The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-04-26
MODERN MACHINERY
AS Applied to the Planting and Harvest
ing of Potatoes. --------

AS Applied to the Planting and Harvest
ing of Potatoes.
With the up-to-date and efficient
labor-saving machines for the eco
nomical handling of the potato crop
now on the market it savors of "old
fogyism, - to say the least, for potato
growers to attempt to raise potatoes
as money making crop by old fash
Toned hand methods. The potato cut
ter, planter, sprayer, digger and
sorter have accomplished for the
farmer engaged in raising potatoes
for market what the grain drill and
harvester has done for his brother in
the grain growing sections of the
world. The production of a crop of
potatoes by hand methods requires
great deal of tedious and disagreeable
Woodwork that is entirely unneces-
sary and which can be done much bet
ter by machinery and at a great saw
ing in cost. One of Minnesota IS most
prominent and successful potato grow
ers, in response to an inquiry as to
the advantage of using labor-saving
machinery in the handling of his crop,
replied:
SAT present we are growing 780
acres of potatoes on a farm of 2,100
acres. If it were not for machinery
we would not be able to handle more
than perhaps one-sixth of that num-
Der of acres with the same number of
men. We figure that one man and a
team can easily take care of forty
acres of potatoes from the time of
commencing to prepare the ground in
the spring until digging commences in
the fall, and attend to the grain crop
besides. We are at present using
nine potato planters, six sprayers,
twelve diggers, twenty cultivators,
cutters, sorters, etc. Machinery in
this instance makes it possible for
one man to do the work that would
otherwise require six men and, at the
same time, machinery gives employ
ment to just as many or more men, on
account of it being possible to handle
a larger number of acres, thereby in
creasing the returns and lessening
the cost of production in growing the
potato crop as we'll as in other lines
of farming"
The men who are making money
raising potatoes nowadays are the
ones who are taking advantage Of
every means to increase their acreage
and at the same time reduce expense
of production. While there is an &C.
casional season when prices are so
low as to leave little or no profit in
the potato crop, yet, taken year in
and year out, it is doubtful if there is
another farm crop which brings better
returns.
With the rapid spread of blight
throughout the potato growing Sec
tions of the country it is imperative
that the potato growers in the north
west (where blight is just beginning
to make it's appearance) should take
prompt and vigorous steps to prevent
the spread of this disease. The ex-
periments which have been conducted
by the New York agricultural stations
for a number of years prove conclu-
sively that blight and rot can be held
in check, if not wholly prevented, if
the potato vines are thoroughly
sprayed several times during the
growing season with Bordeaux mix
ture properly made. The tests made
by the New York stations in 1904
showed that sprayed fields would re-
main green and in a growing condi-
tion from four to six weeks after the
vines in unsprayed fields had died and
withered up, and an average gain in
yield of something like 60 bushels per
acre was obtained, due to the longer
growing season.-Grand Forks Times.