublimate for scab,
but by careful selection and the right
treatment not much trouble from that
will ensue. Don't plant any seed that
shows scab. Select large potatoes and
cut them so there will be two or three
eyes on each piece. If cut before the
day of planting don't put them in barrels
or boxes or in a solid Inass, but spread
them or the moisture will cause heat and
kill enough seed so they will come up
very uneven.
Mark the ground so the rows will be
straight, to 8 inches apart. Next fur
row the rows with light double mold
board pillow or a single horse hoe, but
don't go deep enough to disturb the soil
underneath. Next put in the fertilizer
with horse corn planter with fertilizer
dropping attachment. If horse potato
planter Is used it does away with the
corn planter. | use corn planter and
apply $50 pounds per acre of the follow
ing mixture: One part each cotton-seed
meal, bran or ground corn cobs and
special potato fertilizer, and one-half
part plaster.
After the fertilizer is dropped and
mixed with the soil, which is essential,
dropping the potatoes is the next thing.
Put one piece In place along furrow
10 inches apart. When this Is done the
labor of planting is mostly over, for all
that remains to be done is horse work.
Take no hoes into the field. The same
tool that burrows out, and which will
afterward hoe the potatoes, will cover
them. This is simply light beam with
a broad cultivator tooth in the center,
with wings attached at the side on
hinges so it can be closed down narrow
to furrow out and spread apart wide for
covering the potatoes at planting time
and adjusted to suit the rows for hoeing.
Cultivating commences as soon as the
planting is done. 1t should begin before
the seed sprouts. First go over the
ground with smoothing harrow. Next
roll or go over the ground with a
smoother such as Is sometimes used on
small grain. This is done simply to
press the soil around the seed and not
for moisture purposes. Soon after the
rolling, say two or three days, go over
again with the harrow. Just before the
sprouts come out of the ground, harrow
again, but as soon as the plants are up,
omit narrowing and use weeder, or if
no weeder is at hand, cultivate between
the rows with a cultivator. After the
cultivator any horse hoe or hand hoe
will do. | use no hand hoe until dig
cling, and then doubtless horse digger
is better. | omit mentioning the use of
bug killers and spraying for fungi, ETC.,
which all are familiar with.-W. H.
Messer, Orange county, Vt.