The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-08-20

Oh Vur iano prepared Tn this way with only one blowing and hoeing. yielded one hundred bushels to the acre
 Sweet potatoes to do well must be highly fertilized, and experience has been that the ready smixed fer tilizers fail to give the re- suits that home-mixed fertilizers do. My advice Is, buy the materials and mix your own fertilizers Tn 1904 I used the following:
 200 pounds cotton seed meal. goo pounds acid phosphate. 42 pounds muriate of potash As an experiment. tried the fol- lowing:
 One acre without fertilizer yielded IT bushels
 One acre with 200 pounds of the above yielded i3I bushels
 One acre with 400 pounds of the above yielded 157 bushels. One aere with 200 pounds of the above mixture. following peanuts yielded 1s3 bushels
 From this test. I find that about
 about right for my soils. and it is best to have the potatoes follow the peanuts, because the yield was thirty two bushels more per acre.
 We plant from the first of May to the middle of July, but prefer June planting. We mark of the rows three and one-haif feet apart, at the time of applying the fertilizer, by means of a fertilizer distributor, and immediately bed over the fertilizer with nine-inch turning blow by go- ing twice for each bed. The bed, should be wide and not too high. When ready to plant, we knock off the ridges with piece of wood fas- tened to weeder. This kills all weeds that are about to come up and also leaves the surface smooth and moist for the plants. We do this just after rain, but not when the soil is wet. The plants are set out by means of sticks about four feet long. Two men, one dropping, the other planting can easily set about 12,O00 plants per day. We plant about 300 to the acre. About week later we blow by using a doubie-shoveI blow with a two- Inch scooter point next to the plants and ten-inch shovel on the other shank. This stirs the soil next to the plants and throws some soil back. Be- fore the grass and weeds get started we break up the crust left with a common garden rake. The rest of the blowing Is done with a buzzard-wing and two sweeps on Georgia stock. by going twice in each middle We usually hoe once or twice
 In digging, we use a four-inch steel beam turning blow, with rolling coulter to cut the tops The potatoes are sorted in the field and put into boxes. All cut and injured potatoes are fed to hogs as soon as possible. may add that hogs fatten quicker on potatoes and corn than they do on corn alone. From the field the boxes are hauled to the cellars and the po- tatoes carefully stored away
 The yield depends on the amount and kind of fertilizer used; the time of planting, and the preparation of soil as well as the cultivation given Our fields have varied from twenty five to four hundred and ten bushels per acre. believe 1t possible to raise five hundred bushels to the acre.
 We get in the spring from eigaty- five cents to $15e a bushel.
 We store our potatoes fin especially constructed cellars, which are built in hillside. The floor should be about even with the ground at taa lower end and from four to six feet below at the upper end. The foun- dalton should be made of mortar and stone. On this we place a ten-fncn plank on which we nail boards to form the walls. The space between is fill ed with sawdust from the bottom in. Over the ceiling should be put at least ten Inches of sawdust 1ach cellar may De or any convenient size. yen- tilators should be provided for as fol- lows; Transoms over the doors in the ends and one or more in the center that open out through the roof.
 The bins inside should be provfded with air space on all sides The bins may be six feet deep and extend along both sides of the middle passage way The temperature may range from Is to TO degrees. Potatoes thus stored should be looked after each day in order that the temperature may be closely watched.
 { We have not been, without potatoas since we raised our first crop three years ago. Last fall we had sound potatoes up to the goth of August.