The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-04
FARMS IN SCOTLAND
HOW SCOT WRISTS LIVING FROM
 HIS NORTHERN HILLS.
Grows Oats and POtatOeS-Has Modern Flow, Improved Harrow and Ma- chine DiEger-Ayerage Crop
 1000 Pounds to the Acre.

From early times the Scotch farmer has had a world wide reputation for thrift. According to Consul J. c. Hlg- gins, of Dundee that reputation still prevails. On Scotch farming and farms he says:
 The consular district of Dundee in- cludes the whole of Forfarshire and parts of Fifeshire and Perthshire, which. while having highlands useful to pasturage and game. have arabic districts unexcelled in Great Britain for profitable agriculture at the hands of farmers of extraordinary ability. The farms have been cultivated for hundreds of years. but their fertility is now of the highest order, the mainte- nance of which, as measured in bushels and tons of highest class products, Is the supreme test of good farming.
 Systematic Rotation of Crops.
 Oats succeed grass; the potato oat" is a present faWorite. If the precej- ing grass has been pRstured the oats get no manure, but If 1t was cut for hay the oats get three hundred weight (336 pounds). more or less. of a fertili- ger. |. e., one containing phosphoric acid, potash and nitrogen. The potato oat requires four bushels of seed per acre; the Abundance" variety requires six bushels. Yield. fifty to eighty bushels per acre. selling at from 50 to SO cents per bushel.
 Potatoes succeed oats. While there are several ways of preparing land for potatoes, the one generally pursued is to apply farmyard manure on stubble of preceding crop during November December or January averaging twenty loads per acre, equally spread plowed down at once, and then let He until planting time. April preferred when. If dry and in condition for work Ing, 1t Is narrowed deeply rolled, and cultivated until made soft and frtable. It Is then put in ridges thirty inches apart and complete fertilizer sowed broadcast to from five to ten hundred weight (66O to 1.120 pounds) per acre Whole medium sized potatoes are placed from nine to twelve inches apart and the ridge reversed toNcoVer them. A double moldboard blow IS used.
 In. four to six weeks the plants are up Meantime the rows have been narrowed down and put up twice to destroy weeds. This is often done with a concave harrow that hugs the ridge and maintains its shape, obviating the "puttlng up." Two of these harrows can be coupled together and two rows worked at once. The middles are drill grubbed when the plants are two to four inches high with a powerful nar- | row-toothed cultivator, to slacken and soften the soil to permit the tubers to grow The plants are next hand hoed and again drill grubbed. They next get the final throwing or earthing m so that the tubers shall be well cov- l cred; ground to be worked only when l dry. Some farmers apply farm ma l nure in the drills at planting time in-
 stead of broadcast as above. and in such case the artificial manure may not always be applied so literally | Potatoes and Other Crops.
 "The Up-to- date" machine diggers | ara in general use. The crop is lift
 ed" during autumn and stored in long pits from which 1t Is marketed. Be- 1 ing a regular rotation crop, the field may run as high as forty acres. The crops run from eight to fifteen tons 1 per acre. selling at from $7 to $20 per l ton. There seems to be no fiat cul- l ture. The Scotch potato has a reputa- ton peculiarly it's own. Many tons are shipped to the United States when price warrants. and they are much liked.