The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1911-02-10
ALL ABOUT POTATOES
As Given Before the Farmers Insti-
tute Last Week
Twin Falls Times)

how Mr.. L. A. Snyder, of Twin Falls,
Idaho, won the $500 Burley prize on
yield of potatoes on one acre Of
ground. The discussion was given
by his son, Mr.. Will Snyder, and ex-
plains the method he adopted in get
ting his enormous yield of 645
bushels of potatoes off of one acre.
Mr.. Snyder says it is not at all i'm
possible to do this year after year
with proper scientific farming. Mr..
Snyder attributes his success to
methods suggested by Mr.. Grubb, and
by constant study of various ,bulle-
tins, papers, etc.
Mr.. Snyder said. 1--WE had alfalfa
ground for three years. We had
hogs running on it the second year
and raised hay the third year.
"We measured the ground from
the land side. We plowed the
ground about an inch and half
deep in the fall. We could not har-
row the roots out at the time, and
last spring they were all alive, and
we had to get them out someway.
We used disc harrow to bring the
roots to the surface. We did this
about the 10th of May, and then
made dust mulch over this alfalfa
field, and before we plowed again
we irrigated the ground.
after irrigating the land we went
over it with GETAWAY harrow and
made another dust mulch, and let
this lay until it was dry enough
to pillow. In blowing this under it
left the soil in the bottom of the
furrow loose. We plowed this
ground to distance of ten full in
ches on May 18th, using four horses
on a 14-inch plow After blowing
we went over the ground with a
harrow to make dust mulch.
1--WE decided to plant 'Delmany
Challenge idaho Rural and Peach
blow potatoes. We selected potatoes
true to type. We did not have
enough to plant whole, so we cut
the seed. We cut the seed more
to conform with the planter than
according to our own ideas of cut
ting. We purchased an Iron Age
planter because this would plant a
perfect stand. This planter, we
found, only plants potatoes about the
size of hens egg.
I'm cutting the potatoes we tried
to get square piece so that it would
not dry out too soon-a piece with
about one or two eyes on. 1t was
not SO much the number of eyes on
the piece, as the uniformity of size
Of the piece.
I'VE tried to plant as soon as we
could after cutting. We planted
some seed Immediately after cutting.
I'VE were afraid to put too much
manure on the ground, but found
out we could put two or three times
as much manure without having
scab. We had two or three kinds of
manure, pig manure, well-rotted
barnyard manure and also fresh man
ure. We only put about ten loads
to the acre and put this on in the
spring when we first began working
the ground.
After we had our seed bed in per-
feet shape, and had the seed cut, we
treated it with formalin. We treated
this after cutting the seed. though
it is claimed better to treat the whole
potato first. We left the potatoes
in the formalin about two hours.
We used pint of formalin to 80
gallons of water.
1--WE get Uniform type by having
a perfect stand. 1t is more profitable
to have a perfect stand. You cannot
get perfect stand by planting pota-
toes in dry ground. If you have got
to irrigate ground in the spring, !
think it a good plan to irrigate be-
fore blowing. Potatoes in this coun-
try have got to have a fairly loose
soil. 1t has got to be packed enough
SO that it wont dry out and still be
fairly loose.
1--WE planted our potatoes about
four inches deep and the rows 33
inches apart.
AFTER our potatoes were planted
we commenced narrowing to keep
this dust mulch perfect in order to
hold the moisture, and as soon as
the potatoes were up two inches we
again narrowed. We cultivated not
only to conserve the moisture and
keep down the weeds, but to admit
air to the plants. We found that
we always got clean-skinned pota-
to where plenty of air was admitted.
We have got to conserve the moisture
to allow the plant to grow all it will
L